POST MORTEM. Cowboys Broncs Grand Final.

[abashii]

There's no shame in being beaten by a better team after giving your all, but there's also no joy in it. I just want to sit in a dark room by myself all day. God knows how the players feel, empty but full of loss and covered with bruises. If anyone goes to the Broncos leagues to welcome them back today please put in an extra loud cheer for me. The poor bastards deserve it.

 

[Morkel]

Denan Kemp of FB said that Wayne's half time instructions were kick deep and chase.

 

[Sproj]

Well...someone is in a lot of trouble from the boss. If that is the case, it will certainly teach them to listen to the guy who knows what he's doing in the future.

 

[bazza]

As the saying goes, "you learn more from a loss than a win", rings quite true here in my opinion. To be fair, we over exceeded expectations. We over achieved by even making the grand final.

As much as I hoped that we'd win, we were not ready to win a premiership in my opinion. We have young players, who are still learning and winning the premiership wouldn't have done much for their progression as much as a loss will do. They will learn all from this.

We still have a bit to go to be genuine premiership favourites, and by winning, I dare say we wouldn't really fix the glaring weaknesses in our game. We did a great job this year, but by coming so close, and losing after pretty much having one hand on the trophy will make the team work harder to fix the obvious faults in our game to ensure we are a better overall team.

We pretty much won most of our games on desire and pure will, which is great, but it just hides the things were not doing as well as other teams. At least we now know this team has great determination, desire and courage, but to go the next level, we have to improve certain areas. Fix those things and we are the real deal.

 

[rnabokov]

Denan Kemp of FB said that Wayne's half time instructions were kick deep and chase.

Well that's interesting. Wonder why Macca and Hunt kicked for touch with monotonous, clockwork like regularity? Sounds like they were under instructions for it happen like that? As one of the commentators said, I think it was Lewis, for some reason, we just failed to kick in a way which put the Cowboy's line under constant pressure. We let them off the hook and paid the price.

I also still can't get Milford's "look" out of my head when he got the ball, looked around and saw nothing happening in terms of support play and combinations with a few, very few, notable exceptions, our 1st try being one of them.

Either way, I still feel the same. We lost it because we seemed to depart from the specific game plan which saw us get to the GF in the 1st place, and slowing down the game for most of the 2nd half wasn't part of that plan.

Still, we exceeded all expectations this year and 2016 will be ours. For mine, this year was and will be JT's one and only moment of GF glory. I just feel gutted for Hodges. Next year, in part, we make it up to him.

 

[dtmtrano]

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.

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..

 

[winslow_wong]

At least the players and fans can and should be pumped up for next season. I know I can't wait for 2016 now. Hunt has a long way to go to reach Cronk and Thurston levels. He will get there soon too. Bennett himself predicted 3 years. The worst and saddest part of the loss was not sending hodges out with another ring.

 

[Bull Shark]

To all at BHQ, want to say I'm sorry (and very embarrassed) for posting the rubbish I did immediately after the game last night ... extreme disappointment and alcohol got the better of me.

 

[Dexter]

I just wonder how much last week had to do with Oates decision to come off his wing last night. Reed being burned twice by Funguson may have been the deciding factor after playing all season with so much confidence that the inside players would make the ground and the tackle.

 

[Cult]

I just wonder how much last week had to do with Oates decision to come off his wing last night. Reed being burned twice by Funguson may have been the deciding factor after playing all season with so much confidence that the inside players would make the ground and the tackle.

None, Oates comes off his wing all the time..

 

[K-Style]

None, Oates comes off his wing all the time..

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.

 

[broncos4life]

To all at BHQ, want to say I'm sorry (and very embarrassed) for posting the rubbish I did immediately after the game last night ... extreme disappointment and alcohol got the better of me.

No need for apologies mate, last night was emotion charged and getting that invested into it is what makes you a good supportor. All good.

 

[Stix]

I know 'there is always next year' But when you get that deep into the finals we are reminded just how hard it is to even make it to the GF... it's been a long time between drinks for us and I can't shake the feeling that THAT was our shot...and they blew it big time. I do a lot of marlin fishing on the GBR and sometimes after a long hot day, when it's late in the arvo and you get the bite out of the big girl you've been weighting for only for it to fall off... And you know THAT was it THAT was the one.... Someone always says'theres always tomorrow' GUTTED

 

[uptheguts]

Still in deep mourning ,so near yet so far. Congratulations to all the boys for giving it all they had. Did anyone else think Hunt knocked that ball back ?

 

[MrTickyM]

Still in deep mourning ,so near yet so far. Congratulations to all the boys for giving it all they had. Did anyone else think Hunt knocked that ball back ?

Every time I see the replay I think it's a knock back, but if it looks messy it will always be considered a knock on. Not sure how we got away with Boyds tbh.

 

[CLYDESDALE]

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.

 

[CaptainHook]

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....??

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.

 

[ccfcdownunder]

As the saying goes, "you learn more from a loss than a win", rings quite true here in my opinion. To be fair, we over exceeded expectations. We over achieved by even making the grand final.

As much as I hoped that we'd win, we were not ready to win a premiership in my opinion. We have young players, who are still learning and winning the premiership wouldn't have done much for their progression as much as a loss will do. They will learn all from this.

We still have a bit to go to be genuine premiership favourites, and by winning, I dare say we wouldn't really fix the glaring weaknesses in our game. We did a great job this year, but by coming so close, and losing after pretty much having one hand on the trophy will make the team work harder to fix the obvious faults in our game to ensure we are a better overall team.

We pretty much won most of our games on desire and pure will, which is great, but it just hides the things were not doing as well as other teams. At least we now know this team has great determination, desire and courage, but to go the next level, we have to improve certain areas. Fix those things and we are the real deal.

Great post, sums it up perfectly