POST GAME Round 3 - Broncos vs Eels

[Cult]

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.

The difference is when and where we made our errors. It seemed like all of them were made in the first few tackles and inside our half. We sucked.

And yep, I agree with the last few bits. I definitely didn't enjoy how the game flowed and I daresay Twitter and Facebook will feel the same when their team begins a game with an impossible to recover from disadvantage. No team should have to make a possible 18+ tackles without a break. Seems like they're really trying to kill the big man in the sport too.

 

[broncos4life]

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.

This is bang on and I will be honest it makes me glad this group is at least a year or two away from being a genuine premiership chance. These new ridiculous rules will cost someone a premiership and that would be pretty fucking hard to deal with if it happened to us.

 

[broncos4life]

The difference is when and where we made our errors. It seemed like all of them were made in the first few tackles and inside our half. We sucked.

And yep, I agree with the last few bits. I definitely didn't enjoy how the game flowed and I daresay Twitter and Facebook will feel the same when their team begins a game with an impossible to recover from disadvantage. No team should have to make a possible 18+ tackles without a break. Seems like they're really trying to kill the big man in the sport too.

This I am looking forward to. Can't wait to see all the ***** reactions that are loving the new rules because they dicked us over when it happens to them.

 

[Allo]

This might be an already-answered question, but say a team wants to kick for touch instead rucking the ball up another 5 times ... does that option just no longer exist unless it’s a foul-play or offside penalty and therefore must be blown?

 

[Big Pete]

How many seasons are they ‘young’ for? Only a couple of current regulars are under 30 games in the NRL and that is because we are down on troops. Before this season is out, most of our regulars will have more than 50 games under their belt...

By the end of this season, 5 regulars will have more than 100 games, 12 regulars will have much more than 50...

Many are still ‘young‘ but they are closing in on the point where they are experienced NRL players and their hot and cold form is starting to become such a worry that ‘age’ is starting to fail as a reasonable excuse, IMHO...

Lodge - 60.
TPJ - 74.
Offa - 90.
Glenn - 262
Fifita - 37
Flegler - 26.
Turpin - 20.
Bullemor - 3.
Hopoate - 3.

Croft - 42
Milford - 172

Boyd - 320
Staggs - 30
Bird - 84
Oates - 146
Arthurs - 15
Isaako - 49.

Sorry, I've turned off notifications so I missed this earlier.

This was the first proper pre-season Seibold has had to implement his systems and structures. Last year was a disaster but a large part of that has to be aimed at the mismanagement of the Bellamy situation and how the club handled the departure of Bennett. Last year Seibold tore the team apart, there is still some work to go in that regard, but this is the first time he's started to build the side back up.

It's a new look spine, made up of a pack that only became regulars in the past two years. At one stage the pack was Flegler (2019), Turpin (2019), Haas (2019), Hopoate (2020), Bullemor (2020) and Carrigan (2019). Considering the circumstances and the major disruptions this season, I still expect some turbulence. Just as long as it isn't as bad as last year and the side is headed in the right direction, I can cop the odd flogging or capitulation.

 

[TariqT]

They played bad, but it isn't as doom and gloom as some of you are making out.

The ref's essentially gifted Parra their first try and a lot of other decisions thereafter. I think there were 3 "6 again" calls in that first set. I was watching and said that this is his way of showing the officials what a shit show this season could turn into without two refs. Because honestly, those calls were ridiculous.

We went into the break at 12-6 and it could have been 12 all, or 24-0 depending on which way you look at it. We lost our captain and kinda lost our way. It was mostly just stupid handling errors, but it's not unexpected considering the strange enforced break we just have.

Parra were easily the better team, but the score is a bit inflated I think, with the ref contributing to that. Stay positive. I hate seeing people having a meltdown over their team losing.

 

[Midean]

They played bad, but it isn't as doom and gloom as some of you are making out.

The ref's essentially gifted Parra their first try and a lot of other decisions thereafter. I think there were 3 "6 again" calls in that first set. I was watching and said that this is his way of showing the officials what a shit show this season could turn into without two refs. Because honestly, those calls were ridiculous.

We went into the break at 12-6 and it could have been 12 all, or 24-0 depending on which way you look at it. We lost our captain and kinda lost our way. It was mostly just stupid handling errors, but it's not unexpected considering the strange enforced break we just have.

Parra were easily the better team, but the score is a bit inflated I think, with the ref contributing to that. Stay positive. I hate seeing people having a meltdown over their team losing.

I agree to some extent, but it concerns me because if we cant turn up against a team that completely destroyed us when we last played, and by destroyed i mean flogged worse than any flogging the club has ever seen, then what is it going to take to fire the lads up?
Parra put us to the sword last night, they were the better team in every element, and made our whole team look like amateurs.
The only positive i took away from last night was our defense on the line, it could easily have been another 50 point blowout, but we held well against repeat sets.
Also, just personally, i want Milf gone if he doesn't win us games this year.
Tired of people constantly making excuses for him season after season and having to try to understand why he is getting paid so much.

 

[mitch222]

This might be an already-answered question, but say a team wants to kick for touch instead rucking the ball up another 5 times ... does that option just no longer exist unless it’s a foul-play or offside penalty and therefore must be blown?

Pretty much. Its a stupid rule that will be scrapped by round 8.

 

[Wolfie]

Sorry, I've turned off notifications so I missed this earlier.

This was the first proper pre-season Seibold has had to implement his systems and structures. Last year was a disaster but a large part of that has to be aimed at the mismanagement of the Bellamy situation and how the club handled the departure of Bennett. Last year Seibold tore the team apart, there is still some work to go in that regard, but this is the first time he's started to build the side back up.

It's a new look spine, made up of a pack that only became regulars in the past two years. At one stage the pack was Flegler (2019), Turpin (2019), Haas (2019), Hopoate (2020), Bullemor (2020) and Carrigan (2019). Considering the circumstances and the major disruptions this season, I still expect some turbulence. Just as long as it isn't as bad as last year and the side is headed in the right direction, I can cop the odd flogging or capitulation.

Thats my take as well. Young sides are going to have dips, its just what happens. I said it somewhere else on here, but its how we react to this defeat that will shape our year now imo. If we collapse like we did in a lot of games last year, we will be looking for a new coach next year.

 

[winslow_wong]

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

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

Period.

The worst part that everyone is hurt about is the fact we didn’t learn jack shit from that 60-0 flogging from last year.

 

[Sproj]

Well I have really not been wanting to do this but I want to do my next work task even less, so here goes:

1. Isaako - He was pretty good I thought. He ran a beautiful set piece once there, caught bombs well and actually looked like breaking tackles pretty regularly. Needs to still develop the ability to support play though - 6
2. Oates - Absolutely useless, he may as well have not even been on the field. He got literally laughed at, put his head down and just kept submitting, he can no longer be a winger, he is on the bench or out of the side all together - 2
3. Staggs - Every so often, a young gun will have a game like that. Given how good he went in the first two rounds, it is what it is but he had a shocker and will be suspended for his trouble. At least he was trying even though nothing was coming off and his defense was all at see. Horror night like so many others - 1
4. Boyd - I am going to go against the grain here. He bombed a try, yes. He offers nothing in attack as usual but he was rock solid in defense mostly. In a side that was as a whole horrible, he was alright - 5
5. Arthars - Never had a chance to do anything really and given his inside defenders were defending like Swiss cheese evaporating, he couldn't do anything. I actually thought his attempt to stop the Sivo try was pretty good. Sivo scores 99 times out of a 100 there regardless - 4
6. Milford - He will always have his defenders and you could legitimately argue that no half could do anything behind such a badly beaten pack but that would just be making another excuse for this guy. No one could have expected miracles when your forwards are that comprehensively beaten but one would expect a million dollar player to at least go looking to do something, not let the other half do everything and bomb a try to boot. Defensively he was pretty good to be fair. Regardless, look like you are trying to do something. Croft made him look like he was discard half from another team. 1
7. Croft - His defense was suspect but I put a lot of that down to a horror performance from Hoppa and Staggs. At least he tried his guts out. He went looking for work, he scored a nice try and looked far more like the million dollar half than the overpaid bloke in the 6 did - 6
8. Flegler - The side definitely looked better with him out there but that isn't saying much, no side out there looked good. He had a fairly quiet game compared to what we have come to expect from him so early in his career. He wasn't alone in having an off night - 4
9. Turpin - He tackled his backside off and left him with absolutely no energy to do anything else but you know what, the side didn't have the ball long enough to do anything. He looked threatening a couple of times and that is pretty impressive on the back of 65 tackles. He was good for what he needed to do - 7
10. Haas - Had a quiet game and as many have mentioned, still pulled out stats other props would be super proud of. He needs to be signed for life. Would love to see him develop a bit of an attitude of taking no prisoners but he is the future of this forward pack along with Carrigan and Fifita. Love this kid so much when even a quiet game gets you an - 8
11. Glenn - Has any other captain ever been this unlucky? Finally got to lead his side out and then gets himself literally carved up to be out for another few weeks. He did what he could while he was out there, certainly did more in half the game time of some other blokes out there - 5
12. Hopoate - Worst ever game by a Bronco not named Whitchurch, Kennedy or Manihera? Looked clueless and made error after error after error in attack and defense. It was a horror show and he should be lucky to see first grade again. We quite likely watched the death of a league career last night sadly - 0 (for the Broncos), 5 (for the Eels), net gain of -5
13. Carrigan - He was great. He played like a leader out there. He needs to get more in the other side's face as most of this side needs to but he ran so hard, at times looked like the only guy capable of denting the line and made a mountain of tackles. He will play for Queensland and possibly Australia this year, you heard it here first - 8

14. Farnworth - He needs to start on the wing next week. I thought he was actually excellent in his time out there. The shining light for sure in my opinion. He ran with venom and hit extremely well. The shot he put on Gutherson was a thing of beauty. I think everyone wants to hit Gutherson like that and he deserves it, carries on like a jerk every second of every game. That alone is worth a high score. This kid is going places. Right now, he is the best winger the Broncs have BY FAR and possibly even the best back given Staggs' defensive weaknesses - 8
15. Ofahenguie - I have defended him a lot on here but tonight was horrible. He is surplus to needs to be honest as he just has never consistently come on as he looked like he would 5 years ago. I am not against losing him to keep some of the other kids as I used to be sadly. He has all the potential in the world and was coming back from a super long break but still, like Oates and Milford, just continues to go backwards - 1
17. Bullemor - I mistook him for Farnworth at times, true story but he looked like he was trying at least, even though he didn't really seem to do much - 5
21. Lodge - I thought he was somewhat disappointing but certainly not horrible by any means. He was serviceable but that is to be expected coming back from a fairly serious injury and long lay off. He'll be far better next week - 5

Siebold - What happened bro? He looked so promising in weeks 1 and 2 but last night seemed a major step back to last season. Oh well, let's see what next week brings shall we?

The Ref - Certainly gave Parra a few legs up that weren't warranted or needed but goodness me, a 20-2 penalty count (or whatever it actually was) is absurd. There were some really weird forward pass and knock on calls that went against both teams. Overall horrible performance but that is par for the course for refereeing these days.

Parramatta - Well done, better team won comfortably and they are legit premiership contenders. They played like men against boys and showed that a good side never lets the foot off the pedal.

 

[broncos4life]

I agree to some extent, but it concerns me because if we cant turn up against a team that completely destroyed us when we last played, and by destroyed i mean flogged worse than any flogging the club has ever seen, then what is it going to take to fire the lads up?
Parra put us to the sword last night, they were the better team in every element, and made our whole team look like amateurs.
The only positive i took away from last night was our defense on the line, it could easily have been another 50 point blowout, but we held well against repeat sets.
Also, just personally, i want Milf gone if he doesn't win us games this year.
Tired of people constantly making excuses for him season after season and having to try to understand why he is getting paid so much.

It is you saying they didn't turn up, doesn't make it fact. Many people have put context around this already.

 

[Midean]

It is you saying they didn't turn up, doesn't make it fact. Many people have put context around this already.

You think they turned up? You think they had the air of a team that wanted retribution for the total flogging they copped at the end of last season?

 

[Unbreakable]

Couple of things..

According to NRL.com we only had 36% possession for the game, that's gotta be close to the lowest possession % in the history of the NRL, I'll have to ask David Middleton about that one.

I asked Middo, the lowest possession % in NRL history was in last years preliminary final, Broncos vs Eels - 34%

Lmao.

We now have the 2 lowest possession %'s in NRL history in back-to-back games against the Eels.

 

[Galah]

I asked Middo, the lowest possession % in NRL history was in last years preliminary final, Broncos vs Eels - 34%

Lmao.

We now have the 2 lowest possession %'s in NRL history in back-to-back games against the Eels.

That’s absolutely fucked

 

[the_next]

I asked Middo, the lowest possession % in NRL history was in last years preliminary final, Broncos vs Eels - 34%

Lmao.

We now have the 2 lowest possession %'s in NRL history in back-to-back games against the Eels.

Wow, that’s unbelievable.
They’re the definition of a bogey team. We are their bitch

 

[winslow_wong]

Wow, that’s unbelievable.
They’re the definition of a bogey team. We are their bitch

So right we have bogey teams in Melbourne, eels and to an extent, the warriors in NZ. Special mention to manly and Canberra as well.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

1. Isaako - He was far from the worst on the night. Didn't spill any ball and was a part of that slick outside inside ball, but I'd still like to see a bit more from him, especially with support play. Both times we bombed those tries, a half put in a grubber for someone and neither time Isaako was sighted anywhere near the chase. 6
2. Oates - He looks checked out to be honest. Unfit, rusty and mentally weak. My mind wanders back to Seibold's comments in the presser following Parra's first smashing of us in the finals when he pretty much says the young blokes put in a lot harder at training than the older guys. I'm beginning to think Corey might be one of those the shot was aimed at. He needs a stint in Qcup. 3
3. Staggs - From hero to zero. Made that one good run in the first half then the rest was a night to forget. He has a tonne of talent clearly, but he must get his hands sorted. Also ruled himself out by lashing out with frustration with the high shot. I'm hoping he's far better when he returns because he owes us now. 4
4. Boyd - Didn't have a bad night defensively but then again, the whole team was doing well defensively until the 2nd half. Still utterly useless in attack and energy and is taking us and the club for a merry dance. 4
5. Arthars - Of all the backs on the night, he impressed me the most. The Sivo try was unfortunate, but he otherwise put in a real solid showing. Always keen for the ball, did more work out of our end then he should be doing (a compliment for him) and comfortably outplayed both Oates and Boyd who have a tonne more experience. 7
6. Milford - After dazzling us against the Bunnies, it's back to the shithouse for Milf. I'm more than happy to give him a bit of time to warm up again, it has been a disrupted season, but he is really on thin ice now. He must find a way to not be so passive all the time. 4
7. Croft - If I were giving a 3-2-1, he would be getting the 2 points. His try was amazing, he set Isaako up for a great out and in, and he was barking orders all night. He really needs to work on his long kicks though because he was putting them on Sivo's tits all night. 7
8. Flegler - I'm not gonna be sparing the forwards on this one. Yes, Sutton absolutely fucked them in the first 5 minutes, but we were back square with Parra very shortly afterwards and should have been well in it from that point. Instead, they were unsighted all night. Within 10 minutes of kickoff I was asking myself why none of them were taking any hitups out of our end. Just no desire to take the hard run to get us on the front foot. Flegler is no exception. Can't remember one strong run he took all night. He's far from the only one. 5
9. Turpin - 65 tackles speaks for itself. So he can match Macca in workload and also have faster service at the same time. Swell, that was pleasant to see. It's disappointing then that the rest of his night was so meh. We never had control of the ruck ever and it literally killed us in the first 5 minutes. That's on Jake for not taking command and we really need him to learn to do that consistently real quick. 6
10. Haas - Disappointment was the word of the evening, and Haas exemplified that. He had a very poor night in my opinion. I expect someone like Flegler to seesaw back and forth between star and spud, but Haas is on the sort of money where that really shouldn't be happening. BEnefit of the doubt with rust and all that, but he really needs to have a big game next week. 5
11. Glenn - Hi first game as captain and he gashes his leg down to the bone and is rushed to E.R. FMD. To his credit, we seemed to stay in it while he was out there leading them, but still not a big or nice enough sample size to know for sure. Lucky us we have Carrigan waiting in the wings. 5
12. Hopoate - Our worst player by a long way and completely out of his depth. Knows how to drop a ball and give a penalty away. Haven't seen derp like it since Whitchurch. Will probably remain in the side by virtue of our outs but as soon as they all return he is not long for this world. 1
13. Carrigan - Our best on field. Was the only forward that made Parra feel the sting all night. Led from the front but the troops were too far behind. Can't wait until he is our full time captain to be honest because then he sets the standard. He did just that last night and none got near him. 8




13.