CONFIRMED - Adam Blair to Broncos

[subsbligh]

Blair won't start as a prop. Come on.

8/10/16/17 McGuire and Parker - Blair/Garbutt/Gavett/J.Wallace
11/12/13/15 Glenn, Thaiday, Gillett, Oates

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Blair won't start as a prop. Come on.

8/10/16/17 McGuire and Parker - Blair/Garbutt/Gavett/J.Wallace
11/12/13/15 Glenn, Thaiday, Gillett, Oates

Why do you think Bennett signed him? Depth? You don't sign a Test player for depth. He is taking the 10 and Parker is going to the 13. There is no question

 

[Danoz Direct]

Blair won't start as a prop. Come on.

8/10/16/17 McGuire and Parker - Blair/Garbutt/Gavett/J.Wallace
11/12/13/15 Glenn, Thaiday, Gillett, Oates

I don't think Parker will play prop, hopefully he will play lock now we have some forward depth.

 

[Foordy]

Why do you think Bennett signed him? Depth? You don't sign a Test player for depth. He is taking the 10 and Parker is going to the 13. There is no question

so we've signed a back rower (and a shit one at that) to play prop.

we would be better off leaving Parker at prop and starting our 3 best existing back rowers (out of Thaiday, Oates, Glenn, Gillett) all of whom are far better than Blair

 

[Alec]

so we've signed a back rower (and a shit one at that) to play prop.

we would be better off leaving Parker at prop and starting our 3 best existing back rowers (out of Thaiday, Oates, Glenn, Gillett) all of whom are far better than Blair

The problem with that is that they are all 2nd rowers, not locks. Oates and Glenn are hole runners, Thaiday has been a massive dud there, and Gillett will likely not be particularly great there either.

 

[Foordy]

The problem with that is that they are all 2nd rowers, not locks. Oates and Glenn are hole runners, Thaiday has been a massive dud there, and Gillett will likely not be particularly great there either.

true ... but all STILL better than Blair

 

[Unbreakable]

It's actually pretty debatable that any of our back rowers are "Clearly better than Blair".

Thaiday has been bog average since about 2011, our laziest player.
Glenn has been consistently average since his rookie season.
Gillett goes through 6 weeks of brilliance followed by half a season of turding.
Oates was great on the wing as a rookie, made very little impact in his limited minutes this season as a back rower.

It's not like we're signing a guy who's been performing that much worse than our current crop of players, he'll fit right in, all 4 of those players +Blair will be on high alert coming in to the season, if they play like shit under Bennett they'll be benched or punted to ISC.

And to all the people say "zomg Blair is a back rower!", look at the size of the bloke, he played prop & lock all season for the Tigers and played prop for the Kiwi's, as well as a full pre-season training at prop for us, he'll be fine in the position.

Adam Blair ~ 6'2" & 111kg
JWH ~ 6'3" & 108kg

 

[Big Pete]

I don't agree with any of those ratings of our current crop, Unbreakable.

The closest is Thaiday and even then, he's well and truly been a step above Blair these past few seasons.

I really don't like it when people shit on our current crop to justify the 'new signings'. It puts me off-side right away.

 

[Alec]

Every time we sign an underperforming player, some people try to build him up to be better than he actually is.

Blair is prett good in some areas but his workrate is pathetic, and if it was easy to fix that, you'd think Thaiday and co would have done it by now too.

 

[Huge]

Correct. Like saying that Blair & Kennedy cancel each other out because their old employer is chipping in. You don't know. We don't know. But we can speculate based on what's been reported. How about from now on, everyone puts a ~ symbol next to any monetary figure that's posted here, to remind us that it's purely speculation. Or we can just, you know, KNOW that anyway.

Yes, I speculated. What I didn't do is hate on someone after making up some imagined disparity in the cost to the club. I don't have a problem with hypotheticals or speculation,in fact I think it's the healthy part of debate, I just don't get making crap up to try and drag someone down. This includes denigrating the club and its business practices.

 

[Ari Gold]

Yes, I speculated. What I didn't do is hate on someone after making up some imagined disparity in the cost to the club. I don't have a problem with hypotheticals or speculation,in fact I think it's the healthy part of debate, I just don't get making crap up to try and drag someone down. This includes denigrating the club and its business practices.

Denigrating the club? That is going to a big extreme.

No, what you were doing was implying that anyone who use reported figures as a foundation for questioning the decision to sign Blair was, in fact, perpetuating a hatred of WB.

You also tried to imply that the Broncos always made good business decisions and therefore we should agree that this is one too, and that to do otherwise is to perpetuate an agenda against WB.

Here's some FACTS for you:

+We signed Ben Barba last year. This year we released him.
+We signed Martin Kennedy last year. This year we released him.

Clearly, the Broncos can't always make good business decisions 100% of the time. Doesn't mean they don't have a history of making good decisions. Also doesn't mean they aren't or will not make bad ones in the future.

 

[bazza]

Perhaps we got the wrong Tiger. We should of gotten Taupau rather than Blair. Gavet and Taupau were instrumental in the Tigers early season success when they were coming off the bench.

I don't understand this signing. He wasn't even off contract. We pretty much made him break his contract so that he could join the Broncos. I can't fathom why of all the props in the competition, we got Blair to break his contract. Why didn't we just target someone else. Surely we could have got another prop to break his contract to join us instead.

The only positive is that Parker and Thaiday can now play in their correct position instead of filling in at Prop. Its been three complete seasons combined that they've played out of position. Finally they can return to a position where their better suited.

But if Bennett thinks Blair can add some size and aggression then I'm all for it. We're not in a worse position with him in the team, in fact it's probably better for the team overall as now we've covered a position that required attention. Hopefully Blair can play consistently and just do his job - which is make metres and tackle hard. He also has some ball skills so hopefully he can utilise that aspect of his game as well.

 

[BroncosAlways]

Calling it right now, broncos to have the most offloads in 2015.

 

[bazza]

Calling it right now, broncos to have the most offloads in 2015.

Agree! That can only be a good thing. We need more ball movement and second phase play. In recent seasons our lack of ball movement has made it incredibly simple to shut down our attack. The only type of ball movement happened to be just side to side stuff without actually laying any sort of platform, which teams can easily slide and defend as the opposition's defensive line remains set. When we can drag three or four players and pop an offload, it creates the space around the ruck which Milford, Hunt and Boyd can exploit.

In the four nations, the Kangaroos looked troubled by England and NZ. Both teams, more-so England, played fast, up tempo styles of football with quick, clean ball movement and plenty of second phase play. It shortened the defensive line and created attacking opportunities which the Kangaroos struggled to defend.

Parker, Gillett, Hodges, Blair, Garbutt and even McGuire can all offload. Hopefully there'll be plenty of opportunities for Milford and the quicker players.

 

[Unbreakable]

I don't agree with any of those ratings of our current crop, Unbreakable.

Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

The closest is Thaiday and even then, he's well and truly been a step above Blair these past few seasons.

In terms of Body Fat % or on-field performances? Thaiday really hasn't been good since he was named captain, whether or not it's because of that injury you spoke about the other day is a different story. (Can't recall what it was, but you said he sustained some long-term injury and hasn't been himself since then)

I really don't like it when people shit on our current crop to justify the 'new signings'. It puts me off-side right away.

Don't get me wrong, I feel bad shitting on Glenn & Oates, because I think they were totally under-utilized in Griffin ball, but the form of Thaiday and Gillett really didn't appear to be Griffin related, they were just really poor, especially Gillett post-origin this year.

 

[HIV Lover]

Hey Guys,

Blair is one of my favourite players and I think he will be one of the best props next year.

He played really well this year and I think will play even better next year. :takdir:

 

[Danoz Direct]

I can see Blair improving under Bennett, but by how much? I do not know.

 

[Big Pete]

Thaiday really hasn't been good since he was named captain, whether or not it's because of that injury you spoke about the other day is a different story. (Can't recall what it was, but you said he sustained some long-term injury and hasn't been himself since then)

Ostesis Pubris.

It's an ongoing condition that's affected a lot of athletes and it's really debilitating.

I'd say Thaiday hasn't been consistent and apart of that problem is that he's been used primarily in the middle of the field where he isn't as effective. It's no surprise he was playing his best footy early in the year when he was mixing it up and running on the fringes.

Don't get me wrong, I feel bad shitting on Glenn & Oates, because I think they were totally under-utilized in Griffin ball, but the form of Thaiday and Gillett really didn't appear to be Griffin related, they were just really poor, especially Gillett post-origin this year.

Gillett had been struggling with injuries since the Warriors game in Auckland. Even so, he still put in the odd good performance and wasn't as useless as being made out.

EDIT: I understand that you along with others are excited to see some new faces around Red Hill but the lengths people are going to justify the decision isn't helping matters.

Don't get me wrong, you've made some fair points Unbreakable but in this instance where you're tearing others down with pretty general negative criticisms isn't really doing anybody any favours. If anything, it just leaves me thinking that we've probably compounded the problem if our forwards are THAT bad - which I don't think they are.