Gould: Broncos have the look of NRL premiers.

[I bleed Maroon]

Gould is definitely one of those characters who feeds off having a popular image within his backyard, that being NSW. And what is the prevailing attitude about the Broncos down south? That we get a free ride by getting so many Friday Night games.

Yeah? Well I reckon the fact that we're dead last for penalties received balances that out quite suitably.

 

[Alec]

Gould understands why the Broncos play on Friday, I saw it on his twitter a week or so ago...

 

[Allo]

Gould is definitely one of those characters who feeds off having a popular image within his backyard, that being NSW. And what is the prevailing attitude about the Broncos down south? That we get a free ride by getting so many Friday Night games.

Yeah? Well I reckon the fact that we're dead last for penalties received balances that out quite suitably.

I'd also argue that it's harder playing at night for 95% of the season. It's colder, slipperier and not as fast as a day game with a dry track. Also we get shafted by the draw most years by playing the 'big' teams twice in Storm, Manly, Roosters, Souths etc because they rate. Meanwhile the shit teams like the Tigers, Sharks, Penrith etc only once, yet all the other big sides play them twice because they're from Sydney. We have high SoO reps and we play Melbourne and/or the Warriors for e.g. ALWAYS in rounds 12-18. Sure we have financial advantages but no clubs are immune from issues, regardless of their size or income.

 

[Bull Shark]

Gould really is an enigma.. His moods and opinions seem to change direction like the wind.. makes it hard to take him seriously when he decides to zero in on something and pen a column about it or climb aboard his soapbox when he's in the commentary box.

My first memory of his erratic nature was way back in 1992 when the broncos were way out in front on the ladder and en route to their first premiership. He was coaching Penrith that year and late in the season after the broncos had beaten them he mentioned they were in prime position to win their first premiership... By the end of the week he'd changed his mind and was in the media declaring the broncos wouldn't win it.

It all seems to depend on how he's feeling on the day. You can even see it sometimes when he's on the sunday footy show or a pre-game panel - some days he's alert and engaged, other days he looks bored and agitated.

Last year and this year he wrote gushing stories about the broncos organisation from top to bottom and the football team / wayne bennett ... This week he writes that the club has underachieved and is a fortunate beneficiary of it's one-team-town status. WTF is it Gus?

He hates it when NRL games are stalled by video referee decisions, but he pans officials when they get decisions wrong. He hails Queensland and Suncorp Stadium as ground zero for rugby league passion, but he opposes the grand final ever being played there. He tears apart various aspects of the way the NRL is run and the officials who run it, but he refuses to ever put his hand up for a position within that organisation whereby he could actually influence any of the changes he wants.

I think the final exhibit would have to be Gould's twitter profile picture with Sonny Bill Williams. A current club administrator and chief antagonist of the 'defectors' during the Super League time, standing arm in arm with rugby league's worst individual defector of all time.

It all makes sense to Gus I guess...

 

[Huge]

Good post Bull Shark. For a long time I was confused about Gould. It is without doubt that he is knowledgable about the game but he is mentally erratic. In early years he was overwhelming anti Broncos up to the point that I think he started to fear for his safety in Qld. He was wildly unpopular in Qld and it was starting to affect his burgeoning media career. He then launched a charm offensive which papered over the cracks, at least for a short while. The big bloated slug is now and always has been anti Broncos. I disregard him and Hadley and generally find myself doing the commentary ,noticing things long before they do and mentally I have them tuned out. I think he may be a drinker or drug taker such are his mood swings.

 

[jarro65]

I think Goulds spray at the Broncos is more a spray at the NRL to be honest.

He's openly stated he's envious of how the Broncos organisation is run, and wishes his club (and no doubt others) could achieve the same levels of professionalism.

 

[subsbligh]

Yeah Gussy wants to be a statesman, in the mould of Bennett or Alan Jones, but he's just a bit too .... I dunno.

 

[Cult]

Yeah Gussy wants to be a statesman, in the mould of Bennett or Alan Jones, but he's just a bit too .... I dunno.

Spoiler

 

[Mosyzlak]

There's a difference between writing an article or appearing on a TV show and having a say to answering some questions on twitter. The content of his answer isn't as clearly written and much easier to take in multiple different ways.

That said, I used to despise Gus and so did most of my mates here in NSW. He changed sometime after QLD started their dominant run (related? likely not) and started to be more middle of the road regarding teams. He's more of a colour commentator now and I don't mind his chats with Rabs that remind me of a couple old blokes waiting at the bus stop, though sometimes they overlook the action for their banter.

We do have a financial advantage that we make good use of in our TPA's. As said above though, there's drawbacks to being the Broncos as well, so we're not running the race unfairly. Throw in the Storm cheating for 5 years (?) and that's a quarter of the 25 years.

Meh, it's twitter. It's made for off the cuff, poorly constructed remarks.