PRE-GAME [Round 4, 2024] Broncos vs Cowboys

[vertigo]

Who would have thunk it ... It only took 3 matches for the pessimism and negativity to return.

Although TBF, it's never too far away around these parts

tbh You can't spin losing your two best players for at least a month as a good thing.

Our depth is worse than last year too

 

[McHunt]

tbh You can't spin losing your two best players for at least a month as a good thing.

Our depth is worse than last year too

Or 1 win from 3 starts. Might have to be a dash down the home straight this season, on the back of a couple of new personnel.

 

[BIGJ1ER]

I think the loss of flegler and capewell is hurting so bad, and obviously Herbie.

Flegler gave us the best pack in the comp - and I think just giving away capewell just uneccesarily crippled our forward stock this year for no reason. I’m nowhere near as confident going into each game , since we aren’t guaranteed to have the best platform every game like we did last year. That’s why someone like walters has looked way worse this year.

We really need to look to find a replacement forward on the market for next year imo, unless big X takes a big leap.

I really don’t see as us a title favourite this year, think we’re clearly behind Penrith, and have slipped back into a tier with the tier 2 teams, and may not even be the cream of the crop amongst those.

Side note - With the way Sammy walker is looking this year, I can’t see us poaching him like my pipe dream wanted sadly.

 

[Manofoneway]

Why on earth would we put Cobbo at FB.. He's already new to Centre at NRL, it makes so much more sense to leave him at centre and let a specialist FB in Sailor come in. Less Disruption to everyone, more time for Cobbo to learn at Centre and nobody has to switch back after Walsh comes back into the team, which is a guarantee eventually.

To suggest an entire backline reshuffle is completely stupid. Like full stupid.

 

[Sproj]

I think the loss of flegler and capewell is hurting so bad, and obviously Herbie.

Flegler gave us the best pack in the comp - and I think just giving away capewell just uneccesarily crippled our forward stock this year for no reason. I’m nowhere near as confident going into each game , since we aren’t guaranteed to have the best platform every game like we did last year. That’s why someone like walters has looked way worse this year.

We really need to look to find a replacement forward on the market for next year imo, unless big X takes a big leap.

I really don’t see as us a title favourite this year, think we’re clearly behind Penrith, and have slipped back into a tier with the tier 2 teams, and may not even be the cream of the crop amongst those.

Side note - With the way Sammy walker is looking this year, I can’t see us poaching him like my pipe dream wanted sadly.

Yeah it might be a tough year but X man looks ready to explode. Potentially, next year we might be looking at:

8. Willison
10. Haas
11. Piakura
12. Riki
13. Carrigan

15. Hetherington
16. Jensen
17. Te Kura

That is pretty good

 

[McHunt]

Why on earth would we put Cobbo at FB.. He's already new to Centre at NRL, it makes so much more sense to leave him at centre and let a specialist FB in Sailor come in. Less Disruption to everyone, more time for Cobbo to learn at Centre and nobody has to switch back after Walsh comes back into the team, which is a guarantee eventually.

To suggest an entire backline reshuffle is completely retarded. Like full retard.

If you're responding to me, I named him there in my imaginary team as a continuation of the previous game where he was probably our best player, brought in Oates into his career position and returned Jesse to a position he played for a number of years. But my overarching logic was to try Sailor out in the halves (over Jock) because nurturing even a temporary successor to Reynolds is killing another bird with the same rock. In my opinion we've seen enough of Jock to tell he's good enough for injury cover, but he's nowhere near the type of attacking player we're after long term.

Kevvie and Reyno have lavished praise on Sailor at various times. Maybe it's time to give him an audition, and then move on if he falls short. I don't see a lot of point in leading Madden on or expecting him to suddenly blossom. He's not the future.

Grooming our next halfback is a looming disaster we need to address. It's a bit like what happened this week. Everyone knew we needed someone to cover an injured back. But apparently it took it actually happening for it to dawn on Kevvie. If you believe his press conference. We shouldn't be winging Reyno's successor. We went through four years of halves Hell before we were gifted Reynolds.

 

[BroncsFan]

Yeah it might be a tough year but X man looks ready to explode. Potentially, next year we might be looking at:

8. Willison
10. Haas
11. Piakura
12. Riki
13. Carrigan

15. Hetherington
16. Jensen
17. Te Kura

That is pretty good

Who's covering second row on that bench

 

[Wolfie]

Why on earth would we put Cobbo at FB.. He's already new to Centre at NRL, it makes so much more sense to leave him at centre and let a specialist FB in Sailor come in. Less Disruption to everyone, more time for Cobbo to learn at Centre and nobody has to switch back after Walsh comes back into the team, which is a guarantee eventually.

To suggest an entire backline reshuffle is completely retarded. Like full retard.

Because he's the second best option to play fullback, we clearly saw that last night. And Oates is a proven good quality NRL player, Sailor isnt. Any disruption will be minimal, its not like they dont train for these kind of situations, and they are players with plenty of experience. The issue is moving back rowers to center, not moving players into positions they are comfortable playing in.

Sailor will play well when we have a lot of the ball in attack. In the next 6 weeks ( guessing thats how long we will miss Walsh ) we have Cowboys, Storm, Dolphins, Raiders, Tigers and the Rorters. There is only one team in that lot thats probably not going to test us. Sailor imo doesnt do enough of the little things and i think he is going to get found out when he's put under pressure.

I also think people are making too much of this "he needs to learn center " with Cobbo. Its not like its a foreign position to him.

 

[McHunt]

Yeah it might be a tough year but X man looks ready to explode. Potentially, next year we might be looking at:

8. Willison
10. Haas
11. Piakura
12. Riki
13. Carrigan

15. Hetherington
16. Jensen
17. Te Kura

That is pretty good

Unless a back (or edge) is injured like this week.

 

[Sproj]

Who's covering second row on that bench

Well hopefully Piakura is 80 mins by then but even so, get Te Kura and even a mix od Haas and Willison to share any needed minutes.

 

[Manofoneway]

Because he's the second best option to play fullback, we clearly saw that last night. And Oates is a proven good quality NRL player, Sailor isnt. Any disruption will be minimal, its not like they dont train for these kind of situations, and they are players with plenty of experience. The issue is moving back rowers to center, not moving players into positions they are comfortable playing in.

Sailor will play well when we have a lot of the ball in attack. In the next 6 weeks ( guessing thats how long we will miss Walsh ) we have Cowboys, Storm, Dolphins, Raiders, Tigers and the Rorters. There is only one team in that lot thats probably not going to test us. Sailor imo doesnt do enough of the little things and i think he is going to get found out when he's put under pressure.

I also think people are making too much of this "he needs to learn center " with Cobbo. Its not like its a foreign position to him.

you are a fool, glad you aren't picking the team.

 

[Johnny92]

It is always the way isn't it but you know what you could do. You could have Staggs shift to second row, Mariner to centre and Oates to wing. Oates and Staggs could potentially then tag team it for the remainder of the game.

I don't really say how we can't give that 17 jersey to Oates from next week and you know what, I think it will work well but might need a couple of weeks.

Having Oates on the bench is the best option IMO. It covers every backline position, second row and middle.
Injuries to 1-5 Oates slips straight onto the wing, Mariner/Arthurs cover centres and Cobbo can cover fullback.
Injuries to second row short periods Oates can cover that if it's a longer period I'd be moving Staggs there who would handle it.
Injury to a middle short period chuck Oates in to do some carries longer period Riki moves to middle Staggs moves to second row Mariner to centre and Oates on the wing.
If no injuries Oates comes on makes some metres and acts like another forward to give someone a rest or Oates to wing and have Staggs/Mariner/Cobbo in a roving role against a tired defence.

 

[Browny]

Just win without injuries ffs

 

[Wolfie]

you are a fool, glad you aren't picking the team.

Good quality argument you put up there kid. Keep trying.

 

[vertigo]

I think the loss of flegler and capewell is hurting so bad, and obviously Herbie.

Flegler gave us the best pack in the comp - and I think just giving away capewell just uneccesarily crippled our forward stock this year for no reason. I’m nowhere near as confident going into each game , since we aren’t guaranteed to have the best platform every game like we did last year. That’s why someone like walters has looked way worse this year.

We really need to look to find a replacement forward on the market for next year imo, unless big X takes a big leap.

I really don’t see as us a title favourite this year, think we’re clearly behind Penrith, and have slipped back into a tier with the tier 2 teams, and may not even be the cream of the crop amongst those.

Side note - With the way Sammy walker is looking this year, I can’t see us poaching him like my pipe dream wanted sadly.

Yeah I think we were all huffing hopium that we would just rock up this season and it would be fine.

Flegler was dumb as dogshit sometimes but he played fucking great on the biggest stage of all. He's going to be a very good prop.

Really hate the fact we couldn't keep Hosking too. Passed the eye test on debut, played well at penrith, been the Raiders best player so far until ricky benched him like the dumbass he is.

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Whoever is calling for Sailor to be ignored clearly wasn't paying much attention on Thursday night. Moving Cobbo out of centre completely fucked our defensive structures and Penrith exploited it leading to the loss, the same structures we've been training with all pre-season. You have a ready made player there that has proven he can play fullback effectively, and you want to snub him for Cobbo and **** over the combinations and structures again because you "don't rate him"?

What the **** does that even mean? You think he's shit? Decent but overrated? Please elaborate.

 

[Wolfie]

Whoever is calling for Sailor to be ignored clearly wasn't paying much attention on Thursday night. Moving Cobbo out of centre completely fucked our defensive structures and Penrith exploited it leading to the loss, the same structures we've been training with all pre-season. You have a ready made player there that has proven he can play fullback effectively, and you want to snub him for Cobbo and **** over the combinations and structures again because you "don't rate him"?

What the **** does that even mean? You think he's shit? Decent but overrated? Please elaborate.

Moving Cobbo wasnt the issue. Moving Riki and Piakura to center was the issue. Its not that hard to understand why it went wrong, they exploited players out of position. Its pretty much that simple. You are also making an assumption we only run with one scenario in training. We dont. They train with different combinations. We wouldnt be stupid enough to run with one setup.

Its not like we are moving a forward into the centers for a reshuffle. Every player we can move or bring in is very comfortable in their positions and have shown it in the NRL over a period of more than 9 games here and there. You cant say Sailor is proven with sporadic football, thats just silly. I do think he is going to get picked at 1 though, but i'm still not as confident about him at fullback as i am Cobbo.

I dont rate him. Whats so difficult to understand about that. I'm sure there are players you don't rate. As i said, with Sailor, i don't think he's shit. He's pretty decent in attack, but the rest of his game i dont think is up to regular NRL football. He couldn't crack it at a shit club before all his drama's cost him time out of the game and he's had one superleague club chasing his signature. Says it all for me.

He's just going to be just like Gamble, Turpin etc, they come in, look decent early on, fans will get over excited about them then they fall back into being not really good enough and the fans will see it.

 

[Manofoneway]

Moving Cobbo wasnt the issue. Moving Riki and Piakura to center was the issue. Its not that hard to understand why it went wrong, they exploited players out of position. Its pretty much that simple. You are also making an assumption we only run with one scenario in training. We dont. They train with different combinations. We wouldnt be stupid enough to run with one setup.

Its not like we are moving a forward into the centers for a reshuffle. Every player we can move or bring in is very comfortable in their positions and have shown it in the NRL over a period of more than 9 games here and there. You cant say Sailor is proven with sporadic football, thats just silly. I do think he is going to get picked at 1 though, but i'm still not as confident about him at fullback as i am Cobbo.

I dont rate him. Whats so difficult to understand about that. I'm sure there are players you don't rate. As i said, with Sailor, i don't think he's shit. He's pretty decent in attack, but the rest of his game i dont think is up to regular NRL football. He couldn't crack it at a shit club before all his drama's cost him time out of the game and he's had one superleague club chasing his signature. Says it all for me.

He's just going to be just like Gamble, Turpin etc, they come in, look decent early on, fans will get over excited about them then they fall back into being not really good enough and the fans will see it.

I love reading the fans comments. Move this person, that person, this bloke can defend at the back row and attack on the wing, blah blah. It's hilarious. We have just done a full preseason with cobbo at centre, arthars/mariner on the wing and sailor at fb. Why would you move them all around and lose all of the work put into drills for those positions. It's madness and it just won't happen. The pros will pick sailor, a specialist fb in the position because it makes the most sense.

I also don't think cobbo has the fitness to play fb. I saw him jog back to the ball multiple times on kick return, he was totally fucked. Exhausted playing fb