Round 24 - Broncos vs Storm - Post Match Discussion

[Porthoz]

I took a deliberate time out before writing anything when I came home from the game. The problem is that I am still absolutely filthy at the refs, and will be even more at Hook, if he doesn't do what seems to be working just fine for others...
Complain about the refs loudly, and you won't get screwed over next week. We didn't, and got done double! :cursing:

Actually, that exactly and literally what I would want him to say!

Now for the game. I thought we were the better team, despite a pretty crappy 20 first minutes of the second half, but we didn't get the bounce of the ball (second Waqa try and Cronk try), and as mentioned above, even if the ball does bounce, the video ref will consider it benefit of the doubt against the Broncos.
Still we're on the up, and there are good signs coming from a team down on confidence.

The cons:
- Thaiday as captain. Sorry, but he needs to be sacked from the job. He's just too gentle mannered...
- The Bench usage. Simply flabbergasted at what happened today, and has been happening for a while now, with the way Hook uses the bench. Don't take all your experienced forwards out at the same time and leave the already in a fragile state of mind youngsters in there! Capewell for a whole 5 minutes, really?
- Hoffman on the wing at the expense of Maranta. Didn't Hook see Bellyache rub his hands in satisfaction ahead of the game?

The pros:
- Norman at fullback. Not only the improvement to our attack, but the very surprising defensive effort and great positioning surprised me.
- Hunt, despite that dropped ball that cost us the game, got involved, made decisions, took the burden off Wallace's back, and as a result the team greatly improved.
- Hodges, the return of the legend?
- Gillett, only missed one tackle, got heavily involved in defense and didn't try anything flashy. Just getting back on track with his footy hopefully!
- Civo and particularly Hannant are so far ahead of the rest, that Civo's retirement worries me. Hopefully Hala will gives up the depth we need alongside McGuire and Dodds/Anderson.
- Te'o, another big loss for next season I'm afraid, and another purchase in Rusty's incessant quest to get the holy grail. But that isn't a topic for this thread...

In summary, the defense is improving, the attack is improving, hopefully the injured are returning soon, and we'll go to Manly and give it to them and everyone else that gets in our path to the 7th premiership! :thumbup1:

 

[gUt]

I get the feeling that griffin has already written this year off and is blooding more of his younger players

 

[OXY-351]

I find it amusing that the majority of people on here bag coaches like Hasler and Bellamy for whinging about the ref, yet the general sentiment of these post match threads when the broncos lose is to blame the ref, and now people are even calling for Griffin to start whinging about the refs.

The refs didn't lose the Broncos the game tonight (nor did they last week) Sure, the try just before half time probably shouldn't have been awarded, but the Broncos still took a 6 point lead in to the break, and other than that decision, I thought the refs had a decent game. The past 2 second half efforts by the team have been fairly dismal, but I guess it's just easier to look to blame others, rather than accept that there is obviously a deeper issue. There will always be dodgy decisions by the refs in a game. If a team can't bounce back from such decisions, then they don't have the character to succeed in this competition anyway.

 

[Bucking Beads]

I get the feeling that griffin has already written this year off and is blooding more of his younger players

You could be on the money. It would take a miracle for us to win this year.

 

[Browny]

Capewell is a waste of a bench spot.

Soo missed the big show tonight, with him and Glenn to return it should see a better balanced bench. Gillette can be the utility

 

[rnabokov]

You could be on the money. It would take a miracle for us to win this year.

I never expected this team to win the first year post-Lockyer, and last night's result was a lot more satisfying than last week, and the week before, so I am expecting a win next week.

As for OXY-351's comments about the refs "losing" the game for the Broncos, I usually agree, they don't - but not in this case. That incredibly poor decision, especially when it happened, must have hit our morale hard at a time when our game seriously depends on confidence, and, it certainly pumped the Storm, who, we must remember are running 2nd and for good reason.

In those circumstances, given injuries, we did really well.

Of course our 2nd half performances need improving, and the bench rotation is not good, but that Storm non-try IMO was a set-back which did ultimately cost us the game.

 

[Mr Fourex]

So like I said, everything Hunt and Norman can do when they combine which is meant to be the most beautiful thing in the game they can do with Norman at fb.

1. Norm
6. Hunt
7. Wal

That's our ticket right there, none of this Norman in the halves and Hoff at fb.

We're almost there old mate........Hunt should be 7 and Wallace should be

well,

you know.....

Hunt was much more in control of the attack last night and we looked a whole lot better for it.

We looked f*cking awesome for about 30 mins of the 1st half and for 5-10 mins towards the back end of the 2nd half. What happened in between can be put down to a lack of mental toughness (which is disappointing), a tendency to revert back to our defensive shell with the ball in hand, Hook's crap use of the interchange and from the outside, it looked like at times we were absolutely knackered. Is our fitness being over looked...?

But the signs are there......I still don't think we're going all the way this year, but we're going to give it a good shake.

Hodges was fantastic.......almost unstoppable at times.

Was good to see Teo involve himself in the whole game and not just the odd moment of excellence.

Peteros first stint was a throw back to Petero of old.......hard yards and toughness.

Ben Hunt is going really well. He's still finding his feet a little and will be still prone to the odd mistake. The upside is he is the spark that we so desperately needed. It's a pity he hasn't been playing in the halves right from the word go.

We're looking very dangerous each time the forwards start throwing the ball around between each other. They seen to be doing a better job of setting something up for themselves than Wallace ever could.

Hoffman has to make room for Maranta.

Dodds defence continues to impress.....

Thaiday, whilst he went better..... just looks ineffective.

Dodgy video ref call aside........we didn't deserve to win because we weren't there for the whole 80mins. You can't win games at this stage of the season by only playing to your potential for half a game.

 

[Kaz]

Wallace should be

well,

you know.....

I thought with all the Wallace hate, the emoticon should be.

(I think this is a few forum members)

 

[Mr Fourex]

Yes please. Griffin fire up in the press conference.

Let's be honest, Hook doesn't have the balls to say anything about the refs.

And because he won't we will be shafted each week.

Do you really want our coach acting like a whinging crybaby, ala Hasler and Stuart......?

I don't.

I more than happy for him to focus on the team and not blame the referee for our lost games.

It rubs me the wrong way that some of you are carrying on like we are getting hammered by the refs every game. We aren't. We have had some very dodgy decisions go our way ALL year.

What goes around comes around IMO.......suck it up and focus on what's in front of you and what you can do about your own performance. Let the refereeing take care of itself. Ultimately you have no control over that aspect what so ever.

That said.......Paul Simpkins should be sacked. Not only the no try but one of his earlier gems when he was looking for something that even that know nothing f*ckwit Ray Hadley could see wasn't there

 

[m1c]

Some of these comments are ridiculous. That was one of, if not our best performance of the year. Farking fickle lot most of you are.

 

[Kaz]

Do you really want our coach acting like a whinging crybaby, ala Hasler and Stuart

He doesn't have to act like a whinging crybaby.

He can be subtle about it.

 

[Kaz]

Some of these comments are ridiculous. That was one of, if not our best performance of the year. Farking fickle lot most of you are.

It's pretty sad, if it's one of our best performances.

I just expect my team to compete for the FULL 80 mins.

We play great for 39 mins, then we lapse into coma.

 

[m1c]

We didn't lapse - did Melbourne lapse in the opening 25? Everyone is frothing over the way we started the game, why not give credit to Melbourne for playing some good footie in the second half? Smith was tearing us a new one around the ruck.

I'm really impressed with the composure we showed (which has seriously been lacking and a massive reason for our slump) in getting to the end of our sets and waiting for the tide to turn. We were eventually rewarded with the T'eo try.

It was a cracking performance.

 

[rnabokov]

It's pretty sad, if it's one of our best performances.

I just expect my team to compete for the FULL 80 mins.

We play great for 39 mins, then we lapse into coma.

Well I think it was one of our best performances, given all the positional changes, injuries and our first year post-Lockyer.

What.. 3 weeks ago it was lousy, then we did great for 25 mins, now 60 mins (not 39) and to go down by 1 point to a full strength Storm - sounds like a great performance to me.

And as for Wallace, he did his job well, and Hunt too.

I am really looking forward to next week

... and yes! m1c

 

[OXY-351]

As for OXY-351's comments about the refs "losing" the game for the Broncos, I usually agree, they don't - but not in this case. That incredibly poor decision, especially when it happened, must have hit our morale hard at a time when our game seriously depends on confidence, and, it certainly pumped the Storm, who, we must remember are running 2nd and for good reason.

I agree that it may have hit the teams morale hard, but to say the refs were the reason they lost the game is a cop out imo. They were still head by 6 points with 40 minutes to play. If the reason they lost is because they can't play on and still win the game after one dodgy call, then I hope they miss the finals, as they won't be a force in finals footy with that attitude.

I think the Broncos played very well last night. They just got outclassed in the end by a better team in the second half. I just think the team is too inexperienced to put together conisistent games and a consistent season at the moment. When they are on song, they can match it with the best teams in the comp, but I think as the season has gone on, the younger players have found it hard to consistently play at their top level for 80 minutes week in week out.

 

[user_nat]

Just watched the press conference (on the Broncos site). Nothing hugely interesting said IMO. Would be nice to see Griffin actually get little more fired up sometimes.

He does say that McGuire will definitely be playing next week.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Just watched the press conference (on the Broncos site). Nothing hugely interesting said IMO. Would be nice to see Griffin actually get little more fired up sometimes.

He does say that McGuire will definitely be playing next week.

I get the feeling Hook doesn't see any value of getting fired up. It would be losing his composure and would be a sign of weakness IMO.

 

[Nashy]

This is probably why teams get themselves into a rut. 60 minute football teams do not put on a good performance for one reason. The game goes for 80 minutes.

I don't care if we are steadily improving. They came out of the sheds at half time and just couldn't get over the fact that they had another bad call.

Our interchange seems like it isn't working all that well. We have shitty forwards on the field far more than we have decent ones, and the difference is amazing.

Dodds is a dud. He's like Tronc without a drug conviction.

Petro and Hannant were absolutely ****ed. They should be going off when they're that stuffed they can barely breathe, we need to keep fresh troops on rotation, and I think it is one area where the coaching staff are falling down at the moment.

I've read users on here wanting to reduce the interchanges allowed too! Why on earth would you want to do that right now.

I think people are being harsh on Hoffman. Unfortunately when teams go to the wings constantly, something has to give. Is it the experience of the attacking Storm, or the guy who's just been shoved on the wing because they couldn't find a better spot for him?

Norman is going well in the 1 jersey, and I'd like to see him there for the rest of the year. Hunt has the potential to be a big deal. Hodges was destructive.

What I don't understand is why our attack isn't going deep. The few times when our attackers had space, we played some good football. When we came out from half time, they were back to their normal, useless self, and Alfie didn't seem to have the message of "Fix your line you hopeless ****s".

It's like the play the ball area is a massive ego competition with everyone just wanting to get their hands on the ball, so they all get as close as they can, doesn't matter about the holes they leave wide open, so long as they can show Mum that they got the ball.

On top of that, the refs have been ****ing woeful. I called benefit of the doubt straight away. You just know what a call is going to be now days. Doesn't matter what it is. They are so useless. It's a joke.