POST GAME 2023 NRL Grand Final - Penrith vs Brisbane

[Galah]

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

I know people hate the word choke, but we did choke and teams that lose a GF in such a way have very very rarely made it back the following year. Players have spoken about what it's like losing in such a way and that scarring sticks with them into the next year.

We'll see if Kevvie and the rest of the coaching staff can get their minds on the job and focused for another push.

This is what scares me.

 

[Mister Wright]

To compound the pain of losing the GF, my right ear didn’t pop when landing back in Brisbane on my flight this morning. I now have an awful earache and it is almost as unbearable as losing the GF.

 

[broncos4life]

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

I know people hate the word choke, but we did choke and teams that lose a GF in such a way have very very rarely made it back the following year. Players have spoken about what it's like losing in such a way and that scarring sticks with them into the next year.

We'll see if Kevvie and the rest of the coaching staff can get their minds on the job and focused for another push.

And just as many if not more teams have gone on to win and talked about how much a loss like that pushed them. We have to wait and see I guess.

 

[BroncsFan]

And just as many if not more teams have gone on to win and talked about how much a loss like that pushed them. We have to wait and see I guess.

Melbourne 2007 would be in that boat I'd say

 

[LittleDavey]

And just as many if not more teams have gone on to win and talked about how much a loss like that pushed them. We have to wait and see I guess.

And listening to the boys talk about the cliff they fell off last year, I am 95% certain they'll use it as motivation. It was a hard lesson to learn on the biggest of stages...the game isn't won until the final whistle. We've been on the other end of games like that this year (Knights comes to mind) but it's another learning experience, like last year's fadeout.

As much as I feel like this year was our year (injuries mostly fairly kind etc)...it's the start of the journey for most of these guys. They'll file it away in the memory banks and be hungrier than ever next year. The comp is on notice already IMO, we shit the bed for 60 minutes and lost by 2 points to the best team of the modern era. We blew them away in 20 minutes. We just need to find that ruthlessness to go on with the job next year, in every game. No mercy, just as we wouldn't expect it from the other teams.

 

[Sproj]

I think the belief they will get from running Penrith to the limit in the long run will make them as long as they let it do so. They know they are good enough to beat them but need to do the basics better.

 

[Brett Da Man LeMan]

And listening to the boys talk about the cliff they fell off last year, I am 95% certain they'll use it as motivation. It was a hard lesson to learn on the biggest of stages...the game isn't won until the final whistle. We've been on the other end of games like that this year (Knights comes to mind) but it's another learning experience, like last year's fadeout.

As much as I feel like this year was our year (injuries mostly fairly kind etc)...it's the start of the journey for most of these guys. They'll file it away in the memory banks and be hungrier than ever next year. The comp is on notice already IMO, we shit the bed for 60 minutes and lost by 2 points to the best team of the modern era. We blew them away in 20 minutes. We just need to find that ruthlessness to go on with the job next year, in every game. No mercy, just as we wouldn't expect it from the other teams.

I agree, except I think we went with the best team for 60 mins and shit the bed for 20

 

[Brett Da Man LeMan]

Campfire reflection. The panthers, or more specifically, nathan cleary, is the only player in the entrie rugby league world that can stop the broncos. We have nothing to fear from any side going forward, and the 1 fear we have, which is 1 player in 1 team that needs exceptional circumstances to fire, we are extremely vigilant of now.
I'm being positive here. Forget the doom and gloom a sec. We are a real football team, and the tyres may change or the oil filter will get replaced, but the supercar of performance we are will go strong for a few years yet. Just need regular log book servicing, lol.
No disrespect to the panthers team, they are obviously a tight unit and well worth their praise (apart from luai), I still think our best game beats their best game, both 2023 squads fully fit. We can use that.

 

[Culhwch]

I’m still firmly in stage one, as far as it was a normal weekend and nothing of note happened

It's a funny thing, they seemed to have cancelled the comp again this year. Can't remember that happening since, what, 2015?

Exactly how I feel. Have struggled to eat at times and the atmosphere of the world just feels different. Couldn't even muster the courage to go to the gym. Chest hurts. Can't escape it.

Let's have a BHQ pact to all get into our routine (whatever it is that usually makes us feel good) tomorrow and report back with how we're going.

I feel you, mate, just felt off all day. Tried to do a few things to take my mind off it but couldn't really concentrate. Work tomorrow, but I'm starting late and working from home so I expect I'll get SFA done. But let's reconvene tomorrow and see anyway.

As much as I feel like this year was our year (injuries mostly fairly kind etc)....

Can't argue with this, but we have shown we can win without Reyno, without Payne, without Walsh - so we should be able cover anything but a catastrophic run of injuries. And we should be modeling ourselves on Penrith (gross), since they did it without Cleary and the other one for significant periods.

 

[ningnangnong]

I don't why I did this to myself, but I just watched a replay of Cleary's match-winning try for the first time. Prior to that, I only had the memory of what I saw live in the stadium.

Cleary was brilliant in that last 20 minutes, there's no denying that, but having seen the replay of that final try - man, what on earth were we doing? Any half worth their salt would score there.

Yes, we were fatigued, but geez man, talk about a lack of concentration. The lack of defensive structure on that play has me astounded. It's just incredibly basic stuff you should have a handle on by the time you are in first-grade. Not just Walsh either, but Riki and Walters over-committing, with no anticipatory instincts, or awareness that the best half in the game might just step back inside. I know they were out on their feet, but it's just so frustrating to concede a basic try like that in the biggest game of the year.

Again, no disrespect to Cleary, he dragged them back into it and pretty much won it on his own, but that was just such a soft, soft try to decide a grand final.

 

[Mustafur]

I don't why I did this to myself, but I just watched a replay of Cleary's match-winning try for the first time. Prior to that, I only had the memory of what I saw live in the stadium.

Cleary was brilliant in that last 20 minutes, there's no denying that, but having seen the replay of that final try - man, what on earth were we doing? Any half worth their salt would score there.

Yes, we were fatigued, but geez man, talk about a lack of concentration. The lack of defensive structure on that play has me astounded. It's just incredibly basic stuff you should have a handle on by the time you are in first-grade. Not just Walsh either, but Riki and Walters over-committing, with no anticipatory instincts, or awareness that the best half in the game might just step back inside. I know they were out on their feet, but it's just so frustrating to concede a basic try like that in the biggest game of the year.

Again, no disrespect to Cleary, he dragged them back into it and pretty much won it on his own, but that was just such a soft, soft try to decide a grand final.

we went into the failure strategy of trying to protect a lead rather than win.

The best defence is attack, that time we didn't kick it on the last when in their 20 near the end showed it all, I could see in the stands how there was no plan to actually attack at the end it was full protection strategy stupid shit.

 

[ningnangnong]

What bothered me the most about our performance against the Warriors, was in the first half when we got a bit of a roll on and built up some momentum. I think it was 24-8 in our favour at the time.

We started to play really low percentage footy, and you could see the lads getting carried away. They started to throw the ball around willy-nilly, with no respect for possession or the result. It culminated in that terrible end to a set, where Walsh kicked it dead.

In a normal season game, chancing our arm like that and throwing it around with a solid lead probably wouldn't bother me as much. Finals footy though, is a different beast. You need to be relentless and ruthless. You can't give the opposition any opportunities, no matter the score.

Look at the 2001 grand final, the Knights raced away to a huge lead and the Eels nearly reeled them in.

I don't think the Panthers will allow us to get up a head of steam like the Warriors did, but we need to be a lot smarter about when we decide to throw it around and the status of the match at the time. We need to be clinical and not afraid to take the 'boring' option. The Panthers will absolutely capitalise on any mistake we make, so we can't afford to give them good field position on the back of an error.

I posted this in the pre-match thread. I'm still dirty about it. We could all see this in the weeks leading up to last night, yet the boys never improved on it.

I'm just feeling really pissed off that we let that slip last night. We really only have ourselves to blame.

I guess I'm past the mourning stage and onto the anger haha. Don't mind me, just trying to make myself feel better.

 

[Sproj]

I don't why I did this to myself, but I just watched a replay of Cleary's match-winning try for the first time. Prior to that, I only had the memory of what I saw live in the stadium.

Cleary was brilliant in that last 20 minutes, there's no denying that, but having seen the replay of that final try - man, what on earth were we doing? Any half worth their salt would score there.

Yes, we were fatigued, but geez man, talk about a lack of concentration. The lack of defensive structure on that play has me astounded. It's just incredibly basic stuff you should have a handle on by the time you are in first-grade. Not just Walsh either, but Riki and Walters over-committing, with no anticipatory instincts, or awareness that the best half in the game might just step back inside. I know they were out on their feet, but it's just so frustrating to concede a basic try like that in the biggest game of the year.

Again, no disrespect to Cleary, he dragged them back into it and pretty much won it on his own, but that was just such a soft, soft try to decide a grand final.

I don’t mind them over committing at least they are giving it their all and really should trust the guys inside are tracking over as well to cover the step back inside which they weren’t.

 

[Sproj]

I posted this in the pre-match thread. I'm still dirty about it. We could all see this in the weeks leading up to last night, yet the boys never improved on it.

I'm just feeling really pissed off that we let that slip last night. We really only have ourselves to blame.

I guess I'm past the mourning stage and onto the anger haha. Don't mind me, just trying to make myself feel better.

This is where Reynolds needed to step in and take charge but he didn’t, like at all. He totally imploded along with Walsh and Capewell.

 

[ningnangnong]

I don’t mind them over committing at least they are giving it their all and really should trust the guys inside are tracking over as well to cover the step back inside which they weren’t.

Over-committing is one of my pet hates. You see it all the time with outside defenders running across to cover a winger, who just casually steps back inside and the defence has far too much momentum to go with them.

I'm not going to give it to Riki and Walters, I love 'em both, it's just something that's annoyed me whenever we concede tries like that over the years. There's a balance to it, an art.

 

[ningnangnong]

we went into the failure strategy of trying to protect a lead rather than win.

The best defence is attack, that time we didn't kick it on the last when in their 20 near the end showed it all, I could see in the stands how there was no plan to actually attack at the end it was full protection strategy stupid shit.

Agreed, and in all sports, usually when you go into that protect the lead type mode, you're worse off for it.

We didn't even need to continue attacking aggressively, all we had to do was play higher percentage, but basic and boring footy. Complete our sets, hold the ball and get to the kick. We'd already built up the lead, we'd done the hard bit FFS! Then it's just a matter of being smart and giving them nothing to use. It's just so frustrating, argh!

 

[ningnangnong]

Anyway, posting my shit take of things already makes me feel a little better. Thanks for reading, fam.

**** it, we'll be back in 2024.

 

[Mustafur]

All year when we where in the position we where at once we got to 24 points we kept attacking, we deviated from that probably because it was a GF and that is why we lost, had we kept playing how we normally would, we would of taken off.

That was the only part of the game where Penrith's line speed had died and it was the time to go for the kill, even if a Walsh edge play might lead to an intercept, just go for the jugglar.