POST MORTEM. Cowboys Broncs Grand Final.

[pennywisealfie]

Yesss this was the most vital one out them all. Had he hung on.. Wouldve had the ball to boot it out. Slow it down to pack scrum with probably 30 seconds left of the game 

****, so many things that keep running through my mind and I can't stop. I still think about 2008 and fucking hate it, imagine how bad this is going to be. I will never get over it. We were one fucking tackle away from P7 and some bullshit play gets pulled on us ****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why do we make ourselves feel this way? It makes me feel like I should just stop watching. I know I won't, because I love this team too much, but I really should give it up. The way we lost that, it's so hard to see us winning ever again. :(

 

[Unbreakable]

Yeah I had fucking nightmares last night about this fucking game, ****. Why did we let Thurston and Morgan have so much fucking room to move on that last play, just rush up on them, it was like a 4 on 2 down the right side..

 

[subsbligh]

Arfgh. Just so fucking empty right now. And hungover to boot.

How many times have teams learnt it's an 80 minute game? There's a lot of what ifs but I think it's too unhealthy to think about them now.

My first GF live. Man ANZ is a shit hole. Their process for getting food and drinks is archaic compared to Suncorp - 1 server taking order, making order then taking payment.

 

[Waynesaurus]

Well after a sleep I actually feel more annoyed about the manner of the loss this morning than I did last night..... which is unusual for me.

We weren't at the top of our game but we still had them beat, they needed not just one error but a series of errors to fall into place to produce the 'fairytale' for the 'sentimental' favorites. All topped off with the bullshit CC medal going to Thurston.

Its feels as if we were sacrificed for the good of our game, bent over the trophy and farked up the ass for rugby league, QLD, the NRL and the eternal whingers that are the Cowboys.

 

[ningnangnong]

I can't even bare thinking about it, yet it's all I can think about.

So many 'what ifs'.

I'm like penny - I don't think I'm ever going to get over this... maybe the next time we win the GF I might.

 

[ningnangnong]

I was also thoroughly disappointed with how early we shut up shop and just tried to grind out the result with the kicking for touch at the end of essentially ever set from the 60th minute onwards.

The whole way we went about it was dreadful. We were gaining about 10 metres with those kicks for touch, and it's not like they were wasting any time, maybe 10 seconds at most whilst the Cowboys packed their scrums. Sure we had the chance for a short reprieve to catch our breath, but all we were doing was creating more defensive work for ourselves. We stopped playing like we have all season and tried that shit, and that's where it all came undone IMO.

I don't think it would have impacted too much on the result, but I absolutely agree with others that the Cowboys were lying on us for a fucking eternity in the ruck. There was one set not long after Jarrod Wallace was penalised in the first half for holding down or something like that, where the Cowboys put in a second effort on every tackle. It was fucking obvious to all and sundry around me, yet nothing was blown. But whatever, that shit has happened to us all fucking season, so it's no surprise.

 

[Battler]

At least with the rwc on the media will stop reminding us of the horror soon.

Edit: **** day light savings.

 

[Je$ter]

Refereeing didn't cost us the game fellas. Hate to break it to you but when you shut up shop with 30 mins to go you kinda get what you deserve, I reckon...

This. You can't kick for touch for half an hour and give the ball back cheaply and expect to win. I can't remember an attacking kick in the second half from Brisbane?

 

[Culhwch]

This. You can't kick for touch for half an hour and give the ball back cheaply and expect to win. I can't remember an attacking kick in the second half from Brisbane?

Nope. We either ended sets around the fifty and kicked it out, or occasionally had good field position and muffed it somehow.

The inconsistent reffing bugged me but as has been said it didn't cost us the game. We should have won in spite of that. I have to assume the players were executing Bennett's game plan, but man that was a terrible plan.

The only thing keeping me going right now is the hope is not another nine years until we get another chance.

 

[winslow_wong]

It is strange that hunt kicked so many bombs during the year but then didn't kick one in the second half. Imagine the pressure the Cowboys back 3 would have been feeling in the last 10 mins. Kicking for touch made it easier for them

 

[Unbreakable]

2015 -

Dally M Medal - Johnathan Thurston
Dally M Halfback of the Year - Johnathan Thurston
Dally M Captain of the Year - Johnathan Thurston
Provan-Summons Medal - Johnathan Thurston
RLPA Player of the Year - Johnathan Thurston
Golden Boot - Johnathan Thurston (99.9% chance)
State of Origin Winner - Johnathan Thurston
Grand Final Winner - Johnathan Thurston
Clive Churchill Medal - Johnathan Thurston

I guess this guy's pretty good

 

[abashii]

We were only just pipped at the post by a great team lead by a future immortal who has spent the entire season practicing how to pull games out of the fire through sheer willpower. Against any other team in the comp either us or the Cowboys would have won by 20+.

Thurston has been driven all year haunted by the failings of the last few years. Now he's sated and Hunt and Milford and the rest of the boys know that feeling, and boy howdy will they play like demons next year. With Moose and Gavet fit plus the addition of one or two young guns I really think this team will get it over the line in 2016.

So I'm feeling just kind of empty, disappointed but proud at the same time. And it doesn't feel it at the moment, but there is something to take away from being very narrowly beaten by a team chock full of talent and lead by the best player in the game. Things will only get better for us from here.

 

[Sproj]

I think this thought sums it up: Boy it is hard to be at work today.

 

[LittleDavey]

Yeah I had fucking nightmares last night about this fucking game, ****. Why did we let Thurston and Morgan have so much fucking room to move on that last play, just rush up on them, it was like a 4 on 2 down the right side..

5v3. I've watched that on replay a hundred times thismorning. We covered that play every game all fucking year. Oates had to stay on his man and trust the guys coming through on the inside. That's it. The whole season came down to that defensive misread. Fucking gutted.

At least I'm not the only one who dreamt it all fucking night too lol. Goddamn. I feel terrible thismorning. This is worse than an Origin loss, by far. So empty, to lose it like that.....we outplayed them even though we were a shadow of the team who played last week. We went away from our game plan which had got us to where we were. That was disappointing. And even at a canter, we had them beaten until one defensive misread by poor Oates on the final siren.

We didn't get a penalty in the second half, either. Not one. I can't blame the refs for the loss because we still should have had it locked up, but we did not get any favours either. Milford copping Tamou's swinging forearm. Boyd getting Coote's elbow to the head. Apparently attacking the head is ok in a GF? And after all the talk about what a spectacle the first final between us was, how fast and lively, the refs did a remarkable job of letting the Cows set a slower pace. If we got one of the penalties we deserved in their half in the second half, it would have put us 6 points in front, and we win when Thursto botches the kick. **** sake.

Absolutely devastated. But trying hard to look to next year (and my thoughts on that are in the 2016 thread). All the young blokes have been there and done it now, and that experience is only gained by getting to the big one. We won't drop the next one ;)

 

[Morkel]

**** this shit. I feel worse. Do yourselves a favor and don't watch the replay. It just brings back how fucking unbelievable it was for us to let in that try, which in any other situation just ends up with a thousand Broncos pushing the Cowboys player in to touch, with all the boys going stacks on, Hodges being lifted in glory as a truly deserved premiership-winning captain. Thurston could have had his glory next year. We'll never, ever get this back. One fucking tackle and history goes in a completely different direction, and no matter how many times in my head I play it back it'll never change.

 

[Sproj]

As much as it hurts, you know it is an epic good game when one bad play in the last seconds of an 80 minute thriller loses you the comp. As much as it hurts, that is what GFs should be.

 

[Mr Fourex]

I just watched the presser .......not one of those useless journos questioned WB's tactic of slowing the game down with 30 mins to go.

Would have been the first thing I would have asked. WTF Wayne....??

 

[Harry Sack]

I think I might get drunk today.