Round 3 - Broncos v Roosters - Post Match Discussion

[Ari Gold]

I'm also very impressed with Vidot. His supposed attitude and bad hands have let him down in the past year, but he seems like he has fixed both. His work in starting our sets is massive.

It's incredible how much he bends the lines, even against a set defence. I reckon you could play him at prop and he'd have extremely strong gains.

 

[Dexter]

Shit way to lose but when you have 58% of the ball it shouldn't happen.

The rule changes have been good for us with teams no longer able to slow us down as much, add to that we have a big winger and 5/8 who can eat mtrs it seems like an easier game this year.

Super effort just the same and great to see a few things starting to develop.

Maranta looking very comfortable at last , Hunt improving again from last week, Hoff passing it and creating a try ( not a try assist according to NRL stats BTW :) ), Wallace looked good and should have got more time ( it's OK [MENTION=7980]Mr Fourex[/MENTION] we can say that now ;) )

Even though we lost, the way we played was everything I hoped for, if we keep building on this we just could be a smoky come September.

 

[Kimlo]

[MENTION=1795]Alec[/MENTION] as requested, I've taken a video of my Foxtel recording of the Hala run. Not the best quality but It'll do.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NISAjrRYnxg

 

[LittleDavey]

Disappointed, but hey, only really because I did not see that coming. The Roosters were out on their feet for most of that second half, where did that last 10 minutes come from....but, that's why they won last year, the good teams (I had to choke that out dammit) know how to win. Did the guys turn off? I know I thought that was the game - hopefully that will be a good learning opportunity, better for it to happen now rather than in the finals. The last few minutes had them absolutely stunned, no doubt they will be onto it in future similar situations. Will try to keep it to the positives, of which there are many!

AMAZING game by the boys, and I hope they hold their heads up high after that. What an improvement on last year, and without Hannant and McGuire (plus Kahu, Hodges..) - there is NO WAY the boys could have played at that speed last year. There is no way they could have played ONE HALF at that speed last year. The turnaround in the off season has been absolutely staggering, full credit must go to all involved. I hope the guys on the paddock realise too (and I'm sure they do).

Hunt - what a game, that is exactly the sort of game I knew he could pull off. He was in everything, absolutely outstanding. If he can consistently play like that...wow!! I hope he can keep his confidence up, keep pushing the team around, and I don't doubt he will as he gets more comfortable in the role. I think he will be very, very good for us.

Hala's first run - haha!! Take that!! What a weapon the guy can be!!

Our support play was great, hell our play in general was great. I saw very very few one-out runs. Thaiday and Parker were MACHINES, the other forwards did what they needed to do.

How good is Vidot?? Man have we missed someone with that size on the wing!! Love his work, I hope he can keep it up - he is very, very valuable in the metres stakes.

Very impressed with Maranta, Copley once again - our back line is really starting to look dangerous again and seems to hit very hard in defence.

General defence was pretty good, errors aside. Very few missed tackles and we kept turning up, our scramble was again quite good. It seems we slacked off a bit after scoring, that's a bit unfortunate and I hope Hook points it out to the guys this week.

I don't want to bash on Parker's kicking, the poor guy will be down on himself enough after a mistake led to a try and we lost by 4 with 3 kicks missed...he will (fairly, I guess) be blaming himself but he got through a mountain of work and was outstanding for 99% of the game, as he usually is. Don't sweat it, Cap!!

Thought the refs were generally good, but the Roosters were given far too much leniency. Holding down when we were trying to play the ball. Constant infringements when they were on the back foot. Mini should have been in the bin, I can name half a dozen incidents where that's been a binnable offence. I don't appreciate the poor sportsmanship but hey, it played a part in their win so it worked - which I hate even more. But it is what it is, I guess.


All in all - to roll over the Chihuahuas and Cowgirls, then go toe-to-toe with the reigning premiers and only lose it at the death when we should have won - I am absolutely stoked with the boys this year. A totally different team so far, with luck they can keep it up. I'm mindful this young team over the last few years has seemed very much a confidence team (when they're winning they're hot, but they have in the past panicked when things aren't going so well) but they do seem more mature. And DEFNITELY fitter and stronger, it was almost like watching a Bronco team of old rather than the mediocrity which has been served up at times over the last few years. And for that I am utterly thankful.

Thanks boys, hold your heads up!! Fantastic game!! You have my permission to wreak ball-tearing havoc on the Dragons next week!! ;)

 

[winslow_wong]

i think corey oates provides more spark off the bench and should keep his spot at the expense of wallace. we just let in to many easy quick reply tries tonight. if we had an actual goal kicker we would have put 32 points on the premiers which is pretty impressive. so we're not far off just need to work on building and maintaining pressure

 

[animal eater]

More positives than negatives. Simply put, we paid dearly for our mistakes. Still, we were just a few ticks away from beating the champs. Hunt found his game and the boys showed some innovation. We were one dropped ball away from winning. Now if only Hoffman passes in the first 70 minutes, look out.

The other thing is at what point do you send a player off. As the commentators alluded to, The Roosters would rather take a penalty than give up points. When the offenses start mounting up like they were, I think a send off is warranted. Great to see Oates back on the field. Forgot how big the boy is. He had a set where he had three tackles in a row. Honestly I would look at him over Reed but that's another story.

Chin up as we now have a team that isn't a joke. Griffin hasn't been terrible and Maranta is earning his spot. Hoffman still isn't a a 5/8 though and Kennedy still hasn't convinced me.

Live and learn from this game and turn it into a positive.

 

[winslow_wong]

yeah if that many repeat penalties are committed by one team, there needs to be more punishment otherwise they just keep up the foul play and halt all momentum. maybe they should have a rule where an offending player gets binned for one set if so many repeat offenses occur because at the moment there's no accountability for deliberately fouling. and the refs are always reluctant to bin a player for 10 mins as they would seem like enemy number 1

 

[Dexter]

5 min sin bins should be brought back

 

[subsbligh]

I was actually delighted with that game. Yeah we lost, but we won the first two, and after both, I still thought to myself, we're ****ed for season 2014, we only won because we did the basics right, we don't have another gear to go into for later in the year and we'll just pull up lame way before the home stretch. But after tonight, with what Hunt showed, I have a different outlook. Hoffman threw two nice passes, but is still not a five eight and never will be. But that he had success pretending to be tells me when Kahu comes back and we have Hoffman on the wing with Hodges back as well, we can make a showing this year.

I'll take that loss with Ben Hunt showing such great signs over a massive win off of the back of opposition errors anyday.

you're a legend ari.

you are right, so proud and excited to be a broncos fan tonight. A bit hollow but the fact we came back and Hunt single handedly had us within a whisker (read, a few conversions) of what could have been lauded as one of the clubs greatest victories is enough to be happy about.


i cant wait until next week. These boys play some bloody good footy

 

[Ari Gold]

I don't mean this as an attack on Barba but aside from the Dogs game he's been pretty shit this year (by what he can do). Whilst we still have Hodges to come back, I reckon Barba hitting his straps will be just as big a boost. The fact that we'll get both later on this season will be massive. Not premiership worthy, but it should be fucking exciting to watch.

 

[Kimlo]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NISAjrRYnxg video should work now. It's the Hala run from the dropout.

 

[nopatience101]

yeah if that many repeat penalties are committed by one team, there needs to be more punishment otherwise they just keep up the foul play and halt all momentum. maybe they should have a rule where an offending player gets binned for one set if so many repeat offenses occur because at the moment there's no accountability for deliberately fouling. and the refs are always reluctant to bin a player for 10 mins as they would seem like enemy number 1

Add to that the two occasions we earned repeat sets and the ref allowed them a nice long breather, first to put evans on report and then to do some landscaping in goal, very frustrating.

 

[Broncoman]

If we just landed those kicks from touch and eliminated basic mistakes from our game we would've won.

Positives

- Defence was really solid and a major improvement. The Roosters rarely broke through and the majority of their points was off the back of errors by us

- Halves are improving but I would still give Milford a spot over either of them. Hunt was outstanding but was let down by bad service at dummy half

- Coming up against the defending premiers and world club champions we gave them a real run for their money and they only squeaked home

- The team is improving as whole. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and look fitter and more committed to the cause

- David Hala should play as most minutes as possible. He was a real handful tonight

- We are playing well above expectations and proving the critics wrong. If someone said after the debacle in Dunedin that we would be in this position after Round 3 that would've been a adventurous prediction

Negatives

- We lost a game we should've won. We received more penalties, had more possession, had a better completion rate, made more meters, more offloads and missed lesser tackles than our opponents

- We need to eliminate basic mistakes out of our game which let us down tonight

 

[Rally Towel]

David Hala run off a dropout - YouTube video should work now. It's the Hala run from the dropout.

Thanks mate.

More of that please Mr Hala! He has the ability, it's just a case of getting him the ball with enough windup and lining up the right (poor) bastard who has to make the tackle.

 

[vertigo]

 

[Alec]

David Hala run off a dropout - YouTube video should work now. It's the Hala run from the dropout.

Well, that's still awesome now. Gotta wait until tomorrow to make sure. :p

 

[Cult]

I'd like to hear Hook question why Mini wasn't sent off for that blatant professional foul. On top of that, the Roosters deliberately cause penalties to fix their defensive line, and 3-4 in a row should have lead to a send off. Thaiday last year was sent off for it. Also why is it that it's ok, when playing the Broncos, to have a marker stand 5 metres from the play the ball or two markers standing beside each other? Teams have realized they're getting away with it and they're obviously being told to do it.

I am super proud to be a Broncos fan (Not that I've ever not been proud). We were written off by everybody, including our own fans. And we all stood up and played for each other. Everyone seems happy to put on that jersey. I love that they stuck around to thank the fans after a tough loss too. I hope the trainers and coach were waiting in the sheds and gave them a clap as they entered. They played great.

 

[Sproj]

Positives: Hunt, Maccas's season, Thaiday's season, Vidot what a gun, Copley making it a mission to shut down Jennings after letting him in early, Kennedy mostly, Barba's energy, some real firepower to come back in Hodges, Hannant and McGuire, Oates is back.

Negatives: Crucial mistakes, soft second try, Reed playing, losing key moments, goal kicking.

Other thoughts: Hoffman can playmaker, do it more often son, what does Lorie offer?