NEWS Why the Broncos went hard to secure Croft

[1988bronco]

I can't help but think his most potential was wasted, when he was youthful he had amazing agility and broken play instincts as a fullback, forcing him into learning the 6 role and defending in the front line at that time stunted his potential in them first few years...
Although he is a more well rounded player now overall, hopefully his best years are still ahead of him.

 

[McHunt]

Exactly, that top bracket of players need to preform at high level most of the time to justify the cap space taken up, the argument our spine has been chopped and changed, him having no other support in terms of playmaking, switching roles/coaches arguably holds some merit, now is the time though or I would l let him explore his options next contract.

Boyd, Bird, Macca and Milford are all looking massively overpaid.

Macca should not be considered in a ball playing role again. He can compete with Offa and Carrigan as a bench forward. Good luck to him there. We know he can tackle.

Boyd might still have something to offer in the outside backs. He can live and die by his performance there, week to week.

Bird has everything to prove. Instead of running sideways to avoid giving the ball to Macca he might benefit from having Croft give him some direction.

And Milford, it's all uphill from here. He needs to seriously ship up or he'll be shipped out next season. He'll be lucky to get 400k next contract.

 

[1988bronco]

It says something when our best players were the inexperienced young guys most weeks, Hass, Fifita, Turpin, Staggs, Carrigan when it's meant to be Milford Boyd Macca Bird...
Questionable choices

 

[pagey]

No one has said he is our saviour though.

Really???? Some are pretty confident we're good for top 4 with him. I'd say that is close enough to being our saviour or the 7 we've been needing.

 

[NSW stables]

The only year where he was our dominant half for the full year he won player of the year with zero support. Last year he was shunted all over the shop with less than zero support forced to try and play a fucking ludicrous hybrid fullback 5/8 role. I wish people would stop perpetuating this fucking bullshit fallacy that Milf hasn't been good for us.

I think now he has a more traditional half next to him, milf may be able to get back to concentrating on his own game and get back to form playing his more natural game (i hope).

He probably would benefit from becoming more diligent with his diet and training though.

 

[pagey]

You really trying to say Croft choked more then Ben Hunt?

You're going to pull something if you keep stretching this far for your agenda

Lol , how the **** did you come up with that ? When did I ever mention ben hunt ?
No agenda just my opinion, whose the one making false claims?
[automerge]1574807108[/automerge]

Croft will be our saviour.

Um see comment above broncos4life

 

[1988bronco]

Really???? Some are pretty confident we're good for top 4 with him. I'd say that is close enough to being our saviour or the 7 we've been needing.

I think our saviour would be winning the comp, I'm confident we will be pressing for the top 4 if we don't have major injuries or the like, definately top 6 I think that's only asking for 2 or 3 more wins then last season and if the spine is stable and morale is up we have potential to play some good football... Just maybe not better then the top 2 sides

 

[McHunt]

Maybe you should read more of my posts and then you would understand a little more, never said boyd was better just had more TA's and LBA 's. Also didn't say we should sign anyone else , just don't tell me he is our savior because he's far from it imo

I'll give you four reasons Croft's try assists will skyrocket next year:

1. Haas
2. Fifita
3. TPJ
4. Flegler

 

[Kooly87]

or you can look at it this way ... with Croft in the side they won the minor premiership comfortably (losing only 4 games, by a combined total of something like 6 pts)

then they replace him with Hughes and they become also rans in the finals.

This is a point that seems to be massively overlooked by everyone both on here and everywhere else.

YES, Melbourne dropped Croft before the finals. We all accept that Bellamy is a Master Coach and it's tempting to fall into the trap of believe that he only makes the right calls, so obviously if he dropped Croft people assume it's a sure sign that Croft is no good.

But in reality, it's not like that move worked out for them. They were rolled out of the finals by teams that were arguably not really better than them. They won and lost a game each against both Canberra and the Roosters this year with Croft in the team, but in the finals they were 0-2 against those same sides without Croft.

I'm not saying that Croft alone would have necessarily changed the result, but there is no evidence to suggest Melbourne made the right call or that they were better off without him, and there is actually some evidence to suggest they are in fact a worse team when he doesn't play.

Melbourne have really, really stuck the boot into us for at least the last decade. Almost since our 2006 Premiership it seems to be like it's their personal mission to pull our pants down at every opportunity both on and off the field. Perhaps it's time we got one back on them by making them really pay for letting Croft go. Given he was the one released, you'd have to think Croft won't be lacking in motivation to make it so.

 

[lynx000]

Everyone says he's been "good" for us. The problem is he hasn't been $1 million fantastic for us; our highest paid player of all time good for us. For that kind of money we should expect him to direct the play, boss the opposition and basically be a leader. When he walks out on the field the crowd should erupt. His name isn't even coming up as a captaincy contender. That's how underwhelming he's been.

So yeah, sure he's a "good" player. But he was signed to be the next Lockyer, Lewis, Langer, Tallis. He's not even remotely in that league.

Contrast him with Cooper Cronk - his peer - in that GF. What use would Milford be if he was relegated to shadowing play with a broken shoulder? He's no Cronk, Thurston, Smith. He's more like Barba, without the issues.

Pretty fair analysis really.

 

[lynx000]

Really???? Some are pretty confident we're good for top 4 with him. I'd say that is close enough to being our saviour or the 7 we've been needing.

Who has said that?

 

[Kooly87]

Who has said that?

Honestly, with a decent run of injuries or at least a far kinder run than last year, TPJ not getting anymore stupid suspensions, Bird staying fit for 25 Rounds, Isaako finding his feet quickly at Fullback, and pending our Origin workload being somewhat reasonable, I don't think the Top 4 is totally out of the question.

I know those things are all highly variable and we do need a lot to go our way, but it definitely isn't impossible.

I think the Top 4 sides last year all objectively probably got a little bit worse over the offseason. Roosters lost their trump card in Cronk who is basically irreplaceable as Melbourne showed, the Storm have now lost key players in Croft and Chambers and have not settled on their replacements yet and Smith gets another year older. Souths have lost their best Forward in Burgess with no replacement and the Raiders are at best even going into 2020 but definitely not any better. I still think they will all make the finals, but I don't think they'll all run in the Top 4 again. There is plenty of change possible in 2020 for the ladder and no matter how highly you rate Croft, it's hard to not objectively agree that our roster looks better going into 202 now than it has for a couple of seasons now.

 

[lynx000]

Honestly, with a decent run of injuries or at least a far kinder run than last year, TPJ not getting anymore stupid suspensions, Bird staying fit for 25 Rounds, Isaako finding his feet quickly at Fullback, and pending our Origin workload being somewhat reasonable, I don't think the Top 4 is totally out of the question.

I know those things are all highly variable and we do need a lot to go our way, but it definitely isn't impossible.

I think the Top 4 sides last year all objectively probably got a little bit worse over the offseason. Roosters lost their trump card in Cronk who is basically irreplaceable as Melbourne showed, the Storm have now lost key players in Croft and Chambers and have not settled on their replacements yet and Smith gets another year older. Souths have lost their best Forward in Burgess with no replacement and the Raiders are at best even going into 2020 but definitely not any better. I still think they will all make the finals, but I don't think they'll all run in the Top 4 again. There is plenty of change possible in 2020 for the ladder and no matter how highly you rate Croft, it's hard to not objectively agree that our roster looks better going into 202 now than it has for a couple of seasons now.

But the difference is (and I am not having a go at you at all) you have validly raised quite a few things that have to go right for that to happen. You are not saying that simply the addition of Croft will make us a top 4 side which is what the allegation is.

I agree with you that if we effectively have a bit more luck across a number of areas that we could potentially be top 4, but Croft has nothing to do with those other factors.

 

[Kooly87]

But the difference is (and I am not having a go at you at all) you have validly raised quite a few things that have to go right for that to happen. You are not saying that simply the addition of Croft will make us a top 4 side which is what the allegation is.

I agree with you that if we effectively have a bit more luck across a number of areas that we could potentially be top 4, but Croft has nothing to do with those other factors.

I guess what I'm saying is, we had our worst season in history and still scraped into the Top 8. We had a heap of things go wrong with injuries and suspensions to complement our horrific drop in form overall. I know in every other year that would have meant we missed the finals, but this year we were fortunate that it was just enough. 25 points won't get us in this year most likely, but I also don't see us being 25 points worth of squad this year going into the season.

I do believe we've corrected a number of personnel issues both with recruiting and with managing our existing roster. If we can combine that with some better fortune and some smarter on field behaviour and we also get a bit lucky with our Origin workload which could honestly vary quite wildly depending on circumstances, then I do think with a few of the top sides probably coming back to the field a little bit this year, we are genuinely one of the few sides who can set a realistic target on a much better ladder position than last year.

 

[pagey]

Who has said that?

Go back through the threads on Croft, there's quite a few. Even some people confident we will be in the running for the premiership.
I really do hope they're right but I've seen it all before, heaps of hype only to be disappointed.

 

[Sirlee oldman]

Go back through the threads on Croft, there's quite a few. Even some people confident we will be in the running for the premiership.
I really do hope they're right but I've seen it all before, heaps of hype only to be disappointed.

I said we would be top 4 after signing him but not because he is some amazing saviour. I would have said that if we signed any competent halfback. We have a very good forward pack and outside backs but going into the season with only one halfback was too big a risk. Now we have two we should not have to rearrange the team and pick players out of position if there’s an injury. I also think having Bird (hopefully) stay fit will make a big difference.

 

[pagey]

I said we would be top 4 after signing him but not because he is some amazing saviour. I would have said that if we signed any competent halfback. We have a very good forward pack and outside backs but going into the season with only one halfback was too big a risk. Now we have two we should not have to rearrange the team and pick players out of position if there’s an injury. I also think having Bird (hopefully) stay fit will make a big difference.

If he can do his job we are definitely a better looking team but we still have defficances.

 

[Sproj]

Will this actually be made official at some point or since Lockyer let the Croft out of the Storm, there is no need now?