POST GAME [Round 2, 2025] Broncos vs Raiders

[Accept]

I really hope Madge rips them a new one. He did say he was going to fix the issues privately and will keep his opinions to himself. He did also say he’s learning a lot about them and how they play. So surely this game has shown him how bad they can be and he can nip it in the bud now before it gets worse.

He did "rip them a new one" as plainly shown on Fox Sports. That sort of approach doesn't work with the modern player, especially on a high profile team such as the Broncos. We've seen it all before. Bronco players do not respond to this. All it does is cause discontent.

Madge is a myth. Some of his lineup decisions are bewildering. But, in a club with zero depth, we'll have to settle with the Gosiewskis and Shibasakis of the world.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Well I will get this out of the way and move on and yes, this will likely be wildly controversial for some players:

1. Walsh - Absolutely terrible, he should have been hooked. I am not sure I've seen too many worse games from anyone in a Broncos jersey. He needs to turn it around quick because he was pretty poor last week too. No joke, he had a negative result. -2
2. Cobbo - So silky, so classy at times. He was a stand out again in attack but that defensive effort on the Raiders' winger try was awful. He was unfortunately robbed of an absolutely epic try but an inexplicable video ref decision that robbed the Broncs of an undeserved chance to snatch the game. I really hope he re-signs soon, he offers us so much. 7
3. Mariner - He really came to life as the game went on, he needs to be one of our centres moving forward because he is clearly getting better. His defense has improved and will keep getting better but he turned into an absolute weapon in the back end of the game. Yes the triple movement was poor but man, he gave them nightmares with his mix of speed, agility and strength. I know there is a lot of understandable doom and gloom but he was fantastic. He will be getting player of the game points from me. He ran for 231m and made tackle and line breaks at will. His rating will be controversial I'm sure. 9
4. Shibasaki - Well unfortunately, this was classic Shibasaki. He won me over last week, I was really impressed but this week, man his defense was atrocious. 6 tackles, 5 misses and 1 ineffective - simply not good enough when that is the reason he is picked. He tried to make some strong yardage runs and did some ok but overall, like so many others, really poor. 2
5. Arthars - Our wings were a shining light tonight. Arthars tried really hard with limited opportunities but scored a deserved hat trick and his first try in particular was REALLY impressive. So glad we have him, so underrated. 8
6. Hunt - He was almost invisible all night. Everything that looked great with our 6 and 7 last week looked awful this week. Luckily Walsh had an all time shocker to distract somewhat from Hunt's own terrible game. He was invisible until inexplicably deciding to catch a ball going dead and getting stuck in goal resulting in us conceding a try and giving them all the momentum back right on half time. -1
7. Reynolds - He was rocks and diamonds all night. Some really good goal kicking, some really good effort mixed with some shocking field kicks. When the team is playing so poorly, as captain you need to be setting the example to turn it around, not exacerbating the problem. 5
8. Carrigan - He had a good game for most middles but a poor one for him. His stats look fine in terms of run metres but he made some huge errors in defense and a crucial stupid offload at a time the team least needed it. He got pushed around a lot. He like so many others did not stand up. 5
9. Paix - After having smoke blown up him all week, turned in a McCullough-like performance this week. Happily, he defended really well - 44 tackles and only 1 miss but ran literally once and in a game where blowing through the middle was the key, he was almost invisible compared to the Raiders' number 9 who was everywhere. 5
10. Haas - He really tried to lead from the front and happily, it seems possessed Haas is here to stay. He was skittling them again and plays so smart. Raiders were hanging around looking for his offload and so he made sure he threw safe ones that they couldn't stop. Haas really stood up and was so often last man back making a tackle Walsh just wasn't interested in doing. He'll be getting points again from me. 8
11. Goseiwski - Basically, look at Shibasaki's comments and put them here. He missed some seriously crucial tackles and unlike last week, was absolutely invisible in attack. When you are there for your defense and you do this badly, you have to be put on notice. 2
12. Riki - I am sure he will get smashed in comments again as he is a bit of a whipping boy and honestly, understandably at times but I thought he was not bad overall. He did some good runs, tackled his heart out and put up an excellent kick he had no right to do. He still needs to work on his game awareness though but overall, he at least tried. 6
13. Hetherington - I was impressed with some of his runs again and he really stepped up in the back end of the game but in the front end, his defense was limp, complete opposite to last week. He really needs to close the gap between his best and worst and remember he is picked to be the enforcer defensively, not the arm grabber. 5

14. Walters - The game was basically over by the time he got on but I thought he was a pretty noticeable attacking improvement on Paix. Well at least he ran, something Paix clearly needs to do more of. 6
15. Jensen - His job and Xman's job was to turn the momentum when they came on and they tried but then got bullied and submitted, really disappointing. When you have Te Kura and Taupau breathing down your throat, this is not the type of performance to put in because it was really average. 4
16. Willison - This will come off harsh but so be it. He is still so young, so he will be inconsistent but he made some huge errors at crucial times and he needs to get that out of his game. He really tried to be aggressive and I thought he really showed intent and then completely blew it but making so many errors in attack and defense. He is lucky he is so talented and young that this kind of performance will not get him dropped. 4
17. Piakura - Obviously much better than last week but how could it be worse? He ran with purpose and tried to put some hits on in defense and he did so impressively. If he keeps this up and improves and Gosiewski puts out this rubbish a week or two more, he will be back starting and that says it all because while impressive, he still wasn't great. 6

Very harsh on Hunt and very generous for Riki.

 

[FACTHUNT]

I just kinda expected it. Ricky took it personal that the bookies had them overwhelming spoon favourites, and Starling is pissed off that Brailey is apparently on the way.

Their line speed was immense, and we were bullied. It was brutal at crowd level. Hudson, Hosking, Papa, and Nicholson were brutal. Wtf.

We could have stolen that with a few of those tries we left out there. Yikes. Absolutely needed to come away with the two points tonight.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. A humbling won't hurt us, unless we let it.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Anyway, onwards and upwards. A humbling won't hurt us, unless we let it.

That's what I'm afraid of.

 

[BroncsFan]

6. Hunt - He was almost invisible all night. Everything that looked great with our 6 and 7 last week looked awful this week. Luckily Walsh had an all time shocker to distract somewhat from Hunt's own terrible game. He was invisible until inexplicably deciding to catch a ball going dead and getting stuck in goal resulting in us conceding a try and giving them all the momentum back right on half time. -1

Very harsh I would say... he was basically an 8 until he had that brain fade and picked up the ball that was going dead and then got run over.

To say he was invisible all night is just forgetting that he set up the first two tries.

 

[Ejbroncos]

Walsh. Didnt touch the ball in the first half while we got dominated. Overplayed his hand to make up for it in the second. Having playmaking halves on both sides rather than a running 5/8 will affect how we use him. Cramped him several times. Looked dreadful but will improve.

Cobbo and Mariner shining lights. Great runs. Issue I have with Mariner is he is a right sided centre. He doesnt play this good on the left.

Haas and Carrigan got absolutely dominated in the first half. Both were outplayed by an old man and a rogue Horsburgh.

Paix needs to work on his service. Took so long passing the ball to our forwards which gave the raiders line speed enough time to smash our forwards. Made zero impact on the markers. Needs to watch what Starling did from the first set tonight.

Riki is awful with ball in hand. Piakura rag dolled several times. Gos awful in defence tonight. We have the worst back row in the comp by far. Can’t see why we can’t turn Hetherington into Liam Martin.

Hunt & Reynolds- Can’t do much without territory.

We went from a good ball playing forward pack last week to one-out plays. Was dreadful. We’ve turned Carrigan into a battering ram and now have no ball playing in the forwards.

Hetherington was useless first stint. Looked better against fatigued players.

Jensen useless off the bench.

Taupau and Te Kura are better options than a second rower on the bench who plays 20 mins.

 

[FACTHUNT]

That's what I'm afraid of.

I think we'll be fine. Trash week with cyclone issues, etc. I wish we went into camp down here. Absolute must win next weekend.

 

[Mustafur]

Very harsh I would say... he was basically an 8 until he had that brain fade and picked up the ball that was going dead and then got run over.

To say he was invisible all night is just forgetting that he set up the first two tries.

Yes, but when you think of half involvement compared to the first game it was heavily titled toward Reyno, the tries he was involved on was like a snipe trade in perspective.

There was a huge lack of using our spine effectively in this game, and to be fair that can happen when you lose the middle battle.

 

[BroncsFan]

We had little interchange in the first half, which seemed like a strategy to over run them with class at the back end.

Interchange was the same as last week wasn't it?

Last week Haas and Kobe off at the 30mins mark and Patty played through until Haas came back on at 50mins.

I think Patty's minutes changed to last week, because he was still out there when Haas came back on, but I'm guessing that was Madge's first instance of trust issues with this squad. He looked at his bench and didn't have anyone to trust more than having a Patty that had already been out there for 60 odd minutes straight.

Either way we have two big minute props so they're always going to be playing through to 30mins at minimum.

Potentially Kobe could've come off earlier when we had seen off their initial all energy attack, but the plan going into the game was Jensen and Willison on at 30mins mark and they're needed to play a certain amount of minutes for the later interchanges when Patty is scheduled to come off, etc.

Potentially you could bring Jensen on because he's more experienced, but the preference would be Willison to change momentum at that point. However, Madge potentially doesn't have the trust in his players as yet to be able to change things up on the fly and know they will be able to handle it.

It may have been telling that Piakura was brought on so early this time around and Gos was potentially hooked for some of his defensive reads... Piaks first involvement was absolutely folding Mariota.

I have no doubt that Madge would fucking love to use Piaks over Gos, but he needs to get his defensive reads up to scratch... he may not be too far off getting that spot from him though

 

[Dexter]

We got owned fair and square but the reffing was questionable all night. I don't even think it's so much the refs fault but the evolution of the tackle and dominance interpretation.
Quite a few times we made breaks and the raiders were still allowed to hold down that bit extra or arrive late. Mariner was 1 example in the second half and Walsh close to the end. No 6 again or penalty.
We really need to complain a lot more like the Raiders do. Continually throwing your hands in the air clearly brings the refs attention to this stuff.

 

[heartly87]

This is the modern game. Momentum is extremely hard to stop. We had our chances to do it but our completion rate made it impossible.

Raiders games are always difficult. Especially early in the year. We were lucky not to get ,50 put on us.

I said it would be a perfect litmus test game for us and it was. We still have a lot of work to do. Especially in how to deal with trench warfare. Our boys just don't like getting into slugfest games.

Cobbo was our best alongside Arthars and Adam.

 

[Mustafur]

Interchange was the same as last week wasn't it?

Last week Haas and Kobe off at the 30mins mark and Patty played through until Haas came back on at 50mins.

I think Patty's minutes changed to last week, because he was still out there when Haas came back on.

Either way we have two big minute props so they're always going to be playing through to 30mins at minimum.

Potentially Kobe could've come off earlier when we had seen off their initial all energy attack, but the plan going into the game was Jensen and Willison on at 30mins mark and they're needed to play a certain amount of minutes for the later interchanges when Patty is scheduled to come off, etc.

Potentially you could bring Jensen on because he's more experienced, but the preference would be Willison to change momentum at that point. However, Madge potentially doesn't have the trust in his players as yet to be able to change things up on the fly and know they will be able to handle it.

It may have been telling that Piakura was brought on so early this time around and Gos was potentially hooked for some of his defensive reads... Piaks first involvement was absolutely folding Mariota.

I have no doubt that Madge would fucking love to use Piaks over Gos, but he needs to get his defensive reads up to scratch... he may not be too far off getting that spot from him though

interchange was fine imo, Willison and Jensen came on with around 12 mins till the second half so it was an aggressive bench rotation compared to what we have done in the past, it was the mentality from the start that I think was the primary issue.

 

[mstreet]

You can't be a 9 if you don't run the ball.

I think 1910 said that paix doesn't run the ball. I know billy will, but billy goes off script a lot. Is Mozer a noted ball runner? We got owned in the ruck, and Starling had a blinder. It is hard game to mark with respect to Paix, as the raiders defence was all over us, all night.

My criticism from our spine would be that they didn't adjust. We could have stood deeper, to buy ourselves time. Reece in a deeper play the ball, could have used his step, and speed, to keep them guessing. Be interesting to see how they respond next week on a coaching, and halves level.

 

[Broncapz]

Biggest concern was the edge defense still. Some soft tries. We still looked like we could have won that game despite Canberra playing their best game in forever.

Congrats Bellamy on retiring with the 2025 premiership.

 

[heartly87]

Some weird refing non call for accidental offside and cobbo in the corner being overturned

Round one looked pretty awful for the game. The deck has to be stacked a bit against the top end for a while to avoid embarrassing the game. Why else would you ban free speech about ref decisions after round one out of the blue.

Melbourne will be the only one who gets the rub. They appear to have the golden hand this year haha

 

[BroncsFan]

Issue I have with Mariner is he is a right sided centre. He doesnt play this good on the left.

I would be tempted to play Staggs on the left.

Mariner was crazy dangerous tonight on the right... far more than what Staggs has been in recent years.

Staggs has played limited time on the left in the past and has looked alright. He loses his left arm fend, but it's not really doing as much as what it used to.

 

[Dexter]

I have to admit I did have a little something on the Raiders at $4.50 because I thought it was silly odds.

 

[_wwong]

I’m blown away that we only lost by 10. We were that shithouse that I swear we should have lost by 40.
Couple of suss calls in there too. Not that we deserved to win that one but honestly we really could have.
Hopefully Madge is genuine when he is saying he learnt a lot tonight. Sounds like he may have given them too much freedom off the back of last week. I expect this week won’t be fun for the boys and wouldn’t be shocked to see a couple of changes in the 17.

I’m interested to see how this plays out if Madge does give them a roasting. Do the players buy in or will they have a sook that he’s being too harsh..