Round 23 - Souths vs Broncos - Post Game Discussion

[QUEENSLANDER]

Was it any surprise that our attack actually threatened when Hoffman went off and hodges was at fullback in attack. For all Hoffmans good work in defence, he is still has no idea on attack. This game showed tonight why we sacked Griffen and put Bennett in charge for next year. We were playing for a season tonight and dished up that rubbish

It's a surprise to me, considering hodges played 6 when hoffman went off.

 

[mitch222]

It's a surprise to me, considering hodges played 6 when hoffman went off.

hodges played fullback on attack, 5/8 in defence

 

[GotheBroncs]

Man, so bummed out.
Vidot...WTF! He had a shocker. Looks like he will need to stop practicing his runs and maybe practice catching the ball. I'm a fan of his, but ****!
I'm glad Hoffman is gone, I think hodges should go back there because no one could do that job better.
Parker MUST go to back row!!!!!!!!!
I'm so sick of this shit.

 

[theshed]

Up until Hoff got injured, tonight was the first game which I started to agree we play better without Hodges. I've been a bit blinded cause he's a champion but the amount of times he killed momentum in attack was too much. Is he too good to let go next year, and if so where and how do we play him?

 

[talanoa]

Review From Last Night,

1) Hoffman, Injured and made an error early on. Not much to tak about here.
2) Vidot, Made metres again but that isnt good enough to play top grade. The real vidot was on show last night, poor hands and decision's.
3) Copley, limited chances last night. Ill be stuffed why they dont to him more and give him early ball. His right foot step and pace is lethal.
4) Hodges, tried hard but and was solid.
5) Maranta, Never been a fan and never will be. He isnt a first grade player.
6) Barba, threw some decent passes to glenn but wasnt involved enough at 6 and made 3 crucial missed tackles. Needs a license to raom and support parker in the middle with the offloads.
7) Hunt, not really sure on his game last night... Very hot and cold.
8) Mcguire, Usual performance form him, rips and tries hard but he needs another fronty to help him out.
9) Macca, made plenty of tackles as always but his creativity and leg speed is sadly not up to nrl.
10) Parker, same rating as last week. Whole hearted effort but playing out of position still... WHEN WILL THEY LEARN.
11) Glenn, took the crash ball well and came up just short a few times. I still think he needs to put his hand up for more of the hard yakka.
12) Gillett, As I mentione dbefore, origin hangover big time. Needs a spell.
13) Thaiday, needs to go back to the edge and start to run with purpose again and not fall to his bloody knees all the time.
14) Reed, he is a toiler with average ability and impact.
15) Kennedy, MEOW............. for a bloke his size he gets dominated to easily.
16) Hannant, hard to get excited about his effort last night. maybe he has already signed the new deal with wayne to stay at the club.
17) Oates, limited minutes again but in those limited minutes he had some damaging carries and tackles.. I plead that they give him more game time asap.........

 

[Organix]

I agree with those that said we were outplayed. It was simple as that. Broncos actually looked pretty good but GI vs Barba was always going to end up with GI being #1. Hodges' passes seemed to be hard to catch for many people. A few missed opportunities converted and that was a much closer game than the scoreline suggests.

HOW THE HELL DO SOUTHS AFFORD ALL THOSE PLAYERS??
Greg Inglis
Chris McQueen
Isaac Luke
Sam Burgess (and his Bros)
Adam Reynolds
Ben Te'o
John Sutton
Nathan Merritt
Even Lote must be on some dosh
They have Joel Reddy on the bench and he was on the up and up at the Eels

Seriously?

And we have salary cap investigations.

 

[Super Freak]

Watching the replay, I can't help but wonder if Broncos could have won if they played a bit dirty.

One of the Rabbitohs biggest weaknesses is their discipline. They don't like it when the other team plays dirty...

 

[Big Pete]

I agree with those that said we were outplayed. It was simple as that. Broncos actually looked pretty good but GI vs Barba was always going to end up with GI being #1. Hodges' passes seemed to be hard to catch for many people. A few missed opportunities converted and that was a much closer game than the scoreline suggests.

HOW THE HELL DO SOUTHS AFFORD ALL THOSE PLAYERS??
Greg Inglis
Chris McQueen
Isaac Luke
Sam Burgess (and his Bros)
Adam Reynolds
Ben Te'o
John Sutton
Nathan Merritt
Even Lote must be on some dosh
They have Joel Reddy on the bench and he was on the up and up at the Eels

Seriously?

And we have salary cap investigations.

Ha, now the shoe is definitely on the other foot.

Brisbane used to cop these sort of attacks after a good win all the time, it was a nice vote of confidence even when half their supporter base will tell you they were shit and big changes HAD to be made.

While I hate to lose and would love to blame it on just about anything other than the Broncos simply not being good enough when it matters, I don't think Souths are breaking the cap at all.

They'd only have a few of those players on serious contracts and some of them too would be attracting all sorts of third party offers since they're so marketable (eg. GI & Burgess).

The rest were mostly just players they developed and helped turn from struggling plodders into quality talent. Players like Johnston, Walker, Keary & Auva'a were basically unheralded, now they're pushing close to the best backline in the competition.

George, Turner & Tom are both in their rookie years.

Nobody wanted a piece of the likes of Tuqiri, Picker or Reddy either so to say they're on big deals seems laughable to me.

Credit where it's due, they've just done a great job. If those players were in the hand of a lesser coach, nobody would be raising an eye brow over them cheating the cap.

 

[uptheguts]

I don't think we were as far out of the contest as the score indicates. Three tries form failure to contest kicks were the clincher. GI was awesome . He looks fit and fast. Pity he didn't show that form at origin. I thought Hodges was pretty good last night and really tried to lift the team. Not completely given up on ,making the eight just yet.

 

[Renegade]

The description put forward above as "less than the sum of our parts" is absolutely spot on. On paper we're an awesome side, on the field we just can't put it together. If that's not down to coaching, I don't know what is. It's not saying that to have a dig at Hook, I'm saying that to convince myself that 2015 will actually be an improvement...

Here's the other side of things - what if we're just not that good of a side, overall?

For a couple of years now, we've heard how this side is supposedly building into something special, how we're so competitive and how soon it's all going to come up roses. Fact is, it hasn't, and while every 1 in 3 games we'll show a glimmer of something, guess what? So does every other team in the comp. Even Cronulla looks good every couple of games and their fans say the same thing, on paper, we can compete with anyone (with a full strength side).

The problem is imo, a lot of our players are overrated. They are serviceable, I'm not suggesting we should dispense with half the side, but I just don't think they are as good as they are allegedly being made out to be. Gillett, Glenn, Thaiday are three in particular who'll do something above average once every couple of games but the games inbetween they are mediocre.

Maybe Bennett will get more out of them, maybe he won't, but the delicious thing is sooner or later something is going to come to a head. Either Bennett improves them (but it won't be because of him, because you know, Bennett only ever rides coat tails), or they continue to play the same way (in which case it'll be all because of Bennett regardless of the fact they would have continued to play at subpar level for a few seasons consecutively).

We got done by a better side with better players. Inglis was monstrous.

 

[Broncoman]

I don't think we were as far out of the contest as the score indicates. Three tries form failure to contest kicks were the clincher. GI was awesome . He looks fit and fast. Pity he didn't show that form at origin. I thought Hodges was pretty good last night and really tried to lift the team. Not completely given up on ,making the eight just yet.

In origin GI is being played out of position and doesn't get his hands on the ball as much and doesn't get much space to work in compared to his club games. This years series was the first in which he didn't score a try in his Origin career.

 

[Financeguy]

HOW THE HELL DO SOUTHS AFFORD ALL THOSE PLAYERS??
Greg Inglis
Chris McQueen
Isaac Luke
Sam Burgess (and his Bros)
Adam Reynolds
Ben Te'o
John Sutton
Nathan Merritt
Even Lote must be on some dosh
They have Joel Reddy on the bench and he was on the up and up at the Eels

Seriously?

And we have salary cap investigations.

I don't think souths are over the cap, some team each year has got to be favourite to win the comp, or deemed the "best", doesn't automatically mean they are over the cap.

Inglis - would be on good coin no doubt, and i'd imagine some of it would come from 3rd party
McQueen - come on, it was only a few months ago reports were he would be getting a big upgrade next contract due to his current contract being so average
Luke - would be on good coin
Burgess(s) - Again good coin but probably have taken a bit less to all play together. If Sam was getting paid what some people like to believe he would not be going to Rugby
Reynolds - Average coin, a lot of people still don't rate him and he is still to prove himself in big games
Te'o - decent coin but not enough to stick around
Sutton - would not be anywhere near Inglis level coin, above average as a guess
Merritt - Please, Souths pay him what they want
Lote - Minimal coin, it was Souths or retire for Lote
Reddy - Really? He came to them as a depth player from the Tigers, minimal coin

Throw in players performing above their current pay grades such as Johnston, Walker, Auva'a, Keary, Turner, Lowe etc and they have just stumbled upon that good mix of their high paid players performing as well as a good crop of up and comers that could easily take them to a premiership, or at least be definite contenders.

 

[Morkel]

Sutton just got a massive upgrade IIRC. Reynolds got a healthy one too. McQueen was only $120k/yr I think.

 

[Bucking Beads]

No shame in losing to the Bunnies imo. They were very good and Inglis was just unstoppable. Sure we defended poorly and made some poor errors but at the end of the day the Bunnies are a class above us. Pretty disappointed with how Gillett has been playing lately. Vidot had a Vatuvei which is a shame.

 

[broncos4life]

No shame in losing to the Bunnies imo. They were very good and Inglis was just unstoppable. Sure we defended poorly and made some poor errors but at the end of the day the Bunnies are a class above us. Pretty disappointed with how Gillett has been playing lately. Vidot had a Vatuvei which is a shame.

Agreed.

3 things are certain in life. Death, taxes and Greg Inglis will always rip us a new one

 

[Harry Sack]

I'm going to deal with my frustration by going on a mass killing spree on Grand Theft Auto 5.

Loaded up BF4 personally and punished the **** out of some noobs.

 

[Harry Sack]

We looked scared. That's the best description I can give I think.

 

[Alec]

I'm obviously disappointed, but I'm not surprised either. I never bought into that "We can beat any side" or "We should win this game" rnabokov and co propaganda. We were always at long odds, there's a reason for our positions on the ladder.

It does highlight that our defence, while "technically" fairly good, just refuses to fight "dirty" in the ruck. I don't mean illegal, I mean making tackles actually count. Put them on their backs more, a lot more.

Nice teams finish last.