Nines / Trial Games

So it looks like Flegs is the new forum whipping boy? He had a good game, especially in defense. He stopped plenty of forwards in their tracks, rag dolled a few backs as they make half breaks and defended aggressively for entire sets. He was one of our defensive leaders in that game.

Me too, for some reason I rate him better than Carrigan. Perfect replacement for Lodge.

Obvious love for some and disdain for others is getting one sided. Don't get the love in for the likes of Dearden and Bird (who have not won us games) compared to Isaako (who had a shitty 9's) and is already being offered to the Tigers/Eels by the know it alls here.
 
IIt will be criminal imo if we dont finish top 6 minimum even with Lodge out.

Laughable. We don’t have a good fullback or halves.
Unless Milford has a great season we will be battling to make the 8.
I’m not banking on him to come good.
 
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One thing i enjoyed during the game was the commentary. It was refreshing compared to the usual negativity provided by gould and co at channel 9 or fox.

It may not have been particularly polished, but They enjoyed and promoted the game rather than bitch about it.
 
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One thing i enjoyed during the game was the commentary. It was refreshing compared to the usual negativity provided by gould and co at channel 9 or fox.

It may not have been particularly polished, but They enjoyed and promoted the game rather than bitch about it.
Agreed. That really stood out to me. I find the fox commentators in particular try too hard to be entertaining and it takes away from what happens on field.
 
Agreed. That really stood out to me. I find the fox commentators in particular try too hard to be entertaining and it takes away from what happens on field.
Agree also. I think they just spoke without ego's. It was refreshing. I don't mind some analysis every now and again but the pettiness and corny jokes gets a little old from some of the so called "proffessionals".
It would be nice if those proffessionals tried a little harder to spotlight little things like new players and strengths/weaknesses, where they come from, if they are related to someone famous or even just what their favourite food etc, rather than their own insecurities of a particular rule or ruling with a meaningless back and forth that tells us nothing except that a certain referee "needs to belittled" or that officials are all "idiots".for not making the game the way they like it.
Save that for a pre-match/post-match filler, if at all and don't talk down to us.
 
One of the biggest issues I see with our side is barely enough big hitters.

Turpin is our best defender
 
One of the biggest issues I see with our side is barely enough big hitters.

Turpin is our best defender

I’d be happy with consistent good technique. Driving with the shoulders, locking up the ball and limiting post contact metres. The Ben Teo on groat style is a by gone era unfortunately.
 
Had the opportunity to watch our trial game last night. These are just my observations.

Dearden is not ready for the NRL. Needs to work on his game in the lower grades.

Croft was solid without being spectacular. Nice kicking game, was vocal barking orders and pointing which is what we need, seems like a good communicator. Good tackler also by the looks of it.

We have issues at fullback. Bird wasn't that impressive at the back honestly. Our backline sweep looked disjointed when Bird chimed in. Didn't see much defensively from him. I'm not saying he was bad but he wasn't good either. In saying that, Isaako was worse. That guy needs to go. All he has is a kicking game, that's it. He's not good enough for our team.

I'm really liking Farnsworth. He's big, fast and strong. He looks for work. He gets a really quick ptb also. He should be one of our wingers without a doubt. The kid is great, let's give him a chance.

Coates. Yeah he needs to work on his game also. Especially defensively.

Milford looked good but he was getting the ball alot on 5th tackle and kicking. I believe that should be Crofts job, take that pressure off Milf and simply let him chime in sometimes, not all the time.

We roll up the field really well. We have no issues gaining metres most sets but our execution and defense still need work. We are soft defensively on our own line. Need to get some steel about us. We hit hard though and drove their pack back alot which i liked.

Other than that, not unhappy with a loss as it's only a trial game. I feel we can build into something if we keep it up and get lucky with no injuries.
 
Laughable. We don’t have a good fullback or halves.
Unless Milford has a great season we will be battling to make the 8.
I’m not banking on him to come good.

Bird looked pretty good to me. He was far better than Holmes in the half they played.
 
One of the biggest issues I see with our side is barely enough big hitters.

Turpin is our best defender
Most big hitters in the NRL aren't good defenders. Turpin can hit but his defence on the edge was diabolical last year. As long as he stays in the middle he doesn't have major issues but even so I'd say Haas is our best defender although Kennedy has done very well from a small sample size.
 
I was going through the process of putting stats together only to learn when I was finished NRL.com had already completed their own. It's interesting how much we deviated on certain players but it certainly paints the game in a different light. It also illustrates how misleading stats can be and how certain runs look more than impressive than what they are and vice versa.

It's difficult to be too critical of the attack, for the most part I thought it looked identical to 2019 but the conditions didn't allow for an expansive game. The only difference I really noted was Croft's kicking game and how it's bringing Milford into the game. There were a couple of kicks for him and it's going to pay off at some point. Otherwise, the attack down the left hand side looked strong, the right hand side didn't see enough ball.

I was really interested to watch the defence, but it appears little has changed there as well. The players are still struggling to catch and work the defender over and not enough of them make good first contact. Then when it seems like they gain some ascedancy they give away a dumb penalty. It's the biggest issue at the club and it's really something they have to work on through out the season.

It was difficult to make heads or tails of the fullback situation. If you had to pick one, Bird was more involved so it's him by default but he never once posed a threat.

Otherwise Arthars, Farnworth & Carrigan all made cases for themselves, Coates may have taken himself out of the running and the rookies didn't look out of place.

BP Stats Broncos MotM: Patrick Carrigan (61 Minutes, 15 Runs, 121m, 1 Offload, 40 Tackles, 3 Missed/Ineffective, 1 Penalty Conceded)
 
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One thing i enjoyed during the game was the commentary. It was refreshing compared to the usual negativity provided by gould and co at channel 9 or fox.

It may not have been particularly polished, but They enjoyed and promoted the game rather than bitch about it.

I do hope we see a rise of alternate NRL commentary, people like Denan Kemp and Clarkey are already providing a way fresher, more fun and interesting alternative to the channel 9 / fox guys. In an increasingly corporate environment we are getting a chance to see the players as people, not dollar signs

I also don’t mind a bit of bias in commentary, as long as they aren’t pretending to not be bias. I really liked and should continue to do it like it was last night, one home supporter one away supporter in the box - I don’t need Gavin Cooper to blow smoke up Haas’s ass if JYY is there to do it.
 
I was going through the process of putting stats together only to learn when I was finished NRL.com had already completed their own. It's interesting how much we deviated on certain players but it certainly paints the game in a different light. It also illustrates how misleading stats can be and how certain runs look more than impressive than what they are and vice versa.

BP Stats Broncos MotM: Patrick Carrigan (61 Minutes, 15 Runs, 121m, 1 Offload, 40 Tackles, 3 Missed/Ineffective, 1 Penalty Conceded)
Your stats are gold. Don't be shy to post them. It's refreshing to have some original content!
 
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