Guys, only going to say this one time in this thread.
Keep the personal stabs out of it.
Both positive and negative opinions are welcomed, but argue the point and not the person. Calling somebody a 'little bitch' or questioning somebody's perception just leads to mindless bickering and honestly, I'm tired of reading it.
With that said...
I want to start off by simply saying this - it's the Aucklund 9's game! It's meant to be entertaining and while the Broncos have fielded their strongest line-up given the circumstances, I don't think there's a lot you can take out of this competition.
I'll even expand on why for those wondering.
A few reasons
- First hit out for a team that's testing out a new spine
- The 9s favours certain type of players and with few exceptions, our squad doesn't suit that sort of format.
- How much time did the boys really spend coming up with an effective gameplan or structures that suited the 9s style of football? A week, fortnight tops? Honestly, wouldn't be surprised to hear if we only started running through the drills after last Saturday's trial and I'm perfectly fine with that.
That isn't to necessarily say that the squad gets a free pass from me either. I was concerned about our last tackle option a lot of the time - it seemed like there was a ton of second guessing and you can't afford to do that, especially at NRL level. You need to commit to the play, otherwise you just end up shooting yourself in the foot.
Now, I'm going to be interested in the Broncos response tomorrow - whether they'll stick with their conservative style of play or if they'll experiment with the side. My major problem was that I didn't like how we didn't have two wingers at opposite ends (Hoffman, Mills) and kept pushing Gillett or Barba out towards the right. I'd like to see some better organisation and would love to see Barba score a special try or two just to give us something to smile about.