PRE-GAME [Round 3, 2025] Broncos vs Cowboys

Our edge forwards are our biggest weakness at present. Riki, Piakura and Gosiewski just don't fill me with any confidence moving forward. Whilst Piakura has some talent but just can't get it right consistently.

And that is where we will struggle against teams like Canberra who have second rowers as a strength. I worry up against Manly, the Dogs, Gold Coast and Penrith who all have at least one gun second rower.
 
Our edge forwards are our biggest weakness at present. Riki, Piakura and Gosiewski just don't fill me with any confidence moving forward. Whilst Piakura has some talent but just can't get it right consistently.
To me our biggest weakness is our defence... it's not often that the premiership team is outside the top 1/2 defences in the league.

We seriously need to get that aspect of the game sorted... too easily do our edges get shredded and we concede way too many meters in yardage.

It was disappointing that there was no reaction when our team was challenged on Saturday night.

They withstood the onslaught, which is a good sign in terms of fitness and our defence only conceding 2 tries, but they didn't go up a gear to match them and bash them back.

Other teams will look at that as the blueprint against us... frontload the first 20-30mins with higher intensity and try to get an early lead... then let scoreboard pressure drag us into playing Hollywood ball.
 
To me our biggest weakness is our defence... it's not often that the premiership team is outside the top 1/2 defences in the league.

We seriously need to get that aspect of the game sorted... too easily do our edges get shredded and we concede way too many meters in yardage.

It was disappointing that there was no reaction when our team was challenged on Saturday night.

They withstood the onslaught, which is a good sign in terms of fitness and our defence only conceding 2 tries, but they didn't go up a gear to match them and bash them back.

Other teams will look at that as the blueprint against us... frontload the first 20-30mins with higher intensity and try to get an early lead... then let scoreboard pressure drag us into playing Hollywood ball.
Defence is all attitude though. Easies thing to fix if you have a talented side. Edge defence stems from our lack of quality edge forwards.
 
He missed 4 actually, and only made 13. But as you can see, it was an issue across the board. Problem for Gosiewski is his misses were crucial and led to tries.

View attachment 31994

He missed 1 when the Pom ran over him .
Another cover tackle when Ben Hunt got steam rolled . The other two I don`t recall .
I lost intrest pretty early when I saw that the Broncos thought it was gonna be easy . Basic errors and poor attitude .
 
To me our biggest weakness is our defence... it's not often that the premiership team is outside the top 1/2 defences in the league.

We seriously need to get that aspect of the game sorted... too easily do our edges get shredded and we concede way too many meters in yardage.

It was disappointing that there was no reaction when our team was challenged on Saturday night.

They withstood the onslaught, which is a good sign in terms of fitness and our defence only conceding 2 tries, but they didn't go up a gear to match them and bash them back.

Other teams will look at that as the blueprint against us... frontload the first 20-30mins with higher intensity and try to get an early lead... then let scoreboard pressure drag us into playing Hollywood ball.

Pappa came out and won it for the Raiders in that first 30 minutes, he's taken Carrigan and Haas' performance last week personally and I am sure Ricky has got in his ear too.

The thing is the Broncos, didn't see it coming? Didn't react? Didn't take it personally?

There used to be a pecking order, if you were coming up against the Pappa's of the world you wanted to prove yourself. With no JWH last week the Broncos forgot about that order.

The Broncos don't have an alpha.
 
On da bench . LOL .

Dave Fifi .
Injected in the 50th minute with the game gone .

He's still pretty destructive, especially against us, regardless of what his coach does. Even so, they have Fermor as well.
 
Defence is all attitude though. Easies thing to fix if you have a talented side. Edge defence stems from our lack of quality edge forwards.
I guess I'm flagging our attitude / mentality as the biggest weakness then. However, it looks like we still have some work to do on shoring up the defence beyond that.

We haven't been under too much pressure on the goal line to date, but we haven't really looked solid in defence when we have been subjected to it.
 
Pappa came out and won it for the Raiders in that first 30 minutes, he's taken Carrigan and Haas' performance last week personally and I am sure Ricky has got in his ear too.

The thing is the Broncos, didn't see it coming? Didn't react? Didn't take it personally?

There used to be a pecking order, if you were coming up against the Pappa's of the world you wanted to prove yourself. With no JWH last week the Broncos forgot about that order.

The Broncos don't have an alpha.
I would say Patty has the capabilities to be our alpha, because he has done it in the past, notably during origin where he will come out of the line to put shots on.

On the weekend Starling was phenomenal in leading their linespeed and putting big shots on... to me that's what we need from Kobe, but it's also something that Billy done well last year.

He's very solid in middle defence and there's an argument to start him for that reason.

Paix can come on at 30min mark and still be playing the same minutes he has been to start the year, but at least he's not having to deal with that early onslaught from the opposition forward pack.
 
I guess I'm flagging our attitude / mentality as the biggest weakness then. However, it looks like we still have some work to do on shoring up the defence beyond that.

We haven't been under too much pressure on the goal line to date, but we haven't really looked solid in defence when we have been subjected to it.

Agreed, our defense has taken a while to settle in both games but against the Raiders, it settled and then unsettled, just no consistency off the ball.
 
I guess I'm flagging our attitude / mentality as the biggest weakness then. However, it looks like we still have some work to do on shoring up the defence beyond that.

We haven't been under too much pressure on the goal line to date, but we haven't really looked solid in defence when we have been subjected to it.

I would say you're correct. Mentally we can't seem to show up consistently
 
He's still pretty destructive, especially against us, regardless of what his coach does. Even so, they have Fermor as well.

Fermor can be good but ,,,
Fermor got exploited pretty severely yesterday .
They ran past him more than once . Was he playing centre yesterday ?
 
That`s what I`ve been saying for weeks .
Billy has agressive defence . Paix is a hugger . Paix could lift tempo . Billy , nah .
I've been in the same boat, but people including the media can't get past this stigma of bench vs starter.

The coach only wants to spend 1 interchange on his hookers... I think Billy is the better middle defender and is definitely able to put shots on to fold middles.

If people get so held up about the number on someone's back then I wouldn't care if Paix was named in the 9 every Tuesday just to be dropped back to the bench 1hr before every kick off... either way Paix is playing 50mins per game vs Billy's 30mins
 
I would say Patty has the capabilities to be our alpha, because he has done it in the past, notably during origin where he will come out of the line to put shots on.

On the weekend Starling was phenomenal in leading their linespeed and putting big shots on... to me that's what we need from Kobe, but it's also something that Billy done well last year.

He's very solid in middle defence and there's an argument to start him for that reason.

Paix can come on at 30min mark and still be playing the same minutes he has been to start the year, but at least he's not having to deal with that early onslaught from the opposition forward pack.

They can play well, I am not questioning their ability but to me being the alpha means the forward that is always 8/10 and just doesn't take any crap.

The Broncos always talk about Thorn, Webcke and Petero- they set the standard to be a man- on and off the field. Not cheap shots but standing up for yourself and your team.

Penrith have Martin and Leota and had JFH. Always 8/10 and never fall down in no talent required areas. I think the NTR areas is where the Broncos fall down.

The Broncos don't have that in their forward pack.

I imagine that Liam Martin would comfortably sit with Thorn. Not sure RIkii would.

Leota on Saturday night probably roughs up Pappa, tries to put a shot on and is offended by the thought of his team going backwards. Liam Martin would have been in the red.

Broncos forwards just seem to shrug their shoulders and say Pappa is pretty good what can you do.
 
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