Round 23 - Bulldogs vs Broncos - Post Match Discussion

[noisetheory]

dont know whether it was hodges himself or the defense as a whole but we gave morris nothing yesterday.

and aside from the missed tackle on barba that allowed him to stroll over i thought we did a pretty good job of containing him. there was his other try but really norman should of smacked that out of bounds at first opportunity.

 

[Jeba]

I'm not solely putting the blame on the refs, but I am perplexed about how they couldn't reverse the Reed penalty when they knew they had it wrong. Badger (pocket ref at the time) told Archer that Reed was pushed by Reynolds, so if he had a good view of it and knew that's what happened, why isn't that grounds to reverse the decision? Otherwise what's the ****ing point of having 2 referees?

This is a carbon copy of the referees performance from last season. And I'm not just talking about this game, the standard across the whole NRL is shocking at the moment. They are getting too many decisions blatantly wrong and it's going to cost someone in the finals.

 

[Old Mate]

Yeah that sucks but they should really just have one ref, two is fecked. I'd be more happy knowing that we just copped a duds call because that's how the ref saw it rather than have a ref inform the other ref it was a bad decision and still do nothing about it.

 

[noisetheory]

1 ref with more direct interaction/input from a video ref would be so much better.

it feels like they need more refs with actual rugby league playing experience.

 

[Anonymous person]

one thing ill say is that i think that match showed that Hunt needs to be in the halves full time. norman was excellent in attack from fullback but terrible in defense, so i dont know what to do there with him and hoffman, but its clear as day that Hunt needs to replace either Norman or Wallace.

as others have said, the refereeing was deplorable. it was plain as day that the referees had decided the bulldogs were going to win that match.

i was fuming, still am, that they didnt reverse the call - but i have a feeling that they cant under the rules reverse a penalty. they can reverse a decision like a knock-on and make it a strip, or a play-on and award a penalty for a high shot, but i think once a PENALTY has been awarded, they cant switch that decision. if thats correct, its complete BS. it shouldnt matter how we get to the correct decision as long as we get the correct decision. archer knew within 2 seconds of blowing the whistle that he had made the wrong call - who is it really hurting if he just says 'sorry its a penalty to the broncos instead of bulldogs'. play was stopped, theres absolutely no reason not to be able to reverse the decision.

 

[IBA]

I don't know if that match was his best audition tape to be honest. He started very well but tapered off quite a bit... Some weakish kicks, poor 5th tackle options, couple of errors and a handful of missed tackles. Still, I'm really liking him in the halves and he has some truly excellent moments. Also have to say his defence has come leaps and bounds since his stints at hooker. I'd personally stick with the Hunt/Wallace combo. Not sure what to do with Norman...

 

[BRC088]

Would probably have prefered beale at #1 to be honest...

Anyways, good to see a reasonably clean game in terms of spite etc.

 

[Anonymous person]

I don't know if that match was his best audition tape to be honest.

while he did make mistakes etc, i think the last 8-10 weeks of Norman/Wallace in the halves was enough of an audition tape for Hunt to now get his shot for a while.

one other thing - geez gilletts better than taylor in every single way!

joking, joking, dont wield the banhammer. i still stand by what i said before - gillett needs to be dropped, and thaiday needs to be dropped and have the captaincy removed.

 

[Old Mate]

11. Te'o
12. Glenn
13. Parker

14. Thaiday
15. Gillett

Is the backrow we should have, except for yesterday Thaiday has been piss poor.

 

[IBA]

while he did make mistakes etc, i think the last 8-10 weeks of Norman/Wallace in the halves was enough of an audition tape for Hunt to now get his shot for a while.

I agree with you he should be in the halves, I just don't think that was the game to prove it. The biggest turn around was effort from the forwards and once they got tired (slash, replaced with Lui & Dodds) we started losing those options. Couple of mistakes from Gillett, Te'o getting tired etc. That kind of stuff halts the whole team. (Not too mention some forced momentum swing from questionable refereeing...)

See how much room to move Wallace and Hunt had when we were going forward? The first two tries were excellent. Forwards running hard and creating space. The first one Hunt was excellent, the second, Wallace played it perfectly but it was set up by the forwards going forward and the halves having some really good options in players around them. Once fatigue kicked in, the options dried up a little and we saw 5th tackle plays like Hunt running at two defenders himself. Really good step, but we need to do it for 80 minutes.

 

[Jeba]

I agree with everything AP has said. And that says something.

 

[Bucking Beads]

I know Sammy T has been in poor form for the most part of they year but you wouldn't move him to the bench after the way he played yesterday. Hopefully he keeps playing that way

 

[Big Pete]

Yep, under pressure Sam rose tremendously and to make 44 tackles and 16 hit ups should be celebrated, not criticised.

Really liked the way he promoted the ball around, he played with the swagger we love from him.

Captaincy issue is still in the air, but Sam did more than enough to keep his starting place.

Gillett on the other hand...SOS Corey Parker & Alex Glenn. 4 errors and what's worse 11, yes you read that right, 11 missed tackles!

 

[Bucking Beads]

I can't believe how many tackles he has been missing. It really comes down to laziness IMO.

 

[Mr Fourex]

I can't believe how many tackles he has been missing. It really comes down to laziness IMO.

and shit technique......he's all arms.

He's turned from someone earlier in the year wanting to put "the" big shot on / shoulder charge........to an arm waver.

Does Peter Ryan still coach the defence at the Broncs.....?

Needs to get in Gillett's ear quickly......

 

[noisetheory]

i know its easy to talk the talk but this says just about everything i want to hear, actually echos alot of the words posted here, right at this time:

"We produced an effort we can build on."

Thaiday was equally buoyant, calling his players together in a huddle after the match to praise their effort and urge them to build on it.

"It was a good start but we got a bit too excited and went away from what was working for us," he said.

"We let the Bulldogs play the brand of footy they've been playing all year that's put them in the position they're in.

"But there's a lot of positives we can take out of that game.

"We're a step in the right direction."

Griffin has not given any thought to missing the finals despite Brisbane's post-Origin slide, pointing out: "No-one's won or lost anything yet.

"Our issue now is to build on that resilience we showed defensively and execute a bit better in attack.

"When we get a win we'll get another one and we'll be on our way.

"It's not easy to go from zero to 100 in one week but we're building."

Thaiday added: "We've got some tough games coming up but I'm looking forward to them, especially after that game.

"That's a great confidence booster.

"Our season is in our hands now. We can do anything we want to do with the rest of the year.

"It's up to us."

 

[OXY-351]

I think it's actually 3. That the referees don't want to open the floodgates. Can you imagine if the players knew that certain referees routinley reversed decisions?

Once they've made the call it sticks, for better or worse

I agree. Players already get in refs faces trying to change decisions. It would occur much more if they thought the whinging might actually lead to the reversal of a penatly.

How often does yesterday's scenario really happen (where a ref makes a decision and admits they are wrong as soon as they make the decision). For those times it does happen, I'm happy to live with it.

 

[Big Pete]

The thing that bugs me though is that the refs. clearly didn't learn their lesson.

A dogs player pushes us over again forcing Macca to knock on and we didn't get the penalty. Massive WTF.