PRE-GAME Finals Week 1 - Roosters vs Broncos

[Super Freak]

Our forward rotation is pretty much both props and McGuire being rotated and Glenn, Hunt and Gillett all playing 80 minutes.

So there is room for a back on the bench. I would prefer it to not be Mead as I never want to see him in Broncos colours again. But we can afford to carry a back on the bench without it having any impact on our forward rotation.

 

[Wolfie]

Think a few of those blokes are there on the extended bench just in case. Roberts didnt finish training today i believe

 

[ningnangnong]

***** sake! I could've gone to this game if I was in the country. Gutted.

I reckon we'll tear 'em a new one.

 

[Stix]

Think a few of those blokes are there on the extended bench just in case. Roberts didnt finish training today i believe

Well that's not good

 

[winslow_wong]

Well that's not good

Roberts is always busted though.

 

[Stix]

Roberts is always busted though.

Need this guy to switch on now and hit a purple patch...

 

[Super Freak]

Need this guy to switch on now and hit a purple patch...

He seems to be struggling a bit out there.

He starts off well, but as the game goes on he starts limping. It seems he isn't at 100%.

 

[Super Freak]

Broncos $2.30 outsiders.

 

[BroncsFan]

Broncos $2.30 outsiders.

That's where we want to be. A lot of "experts" not rating Knik at fullback without realising how much time he's played there in the 20's. He also played there earlier in the year and had a good game.

 

[Dexter]

Our best chance of a premiership would be win against the chooks and sharks beating the cows then having to play Parra in the knockout . We get to play sharks in the prelim after they play Parra .
On the other side the chooks find their way into a prelim against Melbourne and pull off an upset and limp into a GF against us.

Oh it all looks so easy on the predictor.

 

[Taylor1921]

And yet he was signed by Bennett so obviously Mead does offer something otherwise why would Bennett want him?!!

But in all seriousness, Mead is there for cover. Nothing more.

Yeah he offers wing depth not impact off the bench?

 

[Foordy]

Yeah he offers wing depth not impact off the bench?

Bennett frequently puts a winger on the bench ...

you're also assuming he doesn't make a late switch, which he also frequently does

 

[2ndPhase]

Mead is a diversion. Keeping the limelight of Isaako who will come on and destroy. [emoji16]

 

[Super Freak]

Tetevano was successful in his plea to downgrade his tackle to a careless high tackle.

He will miss one game.

And the judiciary continue to show they are a huge fucking joke.

That deserved more than one. He came flying in and knocked him out with a shoulder to the head. It was reckless whether there was intent or not.

 

[Lockysillegitimatechild]

Tetevano was successful in his plea to downgrade his tackle to a careless high tackle.

He will miss one game.

And the judiciary continue to show they are a huge fucking joke.

That deserved more than one. He came flying in and knocked him out with a shoulder to the head. It was reckless whether there was intent or not.

There was a headline in the daily telegraph online: "Sydney clubs get off at judiciary" or something like that... I think that sums it up for me. It's like the panel in Sydney is worried they'll bump into them on the street so they downgrade every time

 

[Rally Towel]

This will be interesting.

Quietly confident about our chances but the reality is we have a rejigged spine amidst two key outs, while the Roosters are likely to field their best 17 in quite some time. That's before taking into account home ground advantage which historically has worked out well for the Roosters.
With four genuine playmakers on the field we have the capability to pour on the points but it's imperative that we are disciplined in getting the opportunity to do so.

If we give the Roosters enough ball they'll have the chance to run our little guys into the ground, fatiguing them on account of defensive workload.

Key for us is to be conservative coming out of end, don't get cute with offloads or fancy stuff. Dropped ball in our end will likely be costly. Wait until we have them backpedalling in their half then let the ball sing.

 

[BroncsFan]

A little bit off topic but I think the NRL has missed a trick here (no surprise).

They have 3/4 games in Sydney this weekend and I'm a little shocked they haven't tried to line up a double header for any of them.

I'm pretty sure their finals format allows some flexibility in terms of scheduling and I feel they could've lined up two games for a double header in Sydney.

We all know the crowds in Sydney will be dead set abysmal especially with them being moved away from suburban grounds.... but if you're going to have them all playing out of allianz you may as well take the opportunity to put on a show and entice some fans to come along.

Maybe it is difficult to arrange a double header in the limited preparation but it will be an ugly look to see 10k (if that) rock up to some of these games over the weekend when they're meant to be the pinnacle of the season.

As usual they've thrown us on Friday but we could've played Saturday with sharks/cows (2 interstate teams) or manly/Penrith (manly are notoriously poor travellers) to bump up crowd numbers

 

[Foordy]

I'm pretty sure their finals format allows some flexibility in terms of scheduling and I feel they could've lined up two games for a double header in Sydney.

absolutely the NRL have that flexibility in scheduling ... we've seen that before when conflicts (with other sports booking the ground have occurred), the only thing they couldn't do is force Melbourne to play in Sydney.

if they were smart and wanted a double header they could have very easily moved the Melbourne game to Friday night and played our game on Saturday ... especially given all 3 Sydney games are being played at Allianz