[Round 19, 2021] Panthers vs Broncos

[McHunt]

Agreed with the career prospects in regards to Croft.

If I'm him I'm on the phone to my manager and telling him to find me a new deal anywhere and any price as long as it comes with a likelihood of being in the starting 13 every week.

He's got the $450k lined up for next year and Broncos seem willing to let anyone go whilst paying some freight.

He could feasibly go to ESL and recreate his career, because it doesnt seem like he has much of a future here.

Actually, the ESL could suit him even better if he wants to stay in Rugby League. Depends whether his Pomgolian refugee wife, Safina, could stomach a move to the North. It's grim up there:

 

[BroncsFan]

Agreed, Issako is just an easy scapegoat because the errors he makes people remember more. The 6 agains or penalties on 4th tackle when we've kept them down their own end after a good kick off is just as bad or worse then kicking it out on the full

The unfortunate thing for me was the run that Isaako put in before he got illegally bundled into touch, had a touch of confidence about it... like Isaako had turned a corner with playing wing. I think he's making better meters than Coates and if that play comes off suddenly he's a threat on kick returns as well.

I was watching end on from the game and he looked like he skipped across field well and had found enough space to break the line off the kick, but dove to ground due to the cover defence before completing the line break.

I couldn't quite tell from where I was if the cover defence was going to get him or not, but i thought he had Maumalo beaten and had started straightening up.

Regardless he was tackled as soon as Maumalo touched him, but a second effort comes and pushes him into touch, which should've been a penalty.


There was also a cross field bomb that he dropped in our end which was to me another illegal play as the tigers player just walked into the contest with zero attempt to go for the ball and takes out Isaako's legs whilst he's in the air

On the other bomb where Maumalo beats him in the air, it would be almost impossible for any winger to defend that. Maumalo was coming with about 30m of speed built up compared to Isaako waiting under the bomb. It's like complaining about Turbo out jumping any fullback winger on the exact same setup play that manly use.

It would be nice if Coates could catch the ball, because we could setup similar plays.

The kick offs are just infuriating though and you could see it coming from a mile away with how close he was getting to the dead ball line on previous kicks... potentially he cant quite tell how close it's getting to the dead ball line. I would prefer he just go high and aim for the try line instead of the ingoal.

 

[Sproj]

I feel sorry for Croft in that most of his problems last week were all starting with Glenn making the wrong decision time and time again forcing Croft into a no man’s land where he didn’t whether to rush up or hold and he just kept doing a mix of each and then Herbie couldn’t do anything and he looked lost too. It all started with Glenn.

 

[Aldo]

I feel sorry for Croft in that most of his problems last week were all starting with Glenn making the wrong decision time and time again forcing Croft into a no man’s land where he didn’t whether to rush up or hold and he just kept doing a mix of each and then Herbie couldn’t do anything and he looked lost too. It all started with Glenn.

Yep, Glenn without fail always goes for the decoy coming back in and ends up standing next to the middles who were coming across to get the decoy anyway, leaving the outside men defending an overlap.

 

[Shane Tronc]

I feel sorry for Croft in that most of his problems last week were all starting with Glenn making the wrong decision time and time again forcing Croft into a no man’s land where he didn’t whether to rush up or hold and he just kept doing a mix of each and then Herbie couldn’t do anything and he looked lost too. It all started with Glenn.

I actually disagree, though I’m well and truly on the Glenn is trash train. There were a few times were Brodie was basically standing on Glenn’s toes - Glenn was sliding and Croft was still biting in on the lead runner. Maybe you could say Glenn needs to lead better and say ‘stop biting in ****’ but it’s still on Croft. He is way too frantic a player. You really can’t afford your half to be like that.

 

[mrslong]

I actually disagree, though I’m well and truly on the Glenn is trash train. There were a few times were Brodie was basically standing on Glenn’s toes - Glenn was sliding and Croft was still biting in on the lead runner. Maybe you could say Glenn needs to lead better and say ‘stop biting in ****’ but it’s still on Croft. He is way too frantic a player. You really can’t afford your half to be like that.

This 100%. glenn was trash, but he has been a solid defender most of his career. He hasn't all of a sudden forgotten how to defend. He now has it in the back of his mind that he has Croft on his outside so needs to make sure of his man (usually the decoy). Croft shooting up like a headless chook is 100% on him. He did it at the Storm too. He was DREADFUL in defence there, and that's why they offloaded him.

 

[Huge]

The reality is, outside Haas and Oates, the rest of the team sucks. Now you can forgive the kids, hopefully they’ll improve but the mature heads in the side are all not good enough or inconsistent. Croft and Isaako very much fit into that category along with almost everyone else. Croft and Isaako though are not kids anymore and they both still do some things well but overall still have brain snaps in them and we need to rid ourselves of those kinds of players because our team is full of them.

Hey ****, Kennedy doesn't suck.well, not without sufficient inducement!

 

[Huge]

Agreed, Issako is just an easy scapegoat because the errors he makes people remember more. The 6 agains or penalties on 4th tackle when we've kept them down their own end after a good kick off is just as bad or worse then kicking it out on the full

If Croft laid on three tries and made 42 tackles, 4 line breaks and zero errors two or three posters would say ' Croft was okay today', the rest it'd be stoney silence.

Same with Isaako, he could score 4 tries and kick 7 from 7, all from the sideline and we'd have postefs saying 'fucking Isaako, he could have got closer to the sticks, good fullbacks do that' despite him playing wing!

It doesn't matter what the scapegoats do, even scapegoats from previous years like Boyd still get blamed, linked to whatever the most recent calamity happens to be. If we were winning these imagined sins(some valid) would hardly be spoken of.

More honoured in the breach than the observance.

 

[Huge]

I can only think Croft has been selected over Kelly this week to give Albert one more week... dont think he has played since round 13 and we've had a new high performance team since then.

He is clearly our best half with Gamble second.

Kelly and Gamble are our best halves pairing this year and Kelly is one we must retain heading into next year.

I actually cant remember the last impactful game that Croft had with us, but it wouldve been in the first half of last year prior to the tigers/storm game. Early last year he was easily our best half, but his confidence and form has dropped significantly since the media jumped on him after the storm and crocodile tears fiasco.

To me Croft works best when he can react to the defensive line and play off the front foot, but everything looks very premeditated with him at the moment and he's forcing things or not putting enough questions in the defence's mind.

In the tigers game you can see that he's taking it to the line with similar shape to Gamble (players inside and out), but he'll just take a stab at the line when it's not really on. That's either a lack of confidence to make the killer pass (inside or out), which brings with it an inability to really sell the dummy and run (defence can see when he's going to run or not). Gamble on the other hand has very good slight of hand going to the line and has the confidence to make the pass he sees or show and go when the defence over commits.

Probably doesnt help Croft that he has Glenn outside him which is zero threat to the defensive line.

What also hasn't helped is Croft has gone back to ISC and only got a couple games before injury, ISC is now in a holding pattern and he's come straight back into NRL without first getting his running game sorted.

With the state of our squad we really need ISC up and running to give our guys a place to build confidence in the lower grades. TC, Gamble, Kobe, Kelly, etc. all came into the NRL team on the back of playing some decent footy in ISC which built up their confidence first.

Didn't Croft play in our most recent victory over the top eight Sharks? He must have done something right in that game, yes?

 

[ZTop]

Didn't Croft play in our most recent victory over the top eight Sharks? He must have done something right in that game, yes?

Yeah, he didn't let in 5 tries.

 

[Huge]

Yeah, he didn't let in 5 tries.

So that's twice in two games he didn't let in 5 tries!

 

[Kooly87]

If Croft laid on three tries and made 42 tackles, 4 line breaks and zero errors two or three posters would say ' Croft was okay today', the rest it'd be stoney silence.

Same with Isaako, he could score 4 tries and kick 7 from 7, all from the sideline and we'd have postefs saying 'fucking Isaako, he could have got closer to the sticks, good fullbacks do that' despite him playing wing!

It doesn't matter what the scapegoats do, even scapegoats from previous years like Boyd still get blamed, linked to whatever the most recent calamity happens to be. If we were winning these imagined sins(some valid) would hardly be spoken of.

More honoured in the breach than the observance.

Croft has only managed 3 x Try Assists all year, let alone in one game.

He once played an ENTIRE season (22 games at Halfback) with Melbourne in which they actually won the Minor Premiership and even then he only managed 5 x Try Assists all year.

To demonstrate that this isn't even a statistical outlier season for him, he's only managed to create 13 Try x Assists in his whole NRL career of 62 games, which gives him a strikerate of barely ONE x Try Assist for every 5 games he's played!

You also can't blame that strike rate on the Broncos either, because he's played almost exactly 2/3rds of his career games with an extremely dominant Melbourne Storm side and his strike rate is almost identically low both with them and us.

 

[ZTop]

So that's twice in two games he didn't let in 5 tries!

Keep telling yourself that

 

[Huge]

Croft has only managed 3 x Try Assists all year, let alone in one game.

He once played an ENTIRE season (22 games at Halfback) with Melbourne in which they actually won the Minor Premiership and even then he only managed 5 x Try Assists all year.

To demonstrate that this isn't even a statistical outlier season for him, he's only managed to create 13 Try x Assists in his whole NRL career of 62 games, which gives him a strikerate of just ONE x Try Assist for every 5 games he's played!

You also can't blame that strike rate on the Broncos either, because he's played almost exactly 2/3rds of his career games with an extremely dominant Melbourne Storm side and his strike rate is almost identically low both with them and us.

Kind of missing the point! I'll say it more simply.
It wouldn't matter how well Croft or Isaako played, it wouldn't matter if both broke NRL records in the one game....on here posters who have already decided they know everything already would simply shrug, ignore the records, remain silent and wait for the next game where either player makes even the slightest of mistakes which would instantly become the moment we lost the match.

In other words, Isaako and Croft cannot win.

Funny thing, these posters conveniently forget there's been plenty of games where one or both have been absent...and we've still been lapped. If they play and we lose, it's their fault because they're the designated scapegoats.

 

[Kooly87]

Kind of missing the point! I'll say it more simply.
It wouldn't matter how well Croft or Isaako played, it wouldn't matter if both broke NRL records in the one game....on here posters who have already decided they know everything already would simply shrug, ignore the records, remain silent and wait for the next game where either player makes even the slightest of mistakes which would instantly become the moment we lost the match.

In other words, Isaako and Croft cannot win.

Funny thing, these posters conveniently forget there's been plenty of games where one or both have been absent...and we've still been lapped. If they play and we lose, it's their fault because they're the designated scapegoats.

You're suggesting people would ignore standout performances to suit an agenda, but you can't possibly know that for sure (this from a guy who claims to hate definitive statements that aren't backed by absolutely certain knowledge) because factually speaking, Croft hasn't actually had any standout performances. Certainly not ones you could measure with any relevant statistics at this point. Halves need to create points and Croft is just not very efficient in this regard and statistically he never has been.

I'm not one to blame him for all our poor results, that's just absurd. Equally though, I haven't lavished him with any signficant praise because at this point he honestly hasn't had a performance that demands people to stand up and take notice.

 

[BroncsFan]

Didn't Croft play in our most recent victory over the top eight Sharks? He must have done something right in that game, yes?

He did but making an appearance and having a positive tangible impact on the game are two different things

His stat line for the game (along with the rest of the spine is below) and it is perhaps the most uninspiring stat line you could imagine for a half in a winning team, who also had the most touches across the park (excluding the hooker).

Player	Tesi Niu	Tyson Gamble	Brodie Croft	Jake Turpin
Number	1	6	7	9
Position	Fullback	Five-Eighth	Halfback	Hooker
Mins Played	80:00:00	80:00:00	80:00:00	80:00:00
Points	8	-	-	-
Tries	2	-	-	-
Conversions	-	-	-	-
Conversion Attempts	-	-	-	-
Penalty Goals	-	-	-	-
Goal Conversion Rate	-	-	-	-
1 Point Field Goals	-	-	-	-
2 Point Field Goals	-	-	-	-
Total Points (Fantasy)	64	52	19	55
All Runs	15	15	8	5
All Run Metres	173	128	54	27
Kick Return Metres	34	-	-	-
Post Contact Metres	12	32	9	-
Line Breaks	2	-	-	-
Line Break Assists	-	1	-	-
Try Assists	-	-	-	-
Line Engaged Runs	-	-	-	-
Tackle Breaks	6	1	1	-
Hit Ups	1	-	-	1
Play The Ball	14	6	2	-
Average Play The Ball Speed	4.04s	3.23s	3.72s	-
Dummy Half Runs	-	-	-	4
Dummy Half Run Metres	-	-	-	26
One on One Steal	-	-	-	-
Offloads	-	2	-	-
Dummy Passes	-	4	1	2
Passes	17	22	37	109
Receipts	35	42	45	112
Passes To Run Ratio	1.13	1.47	4.63	21.8
Tackle Efficiency	33.30%	78.90%	70%	95%
Tackles Made	1	15	21	57
Missed Tackles	1	2	6	1
Ineffective Tackles	1	2	3	2
Intercepts	-	-	-	-
Kicks Defused	5	-	-	-
Kicks	1	14	4	1
Kicking Metres	20	335	83	44
Forced Drop Outs	-	1	-	-
Bomb Kicks	-	7	1	-
Grubbers	1	1	-	-
40/20	-	-	-	-
20/40	-	-	-	-
Cross Field Kicks	-	2	2	-
Kicked Dead	-	-	-	-
Errors	-	-	1	2
Handling Errors	-	-	1	2
One on One Lost	-	-	-	1
Penalties	-	1	-	-
Ruck Infringements	-	1	-	-
Inside 10 Metres	-	-	1	-
On Report	-	1	-	-
Sin Bins	-	-	-	-
Send Offs	-	-	-	-

 

[Mr Fourex]

I'm not one to blame him for all our poor results, that's just absurd.

Almost as absurd as it was blaming Milford for the entire teams dismal performances over the last couple years.

Get rid of Milford and we're a different team.....?

errr........no, sorry.....we're still a mixed rabble of raw talent and stupidity.

 

[Financeguy]

Croft has been a failure, simple as that.

Even his most vocal supporter can only argue his value through tackling technique stats…may as well just play another forward instead.

Anyone watching his performances for us can see that he struggles to positively contribute in attack which is his main job. I couldn’t give a **** if he has never missed an attempted tackle in his life, his pass and kicking game is poor both in quality and timing for a starting half. He is not especially quick, strong nor crafty enough to compensate for his poor skill set that his position demands.