NEWS Broncos eye Valentine Holmes as saviour of Red Hill after finals bashing

I watched Val closely in 18 and his last half
of the season form was biting in the heals of 09 Hayne and 12 Barba. He hit one of those rare runs of form that most players can only dream of.

Whether or not he can return to anywhere near that with consistency is a fair concern. But I’m a massive fan of the Love Detective. I’d love him in our squad playing behind a spine with Milf and an actual Halfback.

1. Holmes
6. Milford
7. Taylor
9. Turpin

Yesss please!!
 
Do we have enough control over our feeder teams to give Dearden more responsibility at the lower levels??

If I'm Wynnum I want my team to play a style that gives them success and let the Broncos players fit in around that rather than acting as a development area for the Broncos.

I believe we had issues with redcliffe not playing players where we wanted them (Opa on the wing) and we pulled the pin on them.

Is having players spread across 3-4 reserve teams helping us or hindering us??
I'm of the mind that you stack one team and you put all your juniors in there and get them to play a similar style as what the head coach (Seibs) is playing with the first grade side. That way when players step up they are stepping up into a system that they are already familiar with albeit the next level up in terms of speed.

It also gives us a place to play our seniors when they are coming back from injury and it can act as a 'retirement' home for one or two stalwarts who will ensure a professional culture is maintained.
 
I'm of the mind that you stack one team and you put all your juniors in there and get them to play a similar style as what the head coach (Seibs) is playing with the first grade side. That way when players step up they are stepping up into a system that they are already familiar with albeit the next level up in terms of speed.

It also gives us a place to play our seniors when they are coming back from injury and it can act as a 'retirement' home for one or two stalwarts who will ensure a professional culture is maintained.
Yeah this is what I was thinking as well... I'm not sure it's beneficial having all our guys playing different systems, different roles and then expected to do something different again in first grade.

But that's from the outside looking in. 1910 and wolfie are much closer to it all.

The storm have 2 reserve grade teams I think (Falcons in QLD and another in NSW) and they keep churning them out. It's likely they're learning their first grade roles down in reserve grade and stepping straight into them when they come to grade... whether that's because they're spending more time in reserve grade or their just playing like the first grade squad I'm not sure.

Croft came to grade and looked every bit a starting NRL halfback, yet we can't seem to find one halfback in the state.
 
Yeah this is what I was thinking as well... I'm not sure it's beneficial having all our guys playing different systems, different roles and then expected to do something different again in first grade.

But that's from the outside looking in. 1910 and wolfie are much closer to it all.

The storm have 2 reserve grade teams I think (Falcons in QLD and another in NSW) and they keep churning them out. It's likely they're learning their first grade roles down in reserve grade and stepping straight into them when they come to grade... whether that's because they're spending more time in reserve grade or their just playing like the first grade squad I'm not sure.

Croft came to grade and looked every bit a starting NRL halfback, yet we can't seem to find one halfback in the state.

that's exactly what they do.....which makes total sense really yet most of the league are apparently in awe of such a set-up..
 
I still have a feeling the Cows will somehow get him despite having Drinkwater and two million dollar players in Morgan and JT13, not to mention the cash they're forking out for blokes like McLean, McGuire, and Hess.

EDIT: If I was Holmes I'd personally want to be playing for the Broncos behind our pack over the Cows old and busted overrated forwards + their shocking backs and halves.
 
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I am hesitant handing the keys for the team over to a young half. We saw the impact it had on taylor at the titans.

The most successful teams have succession planning in their halves typically with a senior one and then younger i.e the broncos of 90s to 2000s, alf and wally, then alf and kevie, then kevie and ikin etc. If we got croft or sezer by the time their contracts/broncos career come to an end we have a trained replacement with the next talent coming through.

Although milf should be a senior half, he is much like, sean johnson. He got by on raw talent/skill and didnt learn the game.

I think croft is in a difficult situation at melbourne. He is a managing half, but melbourne dont need that, as they have smith who manages everything. That is why they can incorporate two running 6s in their team (munster and hughes). Had papenhuyzen not played the house down, croft would still be there because he is not short on talent.
 
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Do we have enough control over our feeder teams to give Dearden more responsibility at the lower levels??

If I'm Wynnum I want my team to play a style that gives them success and let the Broncos players fit in around that rather than acting as a development area for the Broncos.

I believe we had issues with redcliffe not playing players where we wanted them (Opa on the wing) and we pulled the pin on them.

Is having players spread across 3-4 reserve teams helping us or hindering us??

Broncos make suggestions about position and time they'd like them to play. But an 18 year old half playing a few games is never going to overhaul a system. Can't expect the clubs to change much for a guy that may be with them once.


Dolphins are still a Broncos' feeder.

I like it spread across a couple of teams, cuts down costs, provides players with a chance to play under different coaches and structures and you don't take the soul of a team like Toowoomba.
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Yeah this is what I was thinking as well... I'm not sure it's beneficial having all our guys playing different systems, different roles and then expected to do something different again in first grade.

But that's from the outside looking in. 1910 and wolfie are much closer to it all.

The storm have 2 reserve grade teams I think (Falcons in QLD and another in NSW) and they keep churning them out. It's likely they're learning their first grade roles down in reserve grade and stepping straight into them when they come to grade... whether that's because they're spending more time in reserve grade or their just playing like the first grade squad I'm not sure.

Croft came to grade and looked every bit a starting NRL halfback, yet we can't seem to find one halfback in the state.

Storm have two in the ISC- Falcons and Tigers.

Storm impose themselves on their feeders more, they play the same as the Storm and Storm have a big say who coaches those teams. Broncos don't do those things.

Remember they train all week with the Broncos, do one session with their ISC club and play Saturday. They're not away from the Broncos system or coaching.
 
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I'm of the mind that you stack one team and you put all your juniors in there and get them to play a similar style as what the head coach (Seibs) is playing with the first grade side. That way when players step up they are stepping up into a system that they are already familiar with albeit the next level up in terms of speed.

It also gives us a place to play our seniors when they are coming back from injury and it can act as a 'retirement' home for one or two stalwarts who will ensure a professional culture is maintained.

You would have too many guys to play like that. 13 players plus development players aren't playing NRL every week, and look at Coates, you're going to move him from the Coast at 17 and playing with his mates and home?

Can't ever be good for his welfare.

Seibold keeps guys out for opposed sessions a lot too, what happens to the team when eight guys don't play because the Broncos play a Thursday game.
 
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Well for players like Coates we still do what we are doing now as theoretically we're going to have more than one of each position coming through. So we might have two dummy Hal's coming through and the one deemed most promising plays for our main team. For players like Coates nothing changes. According to Ch 9 Thursday night games have been scrapped.
 
I honestly can't see why we would take Foran. He's definitely not cheap and he's got huge downside risk with his injury concerns. He could easily be another Jack Bird situation through no fault of his own.

Sezer has less injury history and is a fraction of the cost and would likely deliver a very similar result.

I also think O'Sullivan would cost less than either of them and he has youth on his side and he's already part of the club and with a proper preseason he could develop into exactly what we're looking for going forward.
O'Sullivan is INJURED ... he did his ACL.

At best he won't be back until mid season, and even when he gets back it could be a while before he is back to his best.

O'Sullivan is not an option for 2020
 
IMG 0033
 
I hope you guys are right about this kid.
 
I hope you guys are right about this kid.

I like Croft and he has a lot of potential but he isn’t a big enough point of difference to a Dearden or an SoS to really bother with for mine. Unless he brings some incredible off field qualities that I’m not privy too. He’ll take a while to develop if he ever does and that’ll just push some of our other young halves out of the club. Dearden doesn’t currently excite me either though so I’m indifferent. I think we need an established half which Croft is not.
 
Deal almost done, but we don't have any salary cap space... they said the same thing about Oates.

I really don't see how any of the recruit and retention team are doing anything at the moment with the board meeting just happening.

They need to present their recommendations to the board before heading off to approaching anyone.

At the absolute best Nolan has got in touch with his manager to check on availability as part of showcasing potential halfbacks and their availability
 
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still have no idea why in the world we want brodie croft... i mean we need a experience halfback who knows how to lead the team around..... whats croft like 23? and must be comin close to 50 games now yeah?

and in those games i cant remember a single game were he was dominant and marshalling his team around. sure he has skill and has displayed some individual brilliance now and then but our team is already full of players like that.

i could understand if we didn't have a dearden waiting in the wings.... but chances are we sign a young player like croft dearden will go elsewhere.

Bellamy does not loose a player he wants and as much as i hate him hes pretty good at rating players and there characters imo. so why in the hell do we want a Melbourne storm reject?

im not saying croft is a bad player he just is not the player we need or should be wasting cap space on.

just screams of desperation from broncos if true.
 

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