Round 1 - Bulldogs vs Broncos - Post Match Discussion

[Big Pete]

Good video evidence SF.

No doubt on the first opportunity. Only excuse he has is that it was in the first six minutes of his first ever first grade game in that position. Hopefully the Broncos are onto it and make an effort to rectify it on training.

Second one is iffy. Reed gave him no other option but the cut-out pass which would have been risky in that situation. If he throws it and Corey Thompson pulls a Hurrell, Hoffman would become the enemy of the state.

 

[Porthoz]

Our scrambling defence was good but the dogs still made huge metres. We won't be able to hold out better sides defending like we did last night.

Nah, we made more metres than them. It just looked bad because we weren't getting anywhere with our kicking game and the Dogs were starting their sets from a good position.

But we need to control the ruck better, and wrap the ball up in the tackles, because we are being raped by offloads!

 

[rnabokov]

Good video evidence SF.

No doubt on the first opportunity. Only excuse he has is that it was in the first six minutes of his first ever first grade game in that position. Hopefully the Broncos are onto it and make an effort to rectify it on training.

Second one is iffy. Reed gave him no other option but the cut-out pass which would have been risky in that situation. If he throws it and Corey Thompson pulls a Hurrell, Hoffman would become the enemy of the state.

I don't think the 2nd vid is iffy at all.

The critical moment for mine was when Hoffman drew 2 defenders to him, and Reed was in a good position, unmarked with their winger moving towards him, to take the pass and either (worse choice) try to score himself, or better choice, draw the winger and pass to an unmarked Vidot for a certain try.

Hoffman has neither instinct or vision. That was for mine a certain try bombed by his obsession with trying to beat the defence with what he thinks is his deadly foot work and speed, instead of decisively summing up the situation and passing the fucking ball.

Any of the better 5/8's would have waited for the 2nd defender to move towards him, thereby shifting his balance inside, and then immediately passed outside to Reed while Reed had some room to move and could easily set up Vidot.

As well, by running, and keeping on running the angle too far towards the side line, Hoffman negated any chance of any room for Reed and Vidot.

As for P's comments, I totally agree. Our defence sucks big time, most of the time (but not all) anywhere but in our red zone where our scrambling defence is very effective. Their offloads, and the room we gave their halves to run and time to think nearly cost us a match we clearly had won at half time.

 

[Big Pete]

Reed's standing too flat to do anything with that pass though other than a bat on, which going by a previous example where Barba played short to him, wouldn't have ended nicely.

Better to live and fight another day as that set proved.

 

[Ari Gold]

I think the 2nd one is a pretty good opportunity. Freeze it at 6 seconds and you can see Stanley standing on the numbers, while Reed has a good metre on him with just Thompson to draw and pass. Reed might not have been running onto it with full stride but it was a very good opportunity.

And to everyone saying that Reed was flat footed, let's face it, he could have been in perfect position and Hoffman wouldn't have passed it. Josh didn't identify Reed's momentum and make a judgement call, he just decided to run it, and he made that choice long before he even knew where Jack was.

Great videos too Superfreak. Had I had any idea how to do that I'd definitely have been looking for that! Pretty sure there's an instance at the end of the first half too where we had a deep line to the right and Hoffman decides to run it inside just coz.

 

[Big Pete]

I believe the 14-0 lead was a god-send and it was a combination of good work from the two recruits and some sloppy mistakes from the Dogs. Watching back, the Dogs actually had the better of play in the early stages but that drop bomb from Perrett was a real killer for them. Suddenly, they're executing a goal line drop out and Barba close to the line is able to sum up the situation perfectly with that sublime grubber for Copley. What a tremendous first impression and hopefully he lives up to it.

The Morris try was a tad unlucky. Kennedy gave away two silly penalties and they basically score off a play that is very difficult to defend. On replay, I reckon Copley will think twice before running through the blocking drill. He had a better play at it than Maranta and should have just batted the ball over the in-goal. That's a hindsight call though.

In the second half, the tide really swung the Dogs way. They were desperate to get back into the game and were a little bit more desperate with the ball in hand and their kicking game posed more questions than the Broncos. When momentum swings like that, it seems like every little thing goes your way, and it certainly did for the Doggies.

Like the time Ennis threw an absolute speculator of an offload off the ground which just happened to find Josh Morris who was able to draw another penalty from Kennedy.

Or the two second kicks, both from forwards that happened to yield perfect results. The Finucane one in particular was depressing, I reckon if you got him to replicate that play next week, it'd roll over the touch line no problem but the footy gods made it rough.

Of course, there were also a couple of questionable calls (seriously, how was the 2 on 1 strip against Hannant ignored?) that went against the Broncos but you can't get too critical when the boys are also producing some silly turn overs. The one on the Maranta quick play the ball was very distressing. In fairness, it was just really good work from Reynolds to have the presence of mind to bounce straight back to his feet, get square and dive for the ball before the Broncos even have a chance to get set but it was disappointing to see a lack of urgency from the players.

In the end, the game was basically decided when Ennis got greedy and went for a second go at the line after being denied only moments earlier. It robbed the Dogs of his valuable service from dummy half and as a result, saw the ball go to Finucane on the last and resulted in a very poor end to their set of six.

So what to make of this game overall?

Did the new recruits make the difference?

Did the old charges step up and help out?

Yeah, to an extent, but at the end of the day, I just feel like this was one of those performances that can be encapsulated on the evening and stand as it's own good performance. Clearly there were some troubling signs moving forward and I don't know if the club will be able to overcome those deficiencies in time.

Guess we'll have a better idea when the boys return to the greatest Rugby League stadium in the world.

I think the 2nd one is a pretty good opportunity. Freeze it at 6 seconds and you can see Stanley standing on the numbers, while Reed has a good metre on him with just Thompson to draw and pass. Reed might not have been running onto it with full stride but it was a very good opportunity.

The footage also shows that Reed isn't running a good line or gives himself enough space to really get on the outside of Jackson and Josh was able to cover whatever gap was created very easily.

Lockyer may have been able to do something with that situation, I'm sure of it. But that's Darren Lockyer we're speaking of. Last time I checked, he isn't going to play another first grade game again, so really, what he'd be able to do is rather irrelevant. It's a matter of whether Strasser or Nikorima would be able to do any better and honestly, I don't know if they would have.

But yeah, I don't think that was solely Hoffman's fault on that play. Reed did a poor job of positioning himself...and that isn't exactly a rare occurrence either.

 

[Old Mate]

Good video evidence SF.

No doubt on the first opportunity. Only excuse he has is that it was in the first six minutes of his first ever first grade game in that position. Hopefully the Broncos are onto it and make an effort to rectify it on training.

Second one is iffy. Reed gave him no other option but the cut-out pass which would have been risky in that situation. If he throws it and Corey Thompson pulls a Hurrell, Hoffman would become the enemy of the state.

Don't agree with the second one, a bit of early ball might have been good for Reed, Vidot was definitely very flat though, maybe he should have put it on the boot?

 

[Mister Wright]

I believe these were two great scoring opportunities that Hoffman bombed as a result of holding onto the ball.

Broncos may not have scored, but they were very good chances.

Maybe people disagree with me, but that's just the way I see it. I am more open to Hoffman and Barba switching during the game. Barba to take more control in attack and Hoffman just defends.

Good diagnosis. However, what I like from that evidence is that Hoffman is very hard to tackle. As he gains more experience in these situations hopefully he'll develop a quick pass, but even if he doesn't if he's doing that close to the line if he can get an offload away he's attracked two or three defenders which leaves a gap somewhere. Although I don't think he had a great game I see potential in him at 5/8. What would be even better is if he goes to centre when Hodges returns and Hodges goes to 5/8.

 

[uptheguts]

This was a good gutsy effort from the team typical of many early season games for the last few years. Agree with most posts already made
Barba_ Looks the goods.
Kennedy_ Looked powerful with limited game time.
Parker - excellent as usual.
Thaiday_ Best game in ages (Didn't overdue the predictable line charges and threw more passes)
Hannant _ Good intensity with quality hit ups.
Hunt_A nervous start but was OK in patches. Still not convinced .
Hoffman_ Tried hard but hopefully Hook has seen enough to end this crazy 5/8 experiment. Hopefully back to the wing next week
Maranta _ Best game ever. Certainly enough to warrant giving him some more starts.
Copely_ Solid effort. Enough to hope he can give us something in attack this year
Reed_ Unconvincing in attack. Looks very unlikely to make a break. I wish he was bigger or faster .
Vidot_ Pretty impressive.

Overall the game was won on excellent defence. The intensity levels of the whole team was great. Good ground made in the forwards.
However on the whole the backline is still a patchwork and tries might stil be hard to come by this year.

 

[Brett]

From those videos, the first one looks like more of a potential try than the second to me. If Hoffman passes to Barba in the first one, it was 2 on 1. Barba would have drawn the Winger and put Vidot over comfortably, IMO.

As [MENTION=2160]Mister Wright[/MENTION] said though, Hoffman is definitely a handful for the defence with his running game. He constantly attracts 2 or 3 defenders and has good footwork at the line. If he can just develop that extra pass, he can be a great 5/8, IMO. Obviously he can't kick to save himself, but if he's drawing defenders at the line, can use his strength and pop an offload to a Barba, or a Reed or anyone really, our second phase play out wide becomes much more dangerous. His defence with Glenn was mostly excellent, hence why combined they only made 27 tackles. They shut plays down effectively early, which forced the Dogs to go to the other side of the field. Hoffman made 10 runs for 90 meters and had 3 tackle breaks. So every 3 runs he made, he broke a tackle. Give him time.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Hoffman doesn't pass very often. It is not in his nature. He is a ball runner which makes it idiotic that he is wearing the 6.

 

[Splinter]

A better kicking game and we would have won this match much easier than we did. Will most probably be our problem area all year unless Kahu is proficient at it

 

[rnabokov]

Hoffman doesn't pass very often. It is not in his nature. He is a ball runner which makes it idiotic that he is wearing the 6.

Amen

As for the 2nd video above where Hoffman bombs the try, for mine it's a simple situation. He sees he has 2 defenders coming at him so it should be a quick look and an automatic immediate pass to his outside man Reed

Reed's line was poor mainly 'cos Hoffman compressed the space by running too far and too much towards the side line.

I repeat. Any decent 5/8 would have summed that situation up instantly and passed. They would have done so 'cos it's a BASIC PLAY: 2 defenders on you = space on your outside created by the 2nd defender moving towards you

Der ...

Hoffman has NFI how to play make and it IS idiotic to put him at 6.

He has had 3 (?) seasons at FB to show some vision and creativity and he has failed every time.

Hoffman is a winger 1st, FB 2nd, and maybe a centre ... and that is it unless miracles happen, and if they don't, we are toast for 2014 with him at 5/8.

 

[Socnorb]

Hoffman bends the line in both videos . What he needs is an inside runner in support. Think of him like a smaller but quicker Parker.

 

[Alec]

Hoffman bends the line in both videos . What he needs is an inside runner in support. Think of him like a smaller but quicker Parker.

That's great and all, but why is he a mini-Parker in the halves?

 

[Socnorb]

That's great and all, but why is he a mini-Parker in the halves?

We all know it's not ideal , but we also know there is no obvious better choice. He's the best option at the moment because of his experience. So why not work with his strengths and minimise his weaknesses. 2nd phase that close to the line would be deadly for Barba.

 

[Manifesto]

I believe these were two great scoring opportunities that Hoffman bombed as a result of holding onto the ball.

Broncos may not have scored, but they were very good chances.

Maybe people disagree with me, but that's just the way I see it. I am more open to Hoffman and Barba switching during the game. Barba to take more control in attack and Hoffman just defends.

I noticed these two opportunities as I was watching the game as well. The first one I reckon would have dead set been a simple try. Second one, I agree that Reed is too flat, but once Hoffman gets to the outside of Reed, all he had to do was pass to Vidot and it would have / should have been a try. Looks like Hoffman has not worked on his passing game ay.

There was also a couple of times when Reed didn't pass to his unmarked winger either. Almost a bit similar to the passing woes of last year.

 

[Alec]

We all know it's not ideal , but we also know there is no obvious better choice. He's the best option at the moment because of his experience. So why not work with his strengths and minimise his weaknesses. 2nd phase that close to the line would be deadly for Barba.

There's no universe where Hoffman is the best option in the halves.

If you don't want to put one of the rookies there (which I don't agree with at all, but fair enough), there are still better options than Hoffman. Even Gillett has better awareness and willingness to pass (and it would fix up our back row too).