POST MORTEM. Cowboys Broncs Grand Final.

[MrTickyM]

Hodgo was utter garbage in his last game but he was graceful in defeat for a change, i was impressed with him at the presser.

Bennetts tactics lost us the game, those tactics were good a decade ago, not today, we had their measure out wide but for some crazy reason Wayne decided to tell the boys to shut up shop and start kicking the ball dead, and Wayne knows he lost it for us thus the sour grapes, he was an embarrassment to the club in the presser with the golden point garbage, the entire RL community are laughing at his sour grapes and the broncos today.
Wake up to yourself Wayne and learn to lose with grace.

Wayne's tactics were 1 tackle away from winning us the game as well. You can play the blame game all you like but we literally could not have been closer to winning that game.

 

[Alec]

I agree that defending a 4 point lead with 30 minutes to go against a team like the Cowboys is probably a shit tactic. I would have played footy until like 10 minutes to play. I guess it once again shows the difference between the Jets and the rest of the sport.

 

[dtmtrano]

Great post, sums it up perfectly

In all honesty, I believe had we won... I'd put it down to a bit of luck especially the way we earnt our second try and how boyd got away with a knock on on our try line.

 

[dtmtrano]

Agreed. What annoyed me most about slowing the game down was the fact that we were less than a converted try in front. Teams who just try to hold on with a slender lead will always get what's coming to them.

The other thing that puzzles me is that the Cowboys had the tougher finals campaign. They're the ones that had to travel and play an extra game. We enjoyed the week off and had a perfect preparation. I thought slowing the game down in the second half and constant stoppages actually benefited them. Very strange tactics.

Agree. I think at that point, we were the more fitter team... We really shouldve utilised our mobility and agility through the likes of hunt, Milford, boyd, Glenn, etc. And one thing I do have to say is... Bennett did not trust our bench. Despite the intensity of the game at the 65th Min mark, I think it wouldve been worth the risk to have fresh legs such as Dodds or Nikorima out there; and then come 74th Min put on the experienced boys to close out the game. On a side note, I was somewhat disappointed with Boyd... He was rather below average

 

[Harry Sack]

I agree that defending a 4 point lead with 30 minutes to go against a team like the Cowboys is probably a shit tactic. I would have played footy until like 10 minutes to play. I guess it once again shows the difference between the Jets and the rest of the sport.

Wouldn't have had that big of an issue with the tactic if we were 6, or better yet 7, points ahead.

Regarding GP, Wayne has always had that view I believe so it's nothing new.

Golden Try is where it's at imo. 2 by 5min halves and whoever has the most points at the end of that wins. The only thing that can cut it short is a try.

 

[Allo]

I disagree. Oates has had front row seats to Morgan and Fergo burning Reed and Milf. Milf has been handling it better but Reed got burned by Fergo in the finals.

Oates has covered for him before.

This. Hard to blame Oates when Reed has gotten beaten fairly often. It's a fault with Reed's style. He lets his opposite get on his outside shoulder and causes doubt in Oates's mind as to whether he'll make the tackle. No matter how good a defender you are on the wing (and Oates is pretty good in a 1v1), you'll always get sucked in because you can't help it and your trained to help your teammate and not just stand there and let him get beaten.

BUT

we should've shut it down long before that.

 

[winslow_wong]

The team still hasn't fully moved on from the Lockyer factor. Lacked that class and leadership to get us home. It has happened to all clubs that have lost a once in a lifetime player. Eg the Knights. Cowboys will suffer too once Thurston retires. As will Melbourne. But at least we have light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[Unbreakable]

One thing I've gotta say about Milf, I really wish he would just back himself when he makes a line break, like at the Raiders he was thinking score first, score second, look for support third.. Now he seems to back off the accelerator and look for support every time he's in space. Just run it son, you're fucking quick.

 

[dtmtrano]

I was replaying the final 2 mins. You know the part where Ben hunt loses the ball after Milford loses it on his line break. Not sure it was a loose carry but I feel as though with the frenetic pace of the game everyone overlooked how linett mightve actually knocked the ball out of hunts hand... Thus making it a knock on??!!?? And thus our feed....??? Or did he just slapped hunts arm?

 

[jarro65]

This. Hard to blame Oates when Reed has gotten beaten fairly often. It's a fault with Reed's style. He lets his opposite get on his outside shoulder and causes doubt in Oates's mind as to whether he'll make the tackle. No matter how good a defender you are on the wing (and Oates is pretty good in a 1v1), you'll always get sucked in because you can't help it and your trained to help your teammate and not just stand there and let him get beaten.

BUT

we should've shut it down long before that.

Morgan actually ran a line that was inside Reeds shoulder (outside MILFS) so really Oates should've stayed put.

Reed was waiting for Morgan to commit before he came in to help with the tackle....knowing Oates was on his outside to take care of Feldt.

Anyway, it's all fisn'n'chip wrapping now .....

 

[Broncs1459]

Watching the replay and Kahu diffused some really difficult bombs. And his tackling is excellent. He should stay on the wing next year.

 

[Nashy]

Devastating loss, but it's hard to stay down about this loss. Wayne's presser summed it up for me. We went further than any 'expert' and even our own club believed possible. That was the first year of Hunt and Milf, the first year Hunt started kicking (lol...), and we lost our number 1 prop and fullback for extended periods.

Hold your heads high, this club is a force again. Those who want to get caught up with Little Brother / Big Brother. We have 4/5 since 95, so no, we are still the premier team in this state.

It makes it a little easier to swallow, knowing that both teams played the game, they played it well, they entertained, and at the end of the day, just like the lead up, your couldn't split the two.

It was amazing to be there, first all QLD final, first premiership to a team it's hard to hate, and an absolutely cracking game of football.

QLD showed NSW how to do it last night.

 

[Dash]

I was replaying the final 2 mins. You know the part where Ben hunt loses the ball after Milford loses it on his line break. Not sure it was a loose carry but I feel as though with the frenetic pace of the game everyone overlooked how linett mightve actually knocked the ball out of hunts hand... Thus making it a knock on??!!?? And thus our feed....??? Or did he just slapped hunts arm?

The strip on Hunt went backwards, but the one on Milford I thought was definitely forwards from the Cowboys player. Should have been 6 again, and no advantage. Broncos premiership. Unfortunately the referees missed it, and everyone else was too caught up in the Cowboys fairy tale to notice either.

 

[AceAv]

Well I'm not too bummed at all for losing.* Great game Cowboys. It was always going to come down to the wire I felt.

I don't think Bronx should be moping around too long for losing. In all honesty it felt like we were already champions forging our dynasty and no matter what happened on grand final day. We were still walking away winners.

For those feeling gutted or crushed. My advice is to find a positive for every defeated thought. Look at the year as a whole and all the exhilarating achievements we've made. Don't play they blame game and laugh at any insecure haters trying to get under your skin. We beat every team this year. Deal with it!

Ignore hindsight. What iffing and I just wish this/that... Will lead to an early aneurysm.

We lost, but who cares? We made it to the grand final and the club has an amazing future. Be happy with that and don't place so much importance on the concept of 'winning'. I know the players if they want to win it shouldn't adopt this mentality of content, but as a fan that realises how unbelievably hard it is to win a grand final; I accept that we can't always win it and relish in the achievements that come from a result of wanting to get as close as we can to the prize..

Weel be better for that loss. We played very well, but the game plan and series of misplays didn't work out for us. We will learn..

I have total faith the players will be hungrier next year and won't lose sight of their goals.

Thanks for a wonderful season broncos. Going to miss you next week.

 

[CLYDESDALE]

Wayne's tactics were 1 tackle away from winning us the game as well. You can play the blame game all you like but we literally could not have been closer to winning that game.

Mate we were walking through them out wide early on, we should have actually beat them by a few tries but they pulled stumps 40 minutes early and decided to slow the play by every means possible including kicking it dead when the should have, we should have been attacking a tired and worried cows, it was a throw back to the 80s and it didnt work for Wayne, the Cows wernt at their best today, in fact they were pretty damn poor.
Im a huge Bennett fan, but he fecked up today.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Just got home after the long drive - radio and all talk of football banned. The pain has dulled just a tad.

This game never ceases to amaze me how quickly you can go from elation to devastation, I said after the game that it'll go down as one of the great ones but that hardly matters.

The missus said to me on the way home, "I'm glad you don't have Facebook", she has since told me Hunt has copped a mighty bagging. The keyboard warriors can go suck a fat one - we don't get this far without him and he is a massive part of our future.

I recorded the game but can't see myself watching it again - the last try was just on the news and that was bad enough.

So proud of my team - if you had have said at the start of the year that we've got the talent to go to the GF, I would have called you "optimistic". They're still young and have a lot of improvement in them.

Never want to experience losing a GF again but at least it was against the Cows and not some scummy team.

Someone else has mentioned ANZ, absolutely pathetic. Tried to get something to eat before Chisel and they couldn't keep the food up to the queues - also ran out of cokes and water where I was and this was before the main game. My son actually had to give a fiver to a bloke in the beer queue and ask him to get him a water (thanks dude, whoever you were).

 

[pennywisealfie]

****!

I'm still devastated. Every time I think "oh well there's next year" I think there was fucking this year as well and we fucking had it. ****!

 

[dingus]

Totally agree. There were so many times where boyd or Milford were held down and refs awarded nothing. Whereas players such as linnett were milking it by performing the old ground humping trick. It was as though Sutton was obliged to honour favouritism of the cowboys..