[2025 Trial] Broncos vs Bulldogs

Sproj said:
I'm not so sure. Given Maguire is making Mariner and Piakura earn it, I suspect he will want Mam to have to show he wants it too and he will be pretty underdone when his suspension ends. Of course, injuries may curtail all of these plans.
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Madge is counting down the days until he can unleash Ezra.
 
BroncsFan said:
It's an absolute crime that Haas is so low on tries.... he should be one of our most dangerous players close to the line.

Yet Haas is zero threat at all down there... unless he gets himself into dummy half.
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I've been saying this for years. I don't understand it. He's like a big teddy bear giving out free horsey rides in the midfield.
 
At the end of the day, if Piakura and Mariner deserve to be in the team, then they will be. I'm sure Madge knows what he wants (especially in defence) at these key edge positions, and if these 2 aren't best qualified then they can work on that area of their game in QCup and earn their spots.

Teams like Melb are consistently successful with no-name, unexciting centres / outside backs who are defensively solid and suit their system. If Madge feels someone like Shibasaki helps us create a rock solid defence at the cost of Mariner's pace, then I'm personally fine with that - there's plenty of points in this team without needing Deine in the side.

Whatever happens, I much prefer a coach with a strong vision and conviction to back it up than someone just picking the incumbents from last year because they're flashy and fast, or young and exciting, or on big money and were starters previously.
 
HarryAllan7 said:
At the end of the day, if Piakura and Mariner deserve to be in the team, then they will be. I'm sure Madge knows what he wants (especially in defence) at these key edge positions, and if these 2 aren't best qualified then they can work on that area of their game in QCup and earn their spots.

Teams like Melb are consistently successful with no-name, unexciting centres / outside backs who are defensively solid and suit their system. If Madge feels someone like Shibasaki helps us create a rock solid defence at the cost of Mariner's pace, then I'm personally fine with that - there's plenty of points in this team without needing Deine in the side.

Whatever happens, I much prefer a coach with a strong vision and conviction to back it up than someone just picking the incumbents from last year because they're flashy and fast, or young and exciting, or on big money and were starters previously.
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yeah couldn't agree with this more. I'm glad everyone is getting a fair shot, a fresh slate so to speak. If madge is prioritizing defence and structure, so be it.

For too long we have only cared about flashy, low IQ players. We have enough of that already.
 
Maybe the other aspect to it all is it being early season.

Attacks can be clunky early on and we've got Bhunt and what looks like a new hooker in the spine, as well as a new attacking scheme under Barrett coming into this year.

Intent early on will be defence, completions and grinding out wins.

So he might be picking players based on who is the best defender... until we get a bit deeper into the year and find a bit more rhythm.

Can also look to keep players out of the early onslaught and look to bring them into the squad as teams get a bit beaten up.

I think Kevvie did this with Willison last year...used Marty early and then brought Willison in later on.

If you don't do that you're expecting the young guy to get through 20+ games in his first full year of NRL.

They tried that with Piakura and he crashed and burned. Similar could be said about Mariner who started the year like a house on fire, but it looked like it started catching up to him by the end of it.
 
BroncsFan said:
Similar could be said about Mariner who started the year like a house on fire, but it looked like it started catching up to him by the end of it.
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Definitely. Mariner looked like a completely different player late in the year compared to earlier... I wonder how much the effects of the back injury he had were impacting him, although a lot of the problems were stupid errors and lazy mistakes.

First half of the year he looked like a really classy, mature player. Hope he gets back there.
 
HarryAllan7 said:
Definitely. Mariner looked like a completely different player late in the year compared to earlier... I wonder how much the effects of the back injury he had were impacting him, although a lot of the problems were stupid errors and lazy mistakes.

First half of the year he looked like a really classy, mature player. Hope he gets back there.
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Has everyone forgotten he changed positions? Nothing to do with his injury.
 
BroncsFan said:
One concern I have with Paix is also one of the massive positives that he brings, and it's about him picking his spots to call his own number at the try line.

A guy like Dani Levi brings plenty of attack to dummy half, can play pretty big minutes if needed and is just generally an NRL level hooker; however he has never been able to settle at an NRL team and coaches just don't seem to want him. It's similar with Seggy, where he was playing 80mins at hooker and creating points from the position, but moved around a lot.

These guys look like NRL quality hookers in a time when there is a dearth of genuine hookers across the league, but struggle to get a gig.

But they get white line fever and it ends up seeing them play way outside the structure ... Levi way more than Seggy tbf.... I remember a set of six from Levi maybe at Newcastle where he ran crash plays on 4 out of 5 tackles close to the line. He just refused to give it to the halves and was trying to do it all himself by manufacturing a try that wasn't there.

It's almost becoming a trait that Paix will go himself when he gets close to the line. In recent times his efficiency from doing it would be quite high... but if he ends up being our number 1 hooker, then teams will be seeing him week in week out, and going himself will be the known rather than a surprise tactic.

I'm hoping that him going for tries so often in recent times has been a bit of hero ball, where he's trying to put himself on the map to get back into the NRL... and now that he's seemingly back he will be selective with it.

It's not a massive concern, and I have been vocal about getting attack from our dummy half when we get inside the 10m line, so I'm here for it, but on the flipside we have Reyno, Bhunt and Walsh waiting in the backline, so he needs to ensure he's getting them the ball when they want it.
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While I completely agree with your sentiment, I can’t recall any instance where he went himself on the line and wasn’t successful.
 
theshed said:
While I completely agree with your sentiment, I can’t recall any instance where he went himself on the line and wasn’t successful.
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I remember him picking up an MCL injury vs Canberra one year going for it... got all tangled up in bodies around the try line.

But yeah he would have a very good conversion rate when going for it... I'm just hoping he picks his time right.

He's miles away from Dani Levi levels of hogging it, but he needs to have the right balance when we have as many weapons as we do... I also don't want a hooker that just automatically passes regardless of what's happening in front of him.
 
Big Del said:
Well his Step Mum had a few words to say about it too .
Narelle called up tripple M and gave rhem a spray for critcising her Kevvie .

What`s the odds she called Red Hill more than once ?
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Giving you and the rest of the forum permission to go back to loving Kev for the club legend that he is.

Bill lost his mum as a 5 year old and deserves every chance he gets in life. Nepotism or not it's all in the past. Time for everyone to move on.
 
Manofoneway said:
Giving you and the rest of the forum permission to go back to loving Kev for the club legend that he is.

Bill lost his mum as a 5 year old and deserves every chance he gets in life. Nepotism or not it's all in the past. Time for everyone to move on.
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Thanks Mum .
 
Santa said:
I'm worried everyone (including myself) is getting way to excited in the way we played againt a crap Titans. Including the performance of some players.

Bulldogs will hopefully be a better test to see where we're at.
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Regardless of anything at all, in both games we've looked very fit. Something that was definitely lacking last year IMO.
 
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