PRE-GAME [Finals Week 1, 2025] - Broncos vs Raiders
- Thread starter Sproj
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bert_lifts
NRL Player
- May 15, 2021
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Curse is a curse no caveats. Raiders are cooked. 
I bleed Maroon
International Rep
- Apr 17, 2013
- 17,534
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If Canberra go out in straight sets, the curse is soo legit.
My weekly astrology said so......
My weekly astrology said so......
broncsgoat
International Rep
- Oct 28, 2013
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Of course it counts
broncsgoat
International Rep
- Oct 28, 2013
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They’re on the course for this… they’re ****ing pretenders
broncsgoat
International Rep
- Oct 28, 2013
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It’s us or the riff. No one else can win it
Hypex
NYC Player
- Apr 9, 2025
- 148
- 376
I went back and re-watched the round 2 game to see if we have improved on where we failed. I note the following:
Fitness:
The first thing to stand out was the stark difference in fitness in comparison to team that beat Melbourne on Thursday. While Canberra flew out of the blocks with defensive line speed, quick play the balls and aggressive wrestle to slow the play the ball, we on the other hand looked lethargic 5 minutes into the game. This should no longer be a problem as it would seem Madge's training style may have fatigued the team early in the season as to condition them fit late in the season.
Penalties:
At first the Raiders were giving away successive penalties for being offside and slowing the ruck, however the ref eventually stopped and the Raiders just continued. We on the other hand only started trying to slow their play the ball in the second half. Melbourne were able to slow our play the ball to 4 seconds which is not good. We must expect Raiders to try something similar and be prepared to match the tone they will set with the referee.
Errors:
Yikes I had forgotten how many errors we were making at the start of the season. We left so many points out there and let even more in on the back of errors, ending the game with a 64% completion rate. Compare that to 90% against storm, we have tightened up our discipline considerably.
Personnel:
In comparison to how prominent Reece has been in our recent victories, you would not be amiss to believe that he did not play the first half of this game. The Reynolds/Hunt combination was awkward and still building. Ezra and Staggs were not playing. Kobe was playing 13, and Gos was a turnstile in defence. Reynolds had a shocker game, while Cobbo was making us second guess who should be fullback going forward with safe hands and strong runs. Some of these issues have been ironed out over the season, with the elephant in the room being Reynolds.
Fitness:
The first thing to stand out was the stark difference in fitness in comparison to team that beat Melbourne on Thursday. While Canberra flew out of the blocks with defensive line speed, quick play the balls and aggressive wrestle to slow the play the ball, we on the other hand looked lethargic 5 minutes into the game. This should no longer be a problem as it would seem Madge's training style may have fatigued the team early in the season as to condition them fit late in the season.
Penalties:
At first the Raiders were giving away successive penalties for being offside and slowing the ruck, however the ref eventually stopped and the Raiders just continued. We on the other hand only started trying to slow their play the ball in the second half. Melbourne were able to slow our play the ball to 4 seconds which is not good. We must expect Raiders to try something similar and be prepared to match the tone they will set with the referee.
Errors:
Yikes I had forgotten how many errors we were making at the start of the season. We left so many points out there and let even more in on the back of errors, ending the game with a 64% completion rate. Compare that to 90% against storm, we have tightened up our discipline considerably.
Personnel:
In comparison to how prominent Reece has been in our recent victories, you would not be amiss to believe that he did not play the first half of this game. The Reynolds/Hunt combination was awkward and still building. Ezra and Staggs were not playing. Kobe was playing 13, and Gos was a turnstile in defence. Reynolds had a shocker game, while Cobbo was making us second guess who should be fullback going forward with safe hands and strong runs. Some of these issues have been ironed out over the season, with the elephant in the room being Reynolds.
- Jul 28, 2016
- 35,502
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The penalties component will only be worse come Sunday.
Raiders were one of the most penalised teams in the comp to start the year and then it just stopped... hasn't stopped them from always being offside on their goal line mind you.
Broncos on the other hand have been getting reamed all year... 4s ptb speed will probably be double on Sunday and we'll still lose the penalty count
- Jan 25, 2014
- 49,086
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I hope Maguire shows our forwards footage of how we were bashed in that Round 2 game, show how they were celebrating like they won the GF when they forced an error and issues them a challenge to return serve.
Scorchie
State of Origin Rep
- Mar 16, 2008
- 5,086
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Betcha it means we then get a 5 day runaround if we lose too
His whining made no sense considering half his team had a break this week and they’re playing at home. I know Ch 9 were against a Sunday game because of the viewership broncos get on Sat nights so it’s interesting NRL sided with him.
Surely every year now, the team that comes first can just complain to the NRL and tell them when they want to play since that’s the norm now apparently.
I think it just shows how nervous he is and is trying to shake up any momentum the broncos have by having it on a Sunday afternoon.
- Jul 28, 2016
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Is this all because of Ricky's whinging??
- Feb 23, 2014
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The schedule for Week Two finals has also been released with a fan friendly Sunday afternoon slot being created. The change to Week Two scheduling also allows teams to have a longer turnaround into Week Two matches.
I disagree with the fan friendly thing completely if we're also considering travelling fans.. but hey.
- Jul 28, 2016
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Given this has come out now, after they've decided to change the finals format to accommodate Ricky's whinging, then I'd say they've had to make this change because of it. Otherwise a top 4 team is disadvantaged compared to a lower place team.
If they were actually planning to do this no matter what, then why not indicate this weeks ago... "hey we're heading into finals... guess what they're all going to be on Saturday and Sunday now"... instead it's come out on the eve of the finals series because Ricky's a whinging little bitch and they've pandered to him and his Sydney mates
Elcapitano20
BRL Player
- Jun 17, 2022
- 71
- 133
If anything, this indicates a bit of panic from Ricky's camp, complaining about a 1 day difference being a factor even though He rested most of his troops today. Lets just go down and smash em!
LittleDavey
State of Origin Rep
- Mar 25, 2013
- 5,114
- 10,012
Heard on the broadcast today that Raiders have won 9/10 Sunday afternoon games this year. Our record I'm sure is not nearly as good. Ricky's got his team an advantage, can't fault him for trying - but for the NRL to bend the knee, that's pretty poor.
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