2013 player report card

[Anonymous person]

I agree with most of the OPs ratings, but feel you're way off with McGuire. McGuire was one of our best, easily a B+ I'd say. He WILL play origin in the very near future, injuries permitting. Also wouldn't give gillett a b+. I'd go C - not good, not terrible. His defence was terrible though.

 

[pagey]

Believe it or not, I want him to succeed and become the best. I also want Thaiday to improve dramatically. I want Maranta to be a good player.
I want the Broncos to be the best, but I'm just trying to look at the side objectively.

So you honestly believe macca in ordinary at best ?

 

[Art Vandelay]

Hoffman - A : Hopefully he swallows his pride and decides to stay a winger for the remainder of his career.
Oates - B+ : Did a fantastic job for a lanky teenage second rower but his lack of experience on the wing showed in defense.
Reed - B+ : One of our best, especially in the back half of the season. I don't think there's a centre who I'd trust more in defense when he shows some poor chump to the outside.
Hodges - A- : He deserved better than what the rest of the team served up this year. Hopefully he'll be back early next season and hopefully Hook will let him pick his own outside winger.
Maranta - F : There's no point using a letter-grade system if you're not prepared to use the entire scale. Maranta was so bad this year it actually became funny.
Prince - C+ : Needed to get more involved, but he at least looked dangerous with the ball. Defensive concerns were overstated.
Wallace - D- : Touched the ball much more often than the vast majority of NRL halves, and produced so little. Never have I been more relieved to see a player leave the Broncos.
Thaiday - C : I thought he actually started the season decently but that soon went away. I know I'm in the minority but I actually prefer him as a prop, albeit with his minutes cut to 40 as he was defensively very poor this year. Too much of a penalty magnet as well, although a lot of them were pretty harsh.
McCullough - C : There's a lot of talk about him not being able to play 80 minutes. For me the question is why would you want him to? He occasionally looks like a quality hooker, but only ever in the first 20 minutes. His service is still too slow most of the time and his 3rd tackle 40-20 attempts that only ever go 35 metres cost us field position far too often.
McGuire - B+ : Was solid in most games, fantastic in a few and disappointing in fewer. That line break and cut out pass against the Knights was one of the highlights of the season.
Glenn - B- : See below.
Gillett - B+ : Did some great things in attack but was pretty bad in defense, especially out on the flanks.
Parker - A- : He was better in 2012 but I loved how he disincentivised defenders pushing him backwards by offloading every god damn time they tried it.
Hunt - B- : I'm maybe being a little generous but when he was on the field, whether in place of Wallace or McCullough, it was just refreshing to see somebody playing what they saw in front of them.
Stagg - B : Outperformed expectations. Defensively the tits and in attack he offered more than other 'average dude' players like Johnson, Luck or Lowrie.
Hannant - B- : His injury interrupted season was hard to judge - he was definitely good at times but finished the season poorly.
Dodds - B : Surprised everyone with the ball this year but his defense wasn't up to his normal standards.
Norman - C : Was a very effective link man in attack but he's the epitome of a confidence player and 2013 was not the year to be playing a confidence player in your spine. Still has potential though, and 2017 could be his year.
Kahu - B : I didn't really see anything special, and if Copley returns at his 2012 level I'd prefer him, though Kahu was better under the high ball. B is for (B)etter than Maranta.
The rest - Hala: B- Lui: C Tasi: C- Anderson: C- Drew: B Slyney: C- J Wallace: C- Granville: B Whitchurch: See me after class


I feel like people have been too harsh on Glenn all season just because he didn't score the dozen or so tries he got last year. How many occasions this year did he not score when he should have? Any time there was an attacking raid down the left this year Wallace cut him out. Norman may be a ball hog, but in 2012 Glenn got a lot of tries outside him because the opposition had to defend against Norman's running game (whereas Wallace's running game is so poor you can leave him unmarked if there's a stiff headwind). Bottom line I won't deny Glenn dropped in form from his stellar 2012, but he was far from terrible and still managed to average 114 metres a game with very limited quality ball.

 

[Porthoz]

Good scoring BP, perhaps a bit strict on a few players, like Parker, Hodgo, McGuire and Oates, and definitely generous to Alex Glenn, who was at best on par with Thaiday as far as our second rowers go...

 

[Big Pete]

That's the point of my scale really - I don't give away cheap points and you'll find that I never give away 10s, rarely if ever give 9s and 8s are reserved for the best players of the year. Hard to really have a Bronco player up there - Parker went very close but there were a few performances which low-balled him.

Thaiday would have earned the same points as Glenn if he wasn't captain. That cost him a point because he didn't fulfill that duty.

 

[Alec]

So you honestly believe macca in ordinary at best ?

No, he can be pretty damn good at his best. His best is few and far between though, and there are a number of hookers who are better at their best too.

 

[Porthoz]

I use a scale differently, and while no one deserves an A+ (or 10), I think Parker was an A overall this year, and while no one deserves a F (or 0), Maranta should have no more than E- imo... but each to his own. :thumbup1:

 

[Sproj]

Art Vandelay is here!!

 

[CaptainHook]

I think Justin Hodges was our best player.

Josh Hoffman was the most improved.

Jordan Kahu, Corey Oates and Jake Granville were fine debutants who give me hope for the future. The last two in particular absolutely have to be in the 17 in round 1 next year.

The rest of the squad were far too inconsistent and that showed in most of our performances.

 

[RedHillGuy]

A lot of the reviews of Hannant seem pretty harsh. Almost like he needs to be scored only on the actual games he played... can't really score him 0/10 for games he missed due to injury to give him an overall poor season score. When Hannant was fit he was one of our best players making plenty of tackles and plenty of metres.

This may seem like a left field comment but I think we look better in attack inside the attacking 20m when Hannant is on the field. He adds both a decent passing game, but also seems to really attract some interest from defenders when he charges at the line off Macca's shoulder. Which opens the option for either:

a) Hit him with a short ball
b) Macca hitting the next forward with a flat cut out pass to run over for a try... from memory our best success with this play is when Polar Bear is on the field.
c) Hit the halfback and Hannant has attracted some interest on the inside defenders allowing the halves a split second more time.

The broncos biggest issue in 2013 was consistency... only really Parker, Hodges & Hoffman could stand tall as playing consistently well all season (of those players who didn't have injury challenged seasons)... And when the consistent players are not 1/6/7/9 players (aside from a late stint from Hoffman) then you are always going to struggle...