POST GAME [Round 18, 2023] Broncos vs Dolphins

[Organix]

View attachment 22906Pinnacle of journalism from sage, preacher & snake oil salesman Badel.

Let him suffer in his jocks. A win is a win. That team photo looks sick. They're young, gonna be nervous, but the more they win, the more confidence they gain, the more trust in the coaching they invest. It's all positive signs, and Badel is just too dumb to see it. Those flukey tries are the kind of thing that keeps a season going. The boys will know they've gotta pull their share too, and they will.
Let's Go, Broncos!

 

[McHunt]

View attachment 22906Pinnacle of journalism from sage, preacher & snake oil salesman Badel.

Not even written by Badel. Do you need help reading the rest of it?

 

[ZTop]

Just admit you are Badel

 

[Swordfish]

Not even written by Badel. Do you need help reading the rest of it?


View attachment 22908

Oh, it wasn’t him? His best mate in Hooper is in town yesterday. No wonder he was busy & have no part in that article.

 

[Nerd]

We had just seen the Cows put 74 points on the tigers. After Dolphins went down by nearly 60 the week before, it was probably a good chance to flex, but we did have mitigating factors that should have tempered those expectations somewhat. Hard to gauge just how well the Dolphins played and how poorly we played. I think with the outs we have it was about the right outcome, but could/should expect a little more from our reserves if we want to be a smokey for the GF. Our system isn't there quite yet.

Redcliffe did have their hooker back this game who apparently had been missing the last few weeks.

 

[the_next]

Forget the win last night. Badel, Riccio & Read have run with another Reece article: "Who is Reece Walsh: NRL golden boy or spoiled brat"
Reece living rent free in a lot of peoples heads it seems.

 

[Nashy]

Forget the win last night. Badel, Riccio & Read have run with another Reece article: "Who is Reece Walsh: NRL golden boy or spoiled brat"
Reece living rent free in a lot of peoples heads it seems.

He's probably not used to people in Sydney giving a shit about his articles. Need to keep it up.

 

[Dexter]

Meh, +2 during origin, we'll take it.

Haas and Cobbo were massive.

Didn't enjoy footy at the Gabba. Just didn't feel right.

Yeah this, it's like banging your sister in law, we're there but we shouldn't be.

 

[LittleDavey]

It seems stupid to be feeling so pessimistic when we are still a win clear at the top of the table but I can't ignore some glaring issues.

Really concerned with Reyno and Mam tbh. Remember when Reyno had the ball on a string and was just picking opposition defences apart at the start of the year? His bombs are usually pinpoint 5m out, and full credit to him for that, but his short kicking game has just evaporated. Idk if he's injured or low on confidence or Kev has him trying to play differently, but something seems off. Mam also looks like a shadow of the kid who was ripping teams apart with Walsh earlier in the season too, he just shovels the ball on early. Again, down on confidence? Injury? What gives?

Our line speed has also deteriorated, but Kev is onto this - he mentioned it in the pre-game presser, so that's good, it's been identified. It was better tonight than it has been, but still not where it was early in the season either.

The biggest concern for me though is the one-out running and lack of support pushing up. It was such a positive early in the year, the boys were just pouring through every gap or half gap and there was always someone to get the ball off to. They were making chances out of pure hunger for the ball, a bit like the Cows lastnight, always keeping the ball alive and just finding that one extra pass to support that was just one too many for the defence to handle. That's been missing for a while now.

Actually, on that note, the entire group's energy seems a long way down on what it was. We don't look fitter than most other teams anymore like we did earlier. We don't really seem to have reserves in the tank to ride over teams at the end of the game. I don't know if it's attitude, confidence, niggling injuries or just the long season starting to take its toll but it's been noticeable to me.

We definitely missed Walsh's and Riki's energy, they are absolutely key members of this squad.

Glad we won it, but the coaching staff need to somehow get us back to where we were earlier in the season. At the moment it feels to me like we peaked before the Canberra game and it's been mostly downhill since. Hopefully the byes can freshen us up a bit and we can go on another run into the finals. I feel like we need a really solid 30+ win to hush the ghosts of last year and get the confidence in the group back up.

 

[BroncsFan]

It seems stupid to be feeling so pessimistic when we are still a win clear at the top of the table but I can't ignore some glaring issues.

Really concerned with Reyno and Mam tbh. Remember when Reyno had the ball on a string and was just picking opposition defences apart at the start of the year? His bombs are usually pinpoint 5m out, and full credit to him for that, but his short kicking game has just evaporated. Idk if he's injured or low on confidence or Kev has him trying to play differently, but something seems off. Mam also looks like a shadow of the kid who was ripping teams apart with Walsh earlier in the season too, he just shovels the ball on early. Again, down on confidence? Injury? What gives?

Our line speed has also deteriorated, but Kev is onto this - he mentioned it in the pre-game presser, so that's good, it's been identified. It was better tonight than it has been, but still not where it was early in the season either.

The biggest concern for me though is the one-out running and lack of support pushing up. It was such a positive early in the year, the boys were just pouring through every gap or half gap and there was always someone to get the ball off to. They were making chances out of pure hunger for the ball, a bit like the Cows lastnight, always keeping the ball alive and just finding that one extra pass to support that was just one too many for the defence to handle. That's been missing for a while now.

Actually, on that note, the entire group's energy seems a long way down on what it was. We don't look fitter than most other teams anymore like we did earlier. We don't really seem to have reserves in the tank to ride over teams at the end of the game. I don't know if it's attitude, confidence, niggling injuries or just the long season starting to take its toll but it's been noticeable to me.

We definitely missed Walsh's and Riki's energy, they are absolutely key members of this squad.

Glad we won it, but the coaching staff need to somehow get us back to where we were earlier in the season. At the moment it feels to me like we peaked before the Canberra game and it's been mostly downhill since. Hopefully the byes can freshen us up a bit and we can go on another run into the finals. I feel like we need a really solid 30+ win to hush the ghosts of last year and get the confidence in the group back up.

Reynolds mentioned last night that kicking was hard on the oval, because there were no markers around the perimeter so I can understand his poor kicking tonight… hopefully he has a word with someone to get some advertising boards or something out there to help his kicking… it is our home ground after all.

The energy could be as simple as us being in the middle of an origin series… Patty and Payne haven’t had a rest yet this season, but so much of our middle yardage is dependent on those two.

100% agree with you on the support play though and it is a good pick up. I believe that stat is the one Briers identified as a key to whether we win or not, and I’d say it probably has been down… but I think that is usually one of Patty’s elements that he controls… he’s the tip on man in our middle forwards. Flegler is also someone that provides him an option a lot of the time… got his try last week doing exactly that.

Attack inside the 20m has looked very clunky the last few weeks, but that could be origin catching up with us. Patty having no rest but being a key link man in there. Walsh being our primary attack but being on an absolute high mentally and emotionally, and also playing off no rest through the year.

We need a rest and reset at some point for those origin guys, but Patty is near irreplaceable in our current game plan… looked like we missed a lot not having him in the middle last night

 

[Mr Fourex]

Reynolds mentioned last night that kicking was hard on the oval, because there were no markers around the perimeter so I can understand his poor kicking tonight… hopefully he has a word with someone to get some advertising boards or something out there to help his kicking… it is our home ground after all.

and being as such, you'd think we'd get a squizz at the playing field prior to playing on it. eh?

Dunno....feels like a cop out. ARey's kicking has been hit and miss for quite some time IMO.

 

[Ejbroncos]

We have absolutely no set plays that involve our second rowers. Its nuts. They never even look like running decoys. You see Nikora hit a line or run an X off his halfback, yet our second rowers haven’t been used in years. It makes our backline plays even harder. Very rare to see our wingers just stroll over untouched like others teams do. We still have no structure to the attack other then a sweep from Walsh. We aint winning no premiership like that.

Also, Tyson Smoothy needs to go.

 

[McHunt]

It seems stupid to be feeling so pessimistic when we are still a win clear at the top of the table but I can't ignore some glaring issues.

Really concerned with Reyno and Mam tbh. Remember when Reyno had the ball on a string and was just picking opposition defences apart at the start of the year? His bombs are usually pinpoint 5m out, and full credit to him for that, but his short kicking game has just evaporated. Idk if he's injured or low on confidence or Kev has him trying to play differently, but something seems off. Mam also looks like a shadow of the kid who was ripping teams apart with Walsh earlier in the season too, he just shovels the ball on early. Again, down on confidence? Injury? What gives?

Attack inside the 20m has looked very clunky the last few weeks, but that could be origin catching up with us. Patty having no rest but being a key link man in there. Walsh being our primary attack but being on an absolute high mentally and emotionally, and also playing off no rest through the year.

Yes, our attack looks directionless, our 5th tackle options unplanned and our short kicking game ineffectual. I think it's been that way all season but papered over by our wealth of individual brilliance, most notably Walsh and Cobbo. There's no direction from dummy half, and Billy's kicking game is atrocious but no one can fault his service. We should have enough talent not to blame Billy or Smoothy for holding us back.

This is kind of what I was getting at last week when I said I'm not a fan of coach's dismissing losses on "attitude," unless you can broaden that definition to include not following (or having) some kind of attacking blueprint.

Suffice to say, we didn't win that game last night because of "attitude," we pretty much won it because of individual brilliance or arse. In honesty, we didn't even deserve that win, but neither did the Dolphins.

If our attack was ticking over, we should've racked up a cricket score last night. The Cowboys showed us how it's done. All the best teams are putting the lesser teams to the sword. We're not. We're scraping through. It will get us to the finals. But it's unlikely to progress us through them.

Reynolds is clearly the problem. I don't know why, but I struggle to put it down to "attitude" and it's certainly not lack of footy smarts or talent.

 

[1910]

Forget the win last night. Badel, Riccio & Read have run with another Reece article: "Who is Reece Walsh: NRL golden boy or spoiled brat"
Reece living rent free in a lot of peoples heads it seems.

It's actually pretty good, think Warne article from 1994- will he grow up or get in more trouble piece.

It's more of what they should be writing. Incidents from Cup, quotes from former coaches and his background that may lead to him being like the way he is.

No speculation just pure fork in the road. The genera mood which is 100% correct he has been doing this since Under 16 and no one has really done too much- will they now?

 

[Manofoneway]

It seems stupid to be feeling so pessimistic when we are still a win clear at the top of the table but I can't ignore some glaring issues.

Really concerned with Reyno and Mam tbh. Remember when Reyno had the ball on a string and was just picking opposition defences apart at the start of the year? His bombs are usually pinpoint 5m out, and full credit to him for that, but his short kicking game has just evaporated. Idk if he's injured or low on confidence or Kev has him trying to play differently, but something seems off. Mam also looks like a shadow of the kid who was ripping teams apart with Walsh earlier in the season too, he just shovels the ball on early. Again, down on confidence? Injury? What gives?

Our line speed has also deteriorated, but Kev is onto this - he mentioned it in the pre-game presser, so that's good, it's been identified. It was better tonight than it has been, but still not where it was early in the season either.

The biggest concern for me though is the one-out running and lack of support pushing up. It was such a positive early in the year, the boys were just pouring through every gap or half gap and there was always someone to get the ball off to. They were making chances out of pure hunger for the ball, a bit like the Cows lastnight, always keeping the ball alive and just finding that one extra pass to support that was just one too many for the defence to handle. That's been missing for a while now.

Actually, on that note, the entire group's energy seems a long way down on what it was. We don't look fitter than most other teams anymore like we did earlier. We don't really seem to have reserves in the tank to ride over teams at the end of the game. I don't know if it's attitude, confidence, niggling injuries or just the long season starting to take its toll but it's been noticeable to me.

We definitely missed Walsh's and Riki's energy, they are absolutely key members of this squad.

Glad we won it, but the coaching staff need to somehow get us back to where we were earlier in the season. At the moment it feels to me like we peaked before the Canberra game and it's been mostly downhill since. Hopefully the byes can freshen us up a bit and we can go on another run into the finals. I feel like we need a really solid 30+ win to hush the ghosts of last year and get the confidence in the group back up.

I wouldn't be too hard on mam at this stage of his career. If everyone remembers Deardons second year was pretty ordinary too. Mam will need another couple years to develop. He's already had much more success than any other nrl half that I've seen at age 19 or 20.

 

[Manofoneway]

Not sure what everyone was expecting with 4 representative starters out.. lads playing out if position everywhere, od course our attack looks clunky.

 

[the_next]

It's actually pretty good, think Warne article from 1994- will he grow up or get in more trouble piece.

It's more of what they should be writing. Incidents from Cup, quotes from former coaches and his background that may lead to him being like the way he is.

No speculation just pure fork in the road. The genera mood which is 100% correct he has been doing this since Under 16 and no one has really done too much- will they now?

Tbh I didn’t read the article, I saw the headline and Badel’s name next to it and moved on.
On Walsh, this can either be the making of him, or potentially the falling of him. Hopefully not the latter. There is far too much raw talent there to get too ahead of himself and chuck it all away. It’s also up to the Broncos to ensure he gets the right support around him.
I did find it pretty interesting that Walsh wasn’t at the game last night, instead he was at home. I would have thought he would be up in the box?
Unless there rules around suspended players not able to attend matches?

 

[Super Freak]

Crowd was 30,606. Capacity is 42,000.

Can anyone explain to me how this game was a sell out? I know parts of the stadium would have been closed off. It was advertised a day before the game that it was sold out, but you could still buy tickets on gameday and people were even at the ticket stations at the stadium getting tickets.

I don't see how it was a sell out.