Broncos Vs. Bulldogs *SPOILER*

[Coxy]

And someone needs to have a strong word to Hunt and anyone else who wants to try a shoulder charge when a player is making a break or when we're defending on our own line. Such a low percentage play that cost us 2 tries tonight.

+1. Against a big bloke who you can probably get off balance, fine. But a little guy like Kimmorley who's unlikely to get bumped off his feet, what's the point? Make a fucking tackle.

 

[lyn]

Just heard Folau tweaked his knee and McCullough has a elbow problem.

 

[The Brizz]

Darren Lockyer take a bow! Some of the worst one on one defending tonight seen ever, but keep standing up for his defense guys because he keeps proving me right. He is a deadset pedestrian out there and without Carroll looks even more pathetic than he used to.

 

[rissi_gurl]

I miss Sammy 2008... and i want him back now dammit!!!
Our defence is shit... no need to elaborate
I was happy with the effort by the boys tonight though

 

[QUEENSLANDER]

Ok first of all i want to point out something we all seem to be forgetting....

the broncos are a PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM. how the hell can they use not training for a few days as an excuse? If they dont train for 3 days do they automatically forget how to tackle? every monday at work, i dont have to relearn how to do my job, because i do it for a living, i can somehow retain how to perform my job! Broncos have no excuses. a few missed training sessions doesnt mean they can slack off in defence, and u dont lose match fitness in 3 days lol.

hunt showed tonight he is the worst fullback in the game at 1 on 1 defence. kimmorly barely even noticed hunt hit him, yet hunt was lying on the ground lol. just tackle the player hunt! i understand a shoulder might work on a big guy, to slow him down, but surely u can tackle noddy!!!

locky....well.... i think his time is here. i was very vocal before the origin series that i dont think he should be selected for QLD and i still stand by that. he did nothing in game 1, and in fact, all nsw's breaks were made by creagh down locky, hunts and folaus side. he isnt doing much in attack and his defence is shocking. ben roberts... BEN ROBERTS... looked like the best player in the world up against him tonight. for qld's sake, he cant retire soon enough sadly :(

positives were there for the first half anyway. yow yeh showed that we might have a genuine winger amongst the ranks. mcguire was solid and hunt was good with ball in hand. wallace is struggling atm, not sure why but his kicking game is off and hes not putting blokes into gaps (maybe the blokes arent running at gaps!)

oh yeah, michaels is still shit

 

[ethos]

Not quite sure what to think of that game. On one hand we kept with the Dogs (who are pretty red hot at the moment) for three quarters of the game. On the other, we let in 44 points and some of the defence was simply woeful.

I agree with QLDER about Locky. It was the first time that I noticed but it really looked like age had caught up with him tonight.

And Ennis is a fantastic player. So glad he's not playing Origin, I'm more scared of him than Farah.

Lastly, I'm sick of having Sims, Te'o and Setu in the side. They don't get involved enough and don't provide any impact whatsoever.

 

[Clintos]

Like most, I'm not too sure what to take out of that game. I was pretty happy with the way the boys rallied in the first half, but then we got destroyed in the second half. Folau is not a center under any circumstances. He is a winger - that's all there is too it. I think 5 or 6 tries went down that side of the field today. Yow Yeh was beaten on the outside a couple of times - showing very bad positioning. Folau didn't really help him out though. He was defending too far infield and could scramble well enough to cover the overlaps. Lockyer's one on one tackling was woeful, and I don't remember Winterstein getting the ball very often excluding kick returns.

It's fine to say they didn't train all week - but the team has been together for 4 weeks now. They should have a good enough understanding of each other to know what they are doing. Sure, they didn't get a chance to analyze the Bulldogs weaknesses - but surely this could have been done in quarantine. It's not hard to burn a DVD or watch old tapes.

Overall, I think it was a gutsy display for the most part, and I think if it wasn't for a couple of stupid errors and turn overs the scoreline would be much better for us. Let's hope we can turn it around next game. We really need to avoid our usual Origin form slump.

 

[Professor47]

I dunno who thinks Locky is up there with the best ever, IMO to be deserving of that you at least need to be able to tackle.

Whatever you reckon.

Honestly, I know where you are coming from - but people have a right to 'blow up' about his tackling though. You have to be blind not to see it. For some reason, he just CAN'T tackle at times. He really did improve in 06/07 but maybe its his age showing. Don't forget TC's contribution either. He didn't make tackles for him but his presence and initial impact helped.

 

[Professor47]

locky....well.... i think his time is here. i was very vocal before the origin series that i dont think he should be selected for QLD and i still stand by that. he did nothing in game 1, and in fact, all nsw's breaks were made by creagh down locky, hunts and folaus side. he isnt doing much in attack and his defence is shocking. ben roberts... BEN ROBERTS... looked like the best player in the world up against him tonight. for qld's sake, he cant retire soon enough sadly :(

Big call on not being selected for QLD - but I know where you are coming from. I've already mentioned in another post that it is obvious his body is finding it hard to keep up. Sadly his contribution these days probably don't make up for his defense. It was much easier to turn a blind eye to his D when he's been in blistering form but now it's practically all you can see. Funny though - he improved amazingly in 06/07 was it? Or was that just all TC you reckon?
I'm more than happy to have him to add some classy finishing touches and clutch plays but he's not even really doing that either. Even the biggest Lockyer fans can see it, he either has to change his game again so he really just becomes an organising 'one-touch' player - remember like Jason Smith for the cowboys? I think he could pull that off. Either that or he seriously needs to work on his defense - get that sh*t sorted imo. Lastly, we need to find another TC. (Impossible - I miss TC)

 

[OXY-351]

That try was Hunt's fault.

No.

Hunt should of tackled Kimmorley and not attempted to shoulder charge him, but it's not his fault. What a load of shit.

I said it weeks ago when Hunt shoulder charged MoiMoi that he really needs to attempt to tackle people rather than just shoulder charging. He tried to shoulder charge twice tonight when he was the last line of defence, and neither were effective. He needs to wrap the ball and the player up.

Our young wingers also need to learn to not run across the face of their own in goal on kick returns. It just makes them easy targets to be dragged back in to the in goal. Yow Yeh did it tonight, and Winterstein did it a couple of weeks ago, both with the same result. They are better off just charging back in top the defence thant trying to run around it

 

[The Brizz]

Lockyer is one of if not the best fullback of all time, as a 5/8th when you consider half the game is defense he is not one of the best ever because his defense has never been close to NRL standard let alone high class. Put him next to Daley, Fittler, Kenny or Lewis and though his attack is as good or better than these guys they are all leagues ahead as defenders.

The shoudler charged attempt by Ben Te'o on Hodgson's try was probably the stupidest thing all night. There is a prop running full steam 2 metres out....."I won't try to get under him or wrap up the ball in a high tackle I will just try and shoulder a guy 15kg heavier than me and see what that achieves".

 

[Bucking Beads]

The whole team is shoulder charge happy IMO. Hunt. Te'o, Setu, Sims and even Taylor when he plays try it too often... Hunt can't tackle that is why he uses it so often.

 

[The Brizz]

It's not a bad option if your on halfway and you have guys next to you to clean up if the shot misses because if you connect it can cause an error and/or lift the team but doing it 5 metres out on a prop on the burst makes no sense.

 

[lyn]

Not quite sure what to think of that game. On one hand we kept with the Dogs (who are pretty red hot at the moment) for three quarters of the game. On the other, we let in 44 points and some of the defence was simply woeful.

I agree with QLDER about Locky. It was the first time that I noticed but it really looked like age had caught up with him tonight.

And Ennis is a fantastic player. So glad he's not playing Origin, I'm more scared of him than Farah.

Lastly, I'm sick of having Sims, Te'o and Setu in the side. They don't get involved enough and don't provide any impact whatsoever.

Te'o and Sims have been fantastic lately.

 

[Jeba]

Ok first of all i want to point out something we all seem to be forgetting....

the broncos are a PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM. how the hell can they use not training for a few days as an excuse? If they dont train for 3 days do they automatically forget how to tackle? every monday at work, i dont have to relearn how to do my job, because i do it for a living, i can somehow retain how to perform my job! Broncos have no excuses. a few missed training sessions doesnt mean they can slack off in defence, and u dont lose match fitness in 3 days lol.

Oh come on. It is an excuse. It is not an excuse for forgetting how to tackle, but much of the preparation during the week is watching tapes of the opposition, working out how to nullify their dangerous players and identifying their weaknesses. The Broncos haven't played against the Bulldogs this year and they are a very different team to what they were last year so they can't refer to previous game plans they adopted against them. How are they going to work out team strategies to combat the likes of Ennis, Kimmorley etc if they are sitting at home unable to work on those defensive and attacking moves together? Training isn't just tackling drills, fitness and set plays.

 

[Je$ter]

Ok first of all i want to point out something we all seem to be forgetting....

the broncos are a PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM. how the hell can they use not training for a few days as an excuse? If they dont train for 3 days do they automatically forget how to tackle? every monday at work, i dont have to relearn how to do my job, because i do it for a living, i can somehow retain how to perform my job! Broncos have no excuses. a few missed training sessions doesnt mean they can slack off in defence, and u dont lose match fitness in 3 days lol.

Oh come on. It is an excuse. It is not an excuse for forgetting how to tackle, but much of the preparation during the week is watching tapes of the opposition, working out how to nullify their dangerous players and identifying their weaknesses. The Broncos haven't played against the Bulldogs this year and they are a very different team to what they were last year so they can't refer to previous game plans they adopted against them. How are they going to work out team strategies to combat the likes of Ennis, Kimmorley etc if they are sitting at home unable to work on those defensive and attacking moves together? Training isn't just tackling drills, fitness and set plays.

Don't they own laptops or dvd players? It is easy enough for a member of the coaching staff to give the players a dvd on the strengths/weaknessses/ setp lays the Dogs use and they can watch it at their home.

I'll admit preparing with all that other stuff going on wouldn't be much fun and it would be hard to keep your mind on the task at hand, but I still think they could put up more of a fight. Defensivley we are becoming very poor, I would rather see the Broncos keep sides below 12 points and score bugger all, but if you can defend well it makes it a lot harder for other teams to win games.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Not training is an excuse but not a good enough excuse for a 44-22 scoreline... The Broncos are a professional football team yet they were unable to be professionally prepared for the game so it had to have an impact at some point.

 

[Jeba]

Ok first of all i want to point out something we all seem to be forgetting....

the broncos are a PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM. how the hell can they use not training for a few days as an excuse? If they dont train for 3 days do they automatically forget how to tackle? every monday at work, i dont have to relearn how to do my job, because i do it for a living, i can somehow retain how to perform my job! Broncos have no excuses. a few missed training sessions doesnt mean they can slack off in defence, and u dont lose match fitness in 3 days lol.

Oh come on. It is an excuse. It is not an excuse for forgetting how to tackle, but much of the preparation during the week is watching tapes of the opposition, working out how to nullify their dangerous players and identifying their weaknesses. The Broncos haven't played against the Bulldogs this year and they are a very different team to what they were last year so they can't refer to previous game plans they adopted against them. How are they going to work out team strategies to combat the likes of Ennis, Kimmorley etc if they are sitting at home unable to work on those defensive and attacking moves together? Training isn't just tackling drills, fitness and set plays.

Don't they own laptops or dvd players? It is easy enough for a member of the coaching staff to give the players a dvd on the strengths/weaknessses/ setp lays the Dogs use and they can watch it at their home.

I'll admit preparing with all that other stuff going on wouldn't be much fun and it would be hard to keep your mind on the task at hand, but I still think they could put up more of a fight. Defensivley we are becoming very poor, I would rather see the Broncos keep sides below 12 points and score bugger all, but if you can defend well it makes it a lot harder for other teams to win games.

Yeh but how are they going to work out defensive and offensive plays to take advantage of their weaknesses when they are all apart from each other? You can't just communicate these things over phone or email.