POST GAME Round 8 - Broncos vs Eels

[Foordy]

If my maths serves me correctly, Milford ran the middle 50m of that length of the field try in about 5.5 seconds, with a ball in his hands, at an angle, in the 77th minute, just for anyone wondering if he's still fast.

that try showed that even with the bigger frame, he still has some legs on him ... loved it.

 

[Cult]

I wanted to touch on a couple of things:

Firstly Milford - while he was much better than last week (not really hard considering how poor he was), we are still not getting anywhere near what we need from him at 6. It hasn't clicked for him yet, that his job is no longer just running the ball, a big part of his job is setting up the men around him.

It seems to me like he is almost just taking another hitup (similar to how Hoffman did when he was at 5/8), and when he does decide to pass, the ball is not getting to our outside men quick enough. I reckon there was at least 3 times, when to tried to get the ball out to his outside backs, but by the time it reached them the defence was already in their face.

He has a good short kicking game, and he provided some highlights last night, like the broken play 90m try and the good support of Nikorimas break. but we still need plenty more from him if he is to remain our 6 (and yes, i know he will never be moved from 6, before anyone tells me)

Copley - there has been some comments, about Copleys defence last night, and while it may not have been as good as we have seen in previous weeks (The game against the Roosters showed just how good a defender he can be), i think much of that can be put down to having no consistency in the position he has been playing, moving him between left and right wing, and left and right center, certainly doesn't help you when it comes positioning. I think it also hinders his attack slightly, but what i think hinders his attack even more is the lack of quality ball. we saw it last year when Hoffman was 5/8 (after Copley moved to the left). by the time he is getting the ball the defence was right in his face, not allowing him to do much more than take the tackle and ensure you don't spill the ball.

We need to name him and play him at left center, and not **** him around, just leave him there ... do that and we will see is true ability in both attack and defence

Reed - Played his best game of the season last night, and if he is going to remain in this team, IMO the only position he should be playing is wing.

Taylor - I honestly think we should be getting Taylor into our team ASAP. He is a natural half back IMO, he offers us another option in the kicking department, instead of relying on Hunt to do the bulk of it, offers us a decent passing game and an organisation game that we are just not getting from our halves ATM. a spine of 1. Milford 6. Hunt 7. Taylor 9. Macca (unless we find someone better) could seriously deliver us plenty of success over the next 5-10 years.

we could then have a world class finisher like Boyd on the wing (or center when Hodges retires) talent on the other wing in Kahu and some serious strike power in the centers with Copley and Hodges (when Hodges retires either Boyd or Kahu moves to center)

IMO, that offers us a better balanced side. I know it won't happen, but a guy can dream can't he.

Don't get me wrong, i'm ecstatic that we are winning, and leading the comp ... but why settle for winning, when we can be dominating. besides i want to see all of our players living to their potential, and i just don't see that in certain players ATM.

ps. sorry it was so long, i guess i just got carried away.

Can we stop looking past Ashley Taylor's huge defensive troubles though? I like him, I think he's a great half. But if we put him in the front line we may as well play with 12 on the field. He can't tackle kids, and if we have Milford at the back and Taylor in the halves last night, Parramatta score way more points. Especially with how many bombs they put up and how many sets they had in our 20. We don't have Tonie Carroll to protect him until he learns to tackle.

 

[Big Pete]

I disagree with this. If it takes you having to lay on the ground for a few seconds for the referee to make the right call, then so be it. I don't get why people call it "taking a dive", they legitimately just got whacked in the face, which in the NRL is a penalty.

Because they act unconscious to draw the penalty.

It's a blight and a lot of the times, the referee was basically right not to since the contact was minimal but players will resort to anything to draw a penalty.

Further, it's a terrible look for the concussion rules that are there to assess any player who is showing signs of being concussed. Takairangi for sure should have come off, yet he's allowed to earn the penalty and play on.

If players want to dive, they should have to pay a price.

 

[Porthoz]

Can we stop looking past Ashley Taylor's huge defensive troubles though? I like him, I think he's a great half. But if we put him in the front line we may as well play with 12 on the field. He can't tackle kids, and if we have Milford at the back and Taylor in the halves last night, Parramatta score way more points. Especially with how many bombs they put up and how many sets they had in our 20. We don't have Tonie Carroll to protect him until he learns to tackle.

There were maybe one or 2 tougher bombs last night, none of them under pressure from chasers, so I don't see how you reach the conclusion Parra would've scored more points.
There is also a good chance Anthony would've at least gotten one of the in goal balls back out, which would've meant on less set defending the line for us, and let's not even talk about kick returns or second phase follow-up.
Were it not for Milford, Kodi's flick pass would've gone to waste, because Maranta had already switched off and never saw it coming.

In regards to Taylor, his defense is certainly something that requires improvement, but he more than makes up for it with his control, organisation, speed, kicking and passing. If Alfie and Locky (both notoriously bad defenders) could be so successful with us, why couldn't Taylor? (No, I'm not saying he will be as good as the former)

 

[rnabokov]

Sorry Mate do not agree at all with these to selected parts. Mirranta was the one positioned perfectly to pick up that ball from fullback. Milf cut the ball off from sweeping out of the line were he was positioned in 5/8. You cant use his speed as a argument because no other 5/8 can do it. That's just hilarious to be honest as this is what makes him so dangerous as a 5/8, by the way I can think of one 5/8 at least who running around today back in his prime could do that with ease, right now he is playing 7 but Benji was more then capable of such a feet. I am also sure that if you go back to last nights game our kicks at least 85% of the time hit open space and were not collected until the 1st or 2nd bounce, in my book that's good kicking.

Mate, Milford didn't cut the ball off, it went to him. He took 1 or 2 steps and caught it and then exploded like a great FB would - Locky, Moylan, Hayne, Slater.....

I CAN use his speed as an argument. The best FB's have it. Outright speed is not an essential requirement in my book for a 5/8 - vision, short burst acceleration and quality passing game are - which Milford has of course.

Milford is a fantastic FB and a quality 5/8 work-in-progress. Can't wait for the finished product.

Our kicking game was ok. Like I said however, how many line drop outs did we force? Where were the consistent short kicks for Gillett, Copley, Oates, Thaiday ... or the cross field bombs?

Our kicking game has a long way to go

 

[Broncoman]

What makes that win even better is that I sat behind possibly one of the most annoying people I've seen at any sporting event. It was a Parra fan who just complained non stop throughout the game over everything, for example when Watmough got penalized for a swinging arm he went off at our bloke for being 'a soft pussy' and said Watmough put in a perfectly legitimate tackle. I don't think babies cry as much as this bloke did. I gave him a pat on the head as full time was blown.

 

[broncos4life]

I disagree with this. If it takes you having to lay on the ground for a few seconds for the referee to make the right call, then so be it. I don't get why people call it "taking a dive", they legitimately just got whacked in the face, which in the NRL is a penalty.

This. Exactly this. I don't get the outrage, if the refs did their job it wouldn't be an issue.

FFS Trent Robinson is bitching about it every press conference, why not hold a fucking conference to tell your players to stop smacking people in the head

 

[uptheguts]

Nice to win , but not an impressive win IMO. Like others in this thread I was very disappointed in our line speed. In fact quite often it seemed to me that our backline was not advancing at all , which Para seemed to wake up to in the second half. They simply ran their big forwards one or two passes off the ruck and were making an easy ten to fifteen metres every time. I seem to remember very few sets from Para that didn’t end in our forty. This allowed them to get into field position to get some really good attacking kicks in, which put Maranta under heaps of pressure. I think people are being very harsh on Maranta for his kick returns. The majority of times he fielded the ball the defence was there in numbers. We may defend our line well but don’t seem to care about defending our half of the field. If this continues I can see some teams putting big scores on us.

Positives included good running games from Thaiday , Oates and Milford. Some impressive long kicks from Hunt and Milford. Hodges was there when needed and IMO we probably don’t win that game with out him. Nickorima was great and needs more minutes . Reed gets a pass this game despite some of his hit ups being a complete waste of a tackle. All the forwards were great.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

One thing Milf should get a wrap for was his defence in this game. Parra ran some big boys at both our halves all night and I think Hunt missed a few but Milf was pretty good.

 

[Porthoz]

This. Exactly this. I don't get the outrage, if the refs did their job it wouldn't be an issue.

FFS Trent Robinson is bitching about it every press conference, why not hold a fucking conference to tell your players to stop smacking people in the head

I hate the milking too.
If the injury is serious enough for them to stay down, they should go for a concussion test, which in turn should be enough to stop players laying down for relatively light infractions.

I don't have a problem with accidental head hits being missed by the refs, and if dirty purposeful hits are missed as well, that is where the MRC and Judiciary should hit hard imo!

But yeah... with the refs we have, I can also understand how players milk anything they can.

 

[Ari Gold]

Interesting game time mins for our bench.

Wallace 26mins
Dodds 16mins (understandable as he got injured)
Molo 7mins (with 16 men in the 2nd half I question this.)
Niko 16mins

I don't want to see it's Griffin like usage, but Molo's 7mins is astounding.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Interesting game time mins for our bench.

Wallace 26mins
Dodds 16mins (understandable as he got injured)
Molo 7mins (with 16 men in the 2nd half I question this.)
Niko 16mins

I don't want to see it's Griffin like usage, but Molo's 7mins is astounding.

Bennett spoke about this in the press conference. Said it related to inexperienced players on the field when the game was on the line. Can't see a problem myself - he's flexible enough to change his bench use as the game dictates.

 

[Splinter]

Interesting game time mins for our bench.

Wallace 26mins
Dodds 16mins (understandable as he got injured)
Molo 7mins (with 16 men in the 2nd half I question this.)
Niko 16mins

I don't want to see it's Griffin like usage, but Molo's 7mins is astounding.

I sit about 5 metres from the Broncos dugout. Molo was completely fucked after 7 minutes to the point he was gasping for air and couldn't get enough. I don't think he could have done more than about 4 minutes in a second stint.
WB made the right decision not to send him back on

 

[FaceOfMutiny]

Had a chuckle at this and then realised what time you posted it. Big night.....

Im living in London until October!

 

[mieko]

Good game, good win.

 

[Huge]

There were maybe one or 2 tougher bombs last night, none of them under pressure from chasers, so I don't see how you reach the conclusion Parra would've scored more points.
There is also a good chance Anthony would've at least gotten one of the in goal balls back out, which would've meant on less set defending the line for us, and let's not even talk about kick returns or second phase follow-up.
Were it not for Milford, Kodi's flick pass would've gone to waste, because Maranta had already switched off and never saw it coming.

In regards to Taylor, his defense is certainly something that requires improvement, but he more than makes up for it with his control, organisation, speed, kicking and passing. If Alfie and Locky (both notoriously bad defenders) could be so successful with us, why couldn't Taylor? (No, I'm not saying he will be as good as the former)

What the **** ? I must be dreaming, Maranta was slightly in front of Milford and the flick pass was intended for Matanta. When it released from Nikos hand it was on a line towards Maranta however his last finger touch pulled it off line, fortuitously towards Milford. How can your bias against Maranta warp your judgement so much ?

Go back and watch from 59:30. Maranta backed up Niko, was 4 metres in front of Milford, was the first to back him up with brilliant fullback work, was totally focussed on Kodi and was watching like a hawk, the front on view backs this 100%. The only reason Maranta didn't score the try was the flick pass was misdirected and only luck allowed this ill directed pass into Milfords grasp. Absolute blinkered view......stunning actually that one can be so biased against someone he alleges support for.

 

[Porthoz]

What the **** ? I must be dreaming, Maranta was slightly in front of Milford and the flick pass was intended for Matanta. When it released from Nikos hand it was on a line towards Maranta however his last finger touch pulled it off line, fortuitously towards Milford. How can your bias against Maranta warp your judgement so much ?

Go back and watch from 59:30. Maranta backed up Niko, was 4 metres in front of Milford, was the first to back him up with brilliant fullback work, was totally focussed on Kodi and was watching like a hawk, the front on view backs this 100%. The only reason Maranta didn't score the try was the flick pass was misdirected and only luck allowed this ill directed pass into Milfords grasp. Absolute blinkered view......stunning actually that one can be so biased against someone he alleges support for.

You must be joking if you call my view blinkered. :shocked:
Maranta clearly switches off a full second before Kodi flick passes it, and he wasn't at all ready for the pass.
Brilliant fullback play... yeah, from Milford!

 

[Super Freak]

I thought Maranta should have gone back in. The flick pass wouldn't have been necessary then.