NEWS Pre-season Challenge 2: vs COWBOYS, Sat Feb 18, 7:55pm

NRL Pre-season Challenge 2: COWBOYS - Feb 18, 7:55pm (Sunshine Coast)

Broadcast on Fox/Kayo only.

Broncos v Cowboys

Brisbane Broncos versus North Queensland Cowboys match centre includes live scores and updates. Includes official live player and team stats. Run metres, fantasy points scoring.

www.nrl.com

Broncos vs Cowboys | Sunshine Coast Stadium

Catch the NRL pre-season trial between the Broncos and Cowboys on Saturday 18 February.

www.sunshinecoaststadium.com.au

​

 

[1910]

Kick off moved to 7:55.

 

[Mr Fourex]

No gif? You must have been hacked.

The GIF I had in mind was a little XRated.

 

[Fitzy]

Look my thoughts are that it seems clear that Smoothy just isn’t getting that top 30 contract. Which is fair enough he hasn’t showed enough for us to have 4 hookers in the top 30 and he hasn’t done enough to strip Paixy and Walters of there combo which did enough to have us in the top 4 at stages last year. So his non-selection simply comes down to what do we get out of it if he can’t play till round 11? The NRL won’t be letting us get clearance to play Smoothy if Mozer is there and for which clearly he is now. Obviously I would prefer Smoothy chucked in the deep end but Mozer is a top 30 player and running with 4 hookers is pointless when if it comes down to mass unavailability the development player can play regardless what week it is. Whereas Sailor imo is playing far better footy and is on a train and trial so he is ineligible to play which when he covers both 6 and 1 when the halves are low in depth and the fullback position for mine he is probably the best option in terms of creativity, experience and reliability he is a must have in the squad. Sucks for Smoothy but he has come to the wrong club in my opinion but you never know we might be the only club.

 

[McHunt]

Smoothy has already played twice as has Sailor. They rotate them a bit during the preseason. As far as I am aware, no one is playing all three games.

Mariner

 

[Big Pete]

For the same reason Hodges didn’t play trials later in his career, I honestly see no value in playing Reynolds.

Lots to lose, barely anything to gain.

I'm pretty sure even Hodges would play trials when he was available. He played in the 2015 World Club Competition and also the 2013 trial vs. New Zealand.

It gives them an opportunity to dust off the cobwebs and coaches usually want a proper dress rehearsal before Round 1.

 

[Mustafur]

Not playing Smoothy is just strange. Him and Wendell Jnr are fighting it out for the last spot in the 30, but not even being given a crack.

Probably wants to see if Mozer can prove he is ready to jump to this level is my guess, and decide on which to pick on that, considering he is basically 1st choice backup Hooker ATM.

 

[BroncsFan]

Unless you're injured you'd be pretty pissed as a top 30 player to not get a game during the trials... like how far down the pecking order would you be to get no game time in the trials.

The only ones I can see from our top 30 with no trial time are Flegler and Kobe who are both injured.

 

[scobie]

I had a random thought watching the Titans trial when we had a couple of stupid errors on our goal line. Would a team ever be under instruction to come up with handling errors at some stage during a trial on their own line in order to have to defend multiple attacking sets? It sounds stupid even saying it out loud, but it's the only time you get to practice it in a game.

 

[easybreezy]

I'm pretty sure even Hodges would play trials when he was available. He played in the 2015 World Club Competition and also the 2013 trial vs. New Zealand.

It gives them an opportunity to dust off the cobwebs and coaches usually want a proper dress rehearsal before Round 1.

Agreed, particularly when Reyno is a spine player with a new FB and rotating hookers…I think working on those combos is important.

 

[something]

I had a random thought watching the Titans trial when we had a couple of stupid errors on our goal line. Would a team ever be under instruction to come up with handling errors at some stage during a trial on their own line in order to have to defend multiple attacking sets? It sounds stupid even saying it out loud, but it's the only time you get to practice it in a game.

I’ve thought about this sort of stuff as well. Certain players get instructed to make dumb errors at critical times , the rest of the team doesn’t know about it.

 

[McHunt]

I’ve thought about this sort of stuff as well. Certain players get instructed to make dumb errors at critical times , the rest of the team doesn’t know about it.

I had a random thought watching the Titans trial when we had a couple of stupid errors on our goal line. Would a team ever be under instruction to come up with handling errors at some stage during a trial on their own line in order to have to defend multiple attacking sets? It sounds stupid even saying it out loud, but it's the only time you get to practice it in a game.

They do that in the regular season.

 

[WASSHHH]

They do that in the regular season.

Yeh I was just going to say, we’ve had more than enough practice at this over the last few seasons.

For all the talent and potential our team has, they’ve unfortunately also got some basic errors at bad times and / or bad field position in them.

 

[HarryAllan7]

I was saying as I was watching the trial last week that there was absolutely NO reason Walsh should have still be on the field when he was.

Most of the other starters had gone off, Walsh had been involved in everything and shown that he was going to be a key part of our squad this year - there was absolutely nothing to be gained by keeping him out there.

Sure enough, he gets injured in meaningless game time and we might be without him for the start of the regular season. This is seriously common-sense absolutely basic and simple stuff that Kevvie continues to get wrong. There are too many of these sorts of oblivious, head-scratching mistakes for them to be coincidence.

During the telecast I think I recall a commentator actually say that Kevvie tried to substitute Walsh and that Walsh didn't want to come off... If that's the case then it's even worse. If our own coach can't even control his players and make a substitution then maybe Cobbo was right.

Season hasn't even started yet and I'm already even more convinced than last year that we need someone competent at the helm.

 

[Big Del]

there was absolutely nothing to be gained by keeping him out there.

Aerobic fitness .
Walsh plays on adrenaline . Would be hard to get his heart rate as high at training .

 

[IceWorks]

I was saying as I was watching the trial last week that there was absolutely NO reason Walsh should have still be on the field when he was.

Most of the other starters had gone off, Walsh had been involved in everything and shown that he was going to be a key part of our squad this year - there was absolutely nothing to be gained by keeping him out there.

Sure enough, he gets injured in meaningless game time and we might be without him for the start of the regular season. This is seriously common-sense absolutely basic and simple stuff that Kevvie continues to get wrong. There are too many of these sorts of oblivious, head-scratching mistakes for them to be coincidence.

During the telecast I think I recall a commentator actually say that Kevvie tried to substitute Walsh and that Walsh didn't want to come off... If that's the case then it's even worse. If our own coach can't even control his players and make a substitution then maybe Cobbo was right.

Season hasn't even started yet and I'm already even more convinced than last year that we need someone competent at the helm.

Seems like a nasty injury, Walsh is a small body and hope he can play a lot this year, Paps is another smaller body that seems to attract nasty injuries in the FB role.

I don’t think Kev is a visionary and thought leader, more along the lines of a nice guy :)

I don’t know if you can blame him for injuries though if there was a plan around game time and trials. But there has to be common sense as well, like you don’t get an injury prone player, like say Jack Bird.. to play FB after returning from injury.

 

[HarryAllan7]

Seems like a nasty injury, Walsh is a small body and hope he can play a lot this year, Paps is another smaller body that seems to attract nasty injuries in the FB role.

I don’t think Kev is a visionary and thought leader, more along the lines of a nice guy :)

I don’t know if you can blame him for injuries though if there was a plan around game time and trials. But there has to be common sense as well, like you don’t get an injury prone player, like say Jack Bird.. to play FB after returning from injury.

Aerobic fitness .
Walsh plays on adrenaline . Would be hard to get his heart rate as high at training .

Understand the logic behind trial games, but having Walsh come out in the second half to play against a bunch of mostly reserve graders in a totally meanginless game (of which there are several more to go to build a base fitness level) after he had just had a blinding first half seems ridiculous to me. He's not fighting for a spot in the team, he's not building connections with other first grade players, he's not even getting valuable game time because he's come into the start of the season underdone / out of shape / recovering from injury. He's a young kid who had just shown he doesn't need a tune-up in order to come out on fire and playing his natural game.

Obviously you can't say the injury is Kevvie's fault, but it was a stupid risk-reward decision and now we have to bear the consequences

 

[Big Del]

Seems like a nasty injury, Walsh is a small body and hope he can play a lot this year, Paps is another smaller body that seems to attract nasty injuries in the FB role.

I don’t think Kev is a visionary and thought leader, more along the lines of a nice guy :)

I don’t know if you can blame him for injuries though if there was a plan around game time and trials. But there has to be common sense as well, like you don’t get an injury prone player, like say Jack Bird.. to play FB after returning from injury.

Big or small don`t matter if you are getting knocked out like Paps .
The knee injury was a freak accident , little to do with his size .

If they were getting man handled and injured by bigger bodies I could agree . But Walsh clashed heads nothing to do with his stature causing more injuries .

 

[Thelmus]

Its just bad luck. We were always going to play him in a trial and its something that could have happened the first time he was tackled.
If he is out for a round or two so be it. Its a shame but is probably our position with the strongest depth, seeing as cobbo, farnsworth and staggs consider themselves capable, not to mention tristrian sailor who looked impressive in the last trial.