Went to the game. Skipped through the replay this morning. Haven't read the comments here.
Few thoughts:
1. No one was bad. No major complaints. But no one was great either.
2. Carrigan is a beast. Best on the field, but would like to see his attacking game grow. Which it will.
3. Gutsy effort across the park, but we won't survive the season on guts alone. We need to be smarter in attack, otherwise we'll burn out defending, like last year. We looked as rudderless as we did under Seibold at times. Piakura kicking ffs.
4. Cobbo is not a fullback. Looked gassed halfway through the first half. Still 2 parts klutz, 1 part freak. Needs more ball than he gets on the wing. I would move him to centre.
5. Mixed bag from our top centres. Staggs, did little with the ball. Got found out by Holmes. Farnworth, back to his old tricks. I'll cop shit for this, but I'd switch him with Cobbo. He still plays like a winger. Actively avoids creating overlaps for his outside man. Here's an example (start 48:57 in):
NRL Preseason Trials 2023 Round 2 Broncos v Cowboys Full Match Replay
www.nrl.com
6. If Herbie's on the wing, and Selwyn's at centre, I'd be close to elevating Mariner into the other centre. I don't know what to do with Staggs, but something's not working. How many weeks will we give him?
7. Madden and Mam, undecided. Lot to like there - skills - but looked a little overwhelmed. Can definitely get by with Madden in for Reynolds but someone will need to steer the ship. It won't be either of these two. Not yet, anyway.
8. Riki, as ever, one of our best in defence, but his dudded try, backchatting and dumb appeal suggest to me he cares too much about his statistics. If you drop him because of one of his statistics he might only get worse.
9. I think Taupau might turn out to be the buy of season. We need more raging bull. Warren Smith clearly didn't watch his pronunciation video.
10. Last, the hookers. On the plus side, Billy has a lovely long flat spiral pass, something Macca lacked. On the minus, he telegraphs every move, makes aimless meandering runs, and generally doesn't look threatening. Paix looked like an immediate upgrade but again, not the guy with the keys. Whatever. Neither are terrible, but they're uninspiring. Could argue all day over them, but both thoroughly overshadowed by Robson. Maybe with Walsh and Reynolds barking orders it won't matter.
Mozer: looks like the real deal to me. Immediately got the pack on the roll, with decisive passes in front of the man, and a general game awareness we haven't seen in a hooker for a long time. Looked a little lost and overwhelmed a few times, but settled in as the game wound down. Probably needs more time in QCup, but I'd be tempted to bring him off the bench now if one of the other hookers (I don't care, but I'd choose Paix) could play more than 40 minutes.
