It was a disappointing way to cap off a disappointing final six rounds of the season. For weeks Walters has stressed the importance of starting well and Brisbane went crap kick, error off a bad offload and then a soft try from dummy half.
I thought they were really unlucky with the sin-bins and even if I wasn't a fan, I'd be pissed. Both tackles had mitigating factors and while I can live with a penalty to sin-bin two players just ruins the contest. Nobody is going to cry over it because it's the Broncos and the season has been in tatters for weeks but people pay good money to watch this sport and games absolutely ruined with these awful interpretations.
I thought Carrigan and Gamble tried their best to lead the team but they just couldn't lift the team. It seemed like the forwards were playing too tight and weren't working towards any areas of the field to really test the Dragons defence. Meanwhile Gamble actually set up some nice plays but was let down by Capewell twice, with the third being a dusty pass for Kurt.
The others I felt would do their part but would switch off or lose their feet at the worst times. It really hurt the Broncos ability to form structures and create any doubt in the defensive lines.
Second half, they tried to roll the dice by playing Cobbo at fullback, but it effectively shut down their left hand side and denied them the opportunity of an ugly win. The damage was done well before that point and I don't mind the decision to try something different but they clearly weren't set up for an effective Plan B.
For once I'm going to give the refs the green light on the sin-binnings. They were both incidental, yes, but they were both forceful and had contact to the head, I can't argue with it.
What did **** me off was the inconsistencies that others mentioned, things that the opposition were afforded that we were not. Carrigan getting called out, he moved back and had no part in it, yet they got a 6-again for it. Yet the exact opposite happened with them - their player was warned, they stayed back, no 6-again. And the one where their marker swoops on our hooker at the play-the-ball (which the refs penalise 99% of the time) and it's all good. But when Turpin does it, it's a penalty. If you look, Turpin WAS square. To the ruck, where the tackle happened. The Dragons player then steps sidewards and plays it there (our other marker moves over with him). It's not Turpin's fault the player moved the mark, the player playing the ball is not allowed to do that, yet we are penalised?
A million other small ones. One that I was very happy about though was their late no-try. They were looking to see if there was a knock-on by the Dragons, and when I watched it I saw that a Dragon touched it afterwards who was off-side. I resigned myself to accept that it would be called a knock-on but the off-side would be ignored, had already put it in the "Stuff the refs screwed us with" bank, but they actually made the correct call, and we got the penalty.
None of that matters in the context of this game though. Normally the bullshit would starve us of possession and field position, but our running game was actually really good and we had AMPLE opportunities to score points. But we did **** all and looked clueless. If the players are going to Reynolds for attacking plans, like Gamble said, they need to look further. Our attack was woeful, there was no plan to work over certain areas of the defence in order to create space elsewhere, there was no plan at all and it showed. Absolutely gutting to think of all the resources our club has (including a premiership winning halfback) and when the important part of the season comes around we have nothing but dick.
I really, really, really want us to punt Haas and go after Hunt. Staggs has lost my patience too but we'd need to pay a chunk of his contract I assume unless there is a desperate club (hey Titans?).
