Round 10 - Broncos vs Sea Eagles - Post Match Discussion

[Bull Shark]

No, I was watching the game clearly, not through rose coloured glasses. Most of our tries came from kicks and were on the most part, lucky as they could have gone either way. Manly looked more likely to score every time they came within striking distance. Continuously bent our defensive line and looked more dangerous with the ball in their hands across their backline. Norman had one of his better games and we almost stole the game on the back of his play's. We lost and time to move on, but at no time did I feel like we were going to win the game, I always had the feeling that Manly were going to get there in the end.

Geez, as a poster oft criticised for being too harsh on the Broncos, that's a new one for me re the 'rose coloured glasses' ...

welcome to Rugby League in the 21st century - where EVERYONE scores a tonne of tries from kicks ..

how Brisbane "almost stole the game" defies logic ... They scored 5 tries to 4 and that 79th minute moose job should never have mattered because 99 times out of 100 Brisbane is up 28-20 or 26-20 and Manly's try is consolation material ..

 

[ningnangnong]

Absolutely gutted.

We actually played pretty well with the ball in hand, but our defence was atrocious. We just never really 'with it' in defence. It's been mentioned so I won't go into detail, but we were sitting way too deep and inviting the Sea Eagles to run all sorts of lines and angles. The amount of time and space they had on the fringes was disgraceful.

Credit to Gillett for scoring two fantastic tries, but geez they were some horrible reads in defence... looked like he was running in wet cement as well. Wasn't there a match last year where he was done up similarly by his opposing centre?

For the first time ever, I have to question Hook's use of the bench. We were clearly out on our feet in those final 15 minutes, and had a fresh player in Scott Anderson sitting on his arse doing nothing. I don't rate him that highly, but we clearly needed fresh legs out there, so why not chuck him on? Also, the way we used Capewell just seemed like a waste. How long was he on? 10 minutes at most I reckon - almost pointless picking him.

On the positive side, I thought Benny Hannant was absolutely huge up front for us. Stepped up time and time again to take the ball to the line. McGuire was also brilliant - how good was that 30 metre kick-off return!

Also want to give a big wrap to Corey Norman. By jingoes he's going to be a star in the future. He has a certain panache about him. Such a classy player.

Finally, the goalkicking. For what it's worth, I thought in the opening few rounds of this season, Parker's goalkicking was better than it's ever been, but since that injury it's basically turned to turd. You can't hand him complete blame for the loss, but some of those kicks weren't all that difficult. Really frustrating.

 

[MrMoore]

Geez, as a poster oft criticised for being too harsh on the Broncos, that's a new one for me re the 'rose coloured glasses' ...

welcome to Rugby League in the 21st century - where EVERYONE scores a tonne of tries from kicks ..

how Brisbane "almost stole the game" defies logic ... They scored 5 tries to 4 and that 79th minute moose job should never have mattered because 99 times out of 100 Brisbane is up 28-20 or 26-20 and Manly's try is consolation material ..

Five tries to four ... 5 tries to 4

are you saying conversions cost us the game?

 

[Bucking Beads]

Special mention to Ben Te'o for that hit on Watmong that had him going off the ground in the arms of the trainer.

 

[Bull Shark]

are you saying conversions cost us the game?

I'll sleep on it and get back to you tomorrow ...

 

[ningnangnong]

Oh, forgot to mention, I agree with Beads about that little dinky grubber McCullough tries at least once a game.

It's a really low percentage play and tonight he picked a terrible time to try it on. If we've got a comfortable lead, or we're a fair few points behind, by all means give it a go. When the match is on tenterhooks though, it's not the time.

 

[Bull Shark]

Did anyone else get a 'warm and fuzzy' from Geoff Toovey's little celebration with the water bottle in the box at fulltime ?

What a credible display that was from a first grade coach ...

 

[Coxy]

Did anyone else get a 'warm and fuzzy' from Geoff Toovey's little celebration with the water bottle in the box at fulltime ?

What a credible display that was from a first grade coach ...

Toovey's a ****. I hope he gets run over.

 

[Ari Gold]

Dude, forget Scott Anderson! What about Petero? McGuire was absolutely stuffed out there but because he was playing well, Hook left him on for much longer to keep the momentum. Then McGuire does the inevitable and drops the ball cold. Fatigue. Petero got the last 7 minutes and in total, played only 24 minutes. A fresh Petero Civoniceva for the last 15 minutes would have been much better, the bloke is an experienced player who won't let you down, especially considering he hadn't been on the field for nearly an hour (if you include the half time break). He got a little too excited with McGuire I think.

Whilst I agree Petero should have had a longer stint at the end, I have nothing but applause for the continued McGuire usage tonight. He is criminally underused when he only gets 40mins, and even though he did make an error, the fact is he was just awesome tonight, and I'd much rather have him on for 55mins with that level of performance and the odd error, rather than 20mins of Scott Anderson and the not so odd error.

 

[Burg]

IMO based on what I saw tonight, the Broncos have a lot more improvement in them than do Manly. I felt that with Hodges playing they would not have scored out wide, as Gillette was caught out of position a number of times and WFT was Copley doing so deep, he was standing further back than Hoffman! Also Wallace offers more direction and a better kicking game than Hunt. Hook wasn't happy at halftime and now has 2 weeks to prepare for our next game which unfortunately will be against the Storm, hardly the form we were looking for. Based on what I have seen so far from the Broncos we can't beat the Storm at this stage of the comp. Still we are still well placed and safe in the knowledge that the Sharks will lose and we can't lose our place just yet.

 

[Broncoman]

**** that was tough.

 

[Kimlo]

Norman yes, but I thought Hunt was abysmal. Absolutely abysmal. Defended strongly, but he was horrible in attack. Just woeful.

+1 I thought that was sarcasm... Wallace short kicking game adds so much, I reckon we would have forced 3-5 drop outs with Wallace there.

Also as good as Gillett is, Hodges is the best centre in the comp and defensively it was a whole different story without him.

 

[Kimlo]

And yes Parker's kicking absolutely cost us the game. I can't believe some people actually argue that it didn't.

In the modern game every 2 points is very important, to miss a possible 8 points kept them in the game and when they won by 4 in the last minute than that 8 points missed is easily the factor in losing.

I thought Parker was good in general play but geez if he kicked at least half we probably wouldn't have lost.

Either way although I'm gutted I'm happy with how we played.

 

[Kris]

What a heartbreaking loss. I'm still gutted about it. We should've just held on to the ball, dammit. Or slowed the play down.

 

[Steve]

No, I was watching the game clearly, not through rose coloured glasses. Most of our tries came from kicks and were on the most part, lucky as they could have gone either way. Manly looked more likely to score every time they came within striking distance. Continuously bent our defensive line and looked more dangerous with the ball in their hands across their backline. Norman had one of his better games and we almost stole the game on the back of his play's. We lost and time to move on, but at no time did I feel like we were going to win the game, I always had the feeling that Manly were going to get there in the end.

Yeah mate good post. As much as it pains me to say it Manly are always there abouts and never really out of the contest. Have to give them credit - if you can go 95 metres in the final minute to win the game away from home you deserve the win. Glenn Stewart had a mighty game tonight - he was in everything.

I'm not really too sure how I feel about tonight's game. We looked dangerous in attack but three of our five tries were from kicks although our two other tries were full of quality.

With regards to our defence both of our edges had a number of bad reads and were found out badly, especially the left side. Tonight we just defended to far deep and our lack of defensive aggression was obvious compared to previous weeks. The same thing happened in round 26 last season when Manly got two or three quick tries early in the second half - from memory I think they were all down our left side too.

Even if results don't go our way I think we'll still retain second spot going into the rep period. If we had been offered that at the start of the season we all would have grabbed it with both hands.

A couple of other points:
- Parker will obviously be doing some soul searching and needs some intensive goal kicking practice. It's clear he needs more work with Halligan. Despite what some people have said on here Parker's been a reliable goal kicker in recent years (think he averages around 70%) and he shouldn't lose the kicking duties just because of tonight's shocker.
- Corey Norman dummies far too often. Less is more - they're starting to expect it mate!

 

[IBA]

Parker shouldn't lose it on tonight alone. But he is less than 50% on the last 5 weeks or so... He is sketchy at best and it isn't good enough.

Too many tries off kicks and some terrible reads in defence. But I still feel we should of won... Very mixed feelings on this one.

Norman does dummy too much but that kid has something... He just needs to be more confident when paired with Wallace - he steps up so much when he is out and if he could play with that kind of flair when Wallace is around, that is an amazing halves combination.

 

[nathano11]

I am so utterly disgusted with Corey Parker and his pathetic conversion attempts! He should be black listed from kicking! For a PROFESSIONAL kicker that is beyond unacceptable. If they missed all theirs and we got all ours we win by 14 points. We were obviously the better team, say what you like about general play but the fact is we thoroughly outplayed Manly tonight and Parker lost the game for us plain and simple. It makes me crazy! SO ANGRY

 

[ningnangnong]

This might sound a little bizarre, but I am actually a fan of Norman's dummying.

The way I see it, is that his first thought is to always spread the ball wide, but he's a smart fella, so when he sees that the play is clearly not on because a defender is rushing up or whatever, he elects to take the safe option and hold onto the ball, rather than forcing the play. I think it's an excellent trait to have, especially for such a young player.

Of course there are instances where he throws a dummy on purpose and takes on the line - I don't think he overdoes that. He's ability to run at the line has really impressed me. He's a lot stronger than he looks and is extremely evasive in tight spaces.

Can't wait to see what kind of player he is in a few years time with much more experience under his belt! :rockon: