Pre-season

[Cult]

I went out on a limb in the past about Isaako and I think he is very under rated and has the ability to become a real fan favourite for Bronco supporters. I thought I saw something in him that most don't, on here at least.

I have made bum calls in the past and I'd blame no one if they thought my opinion is shit on this. My view is that maturity and a settled life will, over the next 24 months result in a genuine quality top grader. Note, didn't use superstar here but even that may be possible.

He’s not underrated. He’s rated exactly as good as he’s shown he is. He’s dropped catches that I’ve never seen anyone else drop before and put us under more pressure in the last two seasons than anyone else has. Any criticism of him is warranted

 

[Petch67]

He’s not underrated. He’s rated exactly as good as he’s shown he is. He’s dropped catches that I’ve never seen anyone else drop before and put us under more pressure in the last two seasons than anyone else has. Any criticism of him is warranted

Corey oates comes to mind

 

[WASSHHH]

I think a big thing Isaako needs to start doing before anything is just run hard. He is a big fella, but he always seems to hit the line quite timidly. If he can just keep things simple, organise the defense and just run hard he could still do very well at fullback for us in 2021.

With respect to being dominated in tackles; Isaako’s biggest problem is that he jumps into the line, so his centre of gravity is far too high, whilst he also has nothing on the ground to keep pushing himself forward. It infuriates me to watch.

Compare that to Tedesco who almost drags his ass across the ground when he runs and you can see why they couldn’t be more different in their ability to break tackles and make metres.

 

[Kimlo]

Good to see, keep it up.

Maybe they still think the music is blasting so all the players are still yelling.

 

[Wolfie]

With respect to being dominated in tackles; Isaako’s biggest problem is that he jumps into the line, so his centre of gravity is far too high, whilst he also has nothing on the ground to keep pushing himself forward. It infuriates me to watch.

Compare that to Tedesco who almost drags his ass across the ground when he runs and you can see why they couldn’t be more different in their ability to break tackles and make metres.

He needs to take a leaf out of Hunts book and just hit it with everything he has.

 

[_wwong]

He needs to take a leaf out of Hunts book and just hit it with everything he has.

I remember seeing Karmichael doing sprints one time with a tyre tied to his waist. Isaako should be doing these on a regular basis if not already.

 

[NSW stables]

“Keep the faith with us .. we are working hard and we are going to keep on working hard to bring this club back to the winning ways and we are going to redeem ourselves this season.”

What i have liked about the limited training footage i have seen is that kevie seems to have them playing unstructured footy games. Not only does this assist in game unstructured play communication/movement, but it breaks the hard work up and brings a bit of fun with training.

 

[ningnangnong]

I really hope as the season draws closer, we remain tight-lipped and don't go giving thousands of interviews each week about how great everything is.

The whole propaganda-fest last season was fucking shameful. We need to shut up shop and come out swinging in round one.

 

[broncos4life]

I really hope as the season draws closer, we remain tight-lipped and don't go giving thousands of interviews each week about how great everything is.

The whole propaganda-fest last season was fucking shameful. We need to shut up shop and come out swinging in round one.

This 100%. All I want to hear is “we are training hard and we will let our play do the talking”.

 

[Sproj]

As long as there is no Milford is training the house down, ready to deliver article I’m happy.

 

[HarryAllan7]

I agree with some of the sentiments here on Isaako.

People get all over him for not being a 'ball player', but neither are RTS or Tedesco - 2 of the premier fullbacks in the comp.

A big body with high effort, smart play, constantly supporting and sniffing around the ruck sounds like a good modern day fullback and I believe Isaako could replicate these things - not that he will, but I think he's capable.

I do agree his kick returns need some work, but I think he has the potential surprise some folks here if he gets some solid game time at the back with the distractions of last season out of the way.

 

[Sproj]

I agree with some of the sentiments here on Isaako.

People get all over him for not being a 'ball player', but neither are RTS or Tedesco - 2 of the premier fullbacks in the comp.

A big body with high effort, smart play, constantly supporting and sniffing around the ruck sounds like a good modern day fullback and I believe Isaako could replicate these things - not that he will, but I think he's capable.

I do agree his kick returns need some work, but I think he has the potential surprise some folks here if he gets some solid game time at the back with the distractions of last season out of the way.

But that’s the thing, when he played fullback, he was actually really good defensively but he offered absolutely nothing in attack. He didn’t pass, he didn’t run and he didn’t support play whatsoever. Hopefully Kevvie gets him doing at least support play and some kicking. The guy has an amazing boot, why we haven’t used that in general play is beyond me.

 

[pagey]

But that’s the thing, when he played fullback, he was actually really good defensively but he offered absolutely nothing in attack. He didn’t pass, he didn’t run and he didn’t support play whatsoever. Hopefully Kevvie gets him doing at least support play and some kicking. The guy has an amazing boot, why we haven’t used that in general play is beyond me.

You obviously missed the first 2 games last year, cause if i remember correctly he did all those things

 

[Sproj]

You obviously missed the first 2 games last year, cause if i remember correctly he did all those things

We might remember differently, I don't recall him doing anything other than the kick return. I don't think he is anything special but I do also think he has some weapons that he hasn't used, whether it be due to bad instructions or otherwise.

 

[HarryAllan7]

But that’s the thing, when he played fullback, he was actually really good defensively but he offered absolutely nothing in attack. He didn’t pass, he didn’t run and he didn’t support play whatsoever. Hopefully Kevvie gets him doing at least support play and some kicking. The guy has an amazing boot, why we haven’t used that in general play is beyond me.

I was impressed with Isaako in the first few rounds last year - but then I was also impressed with the rest of the team including Croft and Milford so....

 

[1910]

Nui is an interesting one, I wasn't too impressed this year until the last two months when he was moved to fullback. Against the Jets he got them back in the game by being on the ball. They started terribly and were behind but then he showed a lot of smarts to get them moving again. He came from the far right to the left to score his try.

Jets was his best game all year.

Queensland U18 he scored two tries, he got in some trouble with the intercept nearly getting run down by a prop and he was spoken to about that- just get over the line.

More impressive was his reaction for the Walsh try, he got the ball and created space for his team and moved it on.

Second try was skip to the outside and just burn the other centre, he just destroyed them with quick reaction.

Under 20 Origin his defence impressed me, didn't miss a tackle amongst the carnage of 36-10.

Take home message for me was he got better as the season went on and was better at fullback than centre and didn't drop his head in two awful teams Souths and Queensland 20's.

Tesi at centre is intriguing, his three best games out of his 15 ISC and two rep games two were at centre and one at fullback.

He looked confused at centre in 2019, just unsure and couldn't stay in games but he was at a God awful Souths team when he played centre for Queensland with Walker and James he looked really good- confident and sure of his role which Richards would have helped with too- Richards saw him as a fullback last year and he trained there all summer, they told Souths he was their fullback too.

When Souths released him to fullback late in 2019 he looked really good and got back to roaming around but roaming around isn't really NRL fullback play- he would need a lot more than that to play one.

Kevvie is taking those two games for Queensland as his centre best.

 

[pagey]

We might remember differently, I don't recall him doing anything other than the kick return. I don't think he is anything special but I do also think he has some weapons that he hasn't used, whether it be due to bad instructions or otherwise

I think you should take a look, he definitely did run ,backup and pass . He wasn't amazing but was definitely involved attack wise he had a try assist , line break assist and a try from backing up.

 

[jarro65]