[2025 Trial] Broncos vs Bulldogs

We don't use Payne correctly, that's why.

I've said for years, Payne would be devastating for us playing in the 2nd Row in attack. Defending in the middle.
It would take alot of middle push though, if it comes from one side it limits the direction of your attack for edge plays.
 
I'd say Piakura definitely did enough to be in the 17. Will just be a decision whether he starts or off the bench. He is absolutely in our best 17 though.

Mariner also I think was solid. If Staggs is out he is straight in, but I'd have him over Shiba even if Staggs is fit. The warning shot has hopefully been felt.
 
Season 8 Wtf GIF by The Office


This can't be a coincidence Tigers 30 to Eels 18. Broncos 30 Doggies 14
 
Well, there you have it. That game told us exactly nothing we didn't already know:

1. Walsh
2. Cobbo
3. Staggs
4. Mariner
5. Arthars
6. Hunt
7. Reynolds
8. Carrigan
9. Paix
10. Haas
11. Piakura
12. Riki
13. Hetherington

14. Gosski (but it will be Walters)
15. Jensen
16. Willison
17. Ben Te Kura

18. Marty Taupau

As expected, looked very good with the old guard on field. Hunt and Reyno seem to be gelling well, Paix solid out of dummy half, Te Kura is a monster and should be picked.....I have to say I was not impressed by Patty's passing game. Very ordinary at times. If he is going to be a ball playing Prop, he better clean that up fast.

Walters and Smoothy next to useless, and unacceptable defending for the Dogs first try. Almost a thing of beauty that that moment was theirs to own, Madge would be fuming. At this point while Mozer is out, I wouldn't even run with a utility. Go the 4 forwards and beef up the motor even more. Alas, Walters will probably be picked, unless Madge fully spits it re: his horrible defence in this game.

Shibasaki, yeah that's gonna have to be a no from me dawg. What did he do? Besides not drop it like he is known for? Mariner outplayed him again. Cobbo's efforts in defence on the wing made Shiba look stupid at times. Speaking of, COBBO PLAY LIKE THAT EVERY WEEK OR **** OFF.

Rogers had a better stint than Madden, but you could just see the quality of our performance drop off when those two were on. Walsh was his electric best, the kick out on the full was unfortunate. The wind has been nutty today. Happy to see the late hit on him immediately penalized.
 
Paix looks fit enough to play 80, so hopefully Walters, if he is on the bench, is there purely as cover.
That's a waste of a bench spot though... trying to win in NRL is hard enough, why handicap it by playing with 16 each week and covering a potential injury.
 
It would take alot of middle push though, if it comes from one side it limits the direction of your attack for edge plays.
It's more what Storm do with NAS - you mis-match the defenders with the big man. Payne has some pace for a big man - you get him 1:1 with the half back or centre and you're at worst looking at a 2 man tackle not wrapping the ball - which means offload time to Staggs and co with a 2nd rower to beat. Even if he popped up wide 3-4 times a game, it would do damage.
 
We are gonna have some good players miss a spot for round 1, and I've got to say it's hard to argue with what maguire is obviously trying to do. Defence is his focus and rightfully so.

Tapau and te kura deserve spots but both will miss out. Mariner deserves a spot but will likely miss out. Piakura will likely play from the bench but deserves a start (I agree with madge on this, bringing him off the bench to play 40-50 until he learns to focus in defence for 80 mins is the right move and gives our bench a lot more impact). Our depth has suddenly become great over the off season with the coaching they've got.

Only dissapointments this off season have been latrell seigwalt, riki and hoeter, along with the injury to perham.
I was thinking that if Madge can make first graders out of Gos and Shiba, then we've instantly bumped up our depth and balance can look better straight away.

Piakura is a weapon off the bench, but can't yet play 80... he'll get there eventually, but we need a starter to cover that spot until he can, instead of just chucking him in the deep end and hoping he'll learn it on the run.

Mariner is an absolute weapon and has looked pretty switched on in the trials... I don't recall any horrendous defensive lapses whilst he's been out there in the trials, but if he needs to tighten up his defence, then having a starter fill in until he can is better than him trying to learn it on the run in NRL.

Even now Staggs went off injured in this game... so if Madge can create a first grader out of Shiba then we're suddenly looking pretty good, Mariner just comes in and we're not having to rely on Karapani, Hoeter, etc. to fill the role... or someone jumping on the wing and Cobbo moving to centre for a couple games.
 
The idea of no utility sounds good until our backrowers have to play centre.

Glenn/Capes were serviceable at it, dunno about our current crop.
 
The idea of no utility sounds good until our backrowers have to play centre.

Glenn/Capes were serviceable at it, dunno about our current crop.
You lose a winger or centre - you're toast. With a 4 man bench, you can't cure every problem without creating glaring new ones.

If a Centre goes down, it's really up to a 2nd Rower to slide out - then you're going to have pace problems, so they just need to change how they defend and train it every week. Moving a centre to the wing is often a lot simpler.
 
Lol all the guys i called dopes in the pregame played like demons. Piakura was so impressive. Boy I wish Riki would run the ball hard and get that stupid shimmy step out of his game.
Piakura is getting close to jumping above RIki for me... was way underwhelmed by Riki again this game.

All the second rowers were playing with more intent than Riki... Riki did have some nice defensive moments though... covered Reynolds on the inside early in the game and there was another read he made prior to that one as well.
 
It's more what Storm do with NAS - you mis-match the defenders with the big man. Payne has some pace for a big man - you get him 1:1 with the half back or centre and you're at worst looking at a 2 man tackle not wrapping the ball - which means offload time to Staggs and co with a 2nd rower to beat. Even if he popped up wide 3-4 times a game, it would do damage.
NAS is much bigger though and he plays small stints with high intensity, Haas plays a more consistent level even if it's still decently intense thanks to his big tank.

I think I would have to see how it works first before saying it works or doesn't but I think we would need BTK to be part of the Regular rotation and could do decent sized stints before we could try it.
 
Fletcher would need to train the house down, and kill it in cup for weeks to get anywhere near our bench at the moment you'd think. (Once he is back)
 
He looked way out of his depth.

This is where previously we may have just kept him on, because good bloke, has been there all preseason, we probably won't need to play him anyway, etc.

But I'm wondering if Madge saw that and went "nope we need a better back up than him"

I don't like having to rely on Cobbo or Arthars either... they're both starters... we do have Mariner and Shiba that can then cover whichever one moves, but it's not ideal having to shuffle starters around to cover an injury, suspension, HIA, origin duty or even restings after origin

He was never a chance, Souths got him with the we can get you a pre-season at the Broncos. Te'o wanted him to be given a crack.

Have a look at the GF, He wasn't even in the picture when Norths scored, and he got out of the way when Duffy scored and dropped three balls in a Grand Final.

Every try scoring chance came from Casey or Graham not the fullback. Milford had seven more try assists and played six less games.
 
I'm going to warn you now Kate, I think your mums team is going to be a lot better than they have been in the last couple of years. I don't know that they're a danger of playing finals, but they'll scare a few teams I think.
Shit **** if the grand final is Broncos vs Tigers. The Tigers must know tomorrow is her birthday
 

Active Now

Top
  AdBlock Message
Please consider adding BHQ to your Adblock Whitelist. We do our best to make sure it doesn't affect your experience on the website, and the funds help us pay server and software costs.