Broncos 2020: by the numbers

[I bleed Maroon]

Broncos: 2020 season by the numbers

After winning their opening two games few could have predicted the disastrous campaign that was about to unfold for the Brisbane Broncos. Here are the numbers that explain the club's first wooden spoon season.

www.nrl.com

What stands out to me most looking at these numbers is we have a serious, serious issue with match fitness. This team has a good 40 minutes of energy in it per game total, then they're gassed. It's like they really are on the George Rose diet. That is just nowhere near good enough. I hope Kevvie sees this trend and tells whoever is in charge of our fitness and conditioning to take a walk down to the local Centrelink because Jesus fucking Christ, those back ends of halves are deplorable.

That coupled with a lack of commitment in defence, a young forward pack who clearly bought too much into their own hype, piss poor attack, ONE player who knows how to offload, just above average goal kicking and just flat out bad luck with lack of errors from the opposition and you've sure as hell got the recipe for a wooden spoon season.

 

[Sproj]

Totally agree, fitness is absolutely the issue, along with being arguably the mentally weakest, dumbest and most fragile team in the NRL era. Add to that having a confusing coach and the worst medical team in the history of sport, it was the perfect Storm of a season.

 

[Alec]

More tries conceded in two separate 20 minute periods than scored in 3 combined 20 minute periods.

 

[Foordy]

Did we really need maths and numbers to tell us we deserved the wooden spoon in 2020

 

[john1420]

Maybe I'm guilty of seeing what I want to see, but the thing that struck me was the offloads and Fifi

 

[scobie]

For me it's the errors made by opponents. We were 15th. Which basically means the opposition were never under pressure. And that comes from attitude.

 

[Broncapz]

Our squad is just too young. It's not a mental thing, it's a physical thing.

A 21 year has to out put more energy to try and keep up with the advantages a 24-25 year old has. These differences aren't really that big in the general public, but for professional athletes they are huge.

Most teams blood in a few rookies, because its better to mitigate the physical disadvantages and you can spread them through the line. This doesnt work when your entire line is under 23.

 

[Morkel]

We should just do 3 bogus HIA's every match like the Storm. 14 interchanges would help keep our players fresh.

 

[Kimlo]

We should just do 3 bogus HIA's every match like the Storm. 14 interchanges would help keep our players fresh.

Train the forwards to get hit head high once per match HIA, do a half arsed run get pummelled, HIA, rib shot, HIA then we'll be an 80 minute team with the 14 interchanges.

 

[Fernando]

For me it's the errors made by opponents. We were 15th. Which basically means the opposition were never under pressure. And that comes from attitude.

This has been an issue for years I think. It’s why when they come up against an ex-Bronco or a star player down on form (or pretty well any player with a story line coming into the match) they always seem to carve Brisbane up. It’s like a sanitized, stand off approach that allows opposition players to play their best.

 

[Culhwch]

Which other team used 32 players, out of interest?

 

[Sproj]

Which other team used 32 players, out of interest?

The Roosters and all of them superstars. I’m kidding I have no idea but maybe the Warriors?

 

[Culhwch]

Couldn't find it after a quick search but did find this from towards the end of the season:

Pretty clear split between the top two rows and bottom two rows in term of success there...

 

[Kooly87]

Which other team used 32 players, out of interest?

About 3 or 4 other clubs used the same or similar numbers of players too, but most of that occurred because in Round 20 half the competition rested huge numbers of players with the Top 8 and Minor Premiership already settled long before then. Prior to Round 19 and 20 we were very much on our lonesome for players used.

 

[WASSHHH]

Which other team used 32 players, out of interest?

They say we used 32 players, but based on some of our performances it’s clear they didn’t include a stat for the other 18 park-footballers who stumbled past the change room before games and got thrown a jersey.

 

[BroncsFan]

Couldn't find it after a quick search but did find this from towards the end of the season:

View attachment 10412

Pretty clear split between the top two rows and bottom two rows in term of success there...

It's actually ridiculous that the tigers were so high in that stat, as it was largely self inflicted.

The amount of chopping and changing that McGuire did was crazy... Broncos would've loved to have had their injury record this year

 

[Kooly87]

Couldn't find it after a quick search but did find this from towards the end of the season:

View attachment 10412

Pretty clear split between the top two rows and bottom two rows in term of success there...

Melbourne actually ended up with the same number as us. They were one of those clubs who basically turned over their entire playing 17 between Rounds 19 and 20.

 

[Kimlo]

Couldn't find it after a quick search but did find this from towards the end of the season:

View attachment 10412

Pretty clear split between the top two rows and bottom two rows in term of success there...

It is a bit misleading though, because the Storm basically rolled out most of their players to rest their first choice. Penrith had like, 1 or 2 short term injuries the whole year, Melbourne had a few players out for 5-6 weeks and that was it. It's no surprise the best two teams were pretty much unaffected by injuries. Souths used 25 players but they had like 5 or so players out for the season.

I wish the NRL kept a stat like injured weeks per team rather than just "injuries", so if a player is out for 18 weeks, that's 18 for that stat, something like that would be more representative of real impact to clubs.