2009 in perspective

[Abe The Cop]

Need to work on cutting down offloads in defence, there was a few times this year that it absolutely killed us. It was just lucky we have great cover defence to minimise the damage. And i'd like to see McCullogh really work on his kicking game to give us another option.

 

[Raw Boned Youngster]

I don't know what some people see, but I believe most people look for things that people have spoken about in the past and expect to see it now.

Wayne Bennett has a pet play. We saw it at the Broncos and he took it to the Dragons.

Wayne is not an innovative or creative coach, but he has the priceless knack of getting people to believe in him.

The early Broncos teams were built around adhoc individualism. Wayne then decided to listen to Jack Gibson and decided that a grinding power game ( as Coxy suggested ) was the way to go.
This was the blackest of all Broncos eras and probably exposed Wayne's lack of ability to construct a game plan based on set plays - a necessity when the individualism had gone. At one stage he thought he didn't need a specialist halfback.

Post Wayne, Ivan was too scared to rattle cages because of egos and Wayne's shadow.

About a month ago, Ivan decided to coach like he played - in an industrious and clever way. I have seen more creativity and innovation in the last 5 or 6 weeks that I have seen for a decade.

Ivan, and I was a harsh critic during his lost and confused period, put his stamp on the team.
I like the look of what Ivan has added.
We have more set plays now than Wayne ever had.

Quite simply, Wayne had to go. He doesn't have creative ideas, and the players needed some ideas.

Thankfully, Ivan has emerged from Wayne's shadow and has some genuine inventiveness.

It fell apart against Melbourne in a flat performance, but there are real signs of Brisbane playing a very enterprising brand of footy.

As I said the sheep, who let other people see and think, should think but not speak.
See it for what it is now.

Good signs.

A good reference point would be West Tigers of a couple of years back.

To Ivan, coach like a shrewd halfback, not a string bean winger.

 

[pennywisealfie]

hmm nice analysis RBY. Looking forward to seeing what Ivan brings to the table now that this is his team.

Agreed about Michaels. Hes just not a first grader. You can say he was going shit when the rest of the players were, and thats true. But whats his excuse for the first 10 rounds when he was playing shit when we were playing well as a team. Hes not good enough to be a Bronco.

 

[subsbligh]

Broncos have to stop leaking players. We need to start building a team; 2008's side without Israel, would have been red hot favourites for the premiership this year.

Don't get me wrong, I'm an Israel fan but he's had a poor finish to this season (admittedley because of injury). Thankfully this year we have only (!) lost Dave Taylor, so this team will be ready to rock and roll come round 1.

2010 no K.Hunt means the Broncos will spend the first third of the season trying to either mould Kemp/Beale/Hoffman into the Wallace>Lockyer>Hunt (Kick/pass/run) play, or fitting into a new game plan.

The second third will be grinding out wins here and there, battling through Origin and hopefully a few non-rep players stepping up.

Final third will tell us where we are at, hopefully the experience (2 tough finals series) and bond between the core of the team will put them in good stead for that period.

Guys, we have an awesome club. Imagine being South Sydney fan; hoping to scrape into the finals every 3 years to get knocked out

 

[Foordy]

Imagine being South Sydney fan; hoping to scrape into the finals every 3 years to get knocked out

don't you mean every 20 years [icon_lol1. they have only made the finals once since '89.

 

[Ari Gold]

We're paying his salary, he obviously has ability - you don't just lose it

Doesn't seem to obvious to me :P

As for ability, you definitely don't just lose it. You also don't just get it. The latter is why Michaels should be relegated to QLD Cup...forever...ever...ever...ever.

 

[ddd]

From my connection in the Broncos camp, the word is that Ivan does not want Michaels to play for us again, take from that what you will

 

[ningnangnong]

From my connection in the Broncos camp, the word is that Ivan does not want Michaels to play for us again, take from that what you will

That is brilliant news.

I honestly have no confidence in Michaels whenever he plays, our other backs are just so far ahead of him it's unbelievable.

 

[OXY-351]

Steve Michaels is the perfect example why red heads are, and should be, a dying breed

 

[mrslong]

Steve Michaels is the perfect example why red heads are, and should be, a dying breed

What about Peter Wallace? eusa_think

 

[Nashy]

He can shave it.

 

[mrslong]

I just saw the pun...a dying breed...clairol nice n easy 103 it's you...lol!

 

[m1c]

I'd be quite willing to bet all comers that Steve Michaels starts 2010 in first grade :)

 

[Black Philip]

I feel sorry for Michaels tbh. In 2008 he was playing good footy before he had his knee f***ed in that tackle by Vagana (I hate that ****). It's hard enough coming back from a serious injury like he had but unfortunately he just kept having shocker after shocker. IMO he should have been pulled from the team a lot earlier to save himself the possiblity of losing any scrap of confidence he had left.

 

[Coxy]

I feel sorry for Michaels tbh. In 2008 he was playing good footy before he had his knee f***ed in that tackle by Vagana (I hate that ****). It's hard enough coming back from a serious injury like he had but unfortunately he just kept having shocker after shocker. IMO he should have been pulled from the team a lot earlier to save himself the possiblity of losing any scrap of confidence he had left.

Agree with this. But it's always a difficult decision. If you drop them early will it hurt their confidence? Or do you play them longer, expecting they'll get it back by playing themselves back into form? And how long do you give them?

I think we all agree Henjak left it too long, and really while the rest of the team was low on form and confidence he had to drop Michaels. Having him out there only worsened both his and the team's trough.

 

[Black Philip]

Yeah while you need to give your players a chance, there has to be a point where you tell them to see how they go in Qcup for a couple of weeks. Although I agree that knowing the right time to do this when a player is down on form would be pretty hard to determine.

 

[OXY-351]

Steve Michaels is the perfect example why red heads are, and should be, a dying breed

What about Peter Wallace? eusa_think

Maybe Steve Michaels passed it on to Wallace. Hang on? Michaels passing something on. Nah, just doesn't sound right to me

 

[Browny]

Steve Michaels is the perfect example why red heads are, and should be, a dying breed

Hey its quality not quantity