POST GAME Round 2 - Titans vs Broncos

[Battler]

I've been saying it for a while, but I dno how Glenn manages to get picked to start whenever he's available. He's an out and out plodder these days. Surely when Haas is back TPJ moves to the second row and Glenn out of the side all together.

On the spine, I dno how the club fixes it over the off season (this year is done already obviously). All the top class halves and FBs are being locked up by their clubs years in advance and there is a dearth of talent in key positions in general. Management seriously needs to offering Titan's or Dragon's like overs to Grant, even if it's something ridiculous like 1.75 mil. As for halves and FB, no idea.

 

[heartly87]

There really wouldn't be. Every player can pick the wrong option or drop a ball. An error free footy player doesn't exist. There is always something even the very elite players do wrong. They just keep it to a minimum.

Pat will come back from this, it's not like he was dreadful.

Yeah what I am talking about is game changing errors. There are things that are unavoidable and then there are errors that are completely avoidable, like drop balls in the ruck, penalties and knockons before the line. This is what I am talking about, there are people who very rarely do it. Finucane is a modern one, Webke and Petro. Everyone makes mistakes I get that, but there are forced and unforced. That is something I see in Pats game, he makes some silly unforced errors that he must clean up. He is young and has time. I have faith he can do it.

 

[Sproj]

One thing Kevvie needs to look at also is why we constantly still get caught short of numbers all across the field.

 

[Huge]

I thought Kennedy was good in his stint, should have been used more and earlier.

One of the worst players in the nrl. Pisses me off that KW didn't put him on after 20 minutes. ****, if you just want a battering ram, start him. Let him get smashed AND THEN let TPJ loose. I just don't get why he was on the bench tonight if KW didn't intend to use what he can offer. I watched Kennedy when he was out of play and I think he used a stack of nervous energy waiting. He looked spent a few times but he couldn't have been, not from the game at least.

 

[Wolfie]

Yeah what I am talking about is game changing errors. There are things that are unavoidable and then there are errors that are completely avoidable, like drop balls in the ruck, penalties and knockons before the line. This is what I am talking about, there are people who very rarely do it. Finucane is a modern one, Webke and Petro. Everyone makes mistakes I get that, but there are forced and unforced. That is something I see in Pats game, he makes some silly unforced errors that he must clean up. He is young and has time. I have faith he can do it.

I think it was just one of those nights. His Handling isn't generally poor.

 

[NSW stables]

I've been saying it for a while, but I dno how Glenn manages to get picked to start whenever he's available. He's an out and out plodder these days. Surely when Haas is back TPJ moves to the second row and Glenn out of the side all together.

On the spine, I dno how the club fixes it over the off season (this year is done already obviously). All the top class halves and FBs are being locked up by their clubs years in advance and there is a dearth of talent in key positions in general. Management seriously needs to offering Titan's or Dragon's like overs to Grant, even if it's something ridiculous like 1.75 mil. As for halves and FB, no idea.

Nicho hynes. He is first grade ready but stuck behind papenhuyzen.

 

[Sproj]

Just saw the presser, I am not sure what to make of it. Seems like Kevvie had some answers he was really trying not to divulge and some questions he doesn’t have answers to. What I did like was that he highlighted specific moments and areas that need fixing and was pretty scathing on both halves which was thoroughly deserved. I wonder how many more chances he’ll give them. I’d say they’ve got to the Storm game, just a hunch.

I do think one of these journos should have asked about his bench usage though.

 

[rnabokov]

Should have taken control of the attack instead of just holding the middle. Poor bench use tonight.

Someone bloody needs to take control of the attack. Our lack of organisation and direction cruelled us. Milford was awful, Croft was awful and Milford + Croft doesn't work. Milford and Dearden were looking like they were developing some good combination but Croft and Milford for mine just doesn't work. Turpin looked lost and I don't think he's a leader, or the leader we need. Our spine sucked, like it's every man for himself instead of cohesive combinations.

Until we have someone who can lead and take control of the attack we are 2nd rate whatever skill we possess, and we have a lot of that as we show when things work, the ball moves about and we score some great tries. But it's random. I think Walters is going to have a hard time getting cohesion in this side and the only one I think who can do it, and has the skills, is Asiata.

As well, we will definitely be a lot better when Haas returns to add some authority in the middle. I still think TPJ is at his best on the edge.

 

[MPC]

All well and good to say this, but who do you bring into the spine that is better? I’ll wait.

For starters we had an opportunity to sign someone like Corey Allen who would he been a way more solid no 1. Same players same result.

 

[rnabokov]

We did win the 2nd half as others observed and for me that does count for something, which is a positive I can take away from this game.

As well, Herbie's running is beautiful to watch, what we see of it, and Tesi's elusiveness is actually really good. I reckon he has a bright future, as does Herbie.

When TPJ injected some real passion into his game, we lifted. Need more of that from him to inspire the rest.

 

[MPC]

Someone bloody needs to take control of the attack. Our lack of organisation and direction cruelled us. Milford was awful, Croft was awful and Milford + Croft doesn't work. Milford and Dearden were looking like they were developing some good combination but Croft and Milford for mine just doesn't work. Turpin looked lost and I don't think he's a leader, or the leader we need. Our spine sucked, like it's every man for himself instead of cohesive combinations.

Until we have someone who can lead and take control of the attack we are 2nd rate whatever skill we possess, and we have a lot of that as we show when things work, the ball moves about and we score some great tries. But it's random. I think Walters is going to have a hard time getting cohesion in this side and the only one I think who can do it, and has the skills, is Asiata.

As well, we will definitely be a lot better when Haas returns to add some authority in the middle. I still think TPJ is at his best on the edge.

Our biggest issue is defense we need to start with the basics. The titans made plenty of errors too but aimed up defensively.

 

[rnabokov]

Our biggest issue is defense we need to start with the basics. The titans made plenty of errors too but aimed up defensively.

Goal line defence and line speed need a lot of work, just like last year funnily enough. Old habits I guess

 

[something]

You're probably right. I was at the game so hard to tell at times what the games doing. How was the refereeing from your guys standpoint?

Pretty average. I think it was in our favour in the first half, and your favour in the second half. Our first try Carrigan dropped it cold. So for that, overall our favour. But pretty shitty reffing from both teams pov i think. We both lost haha.... well, we lost actually... but yeh the ref was shit too

 

[Broncapz]

Tesi was awesome.

I didn't think much of Tesi last year, felt he was too easily pushed around, but now he's a real tank with some good speed and skill.

 

[something]

That game was hard , but if we take away the 7 minute period where they scored 18 points - we win that game.

That sounds like stupid dumh optimism, but there is actually a lot of good to take away from this game.

We won the second half... even though the game was over and they scored the first try. That shows a degree of resilience. Our left hand side (mead, herbie and glenn) were very good defensively. Our middle forwards were on par, despite missing 2 of our best players. All our outside backs were good offensively and Riki and Niu look to be a real weapons.

Now for the bad..

Carrigan had his worst game yet... im not too concerned, hes usually pretty good. Kevies bench usage was poor again... thats worrying.

Our spine is really dumb. Milf, Turpin and Croft were so so so directionless and Isaako makes bad errors at costly times. If I were Kev, id give them two more weeks ... give them enough rope and watch them hang themselves.

 

[Pierrot]

They need to be more killers in the truth moments.

Theres too many stupid errors to get the win. The useless off-load of Isaako 5 meters from the titans goal line, Milford did the same error in the midfield.
I didnt understand the two kicking game during the first half, each time we kicked on the 40s titans line with still 1 or 2 balls to play. The players talked about complete our run in the pre-season interviews. Why they didnt act like that ?
Another sad point was the poor coaching, our players looked so exhausted during the last 10 minutes of the first half. Ok there's a lot of injured players but a guy like Bullemor can bring energy and good attitudes ( like he did in the second half) for a short time.

But there's some good signs ahead, Riki is a true warrior, maybe he has to slow down his run and wait for the winger support in the last minutes, but for a 21 yo player it's impressive.
Niu has some electric footstep, he has to improve his defence though.
I like to watch Bullemor play, everytime he's on the field he did good work.
Flegler looks healed of his hands sickness, he's showed a lots of agressivity and many good runs.

( sorry for the faults and the poor language)

 

[HarryAllan7]

Jeez that's an ugly and deflating loss.

After showing some improvement and promising signs last week, this really brings us crashing down to earth and it looks like it will be another long year for the Broncos. Fifita scoring 2 soft tries just makes it sting extra.

It could be said that a 12 point loss against a probable Top 8 side following an 8 point loss against a top 4 hopeful last week is respectable, but make no mistake, the Titans had the cue in the rack by early in the second half and they just cruised out there... the scoreline flattered us in the end.

One of the few positives to take away are that I thought we actually looked pretty sharp for the first 20 mins... We looked solid, committed and like we knew what we were doing. We killed our own momentum pushing stupid passes / offloads in what looked like the team 'lacking patience' (Flanagan raised this in his commentary analysis and I think it was spot on). These kids so desperate for a win they're trying the flashy miracle plays and there's clearly no leader out there to take control and help the team get into the grind of the contest and wear the opposition out before trying to score points. We were like a boxer who came out swinging for the home run shot from round 1, instead of building momentum behind our jab, fatiguing our opponent and picking our moments for a big shot. Its symptomatic of a young, inexperienced, under-siege team with NO quality halves, NO captain and NO experienced, hard, old-heads to lead the way.

The only other glimmer of hope I can scrape together is that at least we didn't fold completely... I get the feeling that if this was last year we would have collapsed entirely in the second half and had 40-50 put on us, so that is at least some small consolation.

There's no quick fix solution for this roster... It's going to be a long way out of this hole. Let's hope the boys can get a win next week to build back a little self belief and confidence.

 

[007]

Ill come out of retirment and play for a meat pie and corona per game at this rate.

**** me dead we are in some trouble.