Former Brisbane forward Ben Te'o will return to the club as an assistant coach in 2025 as the Broncos revamp their coaching roster.
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The 37-year-old 2014 premiership winner with South Sydney will leave Redcliffe Dolphins, where he has coached the Queensland Cup side and been an NRL assistant for the past two seasons, to take up a two-year deal under head coach Kevin Walters.
The Broncos will bid farewell to at least two assistant coaches next year with John Cartwright joining Hull FC as head coach and Lee Briers linking with St Helens.
Te'o is regarded as a coach on the rise after taking the advice of Wayne Bennett and other great coaches about how he should conduct himself on his journey.
In 2022, the former Queensland Maroons star was slated to work the pre-season as a Broncos forwards coach on a consultancy basis but a meeting with Bennett on the Gold Coast changed his thinking.
"I was going to do that Broncos role, but I'd asked a lot of people like Michael Maguire and (former Wallabies coach) Michael Cheika for advice about coaching and I kept hearing 'do it the right way'," Te'o said at the time.
"Then I met Wayne and he gave me the same advice. He kept saying 'get your own team and learn your lessons'.
"He said the easy path is to be one of these consultants, which a lot of ex-players do, but the key is to get your own team and manage the drills, the training, the selection and the personalities.
"When I think about league and union there is one coaching name that is head and shoulders above the rest and that is him, so I would be mad to not get exposed to his wisdom."
Te'o has done exactly that and will link again with Walters, whom he played under in his final season in 2021. Both men have gleaned plenty from Bennett but have also forged their own path in coaching.
Te'o, who also played 16 rugby union Tests for England as well as seven Origin matches for Queensland, will have the opportunity to mentor the Broncos forwards after watching Bennett build the Dolphins from the ground up and Walters rejuvenate Brisbane.
He has learned plenty about managing a group and getting everyone on the same page, which he has also done with his own teams.
A biceps injury for the Broncos in the last of his 173 NRL games was followed by Te'o dipping his toe in the post-footballing waters.
"Then I asked Kevvie Walters if I could do some one-on-one stuff with the young guys and got going with them doing some video, and I just loved it. That is when I realised I had more to offer," he said.
Australian Associated Press
