Round 1 - Bulldogs vrs Broncos; Pre-Match Discussion

[noisetheory]

from that article above

“Obviously with Josh going into the halves, he isn’t a traditional five-eighth. But I don’t think we will be asking him to do what you might normally see from other five-eighths.

“In Josh and Benny Barba we have two legitimate strike weapons in attack and we want to use both of them to their full potential. Hook (Griffin) and the coaching staff have come up with a game plan and some different ideas which we think will do that.”

“Look, the Bulldogs showed there is a different style you can play which can still be very effective and hopefully we can do much the same,”

“We will be playing to our strengths and that is in our backrow where we have guys like Sam Thaiday, Corey Parker, Matt Gillett and Alex Glenn, who are all Test players and can really create a lot of second phase,”


hopefully they can execute this. its basically what we've wanted out of our side for 12+ months due to the lack of a genuine creative half. we can all remember the two games or so where we actually used hannant and thaiday in similar roles which worked really well then suddenly they went away from it again.

im actually quite excited about it in theory.

 

[Foordy]

I'm going to give the team the benefit of the doubt, even if I don't agree with some of the selections. I want to see them in action in a game that counts for something, before I start throwing all the toys out of the cot, especially because what I saw from them in the nines was totally opposite to what I saw in Dunedin (at least in defense).

I like seeing Thaiday where he belongs and I'm hopefull Gillett will be at his best at lock, where he doesn't have to do too much lateral work. Unlike some people say, he actually hits and tackles hard, but can be too easily beaten on the fringes. He proved this in the toughest arena last year during Origin!

As someone said, given the Dogs will have their big props starting from the bench, I can live with Kennedy and Hannant coming from the bench as well, otherwise there can be no justification for starting with Parker and McGuire (both relatively small) in the front row. Parker at prop under the circumstances is the least of my worries, as he does most of his work in the middle third of the field anyway.

Maranta will hopefully be just a bandaid until Kahu comes back at the very least, and hopefully Vidot will take advantage of this chance, and his brain will actually get in synch with his talent and body!

Hoffman at five-eight will only work if we do indeed spread the ball playing amongst our forwards, let Hunt and Macca do most of the organisation, and allow Barba and Hoffman to take advantage of broken play. I still think he is best suited for the wing though...

Regardless, If we win and win well, I expect the usual suspects to disappear from the forum (until we lose again).
If we lose and dish out the same crap as we did against the Warriors, everyone will be happy to know Hook's (and Kearney's) days will be counted.

What I can't and won't ever do, is death-ride my team to achieve the purpose of getting rid of Hook (or anyone else), or even just to be able to brag about being right!

One like of this post is not enough...it deserves like X 1000

 

[noisetheory]

i'm with porthoz.

 

[broncos4life]

porthoz porthoz porthoz porthoz

 

[Bucking Beads]

I'm afraid you can't sugar coat a turd and if Hook manages to he is a miracle worker. We've still got Gillett playing in the middle third of the field which could take away from his strengths. Hoffman at 6 is a joke. Has trained for one week in the 6. It reeks of doing it to stop Hoffman whinging. Maybe Hook has a game plan suited to his team.selections and if he does I'll gladly eat humble pie. I won't be eating humble pie after 1 win though.

 

[Porthoz]

It's okay and quite understandable to be sceptical Beads, I am too.

I liked what I saw during the nines, under the reservation that it was... Nines, and I've never been too worried about results during trials, although the game in Dunedin is definitely cause for concern.
But was it a combination of too much travel, complacency, Warriors on fire and smelling blood once they noticed their opponent wasn't doing the 1%'ers, etc...? I hope so!

I've always been the glass half full type, who will always be hopeful and supportive of the team and its members, and have never ever understood what purpose death-riding your team serves...
This doesn't mean I won't support the tough decisions in due time if need be!

 

[kingpest]

2 FUCKING SLEEPS!!!

 

[Sproj]

If we are not prepared to back one of our young halves, at least have one on the bench and slowly introduce them to first grade.

 

[Foordy]

If we are not prepared to back one of our young halves, at least have one on the bench and slowly introduce them to first grade.

I actually think they would be better off starting in the halves in QLD cup. I think playing on the bench has stifled Hunts development

 

[Tera]

Hey guys, just signed up - I was a fairly regular poster at rleague before that place went to shit so I know a few of you guys (such a Morkel) glad that I stumbled on this place, looks great!

Some absolutely baffling decisions, why Maranta is still in our jersey I will never know - zero broken tackles as a winger in the amount of games he played last year is totally unacceptable.

I'm apprehensive about Hoffman at #6, but I'm willing to give him a shot before I right him off. Even if he takes for of a running role akin to a Sutton (we all know Hoffman can break the line) I'd be quite happy.

All in all though, I'm just happy footy season is back and I'm quietly optimistic about our round 1 chances.

 

[Splinter]

Welcome aboard Tera

 

[Rabbir]

I fucking love this site.

It's true.

Just looking at our schedule the first 6 weeks

Bulldogs
Cowboys
Roosters
Dragons
Eels
Titans

We could be 3-3 or 4-2 at that stage and Griffin might stick with Hoffman for the majority of the season at 5/8th.

 

[noisetheory]

Some absolutely baffling decisions, why Maranta is still in our jersey I will never know - zero broken tackles as a winger in the amount of games he played last year is totally unacceptable.

not intending to target your post specifically, but im just getting sick of people whinging about maranta. accepting the fact that hoffman in the 6 is happening, there is simply no better choice on the wing than maranta right now due to injuries. mills is crap. others are injured.

regardless, welcome to the forum :)

 

[Super Freak]

Josh Reynolds in doubt apparently. I think he will definitely play, though.

 

[Tera]

not intending to target your post specifically, but im just getting sick of people whinging about maranta. accepting the fact that hoffman in the 6 is happening, there is simply no better choice on the wing than maranta right now due to injuries. mills is crap. others are injured.

regardless, welcome to the forum :)

Mills may be crap, but we know with 100% certainty that Maranta is beyond the pale of horrible. Why not play one of the guys we specifically signed (or so I thought) to keep Maranta out of the team?

 

[Bucking Beads]

not intending to target your post specifically, but im just getting sick of people whinging about maranta. accepting the fact that hoffman in the 6 is happening, there is simply no better choice on the wing than maranta right now due to injuries. mills is crap. others are injured.

regardless, welcome to the forum :)

I think we saw enough of Maranta last year to know a wheelie bin is a better option than him.

 

[Super Freak]

not intending to target your post specifically, but im just getting sick of people whinging about maranta. accepting the fact that hoffman in the 6 is happening, there is simply no better choice on the wing than maranta right now due to injuries. mills is crap. others are injured.

regardless, welcome to the forum :)

Matt Gillett showed more ability at wing than what Maranta has in his entire career. There are better options, but Griffin didn't want go for them.

Mills was crap because Mills is not a winger. They could've put him at centre, and Copley on the wing. There's a far better choice right there.

Even Drew would've been a better option.

 

[1910]

I'm afraid you can't sugar coat a turd and if Hook manages to he is a miracle worker. We've still got Gillett playing in the middle third of the field which could take away from his strengths. Hoffman at 6 is a joke. Has trained for one week in the 6. It reeks of doing it to stop Hoffman whinging. Maybe Hook has a game plan suited to his team.selections and if he does I'll gladly eat humble pie. I won't be eating humble pie after 1 win though.

He hasn't just trained there for a week.