Exercise: Broncos Cleanout

[Alec]

Aye, he's a great talent. Just needs to pull the finger out and involve himself more. Feel like he's been waiting for the ball to come to him as opposed to him coming in. Unlike Gillett, Glenn is also a very good battering ram.

Mind you, we really don't play to him enough. Some good early ball with some decoy running would see him excel.

I think the problem is too much decoy running, it keeps going out to Norman with Glenn as the decoy. After the last 2 years, he's probably used to the ball always going to him. He does need to re-adjust, and start looking for work too, because we'll just keep going to Norman.

 

[Big Pete]

Close to the line absolutely.

But I'm talking about inside our own half and having a Hannant, Norman run decoy before hitting Glenn with a good face ball to run onto - hopefully into a gap.

The point has been made before, but there seems to be two Broncos offensive patterns. They're inside their own half formation which is basically just backs running from dummy half, a one off the run ruck and (depending on how desperate we are) a kick or a spread out wide.

Then when we're at our line, every is spread out...but in a flat line. There is one big decoy play but when it fails there isn't a follow up - just the low risk lottery cross field kick.

 

[Ari Gold]

With news that the Eels are choosing to remove 12 players from their squad it got me thinking, should the Broncos consider their own cleanout?

Sure, we're not in as dire a situation as the Eels - we have been on the bottom for 3 years but let's say the club hated the direction the player roster was going in, and brought you into make some changes, what would they be?

Bonus question - check out Zero Tackle and the off contract players and consider what alternatives you'd bring in.

The only cleanout that will matter is the one that ***** Griffin off. So long as he remains in charge and there's a salary cap, it won't be possible to assemble a roster good enough to hide his inadequacies.

 

[hayseed]

Don't need a cleanout, just need a halfback, a dynamic outside back and a big bopper of a forward, oh and a new coach. The rest will take care of itself. The Roosters went out and did all this, look at them now.

 

[Broncoman]

Out of the strongest current starting line-up this is who I would keep and who would stay

Norman- Can't wait for him to leave cya bud
Hoffman- Like him on the wing and has been in form there, he stays
Reed- Hit second year syndrome last year imo but he can still play well, worth keeping
Hodges- Easily our best back and I think our most influential player, must stay
Maranta- Impressed last year but hasn't been good this year, give him another chance and see what happens
Wallace- Can play very well on his day (sorry Mr XXXX) but is far too inconsistent
Prince- Hasbeen will never reach the level of 2005 again, time to recruit some new blood
McGuire- Strong and physical player, fan of him
Macca- I don't think he is a bad player but we need a hooker with attacking potential, 50/50
Hannent: Has to stay
Glenn- One of our best players, I would easily keep him
Thiaday- I don't rate him too much but he bleeds for the club and adds a lot of force and intimadation, keep him
Parker- Great player he will be a Bronco for life

Gillet- Strong player with great ball skills but needs to improve on defence, once he becomes a strong defender he will be a full package
Hunt- Has potential
Hala- Great player to use as a sub, easily makes meters when running at tired defences. Needs to be used properly
Dodds- Can fill into the second row well and is a good player to have in your team

Overral there isn't many players I would drop from first grade it's just our average spine is what let's us down.

 

[Renegade]

Who's your picks Renegade?

Figured I'd start with our 25 and go from there

1. Scott Anderson - cut. never made an impact
2. Dale Copley - keep, but give him a football to carry around 24/7. every time he is seen without it, fine him or make him do extras at training. Seriously Dale, learn to catch a ball mate.
3. Mitchell Dodds - he's a good defender and he's a tackle sponge. These guys are ok as long as they're not prevalent in the squad. He'd be a depth player though, so he could be cut if another fringe player offered more in attack. 50/50 I guess.
4. Matt Gillett - keep, but tell him if he doesnt improve in the next 18 months he's on the next list
5. Alex Glenn - keep, tell him to pull his finger out of his arse.
6. David Hala - keep, extensively work on his fitness. 20mins isn't good enough at NRL level
7. Ben Hannant - keep
8. Justin Hodges - keep on the basis he retires from rep football. he's not lockyer and therefore doesn't deserve the leeway to pick and choose when he wants to go. your time is now. if he doesn't want to, cut. we can spend his money attracting someone as good, or not far behind, with more tomorrows instead of yesterdays.
9. Josh Hoffman - keep, permanently positioned on the wing. going well hoffy.
10. Ben Hunt - Riot act. Ok you've not had a great opportunity thus far but we're going to give you a small shot at making it yours. Prove yourself. If you don't buy the end of the season you're also off.
11. Jordan Kahu - keep but don't throw massive money at him.
12. Dunamis Lui - cut. completely useless.
13. Lachlan Maranta - cut. tries hard, unless he can add on about 5kph and a compass he's useless to us.
14. Andrew McCullough - Riot act. pick your shit up immediately or you are going back to Q Cup and your contract won't be renewed. For too long he has been cotton wooled by the fact he's young, still can't play 80mins etc etc. Time's up, he is 23 this year and will have had 4 or 5 seasons of first grade experience, no more excuses.
15. Josh McGuire - keep.
16. Corey Norman - lol. don't let the door hit you. make sure you remember how to butcher overlaps when you go to parra next year.
17. Corey Oates - I don't watch NYC too much so I don't know.
18. Corey Parker - keep, give him the captaincy and a letter profusely apologizing for not picking him in the first place.
19. Scott Prince - keep. seeing as we're cutting Wallace and Hunt is being read the riot act, I suppose i need to have one experience half around. I'd rather Prince on this basis.
20. Jack Reed - keep. he's our michael devere (cept he can't kick for goal)
21. David Stagg - if he's on low money, I'd keep him. Decent depth, knows how to tackle, puts in 100% and let's face it, we're going to have fringe forwards anyway so why not him instead of Lui?
22. Sam Thaiday (C) - keep, strip him of the captaincy and let him know that now because he doesn't have the captaincy, his efforts won't be excused because of added duties.
23. Peter Wallace - cut. what's the point in keeping him? people say, oh it'll be so much worse/you don't know what you've got till it's gone. what? we're 11th and as far away from winning a premiership as we've ever been - what do we get out of keeping him? nothing. cut him and take the money used on him on someone else. what have we got to lose?
24. Aaron Whitchurch - Cut if we're planning on playing him on the flanks. If he wants a run in the pack he can be kept on as a low tier fringe forward.
25. Jharal Yow Yeh - keep

So, from the top 25, I'd immediately get rid of:

Anderson
Lui
Maranta
Norman
Whitchurch
Wallace

Riot act:

McCullough
Gillett
Ben Hunt

I'd also get rid of Slyney even though he's not part of the 25, he adds nothing when he is picked so why keep selecting him? Give another random a go. I'd keep Granville for now, just to see how he goes. Give him a slightly bumped contract and see how he performs.

So, in summary we'd lose: 2 forwards, 2 backs, 1 half and 1 Utility, with the potential to lose another 3 utilities down the line depending on their form.

So, let's look at forwards we could sign?

Luke Bailey would be a good start if he didn't fall off a cliff between now and the end of the year performance wise. Great work ethic, always packs a punch, seems to have the respect of his fellow players. If you could get him on a reasonable contract for a year or two it'd be worth it. His age is slightly concerning though.

Tom Symonds would be a good signing, basically only left the Roosters because they wanted SBW. Strong runner, young, has a decent offload from what I remember.

Mitchell Frei, why not sign him back? He's not done much at the Knights and if we're offering him a starting spot, we may be able to swing him back this way.

Tom Burgess, apparently killing the NSW Cup, Souths are peaking and their players are going to want bigger contracts, why not tempt him? He's only going to get better and Souths have aging forwards, in the next year or so they're going to get rid of Asotasi, Lima, Crocker etc so we have a better chance now than we do in 12 months.

Tasi would be a good signing, young aggressive Qlder. Hard hitter but I haven't followed him that closely. Hell, I'd even consider LOD just to really put the mongrel back into our pack, but he's also 33 this year so ehh...

Other then those, I'm sure there's a bunch of good forwards running around the NYC that we could throw money and a starting spot at. I won't comment on them because I don't watch it enough, but if we've got space then we should be future proofing ourselves.

Backs we could sign? Just about anyone that knows how to defend, can catch a ball, and has speed to burn.

So on that note, Waqa, Williams, Lafai, K Naiqama, this Dylan Walker kid is supposed to be pretty promising, Evander Cummins too. That Denny Solomona guy from Melbourne is also supposedly off contract, I haven't seen much of him but he's rated pretty highly from what I've seen.

Utilities/Halves? Falloon perhaps, Keary is also listed there? nathan peats as well

And that's not even taking into account players from the ESL, players that are unhappy and suddenly want a release (like Marshall) or any other situation.

There are players out there. I'm not saying what I've posted is the 100% golden bullet solution, but on the same token, the squad we currently have isn't either, so recruitment does need to occur.

 

[Ari Gold]

From those that appear to be available or semi available, I'd go after the following:

Kevin Naiqama (has the speed we need, looks like he might be okay at fullback too)
Marika Koroibete (seriously, the dude is a beast, his speed/size combo is insane)
Kevin Locke (if Sam Tomkins can't be convinced to join us)
Kane Evans (apparently not too happy with not being given a shot at the Roosters. I don't care if he's a blue, he'd be a fucking great signing)

 

[Renegade]

Yeah I'd add Korobiete too. Guy is a beast.

Plus throw cash at Edrick Lee, I don't care that he's under contract, offer him double what he's on at canberra and get in his agents ear. talk about the cold, i don't care, just get that kid up here.

 

[Kimlo]

lets sign Tomkins, T Burgess, Naiqama and Koro.

Tomkins will never happen of course but lets sign the other 3.

 

[Alec]

I've heard Tom Burgess might be become even better than his older brothers Sam and George. I'd love to sign one of these circus freaks, but would they really split apart?

 

[Waynesaurus]

18. Corey Parker - keep, give him the captaincy and a letter profusely apologizing for not picking him in the first place.

:thumbup1:

 

[Allo]

Out of the current 25 my concrete selections are:

Copley
Gillett
Glenn
Hala
Hannant
Hodges
Hoffman
Kahu
McGuire
Parker (c)
Reed
Sammy T
Jarrod W
JYY

(assuming Dale and Jharal are fit and ready to go, fingers crossed)

Following players are subject to form/attitude/position availability

Macca: Now yes he's been our no 1 hooker for about 3 years but he really needs a strong 18 months to justify his contract (end of '15). I love Macca but he needs to go to the next level. He's gonna have to take over from Smith as QLD hooker (name who else would?) so he needs to step it up. Playing 80mins every week too (or at least 2 weeks out of every 4)

Hunt: Needs to knuckle down and work on his skills. Perhaps Griffin's game plan doesn't suit him, but with Prince and Wallace kinda up in the air with their futures, he really needs to take control. Plus he's here for the next two years so he needs to show why he should deserve to be

Granville: Has done ok so far with limited game time, but in my team with Macca playing 80 more often than not it depends on if he'd sub other positions, perhaps in the backs. Regardless I'd like to keep him for depth purposes

Out of the rest of the fringe forwards I really rate Gibb, but I'd like to see him play NRL again so it can be justified (for my sake at least lol). Don't mind if one of Slyney or Dodds is kept, but not both.

All the 20's forwards (anyone else notice that? Only forwards.) need to be kept and put into QCup to play against men. Have them on 2nd-tier contracts maybe and rotate them in to the team equally throughout the year at some point i.e. Origin

It doesn't sound like a lot being cut, but at least the fat is gone i.e. Anderpson, Lui, PWal (plays his guts out every week, just not very well or consistently) and Prince (rivalling Charles for the oldest Prince in the world) and the single year guys.

(One final note: If Norman happened to stay (which personally I'd love), he needs to partner Hunt in the halves but would be straight into the same boat with Hunt, Macca etc)

 

[Alec]

He's gonna have to take over from Smith as QLD hooker (name who else would?) so he needs to step it up.

Friend? Srama, possibly. Maybe even Baptiste if he goes to another club and plays to his potential.

 

[Ari Gold]

Macca: Now yes he's been our no 1 hooker for about 3 years but he really needs a strong 18 months to justify his contract (end of '15). I love Macca but he needs to go to the next level. He's gonna have to take over from Smith as QLD hooker (name who else would?) so he needs to step it up.

Virtually anyone else would be before Macca.

 

[GCBRONCO]

I would bring Greg Conescu out of retirement before I would consider Macca in SOO, at least the turtle had more tricks in his game then just running from dummy half at the line which rarely ever pays off because the opposition know its coming.

 

[broncos4life]

My selections

That's crazy shit. Like honestly mate I'm not trying to have a go and of course you are entitled to your opinion, but that is nutbag crazy. Firstly it's a lack of respect to some of our best players (hoffmans our leading try scorer, lets get rid of him)
Secondly with selections like these we would be hard pressed to beat the beenleigh under 12's

 

[vertigo]

Renegade mate, I reakon you've put more thought into that than the guys with their heads in the sand running the joint.

 

[Son Edo]

EDIT: Baiting