Round 10 - Broncos vs Sea Eagles - Post Match Discussion

[ningnangnong]

Corey Parker ‏ @Coreyjparker13
Tough game tonight , not the result we were after , could of been different if our kicker could get one !

...

 

[nathano11]

Looks like Parker's work with Halligan is making him over complicate his kicking process. Just aim for between the uprights and kick it for god sake

 

[Professor47]

nowadays when the difference between teams is so miniscule and goalkickers hit at 75% as a rule, you simply can't get away with 1 from 5 ...

Bingo. As Rocky said, bottom line is - conversions are an external factor. Essentially 'free points' as Rocky put it.

Obviously we had some badly missed tackles and bad reads in defense, but that is going to happen. Parker's kicking has come up in this forum before, and has always been a talking point - even a few years ago. Some of us have always been worried it's going to hurt us in a big game one day. It has hurt us in season games quite a few times... the bottom line is, you can't CONFIDENTLY back him... when he has those 'half-in' form the sideline kicks you have to just sort of 'hope' he gets it. It's not a confident backing.

I wont go as far as goal kicking was the losing factor but it IS a foreshadowing of the future. I especially hate it when we are up by 2 in games and we score and Parker misses the crucial kick to put us up by 8. This happens ALL THE TIME. As Bull Shark says - goal kicking is a crucial part of the game now. What we have ATM is just not 'comfortable'.

As an example, I'll bring up 2006. The Dogs semi game (obviously we eventually won)... I remember SO clearly, we were 22-20 we are on a roll, we score. 26-20 and It's a 'half-in' from the sideline kick. Do-able. You want a goal kicker who you can confidently back in this situation. In the context of the game... 10-15 minutes to go, Semi-final... You get the kick. Someone like JT/Soward... they get this kick. You want your team to be able to confidently nail this kick. That is the bottom line. You shouldn't miss these type of kicks, in these types of games. Parker doesn't have 'it'.

I hope I made sense - watched the game at the pub and it was gutting!!!!!!

 

[nathano11]

ThAt has done it for me with our regular kicker he deserves to be sent to Wentworthville for atrocities to the team. Not far off sabotage

 

[Coxy]

+1 I thought that was sarcasm... Wallace short kicking game adds so much, I reckon we would have forced 3-5 drop outs with Wallace there..

No sarcasm. I can give credit where it's due, and likewise I can give a baseball bat where it's due. Benny Hunt's effort deserved repeated baseball bats to the kneecaps at a minimum. he was horrible.

 

[nathano11]

We pretty much won the match! Parker lost it not Hunt

 

[Jeba]

No sarcasm. I can give credit where it's due, and likewise I can give a baseball bat where it's due. Benny Hunt's effort deserved repeated baseball bats to the kneecaps at a minimum. he was horrible.

Hunt has good vision but gets a massive FAIL for execution. Examples being the kick early that went over the sideline, and one a few weeks ago against the Raiders when he pulled a kick out of nowhere for the winger. Both times, the kick was on, but was just executed terribly. He really needs to fine tune that part of his game. I think it was Gus who always used to say to his kickers, aim to land it on the try line instead of the in goal area - that's what Hunt needs to do.

 

[nathano11]

Hunt had ordinary kicking at the start but we overcame that. He provided good ball all match and was solid. Dropley didn't drop any and we out try scores them. Parker needs knee capping

 

[Jeba]

Hunt had ordinary kicking at the start but we overcame that. He provided good ball all match and was solid. Dropley didn't drop any and we out try scores them. Parker needs knee capping

Oh I'm with you there. I'm definitely in the Parker cost us camp.

 

[nathano11]

Maybe it's Parkers grey hair. Too much salt not enough pepper.
Should be demoted as first choice goal kicker for mine. Looking to the future I think Notman would thrive off the responsibility and help him to take even more ownership of the performance, similar to JT

 

[Porthoz]

We should've won the game, we completely dominated them in pretty much all major aspects of the game.
We had way more possession (55% vs. 45%), way more hitups (77 vs. 49), much less defensive work (248 vs. 324 tackles), less errors (5 vs. 9), one more penalty (4 vs. 3), and last but not least, more tries!

But we defended badly on the fringes, Parker missed 4 conversions, and we missed the cool and calm of Wallace at critical times.
Norman stepped up and he's going to be a superstar. Of that, I have no doubt! As some have said, he needs to keep that level of confidence and flair when his partner is Wallace, and we could be sitting on an awesome pair of halves!

Hunt on the other hand was shown up for what he is at the moment: A hooker sub. We had at least 3 sitters in the first half that he completely screwed up with horrible kicking, then there was his defending on that right hand side... He has talent, and he shows it in glimpses, but not enough, and he definitely lacks Wallace's organisational skills.

Macca was okay, but still needs to learn to master the timing for his dummy, although it has gotten better.
He desperately needs to understand that you need to give yourself some room for a gruber kick, otherwise you'll just kick the ball to bounce of the legs of the player right in front of you.

McGuire, Gillett and Glenn deserve high praise for their efforts, as well as Hannant and Parker, who had a monster of a game if you disregard his kicking. As filthy as I am at him, and trust me I am... He must be eating himself up at home right now, and I doubt he will get much sleep, so I'll go easy on him. Same goes for Gillett, who was caught a couple of times with his pants down, and shown up by that farce on legs called Matai.

Personally, I would have put Te'o there, if only to put the fear of god in Matai with a good hit. Oh well, at least he flattened Watamong! :cheers:

Yes, our defense was poor, and yes it needs urgent working on, but let's not forget we were suddenly defending with Beale, Gillett and Hunt on the right hand side, as opposed to Yow Yeh, Hodges and Wallace. Any team would deeply feel that!
I don'think Copley was that bad. There wasn't much he could do aganst the tries scored on his side, but he cannot drop that deep when the opposition has the ball. As much as a 40/20 kick can hurt you, a line break has the potential to hurt you more!
Having said that, I thought the other side was much worse and it was where Manly got most territory in general, including the last minute dash from Matai.

All in all, a fantastic game that I would've loved to watch and watch again, was it not for that last minute where the win was stolen from the better team...

I don't want to hate on Parker, especially since he had a very good game away from his kicking, but he needs to be off kicking duties until he is back at 75% at the very least. In the last 4 games since his injury return, he is 8 from 19, that is a shocking 42% conversion rate, and with the importance of conversions and the closeness of the teams in this competition, you just cannot afford that. Tonight is proof! :sigh:

 

[Steve]

I felt Hunt was going for the glory too often when we were on their try line. Looked like he wanted the try then and there and wasn't prepared to roll it in the in goal for a repeat set.

 

[rnabokov]

It's been mentioned a few times. Aside from Parker's kicking, we were beaten in the backs. Yes, Gillett's defence looked very poor, Glenn was caught out as well, but as Rock posted, it's what happened before and after any of those 1st defensive lapses which is crucial.

DCE and Stewart saw plain as day the acres of open space out wide because the winger was (stupidly) positioned so far back, and they moved the ball out wide so damn fast that I doubt even Hodges would have had much chance of getting to Matai. It was the speed of the passing and the lack of defensive numbers which created the chances for their 1st and last try (8 points).

I also thought that last week, the Warriors first and last tries were both scored in a similar way to Manly's.

Do that against the Storm and we will be carved up the same. Slater will have a field day. Griffin needs to re-arrange that defensive structure out wide. Stuff the 40-20 risk. We lost 8 points 'cos of that.

And I also noticed not one mention about Hoffman. Seriously, he is not contributing much to the attack at all, and where was he in cover defence?

If the spine of the team is what really counts, our fullback is really a missing link, and Macca does need to lift. We are relying far too much on the halves when the other top teams have up to 5 playmakers (Manly: DCE, Foran, 2 Stewarts and Watmong) vs. our 2.5

I also agree with the post(s) about our wingers being a real weakness. On last night's performance, maybe Hoffman should move to wing and Beale to FB. At least Hoffman can catch the ball.

 

[OXY-351]

Parker looked pretty shattered after the game. You could tell by the look on his face when players were shaking hands that he knew the loss was his fault.

Parker is a terrible kicker. He has good days where he'll land 10 out of 10, but they are usually in games where even if he missed all of them, the broncos would still win as they've scored so many tries. Put him in a pressure game here kicking matters, and he just can't seem to get his confidence back if he misses his early kicks. After the first kick last night, you could just tell it was going to be one of those nights.

 

[Alec]

Parker looked pretty shattered after the game. You could tell by the look on his face when players were shaking hands that he knew the loss was his fault.

Parker is a terrible kicker. He has good days where he'll land 10 out of 10, but they are usually in games where even if he missed all of them, the broncos would still win as they've scored so many tries. Put him in a pressure game here kicking matters, and he just can't seem to get his confidence back if he misses his early kicks. After the first kick last night, you could just tell it was going to be one of those nights.

It's really too bad, because as most said, other than the kicks he was awesome out there. Still it's good to hear that he at least seems to understand and it still affects him.

 

[john1420]

Hunt has good vision but gets a massive FAIL for execution. .

the thing with this though is that vision can't be taught - it's instinctive. Execution comes with practice.

Give me a young kid with vision any day of the week - he can be taught execution

It doesn't work the other way around

Hunt showed enough last night to inspire confidence in his future, as long as he is given the chance to learn

I don't think playing him as back up hooker gives him that though

He needs to be playing halfback in the Q Cup

Those posters saying he was shocking are being too harsh IMO

 

[Fozz]

Ugh...I hate weekends after a shitty loss.

Corey Parker didn't lose us the game last night but he could've won it for us. Our defence was what let us down. It was too easy for Manly score against us when they got close to the try line. Hopefully this is a learning experience for Hook and the younger players.

Josh McGuire...what a machine.

 

[Bucking Beads]

McGuire is going to be our best forward pretty soon.