Our realistic chances?

[Mr Fourex]

I was bitterly disappointed when we resigned him.

 

[Coxy]

I'm a massive critic of Wallace, but dumping him would achieve nothing (unless as you suggest it could be with DCE as replacement, but that ain't gonna happen). As up and down as he can be, he's shown that he can do it at this level. Norman hasn't. Hunt hasn't. So we can't get rid of him, not now, and not for next season.

 

[Mr Fourex]

I'm a massive critic of Wallace, but dumping him would achieve nothing (unless as you suggest it could be with DCE as replacement, but that ain't gonna happen). As up and down as he can be, he's shown that he can do it at this level. Norman hasn't. Hunt hasn't. So we can't get rid of him, not now, and not for next season.

Norman and Hunt against Canberra early in the season showed they CAN do it........I for one would at least like to see what would happen if we were to expand on that.

 

[Anonymous person]

Wallace isn't going anywhere. the broncos have, for better or worse, invested far too heavily in him to take the 7 off his back. he's either 7 or out of the entire team, and they're not about to do that.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Norman and Hunt against Canberra early in the season showed they CAN do it........I for one would at least like to see what would happen if we were to expand on that.

That was against Canberra and we know how good they are. As far as I am concerned anything you say about Wallace is tainted by a clear bias.

 

[noisetheory]

canberra werent going too badly earlier in the season. regardless of who it was against the hunt+norman pairing in that game looked dangerous. we actually looked threatening in attack. has wallace ever looked threatening in attack?

i would like to see hunt + norman + macca all on the field at the same time. norman has got it in him to be a good player but at the moment its just not happening and i dont see it working with wallace.

i think we (griffin) needs to be prepared to try something a little different. its not too late in the season. im going to go insane by the end of the year if we continue this 'hope it works this week' approach, to get the same results we keep seeing at the moment.

 

[Coxy]

Wallace himself is only threatening if he has runners working off him. Both because he works well with them, and when the defence is watching the runners gaps open up for him, and he's a good runner of the football when there's an opportunity.

Unfortunately none of our extremely talented back row is running good angles/lines, our fullback is next to useless when he chimes in so the defence don't worry about him, and our centre/winger are almost in line with eachother so the defence rushes up on the centre knowing full well the play will shut down.

That means the inside defence can rush up on Wallace and we've got nothing.

I'm not saying Wallace is great. He's a very average, solid player without anything spectacular. But that just means he needs the other players contributing to confusion in the defence. He's not getting that, and so he's trying shit which he's not capable of and it's rubbish.

I don't think Hunt would do any better with the shit going on around him.

Someone needs to tell the players where to stand, where to run and when to run. Locky was that man. Karmichael used to be another. Nobody in the team now is.

 

[Mr Fourex]

Someone needs to tell the players where to stand, where to run and when to run. Locky was that man. Karmichael used to be another. Nobody in the team now is.

That's right !!

and who should be???

Peter Wallace should be ...that's who!!

It's the same old Wallace when Locky was still playing. In the games when Lockyer was injured or had origin duties, the young guys needed someone to lead them around the park. That was Wallaces job

he failed miserably then and he's failing miserably now.

Coxy nailed it when he said "He's a very average, solid player without anything spectacular.". That's all Wallace is and that's all Peter Wallace will ever be

and to beads (and I'm sure porthoz is lurking out there too) the only bias/agenda I have is that Brisbane won't succeed with Peter Wallace as our half. That's it. Fullstop!

I haven't once said ditch him altogether. Last year when McC was not looking like he was going to make it I wanted to put Wallace at 9. I still think he's a better 9 than he is a halfback (although his passing game of late has gone to shit as well. I've lost count of how many of his passes either miss the mark or dribble hopelessly along the ground). Unfortunately for Wallace, McC can play good footy and is becoming more consistent in his approach to the game.

Wallace could still be good value coming off the bench......he has a very good defensive game and could provide good relief for either Hunt or McC when need be.

It's at least worth a try FFS.......what we have now is getting worse. Not better.

 

[noisetheory]

That's right !!

and who should be???

Peter Wallace should be ...that's who!!

agreed.

 

[rnabokov]

I'm a massive critic of Wallace, but dumping him would achieve nothing (unless as you suggest it could be with DCE as replacement, but that ain't gonna happen). As up and down as he can be, he's shown that he can do it at this level. Norman hasn't. Hunt hasn't. So we can't get rid of him, not now, and not for next season.

It's that very fact that is such a piss off. He can play a blinder (well, by Wallace standards) one week then goes MIA for a few weeks. Doesn't anyone in the coaching team talk to him about this?

Same applies to Norman in a way. He has done some excellent things this season which shows he has the ability.

And as for support play ... so what gives here?

If a player consistently fails to listen and respond to constructive coaching, he deserves to be dropped.

If Wallace and Norman are not being spoken to week in and week out about their failure to set up plays, and ditto the rest of the team about support play, then the coaching staff need to be talked to.

From an article the other day in the Sydney Morning Herald about Hasler's method, which I admire, and which I think explains both Manly last year, and the Dogs this year. As someone posted earier, the Dog's halves individually are nothing special, as are a number of their players, individually, but as a team, well...

"The 51-year-old former school teacher is renowned for his attention to detail, and he uses the training footage to help his players understand exactly what he wants them to do in certain situations during a match and perfect set plays.

On the training field, Hasler likes to divide the ground into grids so the players know where they should be at all times, particularly in defence."


http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...-play-book-lifts-bulldogs-20120719-22d5m.html


Sounds to me that structure something like this is something Hook has achieved in defence, but now its time to do the same with the attack.

 

[Jeba]

Someone needs to tell the players where to stand, where to run and when to run. Locky was that man. Karmichael used to be another. Nobody in the team now is.

This. 1000%. Even Shane Perry was that man at one stage despite having next to no playmaking skills. Advantage was that in that season he had Locky to compensate for that, but Wallace doesn't have that advantage with Norman as his partner so he finds himself having to do too much IMO. There's great halfbacks that can handle that but Wallace isn't talented enough unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Wallace fan but he can't win a Premiership on his own, which he's forced into trying to do at the moment.

Also, I'm really disappointed with Thaiday at the moment.

 

[Coxy]

I've been disappointed with Thaiday all season. He's been in poor form, obviously hampered by a variety of injuries (groin earlier, and shoulder now) but I don't see any sign of leadership from him out there.

IMO Corey Parker is the defacto captain out there. Leads by example, and you can see him giving players a rev up and stuff in back play.

I thought at the time Sam's selection as captain was questionable. I don't see anything that makes me think he should be the captain.

 

[Fozz]

I don't think we'll go far in the finals, which is disappointing because I think we could match it with the top sides if everything clicked.

 

[Alec]

That's right !!

and who should be???

Peter Wallace should be ...that's who!!

Well technically Wallace is a halfback, and Norman is the 5/8th, the 2nd receiver...the one who should be organising the backline movements.

 

[Bull Shark]

As broncos supporters we're used to having competitive sides to support every season, but for a long time now I've been frustrated and a bit disillusioned by how passive the club has been in terms of putting teams on the park that are REALISTIC AND GENUINE shots at the premiership .. I realise that is going to be subjective to a lot of people, but to me there's been maybe one team, one year since 2000 that I considered the Broncos genuine titles shots (relative to what the other top teams of the time had).

We've seen a long list of really good players come and go from the club over the past decade (and in some cases, come back again) but the times at which they've entered and exited just hasn't allowed the Broncos to have all the right pieces together at the right time, for a prolonged time.

I'd never accuse the club's football department of not trying, but its frustrating to see so much talent transition out of the joint just as they seem to be hitting their straps in Brisbane. Obviously it's impossible to keep everyone you want nowadays but I defy anyone to name another club that has shed such a list of top players over the last seven or eight years as Brisbane has.

So we keep stripping back and stripping back to a point now where we've got the youngest squad in the NRL, which is great as long as you don't just "pick and stick" for the sake of it ... Are the broncos willing to get proactive in the player market and add the couple of crucial pieces to the puzzle that this current group NEEDS to go from where it is now, to a comp contender ?? Other clubs seem to be doing everything in their power to give themselves the best possible chance of the ultimate success ..

Is Brisbane ?

 

[Kimlo]

Well I was against Thaiday as captain from the start. I always wanted Parker to get the captaincy and to his credit he hasn't let it get to him, he's been fantastic this year.

 

[Alec]

Ref: Sam, it's your penalty, what do you want to do?
Sam: I have no idea...let me get Andrew McCullough for you.
Griffin: ....this man is truly captain material.

 

[Old Mate]

No....not by a long shot. He couldn't do it even with Locky holding his hand let alone a 20yr old rookie in Corey Norman

and moving towards next year with this, the Hunt and Norman halves partnership should be revisited and Wallace should be benched. Starting ASAP......

It's either that or we really have to start laying on some gravy to entice "someone else" to Brisbane. I wonder if we even tried with DCE when he was flip flopping with his Manley contract at the start of the year?

All doom and gloom aside, I think Brisbane have had a successful year. Not too many would have given us a chance pre-season of even making the semis. I still have faith in Anthony Griffin and with the bulk of the younger playing group having future success.......

Go the Broncs !!!

You want to bench our most experienced half who has been going great all year and who is only now starting to quieten a bit?

The problem is Norman and the Hoff, although we can remedy it by simply playing Hunt in the halves with either Beale or Norman at fb, Norman is the long term option but we should go Beale if we want to have a serious crack in the competition, Hoff can play wing and still do exactly, EXACTLY what he has all season which is take a few jittering runs or rove a bit.