2018 Bronco season review.

[Wolfie]

Happy to be wrong. Just saying that's how i read it, based on how this season has played out.

The thing that never added up if what your saying turns out to be true. Is how does Bird overcome the gigantic defensive load of learning to be a lock in one season in the modern game?

When Bennett is telling Oates, who was a 2nd rower through his junior days (and still plays like one) that he won't cut it as a forward.

Bird has always been a strong defender. Not so sure why people have forgotten this. He would have to adapt, but I don't see it being an issue for him.

And its always been the obvious position for him. We were.chasing Taylor even after we signed Bird, so we didn't want him for halfback. We had plenty of competition for places in the centers, so I don't think we would have payed big money to stick him there, plus he has made it well known he isn't keen on playing there. He can play fullback, but Boyd had that locked down so I can't see that being an option. That really only left lock, a position Bennett has said he can play and is keen on getting a ball playing lock, and it's a position Bird has come out and said he wants to play. All makes perfect sense to me.

 

[winslow_wong]

Bird has always been a strong defender. Not so sure why people have forgotten this. He would have to adapt, but I don't see it being an issue for him.

And its always been the obvious position for him. We were.chasing Taylor even after we signed Bird, so we didn't want him for halfback. We had plenty of competition for places in the centers, so I don't think we would have payed big money to stick him there, plus he has made it well known he isn't keen on playing there. He can play fullback, but Boyd had that locked down so I can't see that being an option. That really only left lock, a position Bennett has said he can play and is keen on getting a ball playing lock, and it's a position Bird has come out and said he wants to play. All makes perfect sense to me.

If bird goes to lock then what happens with the likes of tpj and McGuire? Our forward stocks are overflowing and they are all really good. Bird needs to fit into the backs somewhere and fullback should satisfy his desire for more ball. Some tough decisions coming up over the off season...

 

[Kimlo]

I don't mind Turpin but I think people seem to be jumping the gun a bit thinking he can be our number 1 hooker next year. It's arguable he isn't even the best hooker at Redcliffe quite honestly.

The thing we need to realise is some of these players like Staggs, Turpin and Haas haven't really been tested when things aren't going well at NRL level. Staggs and Turpin especially have both had their best games when the team has played well. We haven't really seen how they handle getting put under pressure.

We've seen Macca under pressure, and it's usually horse shit that he puts in.

 

[Lebbo73]

We won’t get either whilst Wayne is here.

White should have thrown the kitchen sink at Bellamy.

Should have offered him 2 mil a season.

The Storm don’t have games left me the one we just saw.

Over now to the excuse merchants on here to explain why Wayne can lead us to the promised land (all evidence to the contrary).

Keep up the good fight. White will be plotting for sure. We’ll have to wait and see!

 

[Gaz]

We need:
1. A proper, born not bred halfback.
2. A running, scheming, quick thinking number 9.
3. A great, ambitious, demanding, defensive coach.
4. A bunch of players willing to listen, perform and go to the limit and beyond for 3.

 

[Wolfie]

If bird goes to lock then what happens with the likes of tpj and McGuire? Our forward stocks are overflowing and they are all really good. Bird needs to fit into the backs somewhere and fullback should satisfy his desire for more ball. Some tough decisions coming up over the off season...

I'm not sure what was going to happen at the start of this year will still be the same going forward.

 

[Cult]

Our fan base sucks so bad

 

[007]

Bird has always been a strong defender. Not so sure why people have forgotten this. He would have to adapt, but I don't see it being an issue for him.

And its always been the obvious position for him. We were.chasing Taylor even after we signed Bird, so we didn't want him for halfback. We had plenty of competition for places in the centers, so I don't think we would have payed big money to stick him there, plus he has made it well known he isn't keen on playing there. He can play fullback, but Boyd had that locked down so I can't see that being an option. That really only left lock, a position Bennett has said he can play and is keen on getting a ball playing lock, and it's a position Bird has come out and said he wants to play. All makes perfect sense to me.

Based on current crop of forwards for next year - how do you think this will fit now?

 

[Wild Horse]

Too many issues to even mention lol. I can't remember a more frustrating season than this one. And the really frustrating thing is that I don't think the problems we had this year will be rectified next year.

Boyd will still be captain. Macca will still be hooker. Kodi will still be halfback. Bennett will still coach Bennett ball.

Sorry to say it boys but Broncs are the new Parramatta. Dominated for a decade to perhaps never win the title again.

Depressing.

 

[Alec]

Sorry to say it boys but Broncs are the new Parramatta. Dominated for a decade to perhaps never win the title again.

Lol, come on, that's a bit over the top, no?

Even the shitty commentators know our team has a lot of potential. They can't play week to week consistent footy because they are just too inexperienced. Give it another year, see if a good leader emerges, see if we get less unlucky with injuries, see these rookies get more experienced, wait for Cam Smith to fucking retire already, and we could be up there.

 

[Super Freak]

Lol, come on, that's a bit over the top, no?

Even the shitty commentators know our team has a lot of potential. They can't play week to week consistent footy because they are just too inexperienced. Give it another year, see if a good leader emerges, see if we get less unlucky with injuries, see these rookies get more experienced, wait for Cam Smith to fucking retire already, and we could be up there.

Then why can the Rabbitohs? Apart from that rough patch they hit, they have been pretty consistent all season and have been playing at a high level for a very large chunk of it.

We have more experience than them. I really don't think we can use the lack of experience excuse. We have plenty of it.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Our fan base sucks so bad

Very constructive input.

 

[Alec]

Then why can the Rabbitohs?

We have more experience than them.

**** if I know, but I rate the way they have been coached. I'm hoping the rumours about Seibold coming here are true.

 

[PNG Broncos fan88]

My Broncos of old did not take penalty goals when they had other teams on the rack :-(

Who are these imposters??

Knew this dumb decisions to go for the 2 would come back to haunt us one day!

 

[Broncs_Fan]

Too many issues to even mention lol. I can't remember a more frustrating season than this one. And the really frustrating thing is that I don't think the problems we had this year will be rectified next year.

Boyd will still be captain. Macca will still be hooker. Kodi will still be halfback. Bennett will still coach Bennett ball.

Sorry to say it boys but Broncs are the new Parramatta. Dominated for a decade to perhaps never win the title again.

Depressing.

Boyd contracted for 3 more seasons on good money is one of the worst contracts in the NRL right now.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

1. Attitude

Daylight

2. Defence (especially wrapping the ball up)
3. Controlling the ruck
4. Find a better fucking hooker

The things to be fixed in the off season.

 

[PNG Broncos fan88]

Wrote this last week in the pre game article, even after the big win over Manly

"Few worrying signs for my team:
1. We cannot keep taking penalty goals every time we are dominating. It is a major let off for the opposition and it helps them rest and regroup, more often than not they rally and score and put us under the pump again. The Roosters, Storm and Rabbitohs can score from anywhere on the field and given the same penalty scenario will opt to go up by 6's while we play safe with penalty goals. The 2015 GF was a nightmare, playing safe will cost us our 7th title...again
2. The injury replacements for our starting centre, back rower and hooker are way better players than their predecessors. I'd leave out the guys with mental scars of 2015, my starting team would have Staggs, Fafita and Turpin all the way to the GF. Have never seen Glenn in all his years have a performance as damaging as young Fafita displayed today. God bless Macca, he tries but he is past his peak. With him at rake for the opening 4 months, in our 9 wins we have failed to beat the opposition by more than 9 points. His first game off and Glenn/Turpin guide the team to 34 NIL shut out of the Titans. Likewise today, the variety and crisp service was refreshing for all to see and Turpin packs a punch in defence too. Staggs is a goer, I have him on par with Bird in front of Kahu for that centre spot.
3. Fellow fans that are worrying about easy opponents next up are kidding themselves - have we all not witnessed how our team just slack off when they face a 'perceived' underdog. We must look forward to the toughest opponent, cause that's when the mighty Broncs play their best. I was hoping for the Warriors, as it would be extra motivation for getting them back after they humbled us earlier in the year but now we have the wounded Dragons with the return of talisman Widdop (who all and sundry are writing off)...danger, danger, danger!!"

The coach has to let go of his stubborn ways or we regress further into mediocrity.

 

[Kooly87]

I’m not going to weigh into the blame game and say it’s Wayne’s fault, or Paul White’s fault or anyone else’s specifically because I think no one from outside the club necessarily knows exactly who’s fault it really is at the end of the day, but the reality is that we came into this season missing several vital parts that are required to field a competitive football side with a genuine chance to take out the competition, and someone ultimately does have to take the blame and responsibility for that.

The blunt truth is our 2018 season chances didn’t end today, they probably ended some time last year when we so badly mishandled the offloading of Hunt and subsuequently securing a proper replacement to fill that gap. We released our only genuine proven Halfback, and that’s fine to make a huge call like that if you believe he can’t get you a result when it counts, but you damn well better deliver a suitable replacement who will improve that result, and we abjectly, categorically failed in doing that.

We also gambled on a young and largely unproven forward pack with a few older veterans to pad it out and sure, on occasions we did simply blow other sides off the park with the physicality and with enthusiasm that comes with youthful forwards, but on balance, they were mostly far too inconsistent or had bodies that were unable to withstand the toll of carrying a side week to week in the NRL.

I could understand us gambling on such and young and inexperienced pack perhaps if we had the likes of a Lockyer or Thurston or Cronk to steer them around the park and kick them out of trouble when they were unable to win an arm wrestle with other sides, but we simply don’t have anyone at the club capable of that, not even close, and so anytime our Forwards were unable to simply blow other sides off the park physically, we simply had no discipline or structure to get ourselves back in the game and seemingly no Plan B.

We also continued to press on with playing at Fullback a guy who being totally honest has already long since played his best football. The decline of Boyd has been fairly abrupt and that probably hasn’t helped, but our unwillingness to do something about this has just seen him more often than not this season be something of a liability than the huge asset he’s been in previous seasons. I actually loved Boyd in his prime, but sadly at this stage I don’t think a single other NRL club would take him as their first choice Fullback over their other options, and in a position that’s become such a huge weapon for other sides, the Broncos have continued to play a guy who has mostly been a passenger in 2018.

I actually dread to think what our results would have looked like had we not had the likes or Roberts and Oates amongst a handful of others who were able to pull off tries that other outside backs simply couldn’t, or if we hadn’t had some absolutely clutch goal kicking from Jamayne Isaako at times (can’t help but think we got extremely lucky here as he wasn’t our first choice kicker to start the year and yet again we showed a lack of planning by expecting Kahu to shoulder that duty this season despite mediocre results in the past)

When you look at the calibre of players released:
Hunt, Marshall, Moga, Arrow, Blair and Ese’ese

and then you consider who we replaced them with:
Jack Bird and Andrew Savelio

I think that should just about paint a picture of where it all went wrong for the Broncos in 2018

Having said all that, I could get over 2018 like I have every other year since 2006 with a degree of hope, but at this stage that’s just so hard to do when it appears almost certain at this stage that we won’t be doing any further recruiting for 2019. That means at this stage the grand total of our recruitment for next season sits at 1 - Sean O’Sullivan. An unproven rookie with virtually no experience and no actual idea of whether he’ll even be up to First Grade next season.

I honestly don’t know if it’s fair to blame this all on Wayne, but honestly this stubborn refusal to address glaring shortcomings in the squad year after year just screams of the last days of Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, and anyone who follows EPL will tell you how that finished up.

So I’ll sum up 2018 as a year we just made up the numbers because we conclusively failed to recruit or produce a genuine Halfback and playmaker to control our football aide, and I’ll sum up my hopes for 2019 by saying that unless something drastically changed in our 2019 recruitment, we’ll be simply offering up more of the same next year as well.

It’s simple, sides with mediocre Halfbacks/Playmakers can win games and even competitions occasionally, but teams with established, gun Halves/Playmakers win competitions all the time. This is not a position where we should be watching our pennies or seeking out cheap pickups or handy value. It’s a premium position and we need to be prepared to either go to market and pay market rate to get one or pull one out of our ranks, I don’t care which option the club pursues, but another year where we fail to do either of those two things will simply be another year of failure for the club overall.