Broncos Player Movement and Rumours 2020

[Renegade]

Good post but SJ shouldn't be a halfback either lol, should be a running 5/8th or fullback.

yes he definitely has skills but he is better when he can inject himself, rather than when he has to run the show.

it's (part of) the reason why Maloney and him worked so well - Maloney organized and SJ injected.

 

[Cult]

I think there's a few too many things being assumed as to what the dominant half should be doing. To me the dominant half is the guy calling the shots in attack and who takes it on themselves to own the result. Who kicks and who gets the team around is not solely the responsibility of a dominant half it's dependent on the player. JT, Cronk, Pearce, etc. Take it on because they want the ball in hand.

Compare DCE and Shaun Johnson. Both guys would be considered the dominant half in their teams however both play differently. With Green at manly DCE reduced his touches per game and sat back to watch the defence, when he saw something he liked he over called and more often than not executed... I'd say their attacking efficiency would've been quite high last season. Taking a backseat allowed him to play both sides of the ruck and basically own the attack whilst others got the team around the park. Pearce doesn't seem a great fit for him as Pearce always wants the ball (Keary basically played as an old school 5/8) so he would be calling all the shots and either DCE would take a backseat (severely affecting their offense) or there would be huge confusion by having both halves calling continuously and trying to overcall each other.

Compare that to Johnson who does all the kicking but regularly sits on his right edge. He can go sets upon sets inside the 20 without touching it until a kick is needed. He clearly goes missing and the team suffers by having him as their dominant half. If he had a Pearce it might work better as SJ could pick his spots to attack. Having green is a huge positive for him.

Milf is our dominant half now and he has shown he can play it like DCE ie 2015 GF, 1st half of 2016 and with kodi. With kodi in 2016 he was playing both sides of the ball and getting a lot of touches compared to playing outside Benji or Hunt. Putting someone like Pearce next to him would be like having $1m paper weight on the left edge as he wouldn't be over calling him and Pearce wouldn't be taking a backseat. That leaves milf waiting for the ball to come his way rather than him looking for the ball.

Obviously the issue with having kodi as his halves partner is long kicking and game management. Milf is very poor execution wise on his long kicking but his vision is pretty good ie knowing when to kick early and chase. I do believe that Kodi has a pretty sweet kick on him though and if he spends the off season on it could become the long kicker of the team.

Game management is more so about game situation ie kick early, forced dropouts, when to play field position and when to attack. I believe milf has this a little bit but may be getting over coached in this area. Kodi probably doesn't resolve it either.

It is the area milf needs to develop but it can also be undertaken by sitting back and letting kodi run the show. Basically kodi and macca should run the team when it's in cruise control ie what Hunt was doing. Milf takes ownership in the attacking zones OR if he sees the situation and wants to capitalise on it.

Milf has already shown he can do this aspect when he plays with kodi and we should not be trying to bring another player in to take it over as it would be detrimental to the team. Hodkinson would fit perfectly with milf because he just likes to play in cruise control and wouldn't care if Milf over called him... Pearce would be horrible because he always wants the ball and to me his kicking game is pretty poor anyway.

Long post but in summary milf is already our dominant half (even though he doesn't do all the kicking) and it should remain that way. We should not be wanting another dominant half playing next to him.

The problem is that we now have two players who need to pop up when they see something and not one player who can get their hands on the ball and do something smart on the 5th tackle. Successful teams have a running half and a half that can kick. At this point we have two runners and one of them shows up sometimes.

When does Kodi get back to training? Right now he's exactly the same as he was last year because he hasn't been training with Walters. Instead he's been learning from Shaun Johnson. ****

 

[Painin the Haas]

Milford needs to take on responsibility yes but If Lockyer needed a strong halfback then Milford in his young age definitely needs one as well not another running five-eighth/fullback who again goes missing while pretending to play halfback

 

[Foordy]

Milford needs to take on responsibility yes but If Lockyer needed a strong halfback then Milford in his young age definitely needs one as well not another running five-eighth/fullback who again goes missing while pretending to play halfback

Locky never really "needed" a strong halfback ... but you could clearly see the benefits to the team when we had a guy who could lead the team around the park and take on a decent share of the kicking duties. this allowed Locky to inject himself into the game when he saw an opportunity. they didn't even have to be a superstar, just capable of doing a job for the team (i.e. Wallace and Perry)

 

[Painin the Haas]

Locky never really "needed" a strong halfback ... but you could clearly see the benefits to the team when we had a guy who could lead the team around the park and take on a decent share of the kicking duties. this allowed Locky to inject himself into the game when he saw an opportunity. they didn't even have to be a superstar, just capable of doing a job for the team (i.e. Wallace and Perry)

Exactly this

 

[ivanhungryjak]

I think this is the most important statement. Any half is going to look ordinary behind a pack that's going nowhere, being beaten at every play the ball and is on the back foot. Broncos got to within one game of a GF, with a pack badly beaten in the ruck each week.

If we can get on the front foot by winning the play the ball with bigger, stronger bodies, our halves will be more than ok.

Nail meet head.

 

[GCBRONCO]

The difference between a young Lockyer and a young Milford are miles apart, even at a young age you could tell Lockyer was not only a brilliant indvidual player, but also possessed a quality kicking game and could organise attack as well, take time to look at some clips of him playing back in his debut season 1995 and you can clearly see that. Milford is great when he has the opportunity to use his running game to it's full potential, but is found out when you ask him to provide a consistent kicking game or to be an organiser. Walters maybe able to help improve him there somewhat but the bottomline is I just think your asking him to be something his not if your expecting him to be both.

The same can be said for Kodi, quality ball runner but his kicking game is subpar at present and would need considerable improvement to provide what the side needs, he has shown a tendency to strike the ball completely wrong resulting in some cheap turnovers and lacks variety in his kicking game, too often the opposition had the safest defusing attempts from them.

People say halves need a good forward pack to work behind to excel in. It certainly helps but you also need halves who can get in there and direct their forwards during the match, we have been found wanting here for quite sometime and even more so close to the opposition line, how many times have our attacking sets been shut down by poor directional decisions from our playmakers(and I won't put all the blame on the halves, that falls on the hooker as well)? Too often.

 

[Cult]

I fucking miss Lockyer so much

 

[GCBRONCO]

I fucking miss Lockyer so much

Your not alone there.

 

[Painin the Haas]

Lockyer had the complete game Milford doesn’t,not yet anyway, even more reason to get that organising halfback into the side to not only have the complete halves combination but for Milford to learn from. Cronk would have done him wonders perhaps hodkinson could as well

 

[upthebroncs]

So why has McCullough never been mentioned to play 7?

He could probably play there better than Hodkinson

 

[Danoz Direct]

So why has McCullough never been mentioned to play 7?

He could probably play there better than Hodkinson

No chance.

 

[Painin the Haas]

Way too slow

 

[Renegade]

So why has McCullough never been mentioned to play 7?

He could probably play there better than Hodkinson

He was originally a 7 turned into 9.

 

[Painin the Haas]

It’s not the worst idea but he’s just not fast off the mark and has no real agility

 

[Morkel]

He was originally a 7 turned into 9.

Smith was a half turned in to a hooker. Cronk was a hooker turned in to a half. I don't think either of those two would be very effective reverting to their youth position unless it's for half a game in an emergency.

 

[Painin the Haas]

Does anyone see value in using Glenn as our bench hooker/utility?

I like the idea he has the skill to be

 

[Painin the Haas]

Hingano looks to be cut from warriors you would think Bennett will be asking TPJ or Offa about him....after this week’s clash of course