Round 2 - Broncos vs Cowboys - Post Match Discussion

[GCBRONCO]

Strasser hasn't exactly impressed in the Qld Cup and isn't Nikorima injured after pulling out from tonights game?

 

[Rally Towel]

Hunt is a liability and needs to be dropped. Bring Strasser or Nikorima in. At least they have some semblance of a kicking game.

I agree he had a shocker of a night, but I believe many people last year were keen for him to at least get an extended crack to prove his worth.

I'd say he's worth persisting with for at least a week or two before passing final judgement. As evidenced by Hoffmans position, we are short on reliable options.

Again, let me state that he had a terrible night, the worst I've ever seen from him. It was Ben Robertsesque.

 

[Big Pete]

Hunt's kicking game was mostly horrid, but he isn't a liability. He holds his own defensively and is constantly competing for the loose ball - I'd rather have him in our front line than a Nikorima who is just going to get trampled over.

Give him more time. In saying that, I actually think Hoffy had a better game. I thought he showed a fair bit of improvement and proved he can be a decent stop-gap with some of his front-line defence (particularly on Cooper) and his ability to get a quick play the ball. The guy isn't making any breaks or anything, but he's definitely giving us a good platform to work off of.

 

[GCBRONCO]

I don't mind backing youth but you got to be prepared to preserver through it, not make a knee jerk reaction if you don't get the results instantly, some on the forum have shown they aren't capable of it, if we do bring in a youngster I don't want to see after two games people calling for his head because his not the instant star they expect them to be. Sandow has some qualities that can be of use I don't doubt that(defensively his a liability and after last season I don't want opposition making easy metres again), but he also has some serious issues his yet to address, struggling to even get a run at a club that paid top money for him. For the right price it might be worth considering a 1-2 year contract. Personally I'd rather see out this season if we can't sign a DCE or Mullen, know where we stand on Hunt and if he doesn't work out, bring in one off the young halves instead with Milford and Barba there to take pressure of that player, Sandow comes with a few too many issues and with Barba needing to deal with his, we don't need the negative influence.

 

[Socnorb]

Geez will all of you negative nellies have a sit down . We won tonight in a game where our momentum was crueled on a number of occasions by poor refereeing decisions . Yes I know it's part of the game. Plus you see hunt put in one bad kick and savage him. Discount the the role he played in the wining try and his awesome defence. Get a grip.

 

[Socnorb]

@ I bleed maroon. If you think hunt is the worst 7 in the game you're not watching enough football.

 

[Socnorb]

Settle pettle, the adults were having a discussion on - wait for it - the potential for even more success :tape:

Excuse me lad.

 

[Alec]

Hoffman is just playing as an inside centre. He looks OK individually, but not what we need from a half by far.

 

[Dexter]

Geez mate you need to watch the game again, Hunt was awful. He sure did some good things though and at least he looks to make something happen but his last 2 weeks on balance have been well below NRL level.

 

[Donald]

**** yeah broncos win. Sitting back smashing 1000000 bintang's in Bali.
Heap of cowboys supporters here tonight but I gave it to them. Got the happy ending I was looking for :)

 

[Socnorb]

Actually, you are probably right there. Michael Whitt was pretty woeful last weekend, but Sam Williams replaces him this weekend I think.

You do realise we defend for 50% of the game right?

 

[GCBRONCO]

On a different note tonight's crowd highlights how pathetic the decision to have so many games in Sydney last weekend which really hurt the round 1 figures giving the detractors ammunition against our game.

 

[Rally Towel]

Look on the bright side:

- Hoffy got a try assist
- Pretty sure Hunt had one good kick?
- Todd Lowrie wasn't concussed

 

[ningnangnong]

Last week after Barba's grubber, someone said 'only Barba can do that'... well, looks like Hoffman can too, despite a lot of people on here thinking he is completely useless.

We know he's not a five-eighth, but he had a pretty solid game IMO and his defence was outstanding. Also much better in the kicking department this week. Hopefully he can keep on improving if we intend to continue using him at five-eighth.

Thought Sammy Thaiday was huge for us. So much appetite on display. It was wonderful to see. I hope he can produce that sort of performance every week.

Hunt has shown some good signs, but he's also looked utterly awful in other areas of his game - some of those areas you would consider to be the basics for a halfback too. His positioning and all round organisation when we're coming to the end of a set was diabolical tonight. Don't get me started on that attempted field-goal either... man. That pass to Copley was golden though - seems a lot more comfortable playing off the cuff than in an organised manner.

 

[Big Pete]

Thank god the drop kick from Hunt actually turned out to be a good clearing kick that forced Morgan to take it just before the in-goal line. Nearly lost my shit when the referees spent an age to make a call on it.

 

[Rally Towel]

Thought Sammy Thaiday was huge for us. So much appetite on display. It was wonderful to see. I hope he can produce that sort of performance every week.

Amen! Glad to see his demotion hasn't got him down. To his credit, he's rolled up the sleeves and is really having a go.

One thing I really noticed was that he made a bunch of bootlace tackles right off their play the ball that killed their momentum dead.

 

[Broncoman]

Observations

- The Cowboys still make to many mistakes to be the best consistently if it wasn't for JT I doubt they would've scored any points.

- Hunt isn't getting any better but I would rather him over Sandow

- Hoffman improved on his last game. I thought his ball running was very good and was able to get some meters out of it and his kick to Vidot showed some vision.

- Thiaday played his best game since the 2nd Origin last year. He was my pick for MOM as well as 9's

- Griffin needs to use his bench a lot more. Hannant brings some very good muscle and go forward and Kennedy is proving me wrong and is providing good value for us yet they are only getting limited game time

- Hadley's commentary is never going to be enjoyable, that was so annoying to listen to. Thank god I was at the Leagues club and couldn't hear all of it

 

[Ari Gold]

Very courageous win and better than last week, but still we win in spite of our halves, rather than because of it. I know there's a bit of a theory that getting the simple things right are what wins us games early in the season and kicking game aside we've done this. Our defence in particular was outstanding once again. Still, my fear is that unlike some other teams, we don't have another gear to shift into to. Of course, that could change once Hoffman gets out of five-eight. I was very pleased with his defence and his grubber actually showed some nice vision, but he's still postcodes away from being a half, and his insistence on killing outside sweeping plays by running inside was still well on show again.

Thought Gillett was outstanding tonight. Not just the try but his positioning in both areas of the game. If anyone is watching on replay, there's a moment in the 78th minute where Taumalolo looks away for all money, but Gillett makes almost a try saving tackle by not only taking Taumalolo but wrapping up the ball as well.

As much as I wanted to support him, Hunt has continued to be shit and prove me wrong. He's lucky there's nobody else we can play there quite frankly.

For me Barba was fairly quite, but you can't expect him to do everything. His fellow signing Vidot continues to be excellent and is honestly almost as big a plus for us as Barba's signing, given how much our forwards can struggle to get back on early tackles. Of course, he's no Barba, but his impact is a real positive.

Once again, I have to question Griffin's gameplan of having Wallace on the bench and not using him. It's just poor planning. If you don't want to trust him in those situations, fine, but if that is the case, play somebody else there.