Round 9 - Eels vs. Broncos - Pre-Match Discussion

[broncos4life]

I'm going to put it out there. If Norman isn't going to reneg on his Eels deal, then I want Kahu at fullback and Norman dropped. We aren't legitimate contenders but we have a chance to build a lot for the coming seasons and a departing Norman at fullack in no way helps to do that.

Unless of course we are signing Ben Barba, in which case I don't care about anything else!

So completely agree with all of that.

If we have signed barba than sweet let Norman stay there, hell put hannant there for the rest of the year for fun.

But like you said, if no one is getting signed to play fullback then p*** off Norman, put kahu there and start working on combinations for next year

 

[ningnangnong]

I'd like us to do grubbers at the oppositions in-goal and try and force a repeat set, I'm sick and tired of bombing it to the winger on the last.

This. Always this!

We must be the team that utilises this tactic the least in the whole comp. I honestly don't know why, because Wallace actually has a pretty decent grubber in him, as opposed to his floaters into the corner which are usually crap.

Provided you don't try and do a McCullough and actually grubber from at least five metres out, you have much more chance of forcing a repeat set than you do by sending it high into the corner. Sure, maybe there's less chance you'll score off it, but the pressure you continually put the opposition under by forcing repeat sets will eventually have an impact.

 

[Browny]

And the fatigue of more tackling

 

[Ari Gold]

Based on the evidence, I reckon if we told McCullough to kick a grubber facing our own goal line it would end up in the opposition's end goal every time.

 

[coreyh88]

Hunt has a really good Gruber out of dummy half too. But the reason we didn't see a variety or effective attacking plays was that there were no weaknesses in the defensive line. Compounding this is the fact that without Hodges no one in our team bar Hoffman can break tackles (hence resorting to 99999999 offloads). There were two reasons for this. One the forwards never bent the line (apart from hala) and never got a role on. Thaiday only made 40m, hannant90m in a billion hitups, hala made 80m, parker actually made a fair bit. The second part was that the backs were returning the ball with no pace heart or speed. Hoffman was never involved in this process and it would take them 3 tackles to make 15m. That was the most disappointing part of the loss. I'm hoping that next week moose and Anderson can take a lot of minutes from thaiday and banning (allowing all four to have an impact) and I wouldn't mind hala coming on in the fringes to give both (could do ten before half time for Glenn and ten after for Gillett with just swapping sides between so only one interchange) Glenn and fillet a breather so that they all have more impact (Gillett seems to handle 80 better than Glenn). Alternatively you could have hala in the front row and thaiday on the edges. Normally thaiday actually has quite a bit of speed and that's what makes him effective around the front row. He gets around the markers and can find half gaps, I till like what I saw in his first stint knocking the opposition over. Hala would make an awesome wrecking ball on a fringe (we would likely loose our current set plays on the fringes through this method although thaiday can actually put those beside him in an awesome gap with his passes. Don't know why they don't do this through the middle)

 

[Old Mate]

The problem in the halves isnt Prince, its Wallace!

Wrong.

 

[Nashy]

Wrong.

This.

While Wallace is an issue himself, he's certainly the best one running around for us.

 

[rnabokov]

The point is, the opposition haven't been making the defensive errors to put the Broncos in the position to employ that plays that put Glenn / Gillett through. You originally said they should be rolling out those plays every game, but even you said yourself that they have to be patient and wait for the opportunities. Well, those opportunities never arose, the defence was too good. So, please tell, how do they run those plays every game when the opportunity isn't there?

Your point is sound however, as the posts above largely point out, the team's creativity seems to be so hot and cold it's not funny. The Roosters game is one example of zero creativity, followed by the next few where the left side for some reason just started to work to such good effect. Those sweeping left side moves can be put on against any defence. Against Souths, the timing went badly wrong - partly 'cos Hodgo wasn't there to keep some structure so most of those plays were too flat, and Souths great one-on-one defence nullified them.

And no-one called Glenn into the line, or he just couldn't be bothered.

As for Prince > Gillett, it doesn't take much for a play to be set where Gillett stands deep and runs onto a planned pass, or as is pointed out above so very well, a short kick behind the line, again, with say Gillett or whoever chasing.

Gillett is a weapon. We seldom use him.

I have seen games where Macca and Lockyer have delivered terrific short passes to Gillett at speed and he more often than not walks thru the defensive line or at least gets into a position to offload to ....... ?

Equally, in the middle third, by all means run straight and hard to suck in the defence with quick play the balls but no matter how good the defence, instead of exploring the edges all the time, an inside ball on say the 3rd or 4th tackle would also be a nice touch.

Thing is, all attacking plays are based on support runners/chasers at which we largely suck.

I am sure these basic moves are worked at training. Why they don't happen consistently on the field explains our form

 

[xo-stephy-ox]

This.

While Wallace is an issue himself, he's certainly the best one running around for us.

Not even close, hasn't been for a couple of years now. I rate Ben Hunt higher then Peter Wallace and i'm sure other people wouldn't mind seeing him out of the side too, even if it just takes him getting dropped for a few games but even then that didn't help with origin so who knows.

 

[xo-stephy-ox]

So completely agree with all of that.

If we have signed barba than sweet let Norman stay there, hell put hannant there for the rest of the year for fun.

But like you said, if no one is getting signed to play fullback then p*** off Norman, put kahu there and start working on combinations for next year

I agree with this too, bronx aren't his future plans so we shouldn't be making him our number 1 priority and finding a spot for him on the field right now either.

 

[1910]

Ah, coaches watch replays of every game and probably every other teams game every round. Everyone knows everyone's game. It's individual brilliance, mistakes, bad luck, bad refs, and sometime poor team selections which make the difference - like playing Baptiste.

Baptiste got outplayed by Granville yesterday and dislocated his shoulder he is out for a while.

 

[tkday]

Yes he did, I was calling for him on the bench and Hunt into halves, which I would still like Hunt to do, but Baptiste seems to be exactly like Hunt and Macca in the Hooker role in terms of consistency. Your comments and Splinter's 1910 make me doubt his capabilities, I think I would still be willing to give him a shot though.

Also, I beg to differ on the only Hoffman and Hodges can break tackles. Norman, Gillett and Glenn do it regularly in every game. We just never have any one backing them up, it's ironic that Norman breaks tackles and complains when no-one backs him up, yet as a full back he's never there backing other guys up. Support the ball runner please! We haven't been able to do this for a few years now and the same goes with moving up in defense, we do it great one game, then the next we are almost walking backwards.

Sorry, I tried not to turn this into a negative rant. Back on track, we can and will win this one and hopefully that boosts our confidence. Make no mistake, the Eels will come out to play on this game, the bad teams always do against us. As long as our fowards do the job and get a roll on we will be fine. Also Kemp is ready for first grade, he's always ready, no matter how badly he plays in QCup or wherever. He's a gun and always lifts when playing first grade for the Bronocs. Bring him on and watch him dazzle us the first game. I have 100% complete confidence in him :) Choo choo!

Edited for hopefully ease of reading :)

 

[Browny]

Can you please use paragraphs, the wall of text is hard to read

 

[Donald]

Just checked NRL.com

In the attacking Stats only Hoffman (tries scroed) and Parker (Hitups) are in the top five on any attacking stats.

In defence its even worse. Parker (tackles) is good but in missed tackles we own spot 1. Prince and 2. Gillet. That needs to be improved greatly.

Didnt think we were that bad really. I know there only stat's but they do give you a general idea.

 

[rnabokov]

Just checked NRL.com

In the attacking Stats only Hoffman (tries scroed) and Parker (Hitups) are in the top five on any attacking stats.

In defence its even worse. Parker (tackles) is good but in missed tackles we own spot 1. Prince and 2. Gillet. That needs to be improved greatly.

Didnt think we were that bad really. I know there only stat's but they do give you a general idea.

Gillett, and I am one his greatest fans, ought to be sat in the corner and write 1000 times: I will NOT GRAB AT THE SHOULDERS and I will not go to sleep when defending my goal line.

I just can't understand why he does that. He can be one of the most effective tacklers in the game, yet his half-asleep late grab at that Souths forward cost us 6 points.

Prince is another enigma. He can bring down Inglis then misses the simplest of tackles. Please join Gillett in the corner ....

 

[Porthoz]

Gillett's amount of missed tackles is mainly due to the fact he rushes out of the line quicker than most, but the attacking player will often step and avoid him, making it a missed tackle.
This may seem like a bad thing (and yes, sometimes it is), but it also causes massive disruption to the opposition's attacking flow, as it makes them lose just enough time for the rest of the defensive line to get on top of them.
The best example I have of this, is the Cowboys game this season, where Gillett positively "harrassed" Thurston every time he got the ball, especially on the last tackle, and greatly diminished the latter's impact on the game.

 

[Alec]

Gillett is possibly the worst defender in the NRL when someone manages to get on his outside. He either completely fails to make contact or falls off about 99% of the time when he does.

 

[jarro65]

I think Gillett needs to go back to the bench when McGuire returns to full fitness.

Thaiday to the second row with Glenn.