Broncos Vs. Raiders - Match Thread.

[Browny]

Anyone know what happened to Parker?

He came through the Airport this morning with his left knee braced and limping badly

 

[Sabu_2008]

Backline was far too flat, no utilisation of double rounds/decoys/sweepers/long ball combinations which have ALWAYS worked for us, too much drop ball in the opposition's red zone, the front row had a shocker and Lockyer failed to stand up and marshall the troops.

I'll think we'll win next week, but the Warriors tend to perform against the Broncos, so it'll be a good match.

 

[lynx000]

Okay my thoughts, overall quite an entertaining game. I think with a young team we are going to have to expect results to be a bit up and down this year, particularly when we play away. We seemed a bit flat starting the game and could not get into gear. Canberra started at 100 miles an hour and we just could not get into the game. Our first half, we looked like we had not been introduced to each other in attack. I thought our attack all night was playing too shallow and not giving players an opportunity to run onto the ball. Wallace and Lockyer were poor in attack in the first half.

There is a problem with the left side defence that appears to carry on from last year. Beale made some poor reads, but I don't know whether he should be dropped on one bad game. Remember Renouf was a shit defender when he started his career as well. Given that both Michaels and Beale have had similar problems down that side, perhaps the problem also involves someone else (maybe Wallace and their communication).

Thaiday, Teo and Parker had great games, but I agree that Sammy may have in fact tried too hard. A couple of times there in the second half I felt he actually got in the way during the attack on their line and shut our attack down. Corey Norman obviously found it harder to get into the game this time, but that will come with more experience. Gillett looks like a potential superstar, but I make a similar observation about him that I did about Burgess, he needs to be a little more selective about when he passes and not try to push the pass.

Re McGuire, I think some of the earlier posts were a bit unfair to him. He got taken off around the 15 minute mark and was not returned to the field until late in the second half. That is not his fault, that is the choice of the coaching staff. He seemed to be fairly involved upon his return to the field. Once again, it would be harsh to drop him on that performance. Mitchell Dodds reminds somewhat of Palmer Wapau, he just does not seem to be able to get into the game at this stage, and we need him to be more involved. We really seem to be lacking some impetus from the bench. Clinton was providing that in the streak at the end of the year, but the younger players do not seem to be able to do it. If Sims and Setu show any sort of form, they should be back in the squad and that should be their role IMO.

Given that we have struggled to win in Canberra in recent years, overall it was a fair game by the team. There are things to work on, but there are positives to take out of it as well. For example, at 18-0 their heads did not drop, they were able to come out wrest momentum from Canberra and almost win the game.

 

[andruku88]

They carved us up with their short dummy half runs and ability to offload in our tackles. Think we dominated in the 2nd half, but too many mistakes in the Raiders red zone cost us. I think Folau stepped up and went loking for more ball which is great. That left side defence again proves to be weak. Need to harden that up as teams will start targeting that again like last year. Positives as stated above by Lynx, i think we held our own didn't drop our heads after half time, and struck back fast in true broncos fashion. Warriors next week will be a tough game, but know we can get the win.

Go Broncos

 

[Browny]

Every team struggles to shut down Canberra's keep it alive style of footy.

Macca's got a decent gash on his head btw

 

[Emma]

I'm not too devastated about the game. Sure, they had ample opportunities to win the game, but I'm taking a positive that they at least had ample opportunities. It was just that final piece of execution that was lacking, but I think that will come with time. There were a couple of things that frustrated the hell out of me, such as Beale's defence and Kemp's backward running, but apart from that there were good signs in attack. Tighten things up around the ruck, stopping the offloads...I think those things will fall into place soon enough.

 

[guppy]

stopping the offloads...I think those things will fall into place soon enough.

We've never stopped offloads. It's been my biggest frustration with our team for too many years now. We seem to genuinely lack the ability to wrap the ball up.

 

[Emma]

Completely agree guppy. Though having said that, I think we actually made 1 more offload than the raiders last night, so that's at least a step in the right direction. Even if some of those offloads of ours shouldn't have been made.

 

[Kimlo]

We completely outplayed the raiders stats/field position wise but still lost. Is that a bad or good sign???

 

[Meat77]

We completely outplayed the raiders stats/field position wise but still lost. Is that a bad or good sign???

I would say it is a very good sign. Most of the kids in the team have got that much improvement in them it's not funny - they just need to go through situations like that a few times to get to NRL standard.

 

[bronco_babe77]

Yeah - everyone needs to realise that this new team can't just come out and be brilliant every week. It would be awesome if they did - but not likely. What is awesome though, is that we do have the talent that can hopefully grow as a team this year.

 

[Fozz]

Next year, this team will be better.

This year will be a learning experience. If we can get it together, I can't see any reason we won't be in the finals.

 

[Abe The Cop]

We were way too predictable when we were attacking in their 20 metre zone. With all the possesion and field posiiton we had we should have troubled their defence a whole lot more.

 

[Kimlo]

Next year, this team will be better.

This year will be a learning experience. If we can get it together, I can't see any reason we won't be in the finals.

I think it boils down to Origin. If we're going to lose Thaiday/Folau/Lockyer/Wallace than we're going to really struggle during that period. IF however Lockyer/Wallace don't play origin this year I reckon we can make the finals easily.

Please come back Hodges.

 

[Coxy]

We were way too predictable when we were attacking in their 20 metre zone. With all the possesion and field posiiton we had we should have troubled their defence a whole lot more.

From what I saw (I only saw bits of the first half, still have to watch the whole game), the Broncos were going sideways on every attacking play and pushing passes under pressure. They seemed to lose the ball on an early tackle every time they had it in the Canberra 20.

And even if they didn't, they invariably drifted sideways with nobody punching forward to hold the defence up. Canberra just had to number up and slide, easy as.

It was very disappointing to watch.

 

[Aeetee]

to answer brownys question... I heard parker was possibly out for 6 weeks.

 

[Kimlo]

to answer brownys question... I heard parker was possibly out for 6 weeks.

I think it's confirmed now :( 4-6 weeks! :cry:

 

[ivanhungryjak]

We were way too predictable when we were attacking in their 20 metre zone. With all the possesion and field posiiton we had we should have troubled their defence a whole lot more.

From what I saw (I only saw bits of the first half, still have to watch the whole game), the Broncos were going sideways on every attacking play and pushing passes under pressure. They seemed to lose the ball on an early tackle every time they had it in the Canberra 20.

And even if they didn't, they invariably drifted sideways with nobody punching forward to hold the defence up. Canberra just had to number up and slide, easy as.

It was very disappointing to watch.

I think the coach said it all after the game: they weren't willing to build pressure and seemed to want to score off each play.