PRE-GAME [Round 17, 2024] Broncos vs Warriors

[Santa]

 

[Bish]

The Cobbo ‘knock on’ would have been challenged by Reyno I’m pretty sure.

We’re a pushover at the minute and it’s pissing me off.

 

[LittleDavey]

Can't argue. So much of what we did last year was a result of our confidence as a team, especially at the back end there...that no matter who we came up against, we weren't scared and we'd always back our defence and our long-range attack. The confidence has completely evaporated and that's a huge worry when we STILL don't seem to have any systems to fall back on. Rightly or wrongly I do point the finger a bit at Kev (& the other staff for this), we're now in his 3rd year and there still doesn't seem to be any basic structure or system to fall back on whatsoever...we look lost in the opposition red zone, it's just not good enough.

I just can't fathom where the team is at this year. I know we've missed our most valuable players (sans Patty) in Reyno and Walsh for big chunks, as well as a multitude of other players, and we're lacking the big bodies of Flegler and Palasia, as well as Kurt's experience and Herbie's work. I do think losing those players and the replacements not being to the same standard, has impacted team cohesion and confidence as a whole. Earlier I was prepared to give the team the benefit of the doubt in defence with changing combinations etc due to injuries, but we're starting to get reps with the same/very similar team now and it's still very poor in comparison to last year.

The way we play is so, so different. Last year our pack were just bullying teams...we were running 2 and 3 forwards every play, not the one-out bullshit we've gone back to. Our line speed wasn't great but we were stinging in defence, this year we're just soft as **** for the most part. We've still been in pretty much every game, surprisingly, despite playing like dogshit and despite the final scoreboard - but we're losing the equivalent games we were winning last year and the body language out there is just terrible.

We look a tired, broken team - but it's only really halfway through the season. This time last year we were starting to put it together - this year we almost seem to have put the cue back in the rack. Whether it's the shortened preseason, the Vegas hangover, the lack of confidence in general, lingering injuries, a GF hangover, a combination - I don't know, but the coaching staff (and players) have got a hell of a job in front of them to get this team even into the finals at this stage and frankly it will be a massive failure if they don't. We've still had the opportunity to do so much better, and it's not too late to turn it around...but I'm losing faith in this year.

 

[McHunt]

I'm glad we get Cobbo back rested. If he weren't carrying an injury his form over the last two matches warranted concern.

 

[mitch222]

I'm glad we get Cobbo back rested. If he weren't carrying an injury his form over the last two matches warranted concern.

I think Cobbo is a person who simply can not back up from Origin games.

 

[Johnny92]

Dude not even Penrith in the prime would have a hope there.

KFC has entered the chat..

 

[Culhwch]

KFC has entered the chat..


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Over-under on how many of those he ate before someone convinced him none of them were real?

 

[Sproj]

KFC has entered the chat..


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He actually doesn't look impressed that this is not McDonalds

 

[FACTHUNT]

Corey Jensen has sprained his ankle at training. Hopeful to be right for this game.

Honestly jut put me in the bin and wake me in 2025

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Corey Jensen has sprained his ankle at training. Hopeful to be right for this game.

Honestly jut put me in the bin and wake me in 2025

We need to have a serious, SERIOUS look at our fitness and conditioning procedures because this is beyond a joke now.

 

[Bucking Beads]

We need to have a serious, SERIOUS look at our fitness and conditioning procedures because this is beyond a joke now.

I agree. Way too many injuries at training

 

[FACTHUNT]

We need to have a serious, SERIOUS look at our fitness and conditioning procedures because this is beyond a joke now.

yeah DD needs to go after the best s&c coach in the business, injuries aside our fitness has been rubbish

 

[Allo]

yeah DD needs to go after the best s&c coach in the business, injuries aside our fitness has been rubbish

Part of the same issue is, aside from a certain team that has inexplicable (legal) stamina, a lot of other teams/players look like they run harder, hit harder, and don’t get tackled as easily as we seem to

I know we’re more of a skills team rather than brute force, but if we can’t make metres, we can’t expect to use the skills as effectively and the last month especially has shown that

 

[Jedhead]

I can't work it out how last year we seemed supremely fit and injury free so much so that it was expected that we would run over the top of teams in the second half. We played like this all year and then ran out of puff on the last game of the year! Since then we seemed to have lost both fitness and the ability to avoid injuries.

 

[BroncsFan]

Part of the same issue is, aside from a certain team that has inexplicable (legal) stamina, a lot of other teams/players look like they run harder, hit harder, and don’t get tackled as easily as we seem to

I know we’re more of a skills team rather than brute force, but if we can’t make metres, we can’t expect to use the skills as effectively and the last month especially has shown that

I think we were a very physical team last year and we were also the team running over the top of the opposition in the final 20mins of games. Our fitness won us a lot of games.

I just think the GF into internationals, into a disrupted preseason and trip to US means we probably had to rely on the fitness from last year / players maintaining their fitness levels in the offseason, rather than being able to rest after the season and rebuild the base.

I dont think Patty got back to training until mid-late January and then we were off to the states in Feb... that's probably similar to Haas and those guys that played internationals... and that's not taking into account when the trials started.

In a normal offseason I think the fringe first graders are there back end of November / start of December and then the top 30 filter in from start of December with everyone back before Xmas and then a break until January.

Usually Broncos marketting team are posting training videos over those periods, but that seemed pretty quiet last year... I dont recall seeing stuff about them doing "The Gap" run and things like that...

So I feel like they might've come into the preseason just beaten up from the year that was and didnt get an opportunity to really rest out niggles and things before having to then come back and really hammer in and build that fitness back up.

We've looked pretty beaten up all year and it hasn't helped that we dont have a lot of quality depth to fall back on this year.

Last year Arthars and Mariner were our depth outside backs at the start of the year... Kobe, Jensen and Palasia spent time in reserve grade... Piakura was depth last year.... so if we needed to rest a starter due to a niggle we could give them a week off here and there.... we dont have that luxury this year and guys are having to play through the injuries because there is too much of a drop off to the next guy up.

Kevvie being able to rotate his forwards was a big thing last year and we havent really been able to do that at all this year.... it's just all hands on deck

 

[Santa]

I can't work it out how last year we seemed supremely fit and injury free so much so that it was expected that we would run over the top of teams in the second half. We played like this all year and then ran out of puff on the last game of the year! Since then we seemed to have lost both fitness and the ability to avoid injuries.

I guess injuries also affect fitness. I reckon we should be looking at whoever takes care of our training ground. Lots of ankle/knee injuries at training...

 

[thenry]

I can't work it out how last year we seemed supremely fit and injury free so much so that it was expected that we would run over the top of teams in the second half. We played like this all year and then ran out of puff on the last game of the year! Since then we seemed to have lost both fitness and the ability to avoid injuries.

To be fair we only ran out of puff in GF because we handed the ball to Penrith a thousand times in the first half. Completion rate 50% or something ridiculous.

If we completed at even 70% we still have gas in the last 20.

 

[Sproj]

To be fair we only ran out of puff in GF because we handed the ball to Penrith a thousand times in the first half. Completion rate 50% or something ridiculous.

If we completed at even 70% we still have gas in the last 20.

Our two most experienced players going to water in Reynolds and Capewell didn't help either to be fair.