POST GAME Round 1 - Sharks vs Broncos

[Mr Fourex]

Way over the top harsh comments!

First game of the year mate. Give them a go. Was a very physical game.. no one is at the best mentally when fatigued.

They'll get there

Give me a break Marty........they are not new comers to playing NRL. They are seasoned first graders......and they were both shocking.

 

[Mr Fourex]

For a dummy half Macca cannot pass the ball well at all. Has he always been this bad, .........

Yes.....yes he has.

 

[Lebbo73]

Impressive win down a player early against a more fancied pack.

Only real disappointment was Hunt, Milford just as bad before his try.

Milford wasn't in the same postcode as Hunt when it comes to pathetic. Not even in the same hemisphere.

 

[K-Style]

I don't understand why Glenn stayed on after that head clash. I remember this happened last season too.
Our trainers need to be looking after our players.

 

[bazza]

Big wraps to our forward pack. I enjoyed Bennett giving Ese'Ese, Arrow and to a lesser extent TPJ, some long minutes. I think we need to give them as many minutes as possible to get them ready physically for the back end of the year. We can probably afford to do that at the start of the season, and it'll no doubt be beneficial for the team and our forward rotation down the track.

A few more games against quality opposition will see them gain in confidence as well as build on their fitness and stamina. If we can get our bench players to a similar level physically to our starting forwards, we'll have a pretty scary all round team with a bit of a point of difference. The dynamics of our team looks nice, with enough size in our pack to match most teams, as well as the fitness levels and mobility to really trouble them.

 

[K-Style]

Milford wasn't in the same postcode as Hunt when it comes to pathetic. Not even in the same hemisphere.

Yeah Milford's defense was embarassing.

 

[animal eater]

One for one against a hated side is always a good way to start the season.

Nice to see a proper sized prop in Sims on the field. He played hard and was effective.

What can you say about Kahu other than the guy is pure class. Parker had the most robotic kicking style of all time whereas he is poetry in motion.

Hunt was dismal. Enough on that. The thing that I most like seeing in this game was Milfrord having the license to roam from side to side on offence. He is the dominant half and needs to have the ability to get his hands on the pill as often as possible.

 

[_wwong]

If we are going with 4 forwards on the bench I don't think we should have both Glenn and arrow in the team. Arrow did the job last night as the quicker forward with the footwork to trouble the opposition. So 3 bigger forwards plus Glenn/arrow on the bench is what I'd like to see

 

[mitch222]

I still think there is a place for a utility in the side. Niko would have been handy in the back end of the first half with some sharks forwards tiring.

 

[Brotherdu]

Some of my thoughts -

• One of the marks of a good kicker is finding the ground on long kicks (not the fullbacks chest) and giving your team mates time to challenge high balls when putting in attacking kicks. This means judging height and distance well. Hunt struggled/continues to struggle with both of these and I thought had a really bad night with the boot. Parker mentioned in the pre-game that he thinks Hunt needs to spend time away from training working on these skills, which indicates Parker doesn't think that he does. As last year's captain, if anyone knows, he would.
• Hunt's passing was pretty poor, one could easily have led to a 80m intercept that would have changed the game whilst we were on attack. As people mentioned, this could be to do with the new attacking structure or bad service from dummy half. I'm not too concerned about this as it's easier to fix that his kicking. Let's put it down to preseason rust.
• Milf's defence is a worry. He's small, so there are always times when he will be run over by someone bigger than him, but the attempted tackle on Townsend was very poor. The sharks looks pretty threatening everytime they came done that side.
• Sims, Thaiday and Blair did well and stood up to the Sharks pack. I thought Sims looked tired when he came on for his second stint and wasn't as effective, but was still good. I don't think we have lost anything losing Wallace. It was great to see Thaiday's legs pumping again. Teddy Blair also did more in attack than normal which is great to see. Our young bench really need these guys to lead from the front.
• I'm not sold on Macguire at lock. Defensively he is sound, but in attack I feel like he isn't sure what to do. He seemed to pause after receiving the ball, take a moment, then decide where to run. Less thinking, more running.
• Arrow surprised me. I wasn't expecting much, but gee he seems to have beefed up over the pre-season. He looks like a really solid machine now and was way more effective hitting the ball up than I recall. He also had a few nice offloads which helped a great deal in keeping the big sharks pack on the back foot towards the end of the game.
• Moga looked good for his first game back in a long time. Safe under the high ball and I really like the scrum play where we went to him.
• Boyd, Kahu and Oates were good. Oates took some hard hit ups (twice in a couple of sets if I recall correctly) which really helped with our depleted bench (Far out he looks unco scoring some tries :P). Kahu scored a great try and kicked well and Boyd's play making is fantastic.
• Some people complain about McCullough's failed dummy's close to the try line. I don't mind them. He might not score many, but he keeps the defence honest. If he puts it away, the defence will just slide and there will be less space out wide. People also criticise his red zone play. I'm not sure if this is purely his fault, if he has too many voices in his ear or no one demanding the ball, then there are other issues to work on.
• The bench didn't let anyone down, especially considering we were down a man from half time. They held their own against one of the best packs in the comp.

Overall, I think it was a really positive outing. I'm not sure we will beat the Storm or Cowboys just yet, but we will know more once we have seen them play this weekend.

 

[Brett]

I don't understand why Glenn stayed on after that head clash. I remember this happened last season too.
Our trainers need to be looking after our players.

After the head clash, he wasn't knocked unconscious and didn't show visible signs of a concussion, so he was allowed to play on.

 

[Mightybroncs2k17]

Regardless of how sloppy the win was, getting the two points last night was massive given how tough our draw is this year. Given there was a real possibility of been 0-5 early in the season last nights win is a huge boost.

I really liked how we regained composure when the sharks came from 20-6 to 20-18. I feel like the 2016 Broncos would have lost a tight contsest like that and that's where we fell short last year. Over the offseason we said they need to stand up when things get tight and in those situations and even though he wasn't brilliant all game Milford stood up when it counted. Last nights grinding win was the type of win that typified our 2015 season and a loss would have been reminiscent of our 2016 season.

Premierships aren't one in the early rounds but they sure as shit can be lost...

 

[Kyall]

We may be a little harsh on the defence of Milford, you have to remember Thiday can't give the cover like Gillett can.

 

[jarro65]

I'm happy we got the win, a very clunky performance but still plenty to like about it.

 

[mitch222]

I am sure Sims enjoyed himself last night. Already has as many wins as last year under his belt

 

[Nashy]

Milford working the left, Hunt working the right seems dumb.

I was happy with the win. Some work to be done, but that'll come. Hunt needs to be dropped, I don't give a **** if he hurt his wittle shoulder.

 

[bazza]

If we are going with 4 forwards on the bench I don't think we should have both Glenn and arrow in the team. Arrow did the job last night as the quicker forward with the footwork to trouble the opposition. So 3 bigger forwards plus Glenn/arrow on the bench is what I'd like to see

I tend to agree with this, especially with Glenn transitioning into a middle forward. I also think Arrow's minutes were inflated with Glenn's injury, so in the case that Glenn doesn't get injured, Arrow only plays about 10 mins. For me that is a waste of a bench spot, especially since Arrow isn't an explosive impact player, and will barely make a worthy contribution in such a limited amount of time.

 

[Renegade]

Happy that I was wrong in that we won and it wasn't too dour of a game.

Sims was good, he seemed willing to run straight and hard and made some serious dents quite a few times - best part is he's only 25, so we have his best years potentially at Brisbane.

Moga was good, Kyall would've been hanging from the rafters but I thought he didn't look out of place at all.

Hunt still can't kick.

Boyd, Blair, Roberts, Milf all played well. It was a fairly solid effort by everyone to be fair. Nice way to start the season, bring on the cows.

ps: I agree with whoever said why the **** didn't Macca burrow at the legs when he went for the line, i said the same thing to my wife why the **** isn't he diving at the legs, he's over the line, why is he trying to hulk his way over?