POST GAME [Round 2, 2025] Broncos vs Raiders

[McHunt]

The loss we had to have. At least we've got it out of the road early on.

 

[kman]

I think we are being a bit too harsh on the boys. Canberra raiders are always hard to beat at home and Brisbane Broncos have had 2 away games to start the year. Rest up and come back strong next week against the Cowboys.

 

[Brocko]

Lol what a shit presser ... two questions about Canberra... one about some shit smell in the stadium and another about a squad he doesn't know anything about.

Got the sense in the only question he needed to answer that he won't be afraid to make some changes. Learned alot, keeping it in house to himself etc.

 

[mstreet]

I would much prefer to go back to Heatherington to the bench with Jensen and Carrigan starting.

I agree, but I'm being open minded at this point in Madges vision.

Jenson and Carrigan is a no brainer. Just got let this experiment play out.

Tough night is Canberra, which is customary. That is the best game the Raiders will play this year. Ricky firing them up with emotion, has a shelf life.

 

[Jedhead]

As the saying goes - after the Lord mayor comes the dirt cart and we were certainly the dirt cart tonight and Walshy was riding that fucker loud and proud. I swear he must have had a few bob on the Raiders as I've never witnessed anyone let alone a Bronco make a mistake every time he touched the ball right up until the final 5 minutes of the game.

The Raiders played well as their completion rate must have been up in the 90% but I lost count when they scored three tries directly off of mistakes we made. it may have been more. Willison had an uncharacteristic off night too.

But our defence and our mistake rate was what handed the game to them.

Jeez that Riki needs a good frikiin pull through and ordered to stop giving away stupid, needless six agains. If I was Madge I'd start docking his pay every time he transgresses.

All in all that was the biggest load of bollocks I've seen a Broncos team offer up.

Saying they tried to phone this one is close to describing their effort, 'cept the phone they were using was one of those ones you wind the arm up and hold one bit to your ear and speak into the other bit. It just reeked of old worn out shit!

Not happy Jan!!

 

[Mustafur]

I think we are being a bit too harsh on the boys. Canberra raiders are always hard to beat at home and Brisbane Broncos have had 2 away games to start the year. Rest up and come back strong next week against the Cowboys.

It was because of the way we lost.

 

[Bronx48]

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.

 

[Xzei]

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

 

[Sproj]

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

 

[Broncones]

I honestly think this was a very immature game from the broncos they did not match intensity of raiders at all and seemed to be looking for miracle try constantly, it was honestly hard to watch. They really need to learn how to settle and grind for a game and build pressure. Broncos energy looked a little off today and I’m not sure what the reasoning for this was. Full credit to raiders they showed up like professionals were patient and executed Ricky’s plan to a T.

 

[BroncosFever]

Lol what a shit presser ... two questions about Canberra... one about some shit smell in the stadium and another about a squad he doesn't know anything about.

Dunno how they do it, they front up to every presser, get asked to talk about the team that just flogged them and are supposed to give a balanced answer.

Any coach thinking about the other team after his own team gets belted, should be sacked.

 

[Ejbroncos]

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

You miss the try assists from Ben Hunt? Was the only one that looked half decent in that first half

 

[Manofoneway]

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

Good write up. agree that Paix seems to have become a 9 that never runs the ball which is disappointing. The raiders seemed to know every receipt he threw which made him ineffective. It was a Turpin like performance with alot of good tackling. I think he's playing too many minutes. If Walsh is a -2 there is no way Hunt is a -1. He was shit but he was nowhere near close to Walsh shit...

 

[mstreet]

I dont think either of our starting props were poor tbh, but they didnt manage to turn the tide either which you would expect them to be capable of. The other middles didnt stand up either and the less said about our back row the better.

As somebody else said, we need some genuine mongrel in this pack. Even our best forwards dont have that hard edge to them. Its why i laugh when i see them get compared to some of our greats like Webcke and Civoneciva. These guys might make more meters than those two, but that just lack what the likes of those two guys had. Saying that, i'm sure if we went back and watched every game they played they would have had times where it didnt work for them.

Webcke was a tough as nails, tradesmen. His first run was as hard as his last run. Played in a cast, but couldn't fight for shit lol.

Fridge and a freezer, was built from granite according to all those that tackled him. The way he carted the ball, and just kept getting metres post contact. The fact that he was forced out, is a mark of shame for this great club.

Hass didn't have a bad game. Carrigan played more minutes. They both have big motors. We had little interchange in the first half, which seemed like a strategy to over run them with class at the back end.

Credit to the Raiders as they didn't fade.

 

[Broncosarethebest]

Shit go of it and got what we deserved. Hunt, Reyno, Carrigan and Walsh (especially) made some errors that hopefully is out of their system for the season. Feels like a loss that had to happen, can't be preseason premiers and march premiers.
I'd like to think Madge will rinse the team for that effort and we'll be better for the season for it.
Didn't like how the game was reffed, the few times we got to see zoom out defensive line compared to play the ball it seemed a couple of metres where added to our D line and raider "line speed" was above riff level. Anyone at the game can confirm? I admit I'm a sook and likely reaching.
Regardless of my bias views of the ref we should have beat these diving, whinging grubs. We certainly had the chances just lacked the finish tonight.
Sky isn't falling for me after that.

 

[kman]

It was because of the way we lost.

In the end we lost by 10 points that's that's still a close game and last year we probably would have lost by 30.

 

[BroncosFever]

Good write up. agree that Paix seems to have become a 9 that never runs the ball which is disappointing. The raiders seemed to know every receipt he threw which made him ineffective. It was a Turpin like performance with alot of good tackling. I think he's playing too many minutes. If Walsh is a -2 there is no way Hunt is a -1. He was shit but he was nowhere near close to Walsh shit...

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

 

[the_next]

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.