PRE-GAME Round 1 - Dragons vs Broncos

[Unbreakable]

Things I need out of this game:

1) Ben Hunt to drop a kick-off, followed by a shot of the Broncos coaching box with Wayne Bennett smirking.
2) Ben Hunt kicking a grubber in to the legs of Anthony Milford, followed by a length of the field try and pan to a Dragons fan in the crowd wearing a Hunt jersey with a look of sheer regret on his face.
3) Matthew Lodge to win the $1,000 KFC Man of the Match, followed by a 30 minute debate on NRL 360 about whether KFC should've sent the $1,000 directly to the victims in New York.

 

[Broncs_Fan]

How many takes can journalists write about Lodge. Thankfully the game is tomorrow and once that's over the air goes out of this story.

 

[broncos4life]

Things I need out of this game:

1) Ben Hunt to drop a kick-off, followed by a shot of the Broncos coaching box with Wayne Bennett smirking.
2) Ben Hunt kicking a grubber in to the legs of Anthony Milford, followed by a length of the field try and pan to a Dragons fan in the crowd wearing a Hunt jersey with a look of sheer regret on his face.
3) Matthew Lodge to win the $1,000 KFC Man of the Match, followed by a 30 minute debate on NRL 360 about whether KFC should've sent the $1,000 directly to the victims in New York.

I could die a happy man if all of that happened.

 

[HarryAllan7]

St George have a very good pack and always start the year on fire, but we never seem to be bothered by teams with elite packs and seem to stand up well (Except when Bulldogs big men occasionally cause us problems once a year). Especially with extra grunt up front.. think we're in for a tough, close game but reckon Broncs get the win.

 

[Wolfie]

I think it's going to be tough. We have two wingers who havent played much in the trials on the wing, we have a left center who hasnt played much football in the centers recently, and a hooker who hasnt had any football for a long time.

What I am looking forward to seeing is how our forwards stack up this year.

 

[winslow_wong]

I'm looking forward to Milford putting the fat jokes to bed finally

 

[Danoz Direct]

Bennett has confirmed Thaiday will start at hooker with TPJ starting at prop.

 

[HarryAllan7]

Bennett has confirmed Thaiday will start at hooker with TPJ starting at prop.

Source on this?

 

[Dash]

Source on this?

Its on the Broncos website.

 

[1910]

Lodge has scored his first 'try' as a Bronco. Great Bronco tradition at training.

BBQ time and off to the airport now.

 

[1910]

A lot to be waiting for with this game.

Broncos were great attacking through the middle last year, 35 tries in the middle third- most in the comp. Tired forwards and smaller forwards with footwork got them tries. I think that will continue this year. Broncos and JD love width which then means the defence is stretched and Broncos aim to catch them out back through the middle. Kevvie likes interchange and unpredictability through the middle with halves and hooker combining too.

Lodge at times last year I thought played too much football. He wasn’t the most offloading forward in the ISC but sometimes he would not be effective if he didn’t offload after he had made ground. As I said through-out the year he copped plenty of abuse (one send off and two suspensions due to what was said to him) and it’s going to be worse in the NRL. He needs to counter that. He did really well last year not to react.

Isaako, footwork and getting between defenders. He was great last year for Souths when he took dirty carries and then still made ground and got involved. He can do kick offs a long way and hangs them up there- watch out Hunt.

Pangai too starting he can sometimes not get his spacing right because he doesn't get back into the line quick enough. At Souths he was the spot player for a lot of teams to work over and make him make double efforts. To him then back again.

Broncos had four wins out of 11 outside of Queensland last season- another challenge you have to win away from home.

 

[Unbreakable]

LIKELY BRONCOS NRL TEAM

1. Darius Boyd ©
2. Corey Oates
3. James Roberts
4. Jordan Kahu
5. Jamayne Isaako
6. Anthony Milford
7. Kodi Nikorima
8. Matt Lodge
10. Sam Thaiday
14. Tevita Pangai junior
11. Alex Glenn
12. Matt Gillett
13. Josh McGuire

Interchange:

9. Andrew McCullough
15. Joe Ofahengaue
16. Korbin Sims
17. Jaydn Su’A

[HASHTAG]#CourierMailWasRight[/HASHTAG]

 

[Super Freak]

A lot to be waiting for with this game.

Broncos were great attacking through the middle last year, 35 tries in the middle third- most in the comp. Tired forwards and smaller forwards with footwork got them tries. I think that will continue this year. Broncos and JD love width which then means the defence is stretched and Broncos aim to catch them out back through the middle. Kevvie likes interchange and predictability through the middle with halves and hooker combining too.

Lodge at times last year I thought played too much football. He wasn’t the most offloading forward in the ISC but sometimes he would not be effective if he didn’t offload after he had made ground. As I said through-out the year he copped plenty of abuse (one send off and two suspensions due to what was said to him) and it’s going to be worse in the NRL. He needs to counter that. He did really well last year not to react.

Isaako, footwork and getting between defenders. He was great last year for Souths when he took dirty carries and then still made ground and got involved. He can do kick offs a long way and hangs them up there- watch out Hunt.

Broncos had four wins out of 11 outside of Queensland last season- another challenge you have to win away from home.

Who is in charge of the attack? JD or Walters?

 

[Danoz Direct]

Who is in charge of the attack? JD or Walters?

Walters and JD is on defence I'm pretty sure.

 

[roo-ted]

If Kahu get the first try he breaks a record for the person to score the first try of the year. He scored first the last two years running

 

[theshed]

What i find a bit odd is naming Kahu at left center if Bird is coming back in a few weeks in that position.

personally, i would have left Kahu on the wing if he was only going to move back there is 3 or 4 weeks.

having said that, i really rate Kahu as a center ... in fact if he were to remain their he could become a gun for us IMO. I'm not too worried about his defence, as his defensive issues were in a big part due to moving around the back line (between wing, fullback and center ... left and right side) doing that can throw your timing off, given some consistency in the position, he will be fine defensively

Yeah in an alternative universe, Kahu avoids injury and is a very good fullback.

He has a lot of skills that he hasn’t been able to utilise on the wing.

 

[1910]

Who is in charge of the attack? JD or Walters?

They're both pretty good, Kevvie does halves and JD works on general attack.

 

[Alec]

They're both pretty good, Kevvie does halves and JD works on general attack.

How does that work? Feels like it might get confusing if your leaders get coached by someone completely different. Of course I'm no expert, though I was far from impressed with our attack last year, despite the points we scored.