I knew they were in trouble as soon as they walked out the dressing rooms. The players just looked really socially awkward like they were marching into a funeral and didn't want to disturb anyone. From the opening set of six, the defence was loose and Souths easily made 60 odd metres and immediately put them under the pump.
It was the wrong option, but I could see the thought process behind Turpin's early kick. Turn them around, bash them in defence and pick up the pieces when you have the ball. It was the right attitude, wrong time and it's the wrong team. Brisbane aren't going to win with their defence, they need points on the board to have some confidence. As it played out, the defence just sat back and allowed Su'A to run 15 odd metres and then Cook from dummy half puts them in position for Marshall to score. Then later on Riki does the right thing and puts pressure on but Dearden doesn't push up with them creating the space out-wide for Johnston to score.
I got to give some credit to Dearden how he responded. He got out of his shell, forced that mistake and got the team to finally wake up. It was short lived and unfortunately he threw a forward pass at a critical time but that's a moment he can build his career around more of that.
As always I was very impressed with Haas. Some fantastic carries from him and that effort in the lead up to the Marshall try was once again very good. The stats won't do him justice, but I also thought Mead was very good working it out of the Broncos half. He reminds me so much of Corey Thompson and how despite being small he just gets those Barney Rubble legs pumping and makes those really tough metres. Also saw him putting in extras like kick pressure and the like which is the areas the Broncos are really lacking in. He's one of the few shining lights so far for Kev.
I have to agree with you theshed, there was a period at 6-18 where the Broncos really needed Pangai on the field to spark the team. He was a weapon they could have used and instead they're trying to break the line with Flegler, Te'o and Asiata it just wasn't going to happen.
I'm also glad you highlighted Coates' stats UB. Outside of the defence one of my biggest problems right now is their 'get out' sets. The only player who seems capable of making decent metres is Mead, the rest are constantly losing the tackle or they're not working for every metre. If you watch Isaako one of my pet peeves with him is his assistance to run it towards the middle even when he's running sideways on his own goalline. That's U/20s stuff, he needs to take the space available, get the defence retreating and make it easier for the next carry.
I thought Riki came up with some nice efforts, but he was really doing it tough tonight. I noticed on the Benji try he didn't bother to push over, he runs too upright which makes it easy for the defence and there were just a few times where he didn't offer Dearden a line. That's a real problem and I can't believe with a player like Milford nobody bothers to stay alive for him. He rarely gets a good play the ball to work off of, so a lot of his game is now based on his second phase and nobody is there so he just dies with it.
I've been really disappointed in their last two weeks. These results weren't unexpected but I saw them as the type of games where they could lose but graciously and actually take some confidence and pride out of their performances. In both games, they did their best to lose it in the opening 10 minutes. Melbourne even gave them a 6-0 headstart and they couldn't do anything with it. I know the COVID situation didn't help and a lot of the mistakes they're making are just detail areas.
It's not beyond them either as they showed after 10-0 and they actually started coming out of the line and getting numbers in the tackle.
