POST GAME Round 3 - Broncos vs Cowboys

[I bleed Maroon]

personally i'd like to think so ... but one thing is for sure, Kahu must take his place in the side somewhere

Maranta goes and Kahu goes to the wing outside Copley. I can see it happening a mile away

 

[Socnorb]

Have the Cowboys played the Broncos attack into form?

 

[Rally Towel]

Have the Cowboys played the Broncos attack into form?

It's a nice thought, but they did present us with some golden opportunities. Great to see we took advantage but we won't have that luxury most weeks.

We're a way off where we need to be, but I have faith we'll continue to improve.

Forwards aimed up, discipline was good, errors were down, both halves took it to the line. That's a good basis for us to work on.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

I'm a lot more optimistic about our season after that. We're back in the 8, if only temporarily, after 3 rounds with a great display of competent defense and quality attack that refused to quit.

Bennett is clearly maneuvering them into some kind of gameplan that involves McG, Parker and Blair dominating the middle or at least holding it so that gives Milf and Hunt time to position our outside backs where they need them to be and execute. It's basic Rugby League but it's better than what Griffin was giving us.

 

[Socnorb]

It's a nice thought, but they did present us with some golden opportunities. Great to see we took advantage but we won't have that luxury most weeks.

We're a way off where we need to be, but I have faith we'll continue to improve.

Forwards aimed up, discipline was good, errors were down, both halves took it to the line. That's a good basis for us to work on.

Down to 16 early in oppressive conditions. Milford offence and defence starting to gell . Some good signs Kodi and Joe off the bench.

 

[Rally Towel]

Down to 16 early in oppressive conditions. Milford offence and defence starting to gell . Some good signs Kodi and Joe off the bench.

Agreed regarding the efforts of the two young ones off the bench. I do think Joe still needs to hone his craft a little more at this stage, but having Kodi is good to keep the opposition guessing.

I am very interested to see how we look if/when Gavet and Garbutt are available. Our forwards looked good tonight but a couple more bruisers could keep us on the front foot.

 

[Unbreakable]

I thought McCullough was a bit better tonight as well, scored a try, had a couple of kicks, took some darts from dummy half, all in all it was better than we've come to expect, he only lost his momentum when Kodi came on.

Still not sold on this bench hooker thing to be honest, Kodi did alright but McCullough seems like the sort of player who needs the full 80 to shine.. My team for next week would be..

1. Kahu
2. Oates
3. Copley
4. Hodges (c)
5. Maranta
6. Milford
7. Hunt
8. McGuire
9. McCullough
10. Blair
11. Glenn
12. Gillett
13. Parker

14. Thaiday
15. Wallace
16. Ofahengaue
17. Garbutt / Dodds

 

[broncsgoat]

Reed is heinous...

 

[Super Freak]

THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!

Not just because Broncos scored so many points, but because I was surrounded by Cowboys supporters and I loved listening to them complain all game.

 

[pennywisealfie]

Just got back from the game. Man I forgot how fun it is to cheer try after try. That first half was so cool. Good stuff boys!

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Bennett torched the Cows even more in his presser lol Basically said they didn't turn up to play

 

[Broncojim]

I haven't had a chance to watch the game but all I've read is the Cowboys were terrible!

Were they that bad that it takes away from Brisbane's dominance? From what I've read we dominated the first half and let our intensity slip late in the 2nd half.

For a new halves combo and with Milford being so young and new to 5/8 role I'm very happy with the performance!

 

[I bleed Maroon]

I haven't had a chance to watch the game but all I've read is the Cowboys were terrible!

Were they that bad that it takes away from Brisbane's dominance? From what I've read we dominated the first half and let our intensity slip late in the 2nd half.

For a new halves combo and with Milford being so young and new to 5/8 role I'm very happy with the performance!

Yes they were awful. 12 of their points against us came from pretty questionable calls from the refs, especially Cootes knock on. JT almost seemed disinterested which coming from him is not a good sign.

However we also played really well and by far our best in a while. It is obvious the pieces are steadily coming together

 

[Broncoman]

One of the most encouraging games and wins i've seen in quite a while despite the Cowboys being garbage, very enjoyable game although we can still work on some things and we conceded 22 points.

Attack has been a bit of a problem at times over the last couple of years but it really came together tonight and to score 44 points and play some quality attacking football was great to watch. Milford is improving each week which is great and our spine will continue to gel together. In the first half we scored double the amount of points we scored in our first 2 games combined.

Blair responded well to the criticism and played a solid game despite a couple of cringe worthy mistakes. Came up with 15 runs for 122 meters and 25 tackles according to the Fox Sports stats.

How good is Ben Hunt he has come so far over the last year and a bit. Quite crazy to believe some people said he would never make it and we should opt for someone like Sandow for attacking spark :laugh: (special mention to Kahu, Parker, Milford and Maranta)

Great win and great night guys

 

[Morkel]

Yes I know that Oates is every bit a second-rower as a back. But please let me enjoy the fact that our winger legally hit their forward so hard that he spewed up on TV. And another brutal hit by Kahu defending his line, as well as a few others where they looked over for sure and we repelled it. That says to me that they're not so much defending their line, they're attacking with their defence. Basically saying "you try to get over this line and we'll snot you".

As for the attack, it's hard to tell whether the Cowboys were monumentally shit or whether at least some credit goes to our playmakers starting to combine well and create doubt for the defence. The majority of those tries came down to good old fashioned hard running, determination, and most importantly, backing up when someone makes a break. I'll be replaying a lot of those tries in my head tonight as I try to grab maybe 3 hours sleep before the kids wake up...

 

[Porthoz]

Just saw Wayne's presser, and I was glad to hear he wasn't that impressed with this game as the score would tend to imply.

We got away with the first 30 minutes, but were not the better team until then imo. After that, the Cowboys just dished a ton of garbage and we took advantage of it with some nice attacking footy.

This doesn't mean that we don't deserve credit and many players showed great signs today of better things to come.

I was honestly disappointed in Blair's first half, but he certainly rose to the occasion (silly stuff aside) in the second half, covering for Moose's loss.

Maranta did not drop the ball or stepped on the line for his tries, so that's a positive, but despite making 90 meters in that break, I think he completely stuffed it up. Besides as the only player with a possibility to catch Kyle Feldt, not only did he show how slow he was, he ended up giving up. When Ethan Lowe showed him up for speed too, it just confirmed what he isn't... a good winger!

On the positive side, besides Hunt's amazing ability to break the line and push big guys out of his way, I liked Milford's performance on both sides of the field, Corey Parker's return to his usual brilliance, Macca's guidance and pretty good service, and Matt Gillett's clean-up work besides that nice offload to Hunt in one of Maranta's tries.
Of course, big wraps for Wallace and Ofa in their longer stints due to Moose's concussion, they didn't shame themselves at all. Kodi did what he does, but disappointed me as well in Kyle Feldt's chase... expected more from him.

MOTM for mine was Kahu, gaining confidence game by game and starting to show what he is capable of.
That first dropped ball should have been a penalty, as it was pushed out of his hands by Moga, but he was otherwise very solid in defense, but also improved a lot in attack.
He will never be a Milford type of player, but much more a fullback in the mold of a Khunt for example. It's too early and I don't want to jinx him, but hopefully in another 2 or 3 games, he may have a lot of people wondering if we're not better off with Boyd on the wing.

 

[Allo]

Boy didn't 'Chelsea Dagger' get a work out? What a fun night that was. So nice to see a 40-point scoreline in our favour.

Great game by all really. Except Reed. His terribleness is becoming far too noticeable. Also while Glenn did really well for Cozza's try, it still seems like he's never around. Maybe coz he's away on the other side of the field for half the game.

Maranta again failed to convince everyone he's as fast as he says/thinks. EVERY single first-choice winger in the game would've scored that once Thurston was beaten. Happy for him to get some legit backline tries and keep upping his confidence though. But still hesitant to plant it and take on a man. Overstepped into Morgan's cover defence. Should go for Kahu/Boyd once fit.

Kahu is killing it. Such a great reward for the guy. Also, for those bagging him for high ball drops, I think there's been maybe 3 he's dropped? Not bad for a rookie. Lay off him. Beasting forwards in defence 2m out from the line. Deserves a 17 spot regardless of injury comebacks.

Same for Oates. Dude is awesome at everything. He really showed up Maranta in the chase on Feldt. Another 10-20m and he had him. Absolutely crunched Cooper too.

Wallace had a great game with the extended minutes. Good hitups and tackled everyone. Kodi and Joffa are getting some quality time on the field and holding their own instead of junk minutes when the game has been decided which is how Griffin should've used his bench.

Gillo's arm/shoulder looked a bit worrying for a bit there. I hope he's not too underdone. His defence has improved enormously though.

Milford is getting better every game. Doing really well in defence too.

Hunt is a little champion. How much of Alfie was in his try? Loved it. Kicking game is also improving. Throwing in some spirals and low grass finders.

Cozza just keeps on keeping on. Blair was better. Got poleaxed by Scott at the end which looked both awful and awesome at the same time. McGuire getting a pie is just rewards for his relentlessness. Wasn't aware he got concussed and wondered why I didn't see him in the 2nd half. Macca was good and, barring the try which won't happen every game, that game needs to be his minimum standard from now on. Thaiday fell into some old habits of hit-and-drop. Staying on the bench at most please.

On the whole, we played as well as the Cows invited us to. Everything seemed to stick. That won't happen every week. But we just need to keep doing the basics right and opportunities will come.

 

[broncos4life]

I don't feel like earning an infraction so I'll zip it.

Haha, yep me too