POST GAME Round 6 - Broncos vs Roosters

[Foordy]

Sam Thaiday thats how you play ... from now on thats how you play

 

[Kaz]

Re: Round 6 -Broncos vs Roosters

Until I realised one of the kids or wives had the TV aspect ratio set to zoom.

How many wives do you have. :shocked:

[MENTION=1808]GCBRONCO[/MENTION], way TMI.

 

[Foordy]

Ok some thoughts...

**** YEAH ... what a game, and what a game for me to choose to go to... after Hunt sliced through in extra time, the crowd was going crazy, in the northern stand where i was sitting strangers were hugging and high fiving ... absolutely brilliant.

Thaiday seriously played his best game in 4 or 5 years ... and i've missed that Sammy.

I was sitting behind the goal posts and i got a first hand view of just how poor Marantas positioning was when defending our line. in fact several times he was actually standing in the defensive line, not behind it waiting in case a kick was put through ... that is just poor.

I loved how JWH kept trying to bait Thaiday into throwing a punch, but Sammy just smiled at him ... probably because he knew he was owning JWH.

Ben Hunt is probably the best running half back in the game ... put in some nice kicks last night as well. needs to learn how to kick a bloody field goal though...

Copley is a beast ... solid defensively last night, if we can manage to give him some good ball in space, we will see him release the shackles IMO.

Reed was better last night, but once Hodges gets back, i just don't see a place for him in the team.

I'm coming around to the Bennett side of the fence, but i'm not there yet ... I want to see consistency from the team, and that last nights performance wasn't a one off (i know had won 4 games before last night but that was the first quality team we have beaten, and the one where we didn't leak points in the second half, like we have done far too often this season)

I am still firmly in the Milford should be fullback camp though ...

TL;DR: **** YEAH, I'm pumped ... and hung over :beer:

 

[Alec]

Maranta's best position is fullback. And he'll stay in the full strength side, he isnt just a depth player right now.

 

[Foordy]

Maranta's best position is fullback. And he'll stay in the full strength side, he isnt just a depth player right now.

remember out full strength backline includes Boyd and Kahu so out of

Boyd
Oates
Copley
Hodges
Kahu

who drops out for Maranta

 

[Alec]

Oates, Maranta was already ahead of him before.

Im not saying Maranta should be there btw, im saying how his performance is still relevant despite being 4th choice fullback or whatever

 

[Foordy]

Oates, Maranta was already ahead of him before.

you're crazy

 

[Foordy]

I also think that Garbutt should be getting more minutes

 

[Splinter]

I find it strange that no one has mentioned the massive blunder that even gave the roosters on the ball in the last 30 seconds. Let's remember, we had the ball coming out of our half and Ben hunt went for a speculative offload which the roosters pounced on with 20 seconds left. Hope he got a good grilling for that.n

Should not have even got that far, JWH was a good 15 metres offside

 

[I bleed Maroon]

I also think that Garbutt should be getting more minutes

Yeah absolutely. I've been very happy with him over the past couple of rounds. He is exactly the sort of size and impact we need coming off the bench

 

[Splinter]

Have to agree with this. It seems to me that Maranta could pull off one of the most athletic efforts to score a try and people would still be criticising and saying there was an insufficient degree of difficulty. He was so safe at the back, any though of attacking bombs were nullified. Re his returns, he is not Vidot's size or weight, if he runs into three tacklers like what was occurring last night, he will get taken down. On his returns he was consistently looking for a gap and trying to step through. He made a couple of mistakes but overall his game was very solid I thought.

He also produced a tackle on RTS that probably saved a try

 

[BroncosAlways]

Oates, Maranta was already ahead of him before.

That'll do me.

 

[Porthoz]

Thought I'd do what I did last week and give my opinion on each player. Might have got it wrong on some guys, as I was pretty caught up in how intense the match was, so wasn't really analysing performances! Anyway...

1. Lachlan Maranta
He was okay – cleaned up well at the back a few times, although his positioning was questionable. Got done far too easily by SKD for that first try, and then was nowhere to be seen when Cordner scored. He actually made a tackle two plays before and must’ve been a bit lazy getting back to where he should have been. Needs to run with a bit more heart when returning kicks – I know he’s not the biggest player, but come on son, put at least a little effort into it. Looked very assured under the high ball as usual, but doesn’t have the nous to be an effective fullback in attack. That field-goal block effort could have ended very, very badly for us!

2. Corey Oates
Both of our wingers didn’t really get much of a chance to shine tonight. Oates was pretty solid, except for when he allowed Macdonald to get around him on the outside. Honestly, can’t say much else, as he wasn’t really involved. Made some very useful metres coming out of our half.

3. Jack Reed
A bit better than recent weeks and put in a sensational tackle on Macdonald just when he was about to streak down the sideline. Again, we didn’t really use our backs well in attack, so not much for him to do on that front. His defence continues to improve.

4. Dale Copley
What I love about Copley is that he’s such a strong runner of the ball. Has the ability to bump away from defenders, which is an excellent quality for a centre. Like our other backs, no real chances to do anything last night, but he had some good carries of the ball, and his footwork is starting to look fairly sharp again.

5. Daniel Vidot
Reliable is probably not a word many would associate with Vidot on here, but that’s what he was last night - didn’t take any great risks, just kept it safe and simple. Made some monster metres for us when our forwards were tiring, and sometimes I think we take that aspect of his game for granted. Was chuffed he got another opportunity after copping it after that dropped ball last week. He’ll probably be the first to go when everyone’s back to full fitness, but I don’t think he should be.

6. Anthony Milford
The hottest debate on BHQ right now! Look, I’m still open to the idea of Milford at five-eighth, even though it’s clearly going to take some time for him to learn the position. Coming up against one of the best teams in the competition, last night was probably never going to be the night he showed us all what he can do in the halves. I thought his running game looked okay in parts, but he needs to show a bit more confidence and get involved in other areas of play to relieve some of the pressure on Hunt. We’re going to have to wait till much later in the season to see if he’ll fit our style in the five-eighth role.

7. Ben Hunt
Bit of an up and down one for Hunt. In my opinion he wasn’t as bad as some folks were making out in the match thread, he just tried to do too much at times. Milford and McCullough really need to help out from time to time, because at the moment the onus is all on Hunt to fulfil basically every attacking task, and he’s clearly feeling it. His dummy and run is reaching a JT-like level, I love it. I mentioned it in the match thread – his short stature and running game remind me a lot of Joey. His kicking game was a bit hit and miss, but you know he’s always good for two or three kicks that pin down the opposition in the corner – always comes up with them when they matter too. He did miss that tackle on Maloney who went on to score, but he should never have been left so isolated in defence out there.

8. Josh McGuire
Another mammoth performance from The Big Show. He just keeps going and going – has to play Origin based on his current form. The only thing I wish he would do a bit more is pass before the line, but I think he’s just so keen to barge into the defence like a maniac that he forgets sometimes.

9. Andrew McCullough
Pretty solid showing from Macca last night - picked his moments well, with some timely scoots out of dummy-half when the opportunity was there. Fantastic as usual in defence, but would like to see him do some more kicking.

10. Sam Thaiday
Best I’ve seen Sam play in recent memory. He was just huge out there, an absolute dynamo. The aggression and heart he showed set the tone for our victory. Absolutely schooled that tough guy wannabe with the fat head. Man of the match for me by quite a margin.

11. Alex Glenn
Man, Glenn is in some damn good form and that try was the icing on the cake. He’s back to the standard he was a few years ago where he’s making very good metres and looking strong in defence. We’re using him so much better than we did for the majority of Griffin’s reign.

12. Matt Gillett
Much better with the ball in hand this week than he was against the Warriors. Stepped up a few times to take a run when we really needed someone to. Defensively he’s improved a lot this year, which is great to see. Would love it if we could get him the ball with a bit more time and space on his side.

13. Corey Parker
Just another typical Parker performance. Colossal in both attack and defence. Delighted he nailed that kick to take it to 18-18, I’ll be honest, I had my doubts! Only negative is that we seemed to go to him a lot on the fourth tackle for ‘nothing’ plays, which was a frustrating waste of good field position.

14. Jarrod Wallace
Quiet one from Wallace I thought, didn’t really notice him too much, other than when he gave away that KFC penalty.

15. Mitch Garbutt
A couple of strong runs from the big lad, but he was thrown into the game at a fairly intense point, so never really had the opportunity to make a mark. I’d be interested to see what kind of impact he’d have playing the opening 20 minutes or so of a match.

16. Mitchell Dodds
Don’t get me wrong, Dodds is a good guy and his defensive game is excellent, but man oh man, he’s a bit of a powderpuff with the ball. Just hits the line and doesn’t get any further. Really needs to work on that area of his game if he wants to become a regular first grader.

17. Kodi Nikorima
Didn’t really have a lot of time out there last night, which was probably the right decision given the circumstances (how tight the game was). Sharp work to score that try out of dummy-half which I felt was incorrectly turned over. Nikorima didn’t drop it, it was knocked out by the defender and he grounded it – absolutely should have been a try considering the on-field ref awarded a try.

Great post Ning, saved me a lot of typing, so I'll just add a few comments of my own...

Credit to Vidot, Copley and Gillett for their defense and making the chooks left hand attack (Tupou, Jennings and Cordner) pretty much invisible. Cordner's try was on Maranta (for not being there), and too bad Hunt let Maloney get away, although he had the last laugh with his game winning try.

Gillett's support in attack. He was there for all the tries, either as dummy or in support of the try scorer. His invisible work was invaluable.

Refereeing let the chooks get away with too much shit, including JWH's tantrums. By far the worst decision was Niko's try, which should've never been overturned, as even if the ball was dropped, it happened as a result of being stripped/pushed by a chook, and Kodi grounded it with his chest!

Credit to Bennett for doing what Hook wasn't capable of doing: Making the team believe in themselves, using the bench properly, and what I thought was Hook's biggest flaw... not planning for the particular opponent's strength.

 

[Splinter]

I don't have a problem with Kodi's try being disallowed as I would be filthy if that was awarded against us

 

[Porthoz]

If Maranta touched it, shouldn't it have been a penalty to roosters for the broncs players being offside? Or at least a scrum for knock on?

The ball went backwards into the horizontal post, so it's play on.

 

[Porthoz]

I don't have a problem with Kodi's try being disallowed as I would be filthy if that was awarded against us

Why? You clearly see the chook pushing the ball out of Kodi's hands, at which point it becomes a live ball. Kodi then grounds it with his chest, while copping a hit to the head... should've even been a possible 8 point try!

 

[K-Style]

I also think that Garbutt should be getting more minutes

Keen to see this too. He missed one tackle I thought he should have made but at another point he managed 3 in a row. He nearly crossed the line with three blokes trying to stop him before Niko crossed from dummy half).
I'm not sure if he was trying to milk a penalty at one point by dropping in the play of the ball, which I hope not.
The only problem is that I think we need to continue developing Wallace, Dodds and Offa and whatever Wayne is doing with Thaiday needs to continue.

 

[Splinter]

Why? You clearly see the chook pushing the ball out of Kodi's hands, at which point it becomes a live ball. Kodi then grounds it with his chest, while copping a hit to the head... should've even been a possible 8 point try!

Just my opinion Porthoz. To me he should have held it regardless