POST GAME [Round 13, 2026] - Broncos vs Dragons

No one has been hyping him recently. If anything, he's been somewhat forgotten.
Not true .
Every day I see someone saying drop Paix bring in Mozer .
What I think they don't realise is there are 2 parts to the game . When you have the ball and when you don't .
Mozer is very good in the 1st instance . But not as strong in the 2nd element.
Got run over for 2 tries in a previous appearance. Then busted his jaw trying to make a tackle next time in 1st grade .
Makes me sceptical. He has both sides of the game sorted .
 
I started counting how many plays we defending without 2 markers. Insane amount.

We always have players left rolling around on the ground or next to the ruck. Then the opposition just run directly into the gap in front of the ruck and make 10+m, get tackled by scrambling defence which causes us to not be at marker again. Repeat that for 60ms per set.

I’m not sure what the fix is. Maybe condense the defence and make it one players job every tackle to stand where marker is going to be and not get involved in the tackle. Then we at least have 1 marker for sure each time
The fix is to focus on the wrestling side of the game... something the club has resisted for 20 odd years now.

Cam Smith was a great player because he was strong enough and fit enough to "catch" the ball runner and control their upper body until tacklers 2 and 3 come in to finish it off and get the guy on their back.

We've been horrendous at this aspect of the game... seemingly forever.

Carrigan and Payne will always try and do that part of the tackle, even if that's not their job in the tackle i.e. someone has to control the ball and someone has to get the legs.

The first two tacklers have one job each pending which hand the ball is in... ball side needs to wrap up the ball and the other guy needs to wrap up the rest of the top... the 3rd man then gets the legs and the guy holding the ball has to control the body down to the ground and on their back.

Players then need to peel off.

Far too often I'm looking at the guy around the legs just lying there in the ruck... they have to be the last in and first out, so the other two guys can get up to marker.

Other times we have two up top and no one on the legs (this is the most common fault I see)... conceding mass PCM

Other times we have two going low and no one controlling the upper body... allowing them to find their front for a lightning ptb with no markers.

We're ****ing atrocious at actual tackling technique, because we likely spend **** all time practicing it or the players don't take it seriously enough.
 
In the Storm v Roosters game on Saturday night Roosters make a break down the left-hand side and Grant, Warbrick and Faalogo tackle the Rooster in the corner, Grant gets to marker and taps Faalogo to release him to get in the line he had fallen to the side of the ruck. Roosters go two passes back to the middle and Sam knows no Faalogo so kicks between the posts. Faalogo swoops in from the left and fields the kick.

There are 4 things I don't think the Broncos do in that passage if the same thing happened on Sunday.

Warbrick, Faalogo and Grant scramble to save the break.
Warbrick goes to first marker after slowing it up a bit.
Grant smart enough to know Faalogo at marker isn't helping.
Faalogo knows what Grant wants and gets up and moves and runs from the sideline to the posts to save the kick.

In reality, if it's the Broncos defending...

Rooster flops about and Arthars gets a 6-again called against him for "slowing it down".
Rooster steps sideways off the mark, taking Paix out of the play
Ref calls Paix out of it and the Roosters runs straight for that gap
Walsh covers and stops the try but the ref gets a tip off on the comms and Carrigan goes for 10.
 
It feels like we have been talking about this since the Seibold days, we seem to be league bottom dwellers when it comes to the basics. We’ve improved in our ability to do the impossible over the years but have never consistently improved in some of the most fundamental parts of the game.

I find it completely baffling what the common denominator is.

We only have 4 players from the 2020 season remaining.

3 coaches (4 if you include Gentle).

2 CEOs

A head of football came and went

Infinite assistant coach and office staff turnover.

Half a dozen Captains

Unlimited spine combinations

WTF is the common thread that we can’t do the basics as good as any other team?
 
Is PTB speed a stat? Ours seems incredibly slow across the park.
Yeah it is, NRL app shows the average PTB speed for each team per game. We are regularly far slower than whoever we are versing.

Not sure if anyone has compiled a list of season averages or anything, but they could with the data thats on NRL site.
 
The fix is to focus on the wrestling side of the game... something the club has resisted for 20 odd years now.

Cam Smith was a great player because he was strong enough and fit enough to "catch" the ball runner and control their upper body until tacklers 2 and 3 come in to finish it off and get the guy on their back.

We've been horrendous at this aspect of the game... seemingly forever.

Carrigan and Payne will always try and do that part of the tackle, even if that's not their job in the tackle i.e. someone has to control the ball and someone has to get the legs.

The first two tacklers have one job each pending which hand the ball is in... ball side needs to wrap up the ball and the other guy needs to wrap up the rest of the top... the 3rd man then gets the legs and the guy holding the ball has to control the body down to the ground and on their back.

Players then need to peel off.

Far too often I'm looking at the guy around the legs just lying there in the ruck... they have to be the last in and first out, so the other two guys can get up to marker.

Other times we have two up top and no one on the legs (this is the most common fault I see)... conceding mass PCM

Other times we have two going low and no one controlling the upper body... allowing them to find their front for a lightning ptb with no markers.

We're ****ing atrocious at actual tackling technique, because we likely spend **** all time practicing it or the players don't take it seriously enough.

Focus on wrestling?

Are you trying to double the number of set restarts we give away?

Our opposition have been able to get quick play the balls this year because we keep getting pinged if we aren't releasing the tackled player at record speeds
 
Focus on wrestling?

Are you trying to double the number of set restarts we give away?

Our opposition have been able to get quick play the balls this year because we keep getting pinged if we aren't releasing the tackled player at record speeds
But you have to win the tackle and wrestling is part of that. The more you win contact and dominate the wrestle the longer you are allowed to hold them down. It's not a just a get to ground up off in 0.5 a second situation. The ruck and speed of the game is getting quicker because they are pinging more and being harsher in the ruck, that leads to not just fatigue but players doing less and getting up quicker on their own fruition which speeds the play up. That doesn't mean you can't improve contact and wrestling to earn the right to slow the speed of the ruck down. Not to mention if you win the tackle and the wrestle you find yourself in a much better position to retreat to marker or the defensive line for the next play. It's not something you can neglect because they are being harsh. That would be like only training legs tackles after a high tackle crack down instead of improving your tackle height and accuracy.
 
Focus on wrestling?

Are you trying to double the number of set restarts we give away?

Our opposition have been able to get quick play the balls this year because we keep getting pinged if we aren't releasing the tackled player at record speeds
We are at the bottom for almost every team stat imaginable, do you think it may be possible we are also at the bottom for technique and wrestle and as a result lose the ruck tackle after tackle?
 
Yeah it is, NRL app shows the average PTB speed for each team per game. We are regularly far slower than whoever we are versing.

Not sure if anyone has compiled a list of season averages or anything, but they could with the data thats on NRL site.
I was curious, so I've just gone through ours. Be interesting to see each teams average if any of the pages/sites have actually done it.

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Eels game the outlier really, as 3.91s is really high for what you usually see across the games. Warriors was a slow PTB the day we got smashed by Klein, but ours was even worse.
 
Dont bring politics into football. I'm a fan and i couldn't care less that BRS was in the sheds.

I don't really give a shit about this either way ... But the ship has already sailed on not bringing politics in to footy, Vlandys has already done that
 
In reality, if it's the Broncos defending...

Rooster flops about and Arthars gets a 6-again called against him for "slowing it down".
Rooster steps sideways off the mark, taking Paix out of the play
Ref calls Paix out of it and the Roosters runs straight for that gap
Walsh covers and stops the try but the ref gets a tip off on the comms and Carrigan goes for 10.
Yep. Has nothing to do with ineffective tackles. We have plenty of dominant tackles that we are told to get up quickly or penalised for. It has nothing to do with attempting to wrestle or us holding down longer than any other teams.
 
No statement about BRS being in the sheds. Fans should not let the club get away with that.

maybe....just maybe

no-one gives a ****?

BRS is a domestic abuser and war criminal. He should not have been there.

Thought you were worried about defamatory allegations on your site?

“Ben Roberts-Smith has faced allegations of domestic violence, but those allegations were not proven in court.”
 
maybe....just maybe

no-one gives a ****?



Thought you were worried about defamatory allegations on your site?

Ahh **** you got me. . Since you don't accept war crimes as a real thing even when you have video evidence I guess I'll just have to say he's an upstanding guy.
 
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