Round 5 - Broncos vs Eels - Post-Game Discussion

[Old Mate]

How can you be compressed but not covering an edge?

By having a large gap between your winger and the sideline?

 

[animal eater]

Biggest issue of the night was suffering "Wolf syndrome". You asks what is Wolf syndrome? Well you didn't watch Pulp Fiction when the Wolf played by Harvey Keitel tells the boys after cleaning up the brains in car' "Well gentlemen, let's not start sucking each others dicks just yet... there's still work to be done." The boys walked on the field thinking were all that, we got Hodgo back and it's just the Eels so we will be fine. Mail it in and low and behold they got beaten by the better team.

In short, way to much dropped ball and spotty defense. As mentioned Reed isn't a NRL centre, Hoffman is a good player (as mentioned earlier made the same miss tackle as on SKD a few weeks ago) but isn't a 5/8, and our forwards were dominated. Funny that nobody seems to mention that Glen has basically done NOTHING in offense all season. Defense yes but offense.... nothing.

Hayne absolutely demolished Barba tonight in every way imaginable. Not sure there is an easy answer to the Barba situation. Hopefully he finds his feet. Still have a idea that if Hook doesn't promote one of the youngster to 5/8 that switching Hoffman/ Marranta could work. If Josh doesn't like it, so fucking what. Deal with it. Hopefully Millford comes to town next year.

This loss may of been needed to stop the Broncos from suffering Wolf Syndrome.

 

[Unbreakable]

Out of interest what have you seen from Joe and Nikorima so far this season in 20's that means they're NRL ready?

Absolutely nothing, but how much worse can they go than our current Five-Eighth and bench props? Hoffman had something like 5 missed tackles last night, and virtually did nothing in attack except make us look bad.. surely Kodi will at least bring some X-Factor to the team (See: Chris Sandow)

 

[qlderxxxx]

I think this is the performance we were all expecting from the start of the year, just frustrating we have played so well up until this dross.

Hoffman just can't be left at 5/8th, way too many defensive errors. If Hoffman isn't going to offer something with the ball in hand, I'd prefer a backrower played out there. He's not offering us anything going forward, but he's losing us points in defense. How can there not be one solid 5/8th in all of the Qld cup who could plug a hole for a year?

I used to be a huge Reed backer, and thought for years he'd 'come good'. I don't think it's ever going to happen now.

Really starting to worry about Barba too. He was carried back for about 30 metres last night, and it seems to be happening every game. There's no venom in his kick returns. Perhaps the short term solution for this year would be Hoffman in the 1 and Barba in the 6? Unsure.

One positive out of last night. Thank god Hodges is back. Every time he touched the ball he looked like creating something. Until this day I still can't figure out how he swats so many people off from a standing start at dummy half, but a Hodges dummy half run is one of my favourite sights in league.

 

[1910]

By having a large gap between your winger and the sideline?

That's not an edge, the edge is the edge of the ruck which is 3 in- that's what confused me if you're compressed your edge is covered.

With smaller forwards you compress and slide off- Raiders and Sheens were very good at this, they had smaller forwards so wanted them close together and speedy backs so they wanted teams to see the space and try and go around them.

Teams are attacking the Broncos edges at 3 in but it isn't because of compression they're getting through.

 

[1910]

Absolutely nothing, but how much worse can they go than our current Five-Eighth and bench props? Hoffman had something like 5 missed tackles last night, and virtually did nothing in attack except make us look bad.. surely Kodi will at least bring some X-Factor to the team (See: Chris Sandow)

That's not a reason to pick someone for an NRL side.

Mills has been going well for Reddy last couple of weeks, had good involvement and scored twice last week from fullback. You were looking for a new fullback.

 

[Foordy]

The depth halves have a perfect chance to get into the NRL side, and that is by dominating in the lower grades and demand selection. I have No idea why some people think that even if they aren't playing great Footy in the lower grades, it is OK, they will still perform in the NRL side. Hoffman won't be hard to knock out of 5/8. But they need to perform in the lower grades, or they will be cannon fodder in the top team.

On Sandow, No one doubts he has talent, but he plays brilliant Footy for 4 matches, then utter rubbish for 10. And at 550k a season that is simply not good enough

 

[winslow_wong]

I hope the broncos are sending post cards to Milford signed by his dad so he stays home sick and won't renege on his contract. if we don't get a 5/8th we won't win a premiership ever again

 

[Super Freak]

I hope the broncos are sending post cards to Milford signed by his dad so he stays home sick and won't renege on his contract. if we don't get a 5/8th we won't win a premiership ever again

I'm pretty sure his dad is down in Canberra, so I don't think they're doing that.

 

[Splinter]

I hope the broncos are sending post cards to Milford signed by his dad so he stays home sick and won't renege on his contract. if we don't get a 5/8th we won't win a premiership ever again

We have a 5/8 coming through. On present form we need Milford at fullback

 

[Art Vandelay]

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but when that penalty for the high shot on Hodges happened with 5 seconds to go we should have taken the shot at goal. Under the new rules the clock stops in the last five minutes for this kind of thing so if we could have taken an immediate shot NFL field goal style there still would be a kick-off. I saw Hodges hold two fingers up so maybe he was thinking the same thing. We still almost definitely wouldn't have won but it wouldn't kill us to show some urgency and awareness.

 

[Unbreakable]

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but when that penalty for the high shot on Hodges happened with 5 seconds to go we should have taken the shot at goal. Under the new rules the clock stops in the last five minutes for this kind of thing so if we could have taken an immediate shot NFL field goal style there still would be a kick-off. I saw Hodges hold two fingers up so maybe he was thinking the same thing. We still almost definitely wouldn't have won but it wouldn't kill us to show some urgency and awareness.

Good point, didn't think of it at the time, regardless I think the 2 points was the better option, pull the for and against back a little bit.

 

[xratedrattice]

we really seem to have trouble against teams that love to throw it around,, not having an organising half is really affecting barbas game negatively. his hands were poor last night but we are not giving him early enough ball,, same goes for hodges a couple of times he was calling for it one on one with his defender and hunt was unable to throw a long early ball to him. if hunt is only capable of setting up tries on the short side then we NEED a five eigth that is able to throw long bullet passes to the open side. i dont want to see hodges and barba ignored so hunt and hoffman can constantly throw dummy's just because every now and then it comes off. nikorima showed in the 9's he is capable of throwing these passes so give him a shot and get hoffy out of there. we have plenty of penetration in the middle at the moment to be able to get around them if we can get it to our wingers and fast but play breaks down so often when we try to spread it, i am not blaming hunt for this i believe he had an alright game but he just needs a natural halves partner to take some pressure off

on a positive note mccullough was again outstanding his speed up the middle is really helping us get up the field with ease, vidot once again making tons of metres and almost saved that first try, i thought most our forward pack were pretty good after the initial onslaught from parra, we just didnt take our opportunities when they were there. just a few lazy attempts crept into our game tonight also, especcially the radradra try when we had them going backwards on fifth tackle we needed to push up.

reed was again pretty shit but i feel he will probably keep his centre spot all year and we will be pissed off about it after every game because griffin avoids change at all costs until its to late. which probably means we will be stuck with hoffman in the halves all year also.

for what its worth this would be my team

1 barba
2 hoffman
3 copley
4 hodges
5 vidot
6 nikorima
7 hunt
8 kennedy ( needs to start )
9 macca
10 parker
11 glenn ( suffering from shit service )
12 thaiday
13 gillett ( actually loving him at lock)

14 mcguire ( more explosive then kennedy from the bench )
15 hannant ( needs to step up soon )
16 lowrie ( made some jolting tackles last night, better game from him )
17 oates / hala

 

[Broncoman]

On Sandow, No one doubts he has talent, but he plays brilliant Footy for 4 matches, then utter rubbish for 10. And at 550k a season that is simply not good enough

I think this is a good description of Sandow; Talented player but he just can't play consistently and isn't someone you can lay long term plans on. I've never doubted he has skill but I've never rated him highly at any time.

Credit is due though as he did play well but he still came up with some poor options and kicks. I rated his performance as a 7/10.

 

[Anonymous person]

Barba has now gone the longest time he has ever gone without scoring a try in his career lol. before this he had gone 4 weeks without a try once, 3 twice - hes already up to 5 and not looking like getting over any time soon. good old broncos stifling good players. this season is looking like another outside the 8 if you ask me. too many nuffies that need to go. thaiday, hannant, reed, gillett, maranta to name a few. barba i think needs to get to 5/8th and hoffman back to fullback - barbas just not getting involved. at 5/8th he'll get the ball every other tackle at the very least. hoffmans not a 5/8th and is playing about as well as can be expected as a 5/8th.

 

[CaptainHook]

too many nuffies that need to go. thaiday, hannant, reed, gillett, maranta to name a few.

You don't think Gillett has had a good year so far?

 

[Foordy]

too many nuffies that need to go. thaiday, hannant, reed, gillett, maranta to name a few.

Thaiday has been playing his best footy in years and the type of footy we need him playing

Gillett has be pretty good this year

and Maranta has improved out of sight this year and at the very least will provide us with some good depth in the position. especially since teams can't afford superstars in every single position in the 25 man squad...

question have you actually watched any Broncos games this year or are you soley basing your opinion on last years efforts

 

[Super Freak]

I don't know why McCullough didn't take cracks at a 40/20. He was practicing them in the warm up. Why practice something you're not going to do?

He could have at least kicked to the corner. I don't know if it's Griffin telling him not to do it or he just wants to give it to Hunt in an attempt to help him improve his kicking game under pressure, whatever the reason he needs to start kicking more. Just kick it to the corner with a strong kick chase.