Round 2 - Broncos vs Cowboys - Post Match Discussion

[Super Freak]

Broncos should not have been in that position. They bombed several tries, Thaiday bombing one of them.

All he had to do was pass the fucking ball. That's it. What does he do? Holds it.

I'm very proud of the performance, and I am so fucking glad they came away with the win. I'm still shaking from that second half.

However, this can't go on. Things have to change and they have to change fast.

 

[Super Freak]

Shout out to the boys who came tonight. You know who you are. We were watching the field from almost behind the posts, on the second level, and it shows exactly how much better our defence is. The best way to describe it is committed. What I noticed is that even when an opposition runner has some room to move, not only is our defender holding on for their life, within moments we have backup defenders coming in from both sides to wrap up the ball. Last year they'd kind of hang around, maybe grab a jersey or something, but hold off in case an offload gets popped. Instead, they're now getting in there and making sure the offload doesn't happen. It's a mighty effort because it required a higher level of commitment and no room for even one player to slacken off - and that's where the additional fitness has been priceless.

Ben Hunt has to have the kicking duties taken off him. There were only two kicks I can remember that found the grass. One of which was the stupid field-goal attempt. The rest of his game was serviceable, not as bad as some are making out, the team just need a bit more time to gel and really get the combinations locked down. McCullough, Hoffman & Barba should be able to help out there.

And I'll repeat what I said last week, we're winning these games through our defence. A smaller, less experienced half may look sharper & more creative in attack, but in defence our structure will not work with any weak points. Seriously, without Hoffman defending in the halves, we could have easily leaked another 3 tries or so directly, and possibly more just by being more porous elsewhere in order to compensate for the weak link.

Which section? I was nearly behind the goal posts and up on the second level too.

 

[Super Freak]

One thing I enjoyed seeing, Thurston giving his head gear to that little girl in the crowd.

 

[Unbreakable]

There were only two kicks I can remember that found the grass. One of which was the stupid field-goal attempt.

That field gold attempt was actually caught on the full, hence why most of the players thought it was a 20 metre tap, so he had 1 kick all night that hit the grass, haha, that's disgraceful.

 

[Morkel]

Which section? I was nearly behind the goal posts and up on the second level too.

White GA. Section 530.

 

[Ari Gold]

That field gold attempt was actually caught on the full, hence why most of the players thought it was a 20 metre tap, so he had 1 kick all night that hit the grass, haha, that's disgraceful.

The mid field bomb that he kicked found the grass. Just because that patch of turf was 10m behind Hunt doesn't make it any less of a piece of grass!

 

[hayseed]

Another scrappy win but I will take scrappy every day of the week if it means two points. There are some good signs though especially defensively. I don't see anyone bagging Steve Kearney such is the fickleness of this forum. Add a halfback, coach and a couple decent props and we have a contender. At the moment, it is just a team who might scrape into the playoffs but only if Barba's dodgy ankle holds up.

 

[vertigo]

The loss has really sent some Cows supporters into a spin, poor old Canard on LU has lost it lol.

 

[Harry Sack]

The loss has really sent some Cows supporters into a spin, poor old Canard on LU has lost it lol.

That's what you get for visiting LU IMO....

I love a "neutral" forum every now and then but, **** me, the wankers on LU are enough to destroy a mans soul.

 

[coreyh88]

i think i need a break from the irrational negativity of this forum. people are having there comprehension stifled by numbers. lets use what position the players play instead.

(defensive fullback and attacking second receiver.) barba didn't break a takle or create any opportunities with his running but had a couple of nice passes one of which led to a try.

winger. maranta didn't see much ball in attack but didn't put a foot wrong all game

centre. copley his handling error was trying to catch a ball around his knees while at full flight. otherwise strong game with both running and passing.

centre. reed. put in a nice grubber which nearly led to a try. due to a lack of playmakers never had space on his outside and so no reason to pass to vidot as nothing was ever on.

winger. vidot great out of our end and showed nice speed to regather the grubber.

inside centre. hoffman put in a nice grubber for a try assist. long range kicking wasn't horrendous but never found the grass. runs made metres but should have been running off of barba similar to what gillett did. instead of playing as a link man in second man plays and not passing (coaching partially to blame)


halfback. hunt. unfairly criticised in numerous ways. kicking was neutral. two bad kicks and two good kicks. surprised not to see hime grubber but that didn't seem his fault. don't know what happened to his running. passing was mostly good. the hoffman knock on was hoffman's positioning. seems to be much better suited to the second reciever role. but you can't expect too much from a rookie that is partnered with no other half and a new fb.

lock. parker. plays the same role as last year. the only difference is that we only have one frf.

hooker. macca. great game will be pushing segeyaro and friend to succeed smith.

frf. moose. penalty riddled game. otherwise decent but should probably start on bench.

wide 2rf. glenn. great game. great defencively and made good metres. would still like to see hime hot holes and break tackles but probably a playmaking issue.

wide 2rf. thaiday. wouldn't be shocked to see him figure in dally m's. right call by hook to strip of capt.

2nd lock. gillett. thought he could have taken minutes from lowrie and glenn but oh well.


prop. hannant. made one good run and lost the ball. not an impact player should have more minutes and possibly start.

prop. kennedy. too few minutes. great defensively really slows play the ball down. doesn't make impact with runs.

3rd lock. fairly certain he defended closer to the middle and was just used as a tackle sponge with one or two hit ups.

overall. use the second man play too much for being a play maker down. barba could be injured. parker sometimes plays first reciever giving hunt the second reciever role which seems to give us more direction.

 

[Super Freak]

Has anyone else noticed that Kennedy has a knack for dropping out of tackles?

 

[Unbreakable]

halfback. hunt. unfairly criticised in numerous ways. kicking was neutral. two bad kicks and two good kicks. surprised not to see hime grubber but that didn't seem his fault. don't know what happened to his running. passing was mostly good. the hoffman knock on was hoffman's positioning. seems to be much better suited to the second reciever role. but you can't expect too much from a rookie that is partnered with no other half and a new fb.

There's no way Hunt only had 2 bad kicks.. I'm also skeptical of him having 2 good kicks, and he's hardly a rookie to be fair, he's played in nearly 100 First Grade games..

 

[Big Pete]

Didn't realise how close JT was from icing the game - mere centimentres in it.

Somehow, the world's worst five eigth stopped him. How he manages to get a game, I'll never know!

 

[Tera]

So proud of the boys this week, once again they didn't give up and won it on the back of some amazing defence. I thought Thaiday, Macca and Vidot were very strong and Hoffman, despite his attacking deficiencies was stellar in defence. Think that Macca enjoyed hearing that Smith won't be coming? ;)

I will also say, I really didn't mind the field goal option from Hunt. He wasn't going to get much from any other kick and if he had of hit the goal, we would have had the ball from the kick off and could have coasted to victory from there.

T. Sims and Taumololololo looked very strong for the Cowboys, they're going to be something else when they're a little older.

 

[Super Freak]

Stats say Hoffman made 8 tackles and missed 4...

 

[Big Pete]

14 and 1 on NRL Stats.

Due for an update though.

 

[Ari Gold]

Didn't realise how close JT was from icing the game - mere centimentres in it.

Somehow, the world's worst five eigth stopped him. How he manages to get a game, I'll never know!

Nobody is questioning why Hoffman is getting a game, only that he's getting them at five eight. Aside from that grubber for Vidot's try, all the good things Hoffman has done so far in the #6 jersey have been in defence.

 

[Big Pete]

And the defensive workload cannot be understated for reasons Morkel pointed out.

Yet, people have tunnel vision with Hoffman. He isn't a long term option in the position, no definitely not, but the sheer amount of criticism he & Griffin received for the move was ridiculous and he's proving why with efforts like that.