PRE-GAME [Round 18, 2026] - Broncos vs Sharks

How is it bs ? He’s played 60 mins of footy in a year , obviously not ready just yet …

As I said in the second sentence, Madge says he's in the frame to return this week, but that was never once the plan. If that was the case, just say so, don't feed us bullshit.

We're at about what, close to 10 months post surgery? The risk of re-injury has been significantly decreased. He played on the weekend, felt good, he can't play 30 minutes off the bench?
 
Like what?

You have to have new things to try ... Origin and injuries mean we're already scrapping the bottom of the barrel

Play Jaiyden instead of Gos, Bukowski instead of Paix, Duffy instead of Reyno, not play Willison in the backrow, where he was completely ineffective, and use one of the actual backrowers we've had in QLD Cup.

Maybe it wouldn't have worked out any better, but when you're trying the same thing multiple times and it's still not working, perhaps try something different.
 
Get rid of our best player who only hugs people of course.
I dead set think you have reading comprehension issues. It’s the only answer for how you take absolutely everything the wrong way. At this point it can’t be intentional trolling. Nobody has that much time.
 
I would love to know what material Paix has on Madge to keep getting selected. I would rather bring Sammy Thaiday out of retirement to have another go at it (yeah, remember those days?).
 
I would love to know what material Paix has on Madge to keep getting selected. I would rather bring Sammy Thaiday out of retirement to have another go at it (yeah, remember those days?).
With Josh McGuire coming off the bench for 30 minutes. That would be a breath of fresh air in 2026
 
If only Madge was so lucky.
To expand on this:

The Broncos 'young guns' are Cameron Bukowski, Antonio Verhoeven, Phillip Coates and Tupou Francis. Madge can't just pull a Leka Halasima out of his backside - if the Broncos had somebody of his ilk he'd be in the team.

The hooker with the best pass is Bukowski but physically

I'm not a big team list guy. To me it's more about strategy and getting them to play a brand of football they're capable of that gives them confidence.

If there was one player I'd like to see it's Mason Teague but I don't think it's a bad omission.

For mine a bad selection is picking Nio at right centre when all his success has been down the left. Not sure what Madge or Head are thinking.

With that said, if I was just going to go Rugby League Live with the team.

1. Seth Gundry 2. Deine Mariner 3. Kotoni Staggs 4. Gehamat Shibasaki 5. Grant Anderson 6. Billy Walters 7. Tom Duffy 8. Va'a Semu 9. Cameron Bukowski 10. Xavier Willison 11. Brendan Piakura 12. Jordan Riki (c) 13. Mason Teague

14. Blake Mozer 15. Ben Talty 16. Josh Coric 17. Tupou Francis 18. Hayze Perham 19. Jett Bryce

20. Luke Gale 21. Brock Parker 22. Josh Billing 23. Alex Lobb

I'd have to buy a new controller but I'd probably score a nice try or two with that.
 
To expand on this:

The Broncos 'young guns' are Cameron Bukowski, Antonio Verhoeven, Phillip Coates and Tupou Francis. Madge can't just pull a Leka Halasima out of his backside - if the Broncos had somebody of his ilk he'd be in the team.

The hooker with the best pass is Bukowski but physically

I'm not a big team list guy. To me it's more about strategy and getting them to play a brand of football they're capable of that gives them confidence.

If there was one player I'd like to see it's Mason Teague but I don't think it's a bad omission.

For mine a bad selection is picking Nio at right centre when all his success has been down the left. Not sure what Madge or Head are thinking.

With that said, if I was just going to go Rugby League Live with the team.

1. Seth Gundry 2. Deine Mariner 3. Kotoni Staggs 4. Gehamat Shibasaki 5. Grant Anderson 6. Billy Walters 7. Tom Duffy 8. Va'a Semu 9. Cameron Bukowski 10. Xavier Willison 11. Brendan Piakura 12. Jordan Riki (c) 13. Mason Teague

14. Blake Mozer 15. Ben Talty 16. Josh Coric 17. Tupou Francis 18. Hayze Perham 19. Jett Bryce

20. Luke Gale 21. Brock Parker 22. Josh Billing 23. Alex Lobb

I'd have to buy a new controller but I'd probably score a nice try or two with that.

Even amongst absolute chaos last week Teague made 53 tackles and played 80 minutes.

He should win every Bears award on awards night.
 
To expand on this:

The Broncos 'young guns' are Cameron Bukowski, Antonio Verhoeven, Phillip Coates and Tupou Francis. Madge can't just pull a Leka Halasima out of his backside - if the Broncos had somebody of his ilk he'd be in the team.

The hooker with the best pass is Bukowski but physically

I'm not a big team list guy. To me it's more about strategy and getting them to play a brand of football they're capable of that gives them confidence.

If there was one player I'd like to see it's Mason Teague but I don't think it's a bad omission.

For mine a bad selection is picking Nio at right centre when all his success has been down the left. Not sure what Madge or Head are thinking.

With that said, if I was just going to go Rugby League Live with the team.

1. Seth Gundry 2. Deine Mariner 3. Kotoni Staggs 4. Gehamat Shibasaki 5. Grant Anderson 6. Billy Walters 7. Tom Duffy 8. Va'a Semu 9. Cameron Bukowski 10. Xavier Willison 11. Brendan Piakura 12. Jordan Riki (c) 13. Mason Teague

14. Blake Mozer 15. Ben Talty 16. Josh Coric 17. Tupou Francis 18. Hayze Perham 19. Jett Bryce

20. Luke Gale 21. Brock Parker 22. Josh Billing 23. Alex Lobb

I'd have to buy a new controller but I'd probably score a nice try or two with that.
I feel like the team is fighting two different battles when it comes to its attack.

We have two different identities pending who's playing out of Reyno and Walsh.

Last week without Reyno, Walsh is calling all the shots... he's at first receiver, he's kicking, he's trying to do everything... but there's unlikely to be much structure coming from him.

It's the opposite when Reyno is playing... he's structured and gets the team around the park, but then Walsh struggles to figure out where he's meant to fit into that structure... it's more of a cookie cutter default attack, but it's lead by Reyno who when he puts on a master class can still dominate oppositions... unfortunately his hammies are now wet noodles and he can barely get through a game.

That's two different styles that all the support players have to figure out, but I don't think the team practices to play the way Reece plays so it's messy as ****.

But if Walsh is playing with Reyno and Reyno is leading, our number one attacking threat doesn't know where he fits, but the team keep trying to find ways to get him the ball... so it looks inept in attack.

In yardage something has changed where the team is happy to do the old Bennettball, Griffinball... just get through the sets and hang in there. Doesn't matter if you're getting belted and not winning any field position... just keep hanging in there.

Bend don't break!!

Last year the team had clear plans to attack edges in yardage... Staggs was effective doing his blind side yardage runs, but they've completely dried up this year.

I don't know how something fundamental to last year, fundamental to Madge, has somehow dropped off the face of the earth... although did it make a reappearance last week?

The defence is completely shot... they have no identity in defence ever since that first rorters game where we got penalised into oblivion... followed by exactly the same in the wahs game.

The team is passive and giving up mass meters in yardage... they have zero control over the ruck and they look completely confused about what they're doing out there.

Madge has apparently taken over Teo's defensive coaching duties (although I doubt he's chopping up film) on top of head coaching, and maybe it's becoming too much and things are slipping because our head coach is off doing what other staff would normally be doing.
 
Madge has apparently taken over Teo's defensive coaching duties (although I doubt he's chopping up film) on top of head coaching, and maybe it's becoming too much and things are slipping because our head coach is off doing what other staff would normally be doing.
I can't believe the broncos haven't thought of maybe hiring another defensive coach in, what is it, 4 months?
 
Also includes some pretty incredible art

The raiders new logo really suits though.

Funny Face Photo Booth GIF by Working Title
 
The raiders new logo really suits though.

Funny Face Photo Booth GIF by Working Title

I was wondering what @Cult was referring to with his Art comment. You'd think I would have noticed.

That's where we are currently at with AI. It would have generated that graphic in 10 seconds, where it would take a poor sap 20 minutes at least. For a quick social media post that is about the info but still needs an impactful graphic to get engagement, I'm comfortable with its place right now. I also get a kick out something weird being generated and trying to figure out what AI thought it was.
 

Some serious outliers there and some real curiosities. Quick Excel plot:
1782860585594.png


Horizontal axis is penalties, vertical is 6A. Inner box is 1x standard deviation, outer box is 2x std dev.

Roosters and Dogs for example are known as teams who will give away convenient 6 agains to reset their defensive lines (unless they have changed that this year, idk, haven't watched much) yet they are leading the comp in 6A for/against?

Interesting that the Titans are the most evenly-balanced stat positive team.

There is no way the Warriors should be 2.5x the standard deviation in the penalty count in a legit comp. Titans are next closest on 15, the Wahs are nearly 3x that!! Talk about a friendly whistle... Sharks cop it the other way, but their friendly 6A count evens it out somewhat.

Cows and Broncos more than double the -6A count of any other team in the comp, Broncos 3x the count of anyone bar the Cows. Tell me we are that ill-disciplined and I have a bridge to sell you. Yes we lose the ruck often but that's something else. We are also the only team outside 2x SD on the combined count either way (-48, 2xSD is +/-43.3), though Wahs are close in the other direction at +43.

Keeping in mind this is the infringement for/against, so there are two sides to both of the figures. What I mean by this is, for example, the Broncos & Cows' bad 6A counts are due to both a) poor discipline themselves, and b) lack of 6A being called against the opposition.

Either way though, this illustrates that yes, by far we are the club who gets pizzled by the refs the most. The club desperately needs to find out from the officials where we are going wrong, and take steps in the off season to turn it around.
 
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