PRE-GAME Round 3 - Broncos vs Cowboys

[subsbligh]

I agree on Taomololo and Scott but seriously Hannant and Tamou have been average for a fair while

Maybe that complacency is the Cows problem - I dunno.

 

[Brent81]

And they would have gone right through us on the line a couple of times......can't believe all these people don't remember our paper thin goal line defence from last year....

 

[Brent81]

The Cowboys might do to us what they threatened to do against the Knights when they were up 14-0 and put a 40-... score against us.

There's no way 0-3 is good enough for a roster as good as the Cowboys. This is a must win for them against the Broncos.

I am genuinely intimidated how our pack can stop Taomololo, Hannant, Tamou and Scott, let alone that beast that was out there in the 15 on Saturday night. All backed up by the ferociously competitive Thurston - he's everywhere for the Cowboys.

We beat them at Suncorp last year with a worse team than we'll have this time.

If we defend like we did against the Sharks and in the first half against the rabbitohs (just watch us defend in that first half, second half we ran out of puff as you will do with only 42% of the ball) we'll win.

 

[K-Style]

We beat them at Suncorp last year with a worse team than we'll have this time.

If we defend like we did against the Sharks and in the first half against the rabbitohs (just watch us defend in that first half, second half we ran out of puff as you will do with only 42% of the ball) we'll win.

If we attack like we did against the Rabbits we won't. ;)

 

[theshed]

The game plan should be pretty obvious. Give Thurston an absolute belting all game and we'll win.

 

[BroncosAlways]

http://m.couriermail.com.au/sport/n...d-darren-lockyer/story-fniabjcr-1227263766540

“I would never say no to advice from people, especially someone as great as Locky, and if it’s negative or positive I will accept it, but I want to try and do it my way.


“Locky is always around but we have done just one kicking session so far.


“If I needed help, I would ask for it but, to be honest, I have senior boys around me and (halves partner) Benny Hunt helps me out.”


Milford struggled against Souths in the season-opener and he is still clearly searching for his mojo in attack after making four errors in Brisbane’s 10-2 defeat of Cronulla last Friday night.

The 20-year-old will also be ordered to play more direct at the Cowboys after being guilty of drifting across field against the Sharks, making him easy pickings for the Cronulla defence.


Bennett also wants Milford to back himself by roaming on either side of Brisbane’s rucks, instead of fixing himself to one attacking corridor.


Oh and for you [MENTION=2115]Anonymous person[/MENTION]

Milford is not daunted by the Thurston challenge and says he won’t be surrendering his five-eighth responsibilities.


“I want to stay there. I want to make the position mine long-term, but in saying that I know I have work to do,” he said.


“This is a huge test for me. Thurston is the best player in the world, so I have to do a lot of homework on him and try and shut him out of the game.”

 

[Renegade]

I think we'll beat them with another gritty effort, the cows always flatter to deceive.

 

[Morkel]

They made 28 more runs because they had six more sets than we did by virtue of a healthy penalty count (11-6) and more goal-line drop-outs. Of course with more ball, you're going to make more ground...Again, it wouldn't have mattered if you had those players I listed, they'd still lose out if they didn't get enough ball.

Even so, the Sharks got caught up in rucking the ball up, not enough in converting territory into points. I'd be happy to let them make as many metres as they want as long as we don't let them get within a metre of our try line.

Exactly this, and it's one of my bugbears. "Team X made 400 more metres than team Y and that was the difference". No, they made that many more metres because they scored more tries. Therefore they get the ball back and start from near their line, so there's an extra set that they get. Same with dropouts. A more accurate reflection would be metres made on average per set of 6, but again that's skewed if they have the ball on the opposition line & don't technically make any metres.

Just because the Sharks weren't capable of capitalising their forward dominance, doesn't mean it's ok to let them make as many meters as they want. Besides, your premise was that the Broncos don't have any trouble getting up field, and that is simply not true!

The Sharks also made more errors than us, and had a very similar completion rate (70% vs. 68%), which in the end resulted in 15 more PTB's than us, which means that we still easily came up 15 hit-ups short.

Blair made ONE hit-up, how many do you think Matt Scott or George/Thomas Burgess would've made?

We still only have 6 tackles in the set. Just because another player is willing to take more runs, doesn't mean we get a 7 or 8 tackle set. The only thing that this affects is that a tired player might be making the run instead of Blair, so therefore metres per run would be down, but you could then argue that Blair made 35 tackles in 45-odd minutes so would have been too tired to make an effective run himself?

 

[Anonymous person]

Why is blairs tackle count being used to excuse his poor hitup count? Like I said before, mcguire made more tackles than Blair and made 12 hitups. Most props these days make 30-40 tackles and 10-20 hitups every week of the season. It is inexcusable. There is no defense for his lazy effort.

He was decent in round 1. Made the tackles he should, started off well, then went missing in the second half. He was hardly "immense" or whatever other superlatives are being thrown around.

If Bennett wants to play him at prop he needs to get a rocket up him and make him do a props job. Props aren't edge runners ir wide runners, they are middle men. If you want to play him on the edge, play him in his actual position - second row. Hes not a prop and never will be. He doesn't have the work ethic or impact.

 

[broncos4life]

http://m.couriermail.com.au/sport/n...d-darren-lockyer/story-fniabjcr-1227263766540

“I would never say no to advice from people, especially someone as great as Locky, and if it’s negative or positive I will accept it, but I want to try and do it my way.


“Locky is always around but we have done just one kicking session so far.


“If I needed help, I would ask for it but, to be honest, I have senior boys around me and (halves partner) Benny Hunt helps me out.”


Milford struggled against Souths in the season-opener and he is still clearly searching for his mojo in attack after making four errors in Brisbane’s 10-2 defeat of Cronulla last Friday night.

The 20-year-old will also be ordered to play more direct at the Cowboys after being guilty of drifting across field against the Sharks, making him easy pickings for the Cronulla defence.


Bennett also wants Milford to back himself by roaming on either side of Brisbane’s rucks, instead of fixing himself to one attacking corridor.


Oh and for you @Anonymous person

Milford is not daunted by the Thurston challenge and says he won’t be surrendering his five-eighth responsibilities.


“I want to stay there. I want to make the position mine long-term, but in saying that I know I have work to do,” he said.


“This is a huge test for me. Thurston is the best player in the world, so I have to do a lot of homework on him and try and shut him out of the game.”

God he is such a little liar. LIAR!

 

[Porthoz]

You have to be kidding

Why?

Jason Taumalolo, Ethan Lowe, Gavin Cooper and Kelepi Tanginoa are certainly good enough to make up for his loss, besides they also gained a hard working forward in Ben Hannant to add to their front row rotation.

I call shenanigans.

Cronulla v Brisbane, Full Time 2-10 - NRL Results - NRL Stats

 

[Porthoz]

Exactly this, and it's one of my bugbears. "Team X made 400 more metres than team Y and that was the difference". No, they made that many more metres because they scored more tries. Therefore they get the ball back and start from near their line, so there's an extra set that they get. Same with dropouts. A more accurate reflection would be metres made on average per set of 6, but again that's skewed if they have the ball on the opposition line & don't technically make any metres.



We still only have 6 tackles in the set. Just because another player is willing to take more runs, doesn't mean we get a 7 or 8 tackle set. The only thing that this affects is that a tired player might be making the run instead of Blair, so therefore metres per run would be down, but you could then argue that Blair made 35 tackles in 45-odd minutes so would have been too tired to make an effective run himself?

I understand that statistics have to be interpreted according to the game flow and possession, but I don't need stats to see how much more dominant and how many more meters the Sharks forwards made per set as compared to us. It was blatant!

I'm talking about hit-ups and meters made from them. The discrepancy (Sharks- 79 for 690 meters vs. Broncos 49 for 412 meters) is huge, especially when you look at the total amount of play the balls, where the Sharks only had 15 more than us.

As to the 35 tackles made by Blair in 40 minutes, please spare me. This is what our other props did with their minutes (Ofa only had a short stint, but still made more runs):
- Josh McGuire made 45 tackles and 11 runs in 54 minutes.
- Jarrod Wallace made 21 tackles and 10 runs in 32 minutes.

I'm not even going to compare with the Sharks forwards or other forwards in the game like the ones mentioned in the previous posts... it would be shameful.

Don't get me wrong, Blair is a solid defender and certainly helped stem the Sharks flow, but he is not a prop. A prop's job, is to make meters when carrying the ball, not play halfback, even if it's ok to do it sometimes, like James Graham does.

In this case, Blair only put his hand up for 6 carries and hit the defense once. You look at any other starting prop in the NRL, and those are appalling stats!

P.S. Most of our meters came from our backline, with McGuire and Glenn the only ones cracking 100 mtrs.

 

[broncos4life]

I understand that statistics have to be interpreted according to the game flow and possession, but I don't need stats to see how much more dominant and how many more meters the Sharks forwards made per set as compared to us. It was blatant!

I'm talking about hit-ups and meters made from them. The discrepancy (Sharks- 79 for 690 meters vs. Broncos 49 for 412 meters) is huge, especially when you look at the total amount of play the balls, where the Sharks only had 15 more than us.

As to the 35 tackles made by Blair in 40 minutes, please spare me. This is what our other props did with their minutes (Ofa only had a short stint, but still made more runs):
- Josh McGuire made 45 tackles and 11 runs in 54 minutes.
- Jarrod Wallace made 21 tackles and 10 runs in 32 minutes.

I'm not even going to compare with the Sharks forwards or other forwards in the game like the ones mentioned in the previous posts... it would be shameful.

Don't get me wrong, Blair is a solid defender and certainly helped stem the Sharks flow, but he is not a prop. A prop's job, is to make meters when carrying the ball, not play halfback, even if it's ok to do it sometimes, like James Graham does.

In this case, Blair only put his hand up for 6 carries and hit the defense once. You look at any other starting prop in the NRL, and those are appalling stats!

P.S. Most of our meters came from our backline, with McGuire and Glenn the only ones cracking 100 mtrs.

But at the end of the day Blair is doing the role in the team that the coach is asking him to. You can out up all the stats you want but it means nothing because Bennett obviously wants him playing prop and bringing some aggression to the middle, but also doing some ball playing. Blair is a backrower but for the structure of this team at this point it is deemed best that he plays prop.

I hate this fixation on stats because they don't tell the full story but can be used however a person wants to make a point

 

[broncos4life]

Why?

Jason Taumalolo, Ethan Lowe, Gavin Cooper and Kelepi Tanginoa are certainly good enough to make up for his loss, besides they also gained a hard working forward in Ben Hannant to add to their front row rotation.


Cronulla v Brisbane, Full Time 2-10 - NRL Results - NRL Stats

3 of those players were already there and they have added a toiler and a guy that has played one nrl game for about 15 minutes. I don't see how that and the removal of the Sims has made them a better pack

Apologies about the shenanigans accusation in regards to completions... I read that as possession haha

 

[Morkel]

Why is blairs tackle count being used to excuse his poor hitup count? Like I said before, mcguire made more tackles than Blair and made 12 hitups. Most props these days make 30-40 tackles and 10-20 hitups every week of the season. It is inexcusable. There is no defense for his lazy effort.

He was decent in round 1. Made the tackles he should, started off well, then went missing in the second half. He was hardly "immense" or whatever other superlatives are being thrown around.

If Bennett wants to play him at prop he needs to get a rocket up him and make him do a props job. Props aren't edge runners ir wide runners, they are middle men. If you want to play him on the edge, play him in his actual position - second row. Hes not a prop and never will be. He doesn't have the work ethic or impact.

No one's using it as an excuse. No one is saying that it's okay. It's not. If, again, you're referring to my comment (which would be easier to gauge if you quoted of course), I'm saying that at whatever theoretical point(s) in time that [MENTION=2221]Porthoz[/MENTION] was referring to, an extra run by him would just have been one less run by someone else, and if Blair was not in a position to make an effective run then there was no disadvantage to the Broncos anyway. I do disagree that he's not a prop though. Like I said earlier he's the only player we've had in years that's been able to stop opposition big men in their tracks. We need that in the middle. And as a first point of contact.

I understand that statistics have to be interpreted according to the game flow and possession, but I don't need stats to see how much more dominant and how many more meters the Sharks forwards made per set as compared to us. It was blatant!

I'm talking about hit-ups and meters made from them. The discrepancy (Sharks- 79 for 690 meters vs. Broncos 49 for 412 meters) is huge, especially when you look at the total amount of play the balls, where the Sharks only had 15 more than us.

As to the 35 tackles made by Blair in 40 minutes, please spare me. This is what our other props did with their minutes (Ofa only had a short stint, but still made more runs):
- Josh McGuire made 45 tackles and 11 runs in 54 minutes.
- Jarrod Wallace made 21 tackles and 10 runs in 32 minutes.

I'm not even going to compare with the Sharks forwards or other forwards in the game like the ones mentioned in the previous posts... it would be shameful.

Don't get me wrong, Blair is a solid defender and certainly helped stem the Sharks flow, but he is not a prop. A prop's job, is to make meters when carrying the ball, not play halfback, even if it's ok to do it sometimes, like James Graham does.

In this case, Blair only put his hand up for 6 carries and hit the defense once. You look at any other starting prop in the NRL, and those are appalling stats!

P.S. Most of our meters came from our backline, with McGuire and Glenn the only ones cracking 100 mtrs.

For years people have bitched about the Broncos not having forwards who pass at the line, and now that we do, it's because they're lazy? I'm not defending Blair's stats at all, it's up there with the infamous Thaiday stat sheet that made him turn the corner the first time (1 tackle, 1 run for 0 metres). But to say he's not a prop because he doesn't run enough is a silly argument - if someone is going to run the ball to draw in defenders, you want that player to be, you know, dangerous enough to draw numbers in defence in the first place. It's the whole point - compress the opposition's middle defenders so there are more gaps out wide. A prop running is going to draw in those exact defenders. He should be running more, for sure, but more accurately he should be actually taking more hits and using his size to push the defensive line back, but the same would be said regardless of where he played in the pack.

And look at it this way - would we have been able to hold the middle of the field as well if our forwards were more tired from making more runs? It could well have been the game plan - the backs coming in and making as many metres as possible so that the forwards are fresher to withstand the big Sharks pack. Maybe a lesson learned from last week where we cracked from fatigue? Considering we won despite considerably less ball, then maybe the tactic is justified?

As to the "only" extra 15 play the balls, well that's just one stat regarding the posession, but it's not all-encompassing. Like when you get a penalty (they got 5 more) or dropouts (3 more), or all the other plays where it doesn't end in a tackle and follow with a play-the-ball. What about the stat of 180 runs to 152 - 28 different. In fact, 180 runs for 1513m compared to 152 runs for 1319m is 8.4 metres per run versus 8.7 metres per run - we're actually making more metres per run!!!! They just made more of them, so what if it's forwards or backs doing the running?

 

[Anonymous person]

Lol the stats don't tell the whole story. Defending a prop doing 1 hitup in 40+ minutes is a new low.

If Bennett wants his props to be second rowers then hes showing just how bad of a decision it was to get him back.

 

[rnabokov]

Good stats come from good structures and execution.

I'll wait for when that happens.

 

[Unbreakable]

Yeah I dunno how Blair is at fault, we have no idea what the game plan or structure is after 2 games, if he's not doing what Wayne wants him to do, he'll get benched like Thaiday, it's pretty simple.

If he doesn't get benched, he's doing what Wayne wants him to.