POST GAME Round 3 - Broncos vs Eels

[Midean]

Reading through this you'd think we were 0-3 to start the season haha ffs. We were off and had a few missing, stuck in the game despite having no right too against one of the top 3 teams.

News flash: we won't win EVERY GAME, in fact with a team this young we won't even turn up every game. We had a choice, stick with the old, tried and tested players and finish 3-10 for the next 5 to 10 years, or give these supremely talented but very young guys a go and ride the wave with on their way to a premiership. That for me, is a risk worth taking if we have a few swings and misses...

No one is expecting to win every game. But when you get soundly thrashed by the team that dispatched you from last years finals with the worst beating in the clubs history, you kind of expect some mongrel and passion in attack. Granted i think we had that mongrel in defense, as there was some back to back sets on our line we defended brilliantly.
But as far as our performance overall is concerned, against a team we should have been chomping at the bit to get some revenge on, we rolled over and showed our belly.
Disappointing to say the very least.

 

[mrslong]

Gotta say Reed Mahoney looks really good. I think he's already got the best pass off the ground of all the 9's and he can kick too.

Silver lining for Qld, was just thinking about this!

 

[mitch222]

It pains me to know that Hoppa will be a starting second rower next week
He has dicks for hands and makes really bad errors at very bad times
We really to get Teo this week to cover for the injuries in the second row

 

[ChewThePhatt]

We were out played.
We were out smarted.
We were out coached.

They won fair & square.
We were not good enough.

Period.

 

[Unbreakable]

He'll be putting a mountain of pressure of Ben Hunt's Origin jersey this year I reckon.

Harry Grant might be more of a threat to the #9 jersey if he's half as good as everyone thinks he is.

 

[BroncsFan]

It pains me to know that Hoppa will be a starting second rower next week
He has dicks for hands and makes really bad errors at very bad times
We really to get Teo this week to cover for the injuries in the second row

He had an absolute shocker with 3 errors and all of then were simply dropping it cold. Unfortunately we literally have no back rowers available to replace him:
- TPJ suspended till rd 6,
- Fifi out till maybe rd 7-8,
- Glenn probably out for 2 weeks at least
- Palasia season
- Bullemore is more a prop from reports, but will probably be our starter with Glenn now out
- Riki... more a prop as well?? Can we even use him... Is he in the 32 man squad??
- Teo not signed yet, but I'm not sure we can rely on him to play 80 from the get go
- Offa is not a second rower and is barely first grade standard at the moment
- Carrigan can't be moved from lock... he's already becoming too important

Flegler played some second row last year, but he has been phenomenal at prop to start the year so I would be reluctant to move him.

I think Seibs could use the opportunity to move Oates to the bench as second row cover. He then acts as our utility covering the outside backs as well.

 

[Thelmus]

Ironically that’s the exact kind of match where you could’ve probably used Macca to absorb some of that momentum. Ah well.

some great signs in defence. That was almost exactly the same as the 58-0 game except we didn’t actually let them capitalise.

We looked good at times and it almost seemed at a few stages that we were beginning to wrestle our way back into the game but our completion rate was embarrassing and the game couldn’t be saved.

Yeah, completion rates killed us. We had a hole in our defence with hopoate as well. Staggs is great with the ball in hand but needs some serious work on his defence.

 

[DigitalDaz]

The start of the game - when the referee awarded about three "6 to go's" like he was playing with a new toy - set the tone for the entire game. That put us on the back-foot and fatigued from the start - and frankly we never recovered.

First game is hard fitness wise, but that deluge of "six to go's" did it.

 

[Thelmus]

I think it's getting to the stage now with Oates that he plays 2nd row or Reggie's. He really needs to be making that transition ASAP, and probably 3 rounds previously would have been the time. He definitely should be playing of the bench next week to fulfill that role.
I don't know why there is a reluctance to do it with farnswporth a. worthy substitute for his wing?
Considering our limited numbers at 2nd row, it's a no-brainer.

 

[Footy Fanatic]

Staggs looks lost in defence sometimes, but I wonder if it’s about those around him. There were a couple of times I noticed Staggs was more worried about the positioning of those about him than he was for the ball runner.

Hopoate definitely did not help the situation at all and really only exacerbated Staggs defensive woes.

 

[Wolfie]

Harry Grant might be more of a threat to the #9 jersey if he's half as good as everyone thinks he is.

Grant is quality, and if Cam plays on next year, he is free to leave Melbourne. We are nuts if this happens and we dont go for him.

 

[Cult]

Regarding the metres Haas makes, I noticed that the entire team tries arrowing in behind the marker and often just gets tackled, making about 7 metres all up but Haas runs away from the markers making 10+ almost every time. Our forwards (Minus Fifita of course) don't have the punch to break the tackles of the markers so they should look at running elsewhere to make more metres. Our game plan is just boring and we can't even get the one out hit ups right.

It was nice to see Haas looking for offloads last night but having nobody back him up.

 

[K-Style]

Regarding the metres Haas makes, I noticed that the entire team tries arrowing in behind the marker and often just gets tackled, making about 7 metres all up but Haas runs away from the markers making 10+ almost every time. Our forwards (Minus Fifita of course) don't have the punch to break the tackles of the markers so they should look at running elsewhere to make more metres. Our game plan is just boring and we can't even get the one out hit ups right.

It was nice to see Haas looking for offloads last night but having nobody back him up.

I agree. This is infuriating. We keep making the same mistakes. We're making the same mistakes we made 3 years ago. At the very least the right wing isn't completely lost this year. Not so fond memories of last year where too many tries were scored with Isaako completely off the wing. Arthurs got in front of Sivo but didn't trust Staggs to stop Jennings so wasn't as ready as he could have been.

 

[Unbreakable]

Regarding the metres Haas makes, I noticed that the entire team tries arrowing in behind the marker and often just gets tackled, making about 7 metres all up but Haas runs away from the markers making 10+ almost every time. Our forwards (Minus Fifita of course) don't have the punch to break the tackles of the markers so they should look at running elsewhere to make more metres. Our game plan is just boring and we can't even get the one out hit ups right.

It was nice to see Haas looking for offloads last night but having nobody back him up.

I was still happy with Flegler, Carrigan & Lodge last night, they were all making ~10 metres per run, give or take, which is all you can hope for from middle forwards.

The biggest disappointments last night in terms of go-forward were Ofahengaue and Oates.

Ofahengaue - 8 runs for 57 metres (7.1 metres per run)
Oates - 13 runs for 96 metres (7.4 metres per run)

That's so far below what we're used to seeing from them, Oates AVERAGED 140-170m per game every season between 2016-2019.. based on what we've seen in the first 3 games, he could be struggling to average 100m in 2020.

 

[Cult]

I was still happy with Flegler, Carrigan & Lodge last night, they were all making ~10 metres per run, give or take, which is all you can hope for from middle forwards.

The biggest disappointments last night in terms of go-forward were Ofahengaue and Oates.

Ofahengaue - 8 runs for 57 metres (7.1 metres per run)
Oates - 13 runs for 96 metres (7.4 metres per run)

That's so far below what we're used to seeing from them, Oates AVERAGED 140-170m per game every season between 2016-2019.. based on what we've seen in the first 3 games, he could be struggling to average 100m in 2020.

Lodge seemed quiet last night too, but Flegler and Carrigan were definitely noticeably looking good. I just think there's better options for these guys to aim at in the defensive line. In touch footy we'd arrow at the same player so they'd get tired. In the NRL the markers aren't getting tired making tackles on blokes like Ofa and Lodge because they go straight to the ground and lose whatever wrestle occurs on the ground. If they're going to arrow in they need to get to the ground quick, stand up and play that ball ASAP, like Thaiday used to. Otherwise it's just a waste of time.

I don't even want to talk about Oates. The only excuse I had for him staying on the wing was that we'd miss his hit ups taking us out of our half so if he's not doing that anymore he can play elsewhere. I want to see how Fifita would go in the centres, out of curiosity. He's the most Inglis-like of anyone compared to Inglis ever in my opinion.

A lot has been said about Seibold getting rid of a few players but I can't help but believe a McCullough or McGuire would have helped out our defense last night. We used to win games with our defense, now we are kinda crap at both attack and defense. We had a lot of flukey, unstructured play in our first two games that led to tries, but they can't play unstructured if they can't catch a ball. I think that's what is most disappointing about this team. Their inability to hold onto the ball when there's no pressure on them. Hopoate should have been hooked last night and Seibolds lack of awareness or wanting to stick to his plan was a bit shocking to be honest. If you're that off you need to come off.

 

[Renegade]

Hoppa can **** right off.

Staggs I love you but you were dogshit last night

Milf was pretty poor as well despite the sycophants, at fault for at least two tries, a forward pass, couple of grounded passes, and generally disappearing into the shadows and leaving it all for croft.

Hard to build any pressure when you can't hold onto the ball in the 2nd half.

Address the issues at training but write this one off and move onto next week.

Eels were very good though it must be said. Relentless in their work ethic and desire, I hate the fucking team but they'll go far this year.

 

[KnToad]

He'll be putting a mountain of pressure of Ben Hunt's Origin jersey this year I reckon.

I hope so......

 

[Unbreakable]

Lodge seemed quiet last night too, but Flegler and Carrigan were definitely noticeably looking good. I just think there's better options for these guys to aim at in the defensive line. In touch footy we'd arrow at the same player so they'd get tired. In the NRL the markers aren't getting tired making tackles on blokes like Ofa and Lodge because they go straight to the ground and lose whatever wrestle occurs on the ground. If they're going to arrow in they need to get to the ground quick, stand up and play that ball ASAP, like Thaiday used to. Otherwise it's just a waste of time.

I don't even want to talk about Oates. The only excuse I had for him staying on the wing was that we'd miss his hit ups taking us out of our half so if he's not doing that anymore he can play elsewhere. I want to see how Fifita would go in the centres, out of curiosity. He's the most Inglis-like of anyone compared to Inglis ever in my opinion.

A lot has been said about Seibold getting rid of a few players but I can't help but believe a McCullough or McGuire would have helped out our defense last night. We used to win games with our defense, now we are kinda crap at both attack and defense. We had a lot of flukey, unstructured play in our first two games that led to tries, but they can't play unstructured if they can't catch a ball. I think that's what is most disappointing about this team. Their inability to hold onto the ball when there's no pressure on them. Hopoate should have been hooked last night and Seibolds lack of awareness or wanting to stick to his plan was a bit shocking to be honest. If you're that off you need to come off.

We only made 3 more errors than Parra last night, surprisingly, 15-12.

Whilst that was obviously a huge problem, I think the 6-1 penalty count (10-2 if you count the 6-to-go's I think?) was the main reason we didn't stand a chance. Right from the get go the Eels just dominated possession, now, I'm not a fan of square up penalties by any means, but there's literally no way we were 5x more ill-disciplined last night than Parra were.

I'm gonna say it, I don't like 1 referee while there's no crowds. Previously, there was 2 counter-measures for a power hungry referee like we saw last night:

A) The crowd will generally peer-pressure a referee into blowing a couple of penalties per game if the home team is getting dicked by the whistle (Aids in evening the game up)

B) The 2nd referee would generally try and blow penalties for the team well behind in the penalty count to give it some semblance of fairness (Aids in evening the game up)

Now that we have neither of those factors we're essentially relying on one interpretation of a single referee with zero persuasion from the home crowd and zero counter-balancing by a 2nd referee.

I think we need to prepare ourselves for a LOT of one-sided penalty counts and a lot of teams getting blown out by 30+ due to the weight of possession against them.