POST GAME 2023 NRL Grand Final - Penrith vs Brisbane

[winslow_wong]

Geez I dont know if it was lack of big game experience . He's been a worry right through the season with his high risk high error plays.
The annoying thing is he just doesn't have to do it. He has such elite speed that's enough for now and not much if his many good moments has come from a high risk play when it does work.
His game awareness hasn't improved much if any during the year.
The kicks going dead, the impossible passes, the quick ptball gone wrong, not staying down when close to the line.
He will get there but atm it seems he is one of those guys who learns from fucking it up not from listening because I am sure KW and co would have been in his ear about picking his moments.

The one time he played his hand correctly he sets up Ezra for the hat trick. Too many wayward passes for quite a few rounds leading up to the finals.

 

[BroncsFan]

Patrick getting flung 5m through the air will stick with me for a long time….

Moses Leota is their best prop... I don't recall JFH taking a hitup in the middle of the field all night.. he was out on the edge running at centres and leaving all the tough runs to Yeo, Leota and Leinu (for the 5mins he was on the field).

 

[JayPee]

He also got injured pretty early

Was it his hip or groin? Was conflicting reports. I haven't listened to the post match conferences or anything today.

 

[BroncsFan]

If everything goes well in the pre-season and we have some luck with injuries, we're arguably going to have a better team next year.

One of the worries is that a few of the other teams that didn't perform as well this year will likely go up a gear.

In 2016 it was the Sharks and Melbourne.

The next step is becoming ruthless... we don't have it yet.

After 2020 or 2021 I think Penrith's entire motto was around enjoying the grind and they've been unstoppable since.

They enjoy putting the foot on the throat and choking their opposition out... when Ezra got his third last night you get the sense they got complacent and started being careless with the ball... thinking the game was over.

We miss our assignment on Cleary and suddenly he puts Leota over under the sticks to bring the game back to 10 and there being 15mins or so left in the game.... at that point we basically had to win the game for a second time, and we barely ended up touching the ball for the rest of the game.

If this team can get ruthless they can become near unstoppable with the level of attack they have and having Patty and Haas locked down on long contracts. The concern is needing a general to lead that ruthlessness and Reynolds is getting older... Walsh being the competitor that he is, is my choice for the one that can put the team on his back ala Cleary last night.

 

[Foordy]

Was it his hip or groin? Was conflicting reports. I haven't listened to the post match conferences or anything today.

Groin by the sounds of it. He said he considered handing the kicking duties to Walsh

 

[Manofoneway]

Have not posted. At the 60 minute mark I was on top of the world but always knew the Panthers are never beaten. They are the novak djokovic of the NRL. Poor reyno just couldn't get it done last night, the injury didn't help at all. Nobody should be heaping it on Walsh, his erratic brilliance is what got us to the finals in the first place. Sad to see herbie and flegler go to the dolphins. We have a nebula of players that will ensure we are successful for the years to come. Twice this year we have taken the Panthers to the wire without reyno (either injured or not at his best). The saddest part for me was that reyno felt the need to apologise to the fans. The fans are proud as punch mate - finally a team to get behind

 

[BroncsFan]

But is that gear as good as we can go up?

The issue in 2016 was that we blew up late in the season to an extent and then that was it because we had so many players coming to their end and Milford went downhill badly.

This feels different because we have so many gun youngsters who aren't at their best yet and despite that, as others have mentioned, 15 minutes of us at our best just blew the best team of the NRL era away. Unfortunately, we couldn't maintain it. If we can learn to get our base level up say 10%, even other teams' improvement isn't going to matter.

I think it started to unravel post 2015 when we lost Bhunt... they made the decision that Milf would basically become our halfback and he was then required to do absolutely everything for us.

In 2016 he was cruising along and was looking every bit one of the best players in the game and then he did his shoulder... can't recall if he went for surgery straight away or if he had to battle out the rest of the year with the injury and get a reconstruction post season.... but because of that he misses an entire preseason

That same preseason Bhunt signs for dragons and I think Bennett starts future planning and goes all in on Milf being the lead playmaker and onfield general (I believe Bhunt was dropped and shifted to hooker throughout 2017??)... and then in 2017 Milf does his shoulder again and misses the entire preseason where he would've started the transition to being the 7.

They compounded these issues by never giving him a halves partner post Bhunt... and from then on it was Milf with no supporting cast. His 'halfback' was a mix of Kodi and Bird, his fullback was falling apart physically and the hooker was just a tacklebot with no speed.

At times in 2019 Milf was playing 1, 6 & 7 at the same time... and was still our best player on the field whilst dealing with a hammy injury on top of that.

 

[broncos4life]

We will need another crop of players.


Won’t come back from this.

It’s 2015 all over again

Strong disagree. If pessimism helps you then go for it do what you need but this side coped with the clubs first ever wooden spoon, narrowly losing to the best team in the modern era isn’t gonna hurt them, in fact it will spur them on.

 

[Nashy]

Strong disagree. If pessimism helps you then go for it do what you need but this side coped with the clubs first ever wooden spoon, narrowly losing to the best team in the modern era isn’t gonna hurt them, in fact it will spur them on.

People forgetting that we have this guy too. The club is in the best shape we've seen it in years. We good. This year the window was wide open, but no way it's been closed yet.

 

[Dexter]

One thing I only realised or admitted last night was how good Cleary is. Probably the first time I've seen him live.
He is quicker than I gave him credit for but more importantly how soon he saw our lazy defenders. That last try, wow, he saw those markers stop and walk before he caught the ball and Ezra being half a step in front of Capewell when Capes was a half a step slow.
It's terrifying how much better he was without Luai and how good he was in the last 20.
Line break, try assist.
40-20
Just Getting his foot down in touch.
Try
Clutch kick from near touch.

 

[Dexter]

He wanted to be the superstar of the show last night to much and reality is he wasn’t. He had a few good runs but was abysmal in defence. It was an area I thought he rarely had an error in this season was being out of position but that’s what hurt us most and it happened a number of times in key moments. Nothing we, him or anyone can do about it but when that chance comes again which it will you have to learn from it. He has been great this year and part of his youthful exuberance you can accept the errors but there isn’t anything in the game he hasn’t experienced now, he is a top player and about to be paid like one he has to cut the shit out from now forwards.

Yeah not sure he goes out there wanting to be all that. He is just a high octane player.
I remember Billy being exactly like that. Billy fucked up in some big games (World Cup Final )with his all or nothing style.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

While I don’t expect Penrith to fall off a cliff, they’re closer to the end of their run than the start - we’ve only just begun.

 

[BruiserMk1]

For sure everyone is worried about that but it just wasn’t and isn’t the same. They were all back end and peak of their powers. We are all young bar Reyno and going to continue to grow. That game left absolutely zero doubt in my mind that we should be premiers right now. We should and will be premiers next year and every other club including Penrith will know that the Broncos next year will be fucking unstoppable.

We have a 20 year old 5/8 who is currently best in the business. We have the best fullback in the game. Top 3 Halfback. Top 5 hooker. The best forward pack in the game and next year with Crichton leaving I believe we have the best backline in the game still. We have the best attack. We have to improve defence and discipline and there wouldn’t be a team in history who could match us. I genuinely fucken mean that.

That Penrith team just became the best team of all time yesterday and they made 1 error against us and we played one of our worst games of the season and they required a 1 in a hundred miracle to win. I’m not an optimist I lean towards the realist side but not a single bone in my body says otherwise (yes including that one).

We will be back better than ever dont you fucken doubt it now. It might be sad, depressing and shit right now but we have a great period to be a Broncos fan coming up and I personally cannot wait. That’s what makes this so heart breaking is that for now we will have to just wait.

Well said guys @Fitzyand @Lockysillegitimatechild in response to Fitzy.

 

[Dexter]

While I don’t expect Penrith to fall off a cliff, they’re closer to the end of their run than the start - we’ve only just begun.

This will be interesting. Finding the reason to climb the hill again. Their bench is def weaker and Crichton going will leave a big hole.

 

[Dexter]

Have not posted. At the 60 minute mark I was on top of the world but always knew the Panthers are never beaten. They are the novak djokovic of the NRL. Poor reyno just couldn't get it done last night, the injury didn't help at all. Nobody should be heaping it on Walsh, his erratic brilliance is what got us to the finals in the first place. Sad to see herbie and flegler go to the dolphins. We have a nebula of players that will ensure we are successful for the years to come. Twice this year we have taken the Panthers to the wire without reyno (either injured or not at his best). The saddest part for me was that reyno felt the need to apologise to the fans. The fans are proud as punch mate - finally a team to get behind

I don't think it was though. His natural brilliance doing normal plays got us there despite all the erratic stuff mixed in .

 

[theshed]

While I don’t expect Penrith to fall off a cliff, they’re closer to the end of their run than the start - we’ve only just begun.

unless Nathan fully commits to his Michael Jordan trajectory and makes a shock transition to baseball, I think the Panthers will be okay.

He is still at the age that most halves are being spoken about in terms of “be patient, he’s still learning his craft”.

3 premierships (back to back)
3 minor prems
4 grand final appearances
2 Clive Churchill medals
2 x dally m halfback of the year
84% career goal kicking
3 origin series wins

I’ve been praying for this kid to be the next Mitchell Pearce for 6 years now and there’s no more use in it. He’s unbelievably special

 

[BruiserMk1]

I keep saying it, but that first 15-20 mins with those 5 or 6 errors really took a lot of gas out of us against a top tier side. It was very impressive we managed to get back into the game and actually take control in the second half. If we were smart enough to not look for the big play so often i think we would held out. We gifted them momentum and they never looked back.

What was telling was watching Penrith in the last 20, they didn't look for the big play early in the set.
They got into the grind then knew when to strike a blow.

 

[Nashy]

One thing I only realised or admitted last night was how good Cleary is. Probably the first time I've seen him live.
He is quicker than I gave him credit for but more importantly how soon he saw our lazy defenders. That last try, wow, he saw those markers stop and walk before he caught the ball and Ezra being half a step in front of Capewell when Capes was a half a step slow.
It's terrifying how much better he was without Luai and how good he was in the last 20.
Line break, try assist.
40-20
Just Getting his foot down in touch.
Try
Clutch kick from near touch.

Thought the way he spoke about the Broncos was pretty classy too.