POST GAME Round 10 - Cowboys vs Broncos

[Danoz Direct]

You're right - because we couldn't get a repeat set, couldn't hold the ball and made errors.

I counted we go into there twenty about 4 or five times and took all chances to score but maybe I am wrong.

The thing is they were in our 20 at least 10 or 15 times and should have piled the points on but our defence was to good.

 

[bb_gun]

Not as gutted as I usually feel after a loss which indicates that we're up the top of the ladder for a reason. Some better ref decisions, better bounce off the ball and some improved performances from a few senior players and we take that game to the bank.

 

[Ari Gold]

I don't recall too many opportunities to earn repeat sets. Most of the time we got there, we scored.

Line speed and intensity are two areas where we failed badly tonight. Every kick the Cowboys put in pinned us inside our 20, whereas every kick we had was caught by Coote without pressure before he ran for 10-15m to the 25-30m mark. Then when JT had the ball we hung off him as if he had ebola or something.

If we get those things right then maybe the errors aren't fatal. When you have 39% possession, every error is magnified, and when you don't chase kicks with intensity and allow JT to run riot, you get 39% possession.

 

[Sproj]

I just think we switched off a bit after the second try and hopefully the boys learn from that...well except Blair as he can drop himself as he does the ball so well.

would rather that happen in round 10 than the finals. Hopefully we learn from it.

 

[vertigo]

I know it's old hat by now but we would've got absolutely smoked if this was past Broncos teams, we never gave up defending and the Cowboys played their most cohesive game of the season so far - better team took their opportunities and won.

Kinda hope McGuire gets overlooked for QLD cause we're gonna need him available through the next eight weeks.

 

[Culhwch]

That 6 again call seemed really iffy, and why no replay of the Reed offside call?

I would have liked to have seen that one again, definitely.

A good effort, but I think they missed McGuire. Amazing defensive performance at times, but just some poor efforts at others. That Cooper try was just ridiculous, and you'd have thought they'd have aimed up on Morgan a bit more after the first couple of times he threatened that same damn spot.

In the end all that tackling took it out of them, and they had nothing left to attack. I'm still just happy to be watching a team that is highly competitive again.

 

[Hug-Pug]

I thought our backs looked dangerous in the first half, but our forward pack and inexperienced bench didn't give them much room to work in in the second half.

Needed McGuire desperately tonight. Someone needed to step up and nobody did.

Does anyone know how many minutes Oates got?

 

[Ari Gold]

I thought our backs looked dangerous in the first half, but our forward pack and inexperienced bench didn't give them much room to work in in the second half.

Needed McGuire desperately tonight. Someone needed to step up and nobody did.

Does anyone know how many minutes Oates got?

I first noticed him defending after one of the drop outs we had (not that this really helps narrow it down). But by my reckoning, it's between 16-18mins.

Regardless of the exact time he got, he didn't touch the ball in that time. 0 runs the whole game, which goes to show just how much the Cowboys controlled the back 20mins.

 

[Big Pete]

In a weird way, the worst thing we did was allow all those repeat sets.

If we just let them score and got the ball down their end, we would have had a lot more in the tank and invited them to throw the ball around more.

Instead they just grew with each repeat set and we had nothing in the tank, hence McCullough going for the all or nothing kick which unfortunately wasn't hit as smoothly as it should have been.

Don't get me wrong, I was really proud of the way we held them out set after set but sometimes the game doesn't reward those efforts like it should.

 

[bb_gun]

One positive is that despite missing certain players we've remained competitive throughout the season, the Cowboys are totally screwed if they lose either Granville, Thurston or Coote.

I think that's the Bennett factor though and one reason why I'm glad he's back in charge.

 

[K-Style]

In a weird way, the worst thing we did was allow all those repeat sets.

If we just let them score and got the ball down their end, we would have had a lot more in the tank and invited them to throw the ball around more.

Instead they just grew with each repeat set and we had nothing in the tank, hence McCullough going for the all or nothing kick which unfortunately wasn't hit as smoothly as it should have been.

Don't get me wrong, I was really proud of the way we held them out set after set but sometimes the game doesn't reward those efforts like it should.

The refs sure rewarded the Cowboys with 2 six to goes in a row after goal line dropout. Maybe not in that order but those 6 to goes were very badly timed for us. Perhaps they were genuine off the back of the pressure we were under.

 

[Big Pete]

I'll be interested to see a few calls.

Mind you, we probably got away with a forward pass for Kahu's try and there was a non-call on a 6 again that seemed iffy so it wasn't one way traffic.

But then, Maxwell has never inspired me with much confidence.

For mine, what really hurt was the Ethan Lowe kick. 8/10 the Broncos would recover that ball and either play it on their line or most likely scoot up-field on a 7 tackle set. Instead, he lands it like he's JT and we've got another set. Sometimes when you're hot, you're hot.

 

[Painin the Haas]

This is a similar score line to the same game last year but has a definite different feel to it. I think we should be happy a lot of pros and to be fair they are the form side of the comp right now

downside: Blair went from no show on the field to momentum killer, the knock on and a penalty not long after that really screwed us over.

Upside: Milford looks good tonight in attack

Well played: cowboys working over Glenn and getting Morgan one on one with Milford who didn't know what happened. No half has the speed of Morgan and milford learnt that the hard way

And after the second drop out in the second half didn't Hoare screw up a play the ball? It spat out to the right of him spinning away I don't know how that didn't get called

 

[Ari Gold]

Nobody has mentioned it yet, but...

The decision to go for goal, at least in hindsight, was the wrong one. 20pts was never realistically going to be enough and we hadn't had a lot of possession. By the same token, when we did have it in good areas, we scored.

Maybe we don't score a try from the ensuing set, but maybe we get a repeat set instead and instead of the Cowboys having 5 sets in a row inside the red zone it's us with that advantage.

Of course, if we win it looks like a great decision, like we did against the Roosters.

Was it absolutely the wrong call at the time? No. In hindsight? Sure. But just in general, it annoys me how often we do it, particularly against the Cowboys who had already scored 20. Even with the goal we still needed to score again. I dunno, might just be my hatred of going for the 2.

 

[Painin the Haas]

Also honourable mention to Boyd who positioned himself as best he could against three accomplished kickers and it's so nice to feel confident when we are bombed. I closed my eyes whenever Hoffman went up for one, kahu and maranta were ok but Boyd takes them with such ease it's so refreshing

 

[K-Style]

This is a similar score line to the same game last year but has a definite different feel to it. I think we should be happy a lot of pros and to be fair they are the form side of the comp right now

downside: Blair went from no show on the field to momentum killer, the knock on and a penalty not long after that really screwed us over.

Upside: Milford looks good tonight in attack

Well played: cowboys working over Glenn and getting Morgan one on one with Milford who didn't know what happened. No half has the speed of Morgan and milford learnt that the hard way

And after the second drop out in the second half didn't Hoare screw up a play the ball? It spat out to the right of him spinning away I don't know how that didn't get called

Getting outside Glenn we have Milf then Reed. It was Reed who missed the last Morgan try. (

 

[Harry Sack]

Nobody has mentioned it yet, but...

The decision to go for goal, at least in hindsight, was the wrong one. 20pts was never realistically going to be enough and we hadn't had a lot of possession. By the same token, when we did have it in good areas, we scored.

Maybe we don't score a try from the ensuing set, but maybe we get a repeat set instead and instead of the Cowboys having 5 sets in a row inside the red zone it's us with that advantage.

Of course, if we win it looks like a great decision, like we did against the Roosters.

Was it absolutely the wrong call at the time? No. In hindsight? Sure. But just in general, it annoys me how often we do it, particularly against the Cowboys who had already scored 20. Even with the goal we still needed to score again. I dunno, might just be my hatred of going for the 2.

TBH, I didn't see the point in squaring it up, at that time in the game, considering how poor we are at FG's.

 

[Painin the Haas]

Nobody has mentioned it yet, but...

The decision to go for goal, at least in hindsight, was the wrong one. 20pts was never realistically going to be enough and we hadn't had a lot of possession. By the same token, when we did have it in good areas, we scored.

Maybe we don't score a try from the ensuing set, but maybe we get a repeat set instead and instead of the Cowboys having 5 sets in a row inside the red zone it's us with that advantage.

Of course, if we win it looks like a great decision, like we did against the Roosters.

Was it absolutely the wrong call at the time? No. In hindsight? Sure. But just in general, it annoys me how often we do it, particularly against the Cowboys who had already scored 20. Even with the goal we still needed to score again. I dunno, might just be my hatred of going for the 2.

I guess that that was out of respect of our opposition that we took the two but I'm with Nikorima who wanted to tap and run