NEWS 'Enigma' Pangai's advice for V'landys after backyard blitz

[Super Freak]

'Enigma' Pangai's advice for V'landys after backyard blitz

Joel Gould
NRL.com Reporter
Sunday 12th July, 2020

Tevita Pangai jnr returned to being Brisbane's offload king against the Bulldogs in a performance that had coach Anthony Seibold waxing lyrical about his match-winning "enigma".

Pangai took on English forward Luke Thompson with venom but it was his six offloads, two of which led to tries, that made the Broncos' attack click into gear.

Despite only playing 50 minutes as a middle forward, the Tongan international made 109 metres from 14 runs and 32 tackles with none missed.

Previously Pangai has said he is more suited to playing as an edge back-rower but when asked if he could do both he had some advice for ARLC chairman Peter V’landys, who has said publicly he is looking at reducing the number of interchanges.

"As long as Peter V'landys keeps the interchange at eight I think I can play a bit of both and mix it up. Hopefully he keeps it at eight," Pangai grinned.

Pangai’s offloads against the Bulldogs were effective because they were so late but he said it was a skill that needed no fine tuning.

"It is something I have done since I was younger. It is just backyard footy. I just enjoy playing footy and the new rules allow you to do that," he said.

"We had a lot of the ball and possession is king but it is not a skill that I practise."

Seibold challenged the often hard-to-fathom Pangai and his game-breaking forward delivered.

"I really enjoy coaching Tevita. I love coaching him. I think he is a tremendous young man," Seibold said.

"He is a bit of an enigma at times. I set him a challenge of going through the middle this week and I thought he grabbed it with both hands.

"Him and Luke Thompson had a real good contest out there. That is what we want to see."

Brisbane five-eighth Anthony Milfortd had one of his best games of the year and it was on the back of his kicking game.

Milford took over more of the role from Brodie Croft and his grubbers and towering bombs were on song. One of his kicks was inch perfect for Jamayne Isaako to race 40 metres and beat Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to the ball and score.

"Having two kickers always works. Crofty, in the first five or six games, he was getting a lot of heat coming his way," Milford said.

"More teams have two kickers and it is harder to put the pressure on them.

"It is about having more options and keeping the other team in two minds and playing off our ruckies. They created a lot of momentum and I thought Crofty, myself, Isaac Luke and Paixy [Cory Paix] played a lot off their go-forward."

Milford has worked hard on his kicking, a discipline he said he learned from childhood idol Benji Marshall when he was at the Broncos.

He will line up against Marshall and the Wests Tigers on Friday night in Campbelltown in a game the Broncos must win if they are to make a charge at the top eight.

"Benji was always competing and making sure he did the little things to try and get in a game, whether that was doing extras at kicking or making sure his defence was right," Milford said.

"He is a pretty laid-back dude who I got on with. I did enjoy watching Benji play while I was growing up. I think every kid did. I used to watch highlights of him on YouTube."

NRL.com

 

[McHunt]

"Benji was always competing and making sure he did the little things to try and get in a game, whether that was doing extras at kicking or making sure his defence was right," Milford said.

"He is a pretty laid-back dude who I got on with. I did enjoy watching Benji play while I was growing up. I think every kid did. I used to watch highlights of him on YouTube."

Ah yes, I remember Bennett coming out in full damage control over this:

 

[Thelmus]

I thought two kickers was football 101. The more options you can give on that finishing tackle, the better, so long as everyone is going in the same direction and there is communication. It would be nice to see more kicking from dummy half and have the young fullback gradually brought into the game plan to finish sets.
Being able to kick through the lines from fullback accurately would do so much good for our attack.
As for Tevita, so long as he knows where and when he can offload, it will keep his career going. I can live with suspension for high tackles and the like if he can temper it somewhat and stop giving away those silly indiscretions. He will always be a target for the ref. That is just his lot. What he needs though, is to make it as hard as possible, without losing that aggression.
The challenge is now to put two of those games together, and unfortunately it is a challenge he has often failed.

 

[Kooly87]

I thought two kickers was football 101. The more options you can give on that finishing tackle, the better, so long as everyone is going in the same direction and there is communication. It would be nice to see more kicking from dummy half and have the young fullback gradually brought into the game plan to finish sets.
Being able to kick through the lines from fullback accurately would do so much good for our attack.
As for Tevita, so long as he knows where and when he can offload, it will keep his career going. I can live with suspension for high tackles and the like if he can temper it somewhat and stop giving away those silly indiscretions. He will always be a target for the ref. That is just his lot. What he needs though, is to make it as hard as possible, without losing that aggression.
The challenge is now to put two of those games together, and unfortunately it is a challenge he has often failed.

Unfortunately for TPJ, he basically has to put the big shots away almost entirely now. Nobody lands those shots perfectly every time, so even if he only gets it wrong one time out of twenty, the way loading works, he is up for a huge suspension for even a minor indiscretion now.

 

[rnabokov]

I watched the full match replay last night. Watching TPJ in full flight was a joy. His energy, his speed off the mark for a big guy, 100% tackle efficiency and, his (late) offloading is an art, the way he manoeuvres his arm holding the ball into place for the offload when surrounded by tacklers, and his timing. (Kudos to Seibold for playing him up front, and finally getting the bench rotation right).

I think of TPJ, and Haas, Fifita and Carrigan and I remember the late great Jonathon Winters : "I may not be playing with a full deck but I don't need a full deck. I have 4 aces."

 

[Skathen]

Let's just see if TPJ can get another game like that in again this year, consistency has been the biggest problem with him. Turns up for a bit, then turns off.

 

[johnyE]

TPJ has led by example . If he can turn up and turn it on , so can the rest of them , It just needs a coach and coaching staff that demands it with a team that want's to play for it .

 

[theshed]

I wonder how TPJ would respond to being captain. I feel like it might push him to put in massive efforts for the boys. Though he tends to get suspended when he tries to hard.

while Glenn was out I’d captain TPJ and VC Carrigan.

 

[Unbreakable]

TPJ is quickly returning to my favourite player in the team. He was for a good while and then went off the boil with all of his errors and brain snaps. The last few weeks he's been enormous for us, arguably our most damaging player every week. Keep it up, please!

 

[broncos4life]

TPJ is quickly returning to my favourite player in the team. He was for a good while and then went off the boil with all of his errors and brain snaps. The last few weeks he's been enormous for us, arguably our most damaging player every week. Keep it up, please!

This.

 

[TheGreatCornholio7]

I watched the full match replay last night. Watching TPJ in full flight was a joy. His energy, his speed off the mark for a big guy, 100% tackle efficiency and, his (late) offloading is an art, the way he manoeuvres his arm holding the ball into place for the offload when surrounded by tacklers, and his timing. (Kudos to Seibold for playing him up front, and finally getting the bench rotation right).

I think of TPJ, and Haas, Fifita and Carrigan and I remember the late great Jonathon Winters : "I may not be playing with a full deck but I don't need a full deck. I have 4 aces."

It was a performance Tevita Pangai Senior would be proud of.