POST GAME Pre-Season - Broncs v Sunshine Coast Falcons

Surprised we still have gas in the tank after all that defending.

Much better quarter. Seems like Gale tearing into the players has worked.
 
We're done.

Some good performances but two concerns with BTK and Verhoeven.
 
Shame about an injury to Te Kura.
Wishing a speedy recovery.
He has shed his puppy fat and despite limited carries, looked different gravy out there.

Nice to see footy back. Bring on the WCC
 
Johnny92 said:
Coric was the standout for me, had abit of Webeke about him.
Unpopular opinion but thought Cassidy was better than Bukowski
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Very unpopular. Cassidy was pretty good against a tired Sunny Coast though, just Buks was arguably best on field.
 
Can't believe the LACK of love tupou Francis is getting. Thought he looks amazing! Especially being 18! Great work rate and hard hitting defence, little bit of out the back passing, hard runner. Beni Allen was aggressive too which was good to see but Josh coric was the smoky. Btk looks like he could be great but hes just too injury prone and their might come a time when we have to make a tough call with him if another club throws any sort of deal at him...

And geez, we can produce a dummy half. Cassidy looks the good as well. Thought bukowski was good but you can see why mozer has still got the jump on him l (so far!).

Hayze perham was very dissapointing but you can see he does have some good attributes to work with considering its his 1st game back from an acl. Duffy was dissapointing but wow he has a big boot on him, think he showed that hunt will be the back up 7 with a dummy half coming in considering our depth there.

Vernhoven looked class with limited opportunities (thanks kane bradley), coates looks like a poorer version of his brother (dropped catches and upright red zone running and all), Grundy looks ok.

All in all pretty dissapointing in attack but I was really impressed with their defence. Slowing the ruck, hitting and sticking, looked fit and composed.
 
Some positives that I took out of the game.
- The team looked fit… guys that did have fitness issues in the past looked hard as **** (BTK, Semu, Beni Allen)

- The up and comers looked our best, BTK, Semu, Francis, Nio, Buk, etc. thought Allen looked good too… it wasn’t so much the known depth (Dela, ect) or t&t players standing out and carrying the young guys with their experience… when the middle starters went off we looked a different team

- There was a period where we were rolling through the middle in yardage. It was a very meta style with Buk getting out nicely from dummy half, slightly engaging the markers, but he had a man on his hip taking it at speed and following it with a quick ptb. It’s a style that I think we’ve never really had, but is a way to dominate the ruck in attack and has been a cornerstone of storm, rorters and more recently sharks and dogs with their smaller mobile forwards. If the momentum gets fast enough it’s just a wave through the middle and the defence can never get off their line to slow it down. The issue in attack was when we tried to take it wide in the backline, but Buk had it humming in his second stint
 
Few positives, I thought the Coast would provide pretty physical opposition and that's how it ended up. In terrible conditions and against men for the first time thought it went pretty well.

Coric was strong on the back of his first Cup year and first NRL pre-season thought he showed his maturity-physically and mentally.

Gale same, showed why he's captain and always first shadow NRL forward. He would be close to the best defender in Cup with Coster.

I hate Verhoeven on the wing, I can't say that enough. Bradley kept swapping with him to try and get him in but it's not the same.

Francis showed a few glimpses of what Big Pete and I have been saying since Cyril last year. It's his first game against men and I thought he handled it at times. There was a play about 15 minutes in where he pulled Gale to his inside and Te Kura to his outside and sat himself in the middle between the two. Gale took the run then Francis took the next and tipped onto Te Kura. It showed great leadership Gale was captain and has played a lot of Cup, but Francis was happy to pull them around like a cranky veteran half.

Bukowski- I want someone to challenge him and push him beyond 25 minutes of football. I thought Ballin might push him tonight but didn't think he did. He throws a lovely pass; I have been saying for three years he throws the best pass at the Broncos. He needs to get better at throwing it under fatigue and defending. When Wynnum played him longer last year they and him improved.

Coates- Had a play in the first half where he went down on a rolling ball in the wet and copped knocks to the head. That's not a normal Coates play. He would never do that in Meninga. That's good to see. Del was with him all night and you could hear him chirping away and telling him what to do and when. Up Phil, Up Phil, don't turn in. Del would be the best for a young winger to work with.
 
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