Broncos Vs. Eels - Match Thread

[Fozz]

I wonder if Dodds is being told to just tackle by IH or he just isn't calling for the ball over Thaiday and Parker? If he can't get the ball then he should take a leaf out of Brad Thorn's book. Thorn used to get back early to try and take the second or third hitup because early in his career he was always overlooked in favour of other forwards when it came to getting the ball on the field.

 

[Porthoz]

OK, so our senior half, generally responsible for organisation is not AT ALL to blame for the total lack of organisation last night? Right.

Wallace wasn't solely to blame, but he was horrible. So was McCullough. Hunt made some bad decisions. Gillett....pffft. Norman had nothing when he came on. Wallace was isolated out there, but **** me he was bad.

OK, so add Parker to the list of players who can't be criticised. He had another big hearted performance, but I've been saying for years his sideways running and attempt to spin is more suited to Oztag than rugby league. He's been much better this season but last night he was much more sideways than he should've been.

Lateral movement is useless in rugby league without people hitting it up straight.

FFS Coxy, this has nothing to do with whom anyone can or cannot criticise!

The team as a whole was crap last night. A staggered and slow line in defence, poor go forward and a bunch of players trying hard individually to make a crappy game plan work. The whole structure was atrocious!

Wallace started the game doing his job properly, but most plays died in either Gilletts, Macca's or Hunt’s hands, through invariably bad decisions.

When it became clear to the players that that game plan wasn't working, which was well within 10 minutes, not 50! most lost clairvoyance and tried to solve a problem individually that can only be solved collectively. Henjak should have sent Norman or Hunt in by that time and brought our very young team back to their usual and known structure.

Wallace had a good (and ONLY) kicking game (bar the one out on the full and the grubber at the end), won us pretty much all of our repeat sets, set up 2 of the tries, had to contend with the worst hooker display of the season by both Hunt and Macca, an even worse 5/8 display by everyone who played there, and I lost count to how many times players got in his way during attacking plays!
But sure, let's put it down to his lack of direction, being a senior player and all... :roll:

Could Wallace have done better? Yes
Was he horrible? Not even close!!!
Was yesterday’s loss and team display his responsibility? No f’ing way!

Parker disrupted the Eels line with his plays, which led to 2 of our tries. And yes, we need more direct and straight running, but only McGuire and Te’o on occasion did that last night, with Thaiday having another shocker (boy do we need him to get back to his best quickly).
Like the Brizz wrote, Parker was one of the few people that got us going over the advantage line, and that is his style of play, which creates a lot of opportunities for the rest of the team to break the line.

My point with all this, is that I find the criticism misdirected and some people’s vision is so narrow, that they only see the bad stuff about their favourite sape goat and positively ignore the good.
I have been an acid critic of Winter, but can’t fault him for his gutsy display last night, so I WON’T!

It wasn’t lack of will or heart by the players, but atrocious decisions by Henjak that cost us the game last night. Why was our best defender in Dodds only on the paddock for 25 minutes? He stopped everything that came his way on its tracks and would have been bloody handy against Mateo! Why was Kenny axed after arguably his best performance since returning from injury?
Poor Norman was thrown to the wolves after 50 minutes and was so lost, that his confidence must have taken an enormous hit! He wasn’t even a turnstile or speed bump in defence, he plainly wasn’t there…
And why did he put Gillett and Te’o in those positions, not only were they unable to perform as well, but he also effectively took away two of our best defenders and strike weapons from where they are most effective. Double Whammy Ivan! [eusa_doh

Sorry for the long post… :oops:

 

[rnabokov]

It is ALL about organization. What's the point of a top arsenal of missiles if there's neither a tactical plan nor some way of directing the weapons on target.

Take our only organizer out and we're totally lost. The more I think about Wallace, the more I reckon he should be tried at 6. I SHUDDER imagining Hunt in that role.

I actually think Wallace is a natural 5/8 who's playing out of position. In any case we really have no options other than Locky or Wallace. Norman is out of his depth, as would be Hunt.

 

[gUt]

Strange that it hasn't been mentioned but I thought the turning point was Hoffman's brain explosion grubber on the second tackle. If we scored in that set we would have run away with it imo.

 

[Big Pete]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU----

Thanks for reminding me gUt.

Also, was he taken in the air? Or had he knocked on before hand?

 

[Porthoz]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU----

Thanks for reminding me gUt.

Also, was he taken in the air? Or had he knocked on before hand?

Indeed, forgot about that one, along with a few other shocking options taken by our youngsters early in the tackle, or in the last one.

It's probably debatable whether Hoffman was taken out, but what is NOT, is Wallace being taken out of the play without the ball on that left attack just before the Eels scored at 18-14. A penalty there with the amount of pressure we were building, could have changed the face of the game! (I also think this was what Archer was referring to when he told Parker that the decision had been taken and he couldn't go back)

Not that we deserved the win, but we've had decisions going against us like that all year long. The Yow Yeh try against Penrith, the play the ball before the last Tigers try and so on... [icon_confu

 

[Charmamba]

Strange that it hasn't been mentioned but I thought the turning point was Hoffman's brain explosion grubber on the second tackle. If we scored in that set we would have run away with it imo.

To be fair he had Yow in space on the wing from what i remember and if the ball got thru the line Yow would have been in.

 

[Steve]

Our go forward was again atrocious, only guy we have who makes good metres through the middle is Parker and he is allegedly our lock! Tonight we got schooled by a superb rotation of props Moi Moi/Mannah/Poore/Cayless showed us how running hard, straight and aggressively makes the side metres and creates quick play the balls. Mateo and Hayne absolutely carved us to shreds because they kept a constant roll on all night through the middle of the park and we just don't slow the ball runner down and tonight we refused to stop any offloads either. As crap as I thought Wallace was this was lost purely on the back of our atrocious pack performance.

Good post this one and hits on one of two problems from last night:

1- we got dominated in the forwards. Parra always looked fresh and they made easy metres far too often.
2- we didn't have the goods in attack. Yes we managed 3-4 tries but we should have had at least two more after the first 15 mins. I think if we'd jagged an early try we would have been well on the way to victory. The Eels took a lot of confidence from that period and to get the first try - they were clearly jubilant.

We are right on the precipice at the moment. I'm not very confident at all for the next two weeks. IMO the game against Newcastle next week is a must win. I give us more of a chance in beating them than NZ. Although the Knights seem to be hitting some good form now so that just makes things more diffcult.

Even winning 2/3 won't guarantee us a finals spot. Some of those early season losses are magnified now we're at this point of the season.

 

[Big_Dave]

Strange that it hasn't been mentioned but I thought the turning point was Hoffman's brain explosion grubber on the second tackle. If we scored in that set we would have run away with it imo.

To be fair the Broncos had no 5/8th, had to try something different.

 

[jarro65]

The worst thing about this loss for me was not that we played badly, which we did, but it now means we have to win every game to be assured of a spot in the top 8 [icon_pray.

 

[kluppy]

IMO the game was lost in the first 15 minutes. Broncos had all the ball, all the field position. Should've managed at least 2 tries in that time.

Eels are a confidence team. They would've played more panic football chasing points, given their position on the ladder.

Our attack in that first 15 minutes was absolutely pathetic.

maybe our attack would've been better with an actual 5/8/at 5/8 instead of a second rower.....

 

[langer77]

its only a game still not over yet

 

[Bucking Beads]

Am I the only one who thinks our best team has Sims coming off the bench actually making an impact?? I think our starting props need to be Tronc and McGuire whilst Anderson and Sims to come on and replace them..

 

[Kaz]

The early stages of the game, the Broncos panicked & then lost the ball.

From the start of the game, the Eels game plan was to slow the ball down.

All night they are all over the Broncos & took forever to get off them.

 

[simmo77]

Shit game but the crowd was awesome. Atmosphere was insane. The eels run onto the field at the start to huge boos which i havent heard in a long time. I got some good abuse in on the parra supporters....had a bit of a scuffle outside next to the King...was slapped with a fish by the hot fishermans friend women and had a generally good drunken time [icon_drun If only we won the goddam game.

 

[Donny]

Once again a loss and the knives come out..........sigh

Geez never predicted that to happen!!

 

[Coxy]

Once again a loss and the knives come out..........sigh

Geez never predicted that to happen!!

You're right, we should all be positive about such a wonderful effort.

:roll:

 

[Burg]

I haven't read many of the threads so excuse me if I have covered old ground. No doubt there was plenlty of talk about our lack of direction. Leaving Norman on the bench IMO was a crime, ok it might not have changed the match but he at least is a play maker, something Wallace is not. I think the area that the Broncos struggle with the most is Hooker, neither player is putting his hand up in this vital position. They both seem slow, make too many poor choices in attack and give the team little direction. Keating just played all over them, he was faster at everything, more dangerous in attack and gave quick service to the forwards. I know Hunt is a converted Hooker, but he is held in pretty high regard by many on this forum yet I'm still failing to see those skills on display. I mean he is supposed to be a halfback, so kicking and passing should be a strenght. Mac, while defensively he seems strong, he just seems to me to be a pace or two slower than other Hookers. All in all the whole team seemed to lack direction, they were willing but totally out played in most areas. I'm hoping for a better effort next week, Norman to start???