POST GAME Round 15 - Broncos vs Dragons

[GCBRONCO]

It’s funny when you say the backs weren’t expecting the bomb when our main kick for the past 4 seasons is a bomb lol.

I'd say it's more like a fizzle.

 

[jamesqld]

Did anyone notice the 2 offloads Carrigan got away towards the end of the game. They were Corey Parker esque. It got me aroused.

 

[rnabokov]

Carrigan's effort last night was all class. Where he found the reserves of energy to be so dynamic for 80 minutes is a mystery, but man he was head and shoulders above the other 33 guys out there.

Boyd's effort on Ravalava although unsuccessful was still gutsy and confused me as sometimes he seems to not want to be there and then other times he really puts in. We need to remind ourselves that this team was missing Haas, Glenn, TPJ, Flegler, Lodge and Turpin in the forwards. That's a fair drain on our playing stocks. Nevertheless, the boys who filled in did have a fair dinkum crack.

Some of the forwards left were running from deep onto the ball which was very noticeable. Te'o, Hoppa and Kennedy all made easy metres when they managed to steam onto the ball. Riki also looks a very handy player and I'd be letting him have more of a run with Staggs and Tommy at the expense of Fifita. Offa (being a senior player) still has not reached the level he was playing at before he re-signed , but there was even some discernible improvement in his efforts last night.

Milf looked to have stepped up his running game in the first half and actually was combining well with Tommy. Pity he succumbed to the hammy that was obviously not properly healed. If he can build on that intent when fully fit he'd be a welcome sight. But I got the sense that the whole team wanted to be out there last night and the common theme was trying to win one for Payne Haas as witnessed by the black armbands that they all wore. They may not have got big Haas a win but i think their efforts would have given him a modicum of solace in what must be a very sad time in his life.

I hope Webcke comes out in public and gives Carrigan the wrap he deserves for last night. He never led the team to victory, but he certainly dragged them singlehandedly out of that dark pit of despair they've been floundering in for the past few months. Lexy should also tell him he's earned the right to keep the 'C' by his name too. It will be a huge ask for him to repeat that effort in a weeks time, but that's what we need from everyone in every game if want to see results go our way.

EFFORT - it was there last night in spades.

Great post. Sums important aspects of the match really well, especially the mobilisation of our forwards which was telling, and which has been our biggest weakness for most of this season, along with our edge defence. Unless I am seeing this wrong, I felt Paix's game at dummy half is helping our forwards running onto the ball, especially his energy, when he runs at the line rather than just a simple shovel of the ball to flatfooted forwards, so evident for so long this year.

I also think that Dearden's combination with Milford can't be underestimated. They just work well together and for mine is the halves combination we need for this year and next year. Milford's kicking game is so important to our direction in attack. At his best he can control a game with his kicking and we have nobody in the squad within cooee of that level of skill. When Milford went off, our game went sideways, and it was the team's new found commitment an heart which kept us in it.

Once Dearden gets more experience with his kicking game he will be such a star. As for the importance of a quality kicking game, Hunt was very good last night and for mine, that was the difference between the two sides. Those kicks of theirs into the acres of open space on our left largely won it the Dragons. Other than that, I reckon we were the much better team, and against a side which beat the Eels last week.

The next level of improvement for us is to use our edges better. Again we saw what Staggs can do to a defence out wide and Fifita needs to be used a lot better than he was. We seemed to compress our edges a bit too much especially when we know defences will be all over Fifita and Staggs. The game plan needs to create more width out wide.

I really like what I saw last night. As I posted earlier, it is so good not have a bleak weekend.

 

[bazza]

Had anyone known about Peter Gentle before he got here? I'm not going to lie, I had never heard of him before. Buy having a look at his coaching experience, it's fair to say it is quite extensive. He has had a lot of roles, especially with younger teams. He probably has more experience than Seibold does in handling our young group.

Either way, I think Gentle would be fairly old school in his approach and his views about football. Having him in charge for two weeks has all but confirmed that none of this new age bullshit that Seibold has been trying to fool everyone with actually works. I think Gentle would have simplified things and it looks like the players have reacted well to the changes.

If Seibold resumes as head coach, and he still wants a coaching career in the NRL again, he really needs to look no further than what Gentle has got the team doing to identify why things have been going wrong for him.

 

[Gaz]

He really got a lot right this week and look how much better the team looked. Impressive.

Saw Peter Ryan in the sheds at half time. That’s a step in the right direction.

 

[NSW stables]

The after game thread has a completely different tone from previous weeks. There's only the odd tosser not a lot happier. I'm looking forward to re-watching the first 20 odd minutes to see what all the Kennedy hysteria was about. I do remember him being left stranded on the tryline and a tackle miss but I saw the same thing from Haas several times this year so it's hardly massive.

His stats look okay too. 140 metres from just 39 minutes and just a single missed tackle.

i think he did get deserted on his own a little for that first (or second) try. It would have been a big effort to make a one on one stop that close to the line.

You can see at the ruck before hand that boyd was trying to push offa over closer to kennedy, but offa didnt move, so kennedy was left isolated on his own.

Kennedy is unlikely to be a top line forward but he is a decent depth forward.

 

[Aldo]

i think he did get deserted on his own a little for that first (or second) try. It would have been a big effort to make a one on one stop that close to the line.

You can see at the ruck before hand that boyd was trying to push offa over closer to kennedy, but offa didnt move, so kennedy was left isolated on his own.

Kennedy is unlikely to be a top line forward but he is a decent depth forward.

He just didn't get off his line. He was lucky to take a step off the line. Even if isolated, he just needed to move up quicker and at least give himself a chance to stop the try. You're right though, Offa did **** all to help.

 

[Huge]

Great post. Sums important aspects of the match really well, especially the mobilisation of our forwards which was telling, and which has been our biggest weakness for most of this season, along with our edge defence. Unless I am seeing this wrong, I felt Paix's game at dummy half is helping our forwards running onto the ball, especially his energy, when he runs at the line rather than just a simple shovel of the ball to flatfooted forwards, so evident for so long this year.

I also think that Dearden's combination with Milford can't be underestimated. They just work well together and for mine is the halves combination we need for this year and next year. Milford's kicking game is so important to our direction in attack. At his best he can control a game with his kicking and we have nobody in the squad within cooee of that level of skill. When Milford went off, our game went sideways, and it was the team's new found commitment an heart which kept us in it.

Once Dearden gets more experience with his kicking game he will be such a star. As for the importance of a quality kicking game, Hunt was very good last night and for mine, that was the difference between the two sides. Those kicks of theirs into the acres of open space on our left largely won it the Dragons. Other than that, I reckon we were the much better team, and against a side which beat the Eels last week.

The next level of improvement for us is to use our edges better. Again we saw what Staggs can do to a defence out wide and Fifita needs to be used a lot better than he was. We seemed to compress our edges a bit too much especially when we know defences will be all over Fifita and Staggs. The game plan needs to create more width out wide.

I really like what I saw last night. As I posted earlier, it is so good not have a bleak weekend.

I was wondering why Fifta was always on Dearden's right hand side? I'm not the student of the game that some on here are but I think I remember Fifita working more often on the left of the ruck?

 

[rnabokov]

Had anyone known about Peter Gentle before he got here? I'm not going to lie, I had never heard of him before. Buy having a look at his coaching experience, it's fair to say it is quite extensive. He has had a lot of roles, especially with younger teams. He probably has more experience than Seibold does in handling our young group.

Either way, I think Gentle would be fairly old school in his approach and his views about football. Having him in charge for two weeks has all but confirmed that none of this new age bullshit that Seibold has been trying to fool everyone with actually works. I think Gentle would have simplified things and it looks like the players have reacted well to the changes.

If Seibold resumes as head coach, and he still wants a coaching career in the NRL again, he really needs to look no further than what Gentle has got the team doing to identify why things have been going wrong for him.

Maybe, as I suggested elsewhere, this is a wake up call for Seibold and the lesson to be learned is that he needs to allow Gentle to be much more involved in the coaching. Either way, next week will show us exactly how much Gentle has contributed to the improvement we saw last night. Maybe, just maybe, Seibold's new age can work when combined with Gentle's contribution of the "old ways" so to speak.

 

[The Strapper]

Anyone know how long Flegler is out for?

He needs a shoulder reconstruction. Won't be back this season.

 

[Mr Fourex]

If you are referring to the bombs he was putting up then i have to kind of agree with you.

There were a couple of instances last night when he elected to bomb when the defensive line was actually retreating...a perfect time for him to run IMO.

He doesn't look like a natural kicker or is not used to it. When Milford went off and Tommy was left to do all the kicking, he seemed to struggle and lack a bit of confidence with it. Milford was similar when he first moved into the halves. I think Tom just needs to specifically target his kicking weakness and work damn hard on it....similar to what Milford had to do.

 

[Mr Fourex]

The after game thread has a completely different tone from previous weeks. There's only the odd tosser not a lot happier. I'm looking forward to re-watching the first 20 odd minutes to see what all the Kennedy hysteria was about. I do remember him being left stranded on the tryline and a tackle miss but I saw the same thing from Haas several times this year so it's hardly massive.

His stats look okay too. 140 metres from just 39 minutes and just a single missed tackle.

Agree.....I thought there was a lot to smile about last night. The "realists" out there need to remember to enjoy the positives as well as the negatives that they seem so happy to hang onto. At this stage of the game (the team is fucked) any small win (improvements) should be celebrated, cherished and held onto for all their worth. Constant negativity has a way of wearing down even the most positive of human spirits.

RE: Kennedy. He made quite a few errors early...some could say costly. He then fell into the grind of the gamne without being noticeable. His 2nd stint was much better. He does look to have potential. He's aggressive.

 

[Aldo]

He doesn't look like a natural kicker or is not used to it. When Milford went off and Tommy was left to do all the kicking, he seemed to struggle and lack a bit of confidence with it. Milford was similar when he first moved into the halves. I think Tom just needs to specifically target his kicking weakness and work damn hard on it....similar to what Milford had to do.

I think he strikes them quite nicely. Just needs to harness his kicking game so it becomes more of a threat.

 

[Huge]

Agree.....I thought there was a lot to smile about last night. The "realists" out there need to remember to enjoy the positives as well as the negatives that they seem so happy to hang onto. At this stage of the game (the team is fucked) any small win (improvements) should be celebrated, cherished and held onto for all their worth. Constant negativity has a way of wearing down even the most positive of human spirits.

RE: Kennedy. He made quite a few errors early...some could say costly. He then fell into the grind of the gamne without being noticeable. His 2nd stint was much better. He does look to have potential. He's aggressive.

Mmm, quite a few errors? I saw one shot that slipped up high, isolated on the line for his only missed tackle and an offload that was fine except for Milfords inattention. Others? So, in my eyes nothing major. As I said earlier I've seen much worse efforts from Haas when on the try line, much much worse come to think of it. A tackle slipping up high, when you're as tall as he is isn't something to worry about. The offload was fine. Was there something else I missed?

 

[rnabokov]

We play so much better with Paix on the field.

 

[NSW stables]

He just didn't get off his line. He was lucky to take a step off the line. Even if isolated, he just needed to move up quicker and at least give himself a chance to stop the try. You're right though, Offa did **** all to help.

Yeah he was not without fault. Could have done more

 

[Thelmus]

They're looking a whole lot better without Seibold at the helm you'd have to admit, energy levels were way up. Darius was very good at FB, one can only wonder how different things might have been had Seibold not gone down the mad professor's experimentation course? Defence through the middle is still an issue, need a Cam Murray or Victor Radley to stiffen things up. Dearden is the future the kids got ticker.

I thought Darius and Kahu were OK. They both made mistakes but they both put in. I take it that people were upset about being trapped in goal at the end but it was literally the last play. I was more concerned with him but especially our wingers letting the ball bounce instead of attacking it. It's another sign of a lack of confidence and it can be addressed in coaching during the week.
Kahu had one bad read in defence but considering he has had a year off and been injured was quite good. He was sticking and hitting hard in tackles and I'd like to see more of that.
It was also an improved performance from Teo who seems to be finally reaching some match fitness. Hopoate surprised me. Whilst I'm far from convinced he is an Nrl second rower, he did ok tonight. After a terrible start offa improved as the match went on, which makes me think a bit of work with a sports pjychologist (with a lot of them really) wouldn't go astray.

 

[Shane Tronc]

This was our most encouraging performance since the resumption, even more so than the bulldogs game.
Few things:

Coach: It’s hard to tell how much head coaching Gentle has been doing and how much has been Seibs remotely, but the energy around the team looks much improved since Gentle has been filling in. I think you can tell from the press conference that he’s been a breath of fresh air. It’s clear he has genuine care for his players. I’m sure that’s true for Seibold also but he’s not as good at expressing it, which is really key for man management.

Carrigan: This was a real breakout game for Patty leader-wise. He got through an insane amount of work out there. You could see he put the other young blokes on his back and said follow me. Whenever we got to a dead end in attack he was the one there to take the ball up and straighten the play. I’m excited to see what he can do next year once we’ve gotten rid of some of the players who are dividing the group.
For mine, our absolute MUST keeps going forward are Carrigan, Dearden, Paix and Herbie. They will be the heart and soul of this team.