POST GAME Round 22 - Broncos vs Bulldogs

[mieko]

Bugger of a game though one we should have won, if only we held onto the ball. Thought Thaiday and Gillete had pretty decent games as did Maranta when he came on though as mentioned in other posts, Hodges wasn't his best and Reed was pretty awful all round.

They just got up on Milford very quick and pressured him into nothing plays while Hunt was MIA for majority of the game, Boyd was very quiet also. Hope Oates pulls up good, good game from him apart from that dropped ball. Gee he was on the run on that one with not much in front of him, just unlucky.

Anyway, still not the end just yet but they have a lot more work to do now to turn this mini slump around.

 

[Kaz]

Did Lockyer suffer a knock to the head during the call? I could have sworn he said Broncos prop....

He did. (not the head knock part)

 

[broncos4life]

i watched on tonight and noticed a glaring issue that has surfaced the past 2 weeks. this same problem arose when we got beat by the cowboys in townsville.
mcguire is a bigger blow than i anticipated, the dirty clean up work he does in the middle was exposed tonight as it was last week.
sides are now playing wide then sending second phase play back through the ruck and we dont have the cover to stop it. we also miss his quick play the balls and kick chase through the middle as well.
as for bennets decision to pull oates at halftime!!!! golden pumpkin award for wayne im sorry.

Oates was injured, wtf?

Looks like you get the golden pumpkin award

 

[FaceOfMutiny]

I never thought I would say this but the Broncos really missed Blair. He really tightens the middle of the field.

 

[Taylor1921]

I have had my doubts about us being a premiership threat this year for some time and I sort of expected we would get found out after Origin. Better performance than last week, but that is not saying much. Too many silly errors and too much panic when things are on, they all need to chill I think.

Even with Blair and Maguire in the side we are short one big power running forward in the form of a Lazarus/Webcke/Petero type from being a premiership threat.

We need to win and win fairly well next week otherwise things are going to look pretty dire. Knowing that you are coming up against the biggest pack in the competition and you are down your two starting front rowers, can someone explain the logic of having a winger and a tiny utility player as part of your bench?

Can someone also explain the knockon call against Milf down on their line. He has the ball knocked out by the tackler, it is knocked forward by the tackler, that is back towards our goal line and Milf recovers the ball, how is that a knock on against us? That was on first tackle, they then make their way down field and score.

That Milford "knock on" on the line is the reason why the game is so crooked, no one believes me when I say it. QLD did it for Greg Inglis but they could it a knock on from QLD. Anyway we got pay back in game 3. I think players should run with closed fist and just punch th ball out instead of tackling. Coz nothing is a strip these days. And that hodges "strip" Morris the dickhead was doing flips and physically let go of the ball if you watch the replay.

 

[JoeldTrafford]

Hodges tackling reminded of an under 6s game where they all just reach out their arms and hope to grab to other plsyer.

 

[Socnorb]

Suddenly we are bereft of creative, structured attacking plays. Where have they gone? Hunt and Milford look no longer in control. Is it because we are playing sides which have gone up a few gears?

Running one-out up the middle? Errr. What's happened to the passing game?. You run one-out when nobody seems to be trying to create something. We really miss Blair.

I'm worried 'cos we seem to have lost so much of our well structured, well executed plays. The defence is good. The attack sucks. Hodges needs a rocket. He's a part of the team, not apart from the team. What is his role? Pull rabbits out of a hat? Fit in or **** off.

I'd also rather Kahu in the centres over Reed any day. I thought Wallace was good. Gillett's defence is just excellent. Try savers.

Time to re-group and return to the structures and execution of a few weeks ago.

Did you miss two tries to Oates? looked pretty creatively structured to me.

 

[Morkel]

Still gutted. My poor family, I'm going to be in a shitty mood all week again.

We used up all our luck early in the season I'm afraid. Six weeks ago all of Hunt's kicks stay in, they get penalised for taking out our players on kick chases, we win by 14.

Credit to Des. He knew we were tired and knew we'd wear down if they keep the ball alive and constantly shift thr point of attack. And credit to the Bulldogs players. All that passing, offloading, quick shifts, and they only had 2 errors by late in the game.

But regardless, you don't win premierships with "should have". Griffin might have been happy with effort, but Bennett won't stand for it. Hodgo will be taken aside and told that he has between 5 and 8 games left in his career - and as the captain he is responsible for deciding what the exact number will be. Does he want to bow out as a deserved premiership winning captain, or the rogue misfit that won't trust his charges and coach?

 

[Unbreakable]

I love Hodges, but this is definitely his last season, his amazing plays are starting to become few and far between, and his errors and poor defensive efforts are more noticeable as well.

We're still in a good spot, as long as we finish in the top 2 we have a good shot, except if Manly finish 7th/8th and we're up against them in the first round of finals, they'll ruin us again.

 

[xratedrattice]

I love Hodges, but this is definitely his last season, his amazing plays are starting to become few and far between, and his errors and poor defensive efforts are more noticeable as well.

We're still in a good spot, as long as we finish in the top 2 we have a good shot, except if Manly finish 7th/8th and we're up against them in the first round of finals, they'll ruin us again.

that is the old finals system, we use the afl version now if we run 1st we play 4th and 2nd plays 3rd, bottom 4 play eachother in elimination games, likely we will be playing the roosters, hopefully we keep 2nd spot and it will be at suncorp

 

[Renegade]

hmm, a little bit concerning we've dropped two on the trot but it's not panic stations yet.

we look really flat at the moment, either we've been found out or we're in a malaise that we're struggling to get out of.

I don't think it's the s word, and maybe the Corvo-Storm-Smith view is valid, but they've got a tough run of fixtures between now and finals so whatever the problem is will need to be rectified asap, otherwise this could be 2005 all over again.

 

[Nashy]

It was disappointing, but I'm actually feeling encouraged by the fact we only lost by 2 when...

- We dropped the pill too much.-
- The combo Glenn-Milford-Reed is starting to get really found out in defense.
- We didn't get the bounce of the ball once, with very nice kicks just rolling too far, and handing the Dogs 7 tackle sets.
- Definitely didn't get the rub of the green, although I agree with the Milford no try, but everything went against us, illustrated by the amount of time the they were allowed to lay in the tackle against us, combined with the blatant forward passes, taking out of kick chasers and finally, that Milford "knock on".

Good game from Thaiday, Kahu, Gillett, Boyd and Hunt, but they couldn't save us from the amount of errors we made.

I can't believe I'm saying this... never thought I would say it either, but boy did we miss Blair!
(Speaking of him, he was very non-committal about his suspension when asked about that "shoulder charge", but you could clearly see he thought it was bullshit. Otherwise very nice, soft spoken and polite guy. Was a bit surprised at his size, as he isn't as big a guy as I would've expected him to be for a front rower.)

Doesn't he look fucking fit though!

 

[Fozz]

Only a two point loss with all those errors, it's an improvement.

Geez, how bad is Hodkinson though? Offered nothing at all for the dogs.

 

[animal eater]

The only major upside and it's a stretch at that is we played well below our best and still really should of won. I can't imagine our centres ever collectively playing any worse. Not possible surely... is it?

I echo the sentiment that we are in desperate need of some size in front. Big bodies are necessary in this game.

 

[rnabokov]

Did you miss two tries to Oates? looked pretty creatively structured to me.

No I didn't. They were a beautiful 5 minutes. Now for the other 75

 

[Porthoz]

Only a two point loss with all those errors, it's an improvement.

Geez, how bad is Hodkinson though? Offered nothing at all for the dogs.

I don't know what game you saw, but albeit not flashy, he did a very good job of controlling the game for them, earning repeat sets and keeping us on the back foot most of the game.

 

[Harry Sack]

I don't know what game you saw, but albeit not flashy, he did a very good job of controlling the game for them, earning repeat sets and keeping us on the back foot most of the game.

Yeah, he isn't the guy for the flashy plays, he's the control.

 

[BRC088]

Bulldogs training aid..