POST GAME Round 9 - Broncos vs Bulldogs

[Wild Horse]

Fox usually shows the replay now on a Thursday night but instead they have opted for this Hall of Fame shit. Did I miss a thriller?

It was exactly like every other Broncs performance this year... And we staggered over the line due to refs call.

 

[Morkel]

It was ugly but we are close. we have the forwards we have the X factor now we need someone to conduct. Let bird run home, buy a halfback and we are set.

Opacic didn't have a good game. It's reed 2.0 offers slightly less in attack and is slightly better in defence. Isaako is fast becoming a rocks or diamonds player. Boyd is frustrating with his lack of urgency and he cannot break tackles the play dies with him a lot.

TPJ and big joe and Sua were great tonight. Macca is a machine

Again, the Boyd bashing. I know the occasions you're referring to. They were set plays that didn't suck in the opposition winger as intended, so he simply held on to the ball and looked to the next play. Earlier in the year he'd been throwing the passes regardless, ending up in balls over the sideline, hospital passes, or errors. He's making the right decisions, it just might not be the pretty ones.

BTW I'm not blind to Boyd's deficiencies and his performances up until a few weeks ago. But people need to pay more attention to the circumstances and give him a bit more credit.

 

[Super Freak]

I watched the replay of the professional foul, and that was a definite dive by Boyd.

It was a bit of a delayed reaction, but he played it well. Good to see those working out for us after the amount of times they have gone against us over the years.

 

[BroncsFan]

Like half of the Dogs tries were because our players tripped over.

Every try came from someone slipping over. Milf slipped for the first try which created the hole for mbye. Darius for the second and Bird for the third

 

[WASSHHH]

The conceded dropout I already mentioned, and I thought was again him losing his footing pulling up to grab the ball, but someone else said it may have been indecision. The other one you mentioned was a fucking wicked bounce, more precisely 3 wicked bounces in a row that, had he attacked, could very likely have knocked on. I'm happy to go with safety first.

But I think you may be missing the point.

If this were an isolated incident, that’d be fine, everyone plays a bad game every now and then. But it isn’t, it has been (at least) 9 rounds of pretty poor effort and execution.

You can’t honestly tell me you would see Slater or, on the other end of the experience spectrum, Ponga deliver 9 consecutive games of substandard effort and execution like this?

I’d even go further and say I reckon you’d be hard pressed to find 9 games in the last 5 years where Slater has shown a lack of effort and execution like the 2018 version of Boyd is.

 

[Super Freak]

I’d even go further and say I reckon you’d be hard pressed to find 9 games in the last 5 years where Slater has shown a lack of effort and execution like the 2018 version of Boyd is.

How much do you want to bet?

I reckon I could find 9.

 

[Alec]

About Tom Opacic, he seems to do a lot of work in defence on that edge. 20+ tackles again tonight. Probably there to protect Milford. He looks slower than Reed, but he doesn't think he's top shit either. Just doing his job at the moment.

I guess he's keeping Milford fresher, since Milf is the only half we have in attack.

 

[Alec]

Also, other than his goal kicking, I haven't seen Isaako do much in attack that Opacic hasn't done either. Neither of them come even close to Roberts and Oates.

 

[Super Freak]

Commentators blew up deluxe about this, but it did go backwards from the point of contact. It doesn't actually fit the description of a knock on going by the rule book.

 

[Morkel]

But I think you may be missing the point.

If this were an isolated incident, that’d be fine, everyone plays a bad game every now and then. But it isn’t, it has been (at least) 9 rounds of pretty poor effort and execution.

You can’t honestly tell me you would see Slater or, on the other end of the experience spectrum, Ponga deliver 9 consecutive games of substandard effort and execution like this?

I’d even go further and say I reckon you’d be hard pressed to find 9 games in the last 5 years where Slater has shown a lack of effort and execution like the 2018 version of Boyd is.

It's not 9 games. The last two at least have been far better. I don't have a problem criticising him for previous performances, I do have an issue with people criticising him for tonight. So no, I'm not missing the point.

If people are going to ignore the last two weeks and criticise Boyd tonight for things he is no longer doing, might as well just do the same with Oates, because he was pretty ineffective the first 7 rounds. Let's talk about how shit Oates was tonight, because he was shit in the past and therefore was shit tonight and needs to be moved from his best position next week because someone else can surely do better.

 

[WASSHHH]

How much do you want to bet?

I reckon I could find 9.

I love how people on here like to behave with such bravado to try and prove a point.

I didn’t say anything about betting, nor did I say or even suggest it would be impossible to disprove what I was saying.

I said you would be hard pressed - which means it may indeed be possible, but difficult.

But hey, if you want to take what I would have thought was quite a clear hyperbole literally, be my guest and toddle off to find your examples.

Good luck on your conquest. I hope achieving your goal makes you feel exactly how you need to feel right now.

 

[Unbreakable]

It's not 9 games. The last two at least have been far better. I don't have a problem criticising him for previous performances, I do have an issue with people criticising him for tonight. So no, I'm not missing the point.

If people are going to ignore the last two weeks and criticise Boyd tonight for things he is no longer doing, might as well just do the same with Oates, because he was pretty ineffective the first 7 rounds. Let's talk about how shit Oates was tonight, because he was shit in the past and therefore was shit tonight and needs to be moved from his best position next week because someone else can surely do better.

What exactly did Darius do tonight that made you think to yourself "You know what, I'm going to defend Darius to the death after that performance"? He was shit. He made 1 good play, the cut-out pass to Oates. Apart from that he was putrid, I don't care about the surface of Suncorp Stadium, he had so many mistakes tonight, whether it be handling errors, shit passes leading to errors, kicking it dead, taking 5 seconds to pick up a regulation bomb that should've been caught on the full, mishandling a ball in the in-goal that should've been cleanly taken and lead to a line drop-out. I'm sure there was plenty of other stuff I've already repressed. If that was a Darius performance worth defending, then he truly is the shittest player in the NRL right now.

 

[Wild Horse]

As it stands at the moment we are in the top 8. Not bad considering..

It's up to this squad to take this luck and turn it into something greater. They have got to take games by the scruff of the neck so to speak. They really need to put a big, big score on a team soon to get this crap out of their system.

 

[Painin the Haas]

Again, the Boyd bashing. I know the occasions you're referring to. They were set plays that didn't suck in the opposition winger as intended, so he simply held on to the ball and looked to the next play. Earlier in the year he'd been throwing the passes regardless, ending up in balls over the sideline, hospital passes, or errors. He's making the right decisions, it just might not be the pretty ones.

BTW I'm not blind to Boyd's deficiencies and his performances up until a few weeks ago. But people need to pay more attention to the circumstances and give him a bit more credit.

The urgency is a preference rather than bashing, it feels like he is overthinking what to do next while in the process of collecting the ball.

No doubt he is making the right passing choices but what I refer to is not your standard sweep play but when we have momentum he can't take the line on himself which sells it more. Lack of speed from the hamstrings might be the issue

 

[Wolfie]

Just got home. We were very ordinary. Fairly solid, but ordinary. Wouldn't say anyone played poorly as such, but at the same time we had crucial errors with slips from Boyd and Bird, Tommy's missed tackle and milfs dropped ball which indirectly led to a try. They all had fairly solid games despite those errors.

We still have our outside backs doing way too much of the dirty work because the team has no direction. You cant expect wingers and centers to put in the kind of work Oates and Opacic for example are, taking hit ups and making heaps of tackles and not have them come up with the odd error and be a bit worn out in the later stages. None of our backline hide tbf.

Tpj again was a beast, but I thought Lodge did a heap of work.

Was actually sitting close to Brad Thorn tonight. Asked him when he is taking over from Wayne, he just winked at me and said you never know what will happen when the coach gives it away.

 

[KnToad]

But this week? We're talking about this week, and people him are bagging him on tonight's performance. His positioning and lack of urgency cost us zero tries tonight, and he tried his arse off everywhere.

No doubt he's trying is arse off
The question is - no matter how hard he tries and how much he loves the jersey is he really up to scratch any more?
And more importantly where do you see him next season, and the one after that?
We just signed him on a new 4 year deal on pretty good money.....
4 Years? I just can't see him performing the top level for another 3 years after this - do you?
And while he's there we don't get a chance to bring in another - either a kid who can blow the doors off the opposition.
Or a top level experienced skilled and dangerous full-back.
I know Darius is experienced - but he's not what I would call dangerous any more.
Like someone else said, for every good moment he has a couple of poor ones more often that not these days.
I have been a huge fan of Darius for a long time but I am struggling to believe he has another 3 years in him and it's killing me watching him stifle the attack every week with his little hops and skips - dammit Darius run hard and fast AT THEM and get them guessing - too pedestrian...
I so badly want to see him come good and get back to his best but it's getting harder as time goes by

 

[WASSHHH]

It's not 9 games. The last two at least have been far better. I don't have a problem criticising him for previous performances, I do have an issue with people criticising him for tonight. So no, I'm not missing the point.

If people are going to ignore the last two weeks and criticise Boyd tonight for things he is no longer doing, might as well just do the same with Oates, because he was pretty ineffective the first 7 rounds. Let's talk about how shit Oates was tonight, because he was shit in the past and therefore was shit tonight and needs to be moved from his best position next week because someone else can surely do better.

Yes, he has been better. I said that in my original post.

But he is far from great. As the captain, he needs to be great more often than not, not better.
I totally accept that Jack Bird needs to be better. But sorry, after 9 rounds better doesn’t cut if for Darius.

Honestly, Boyd has a long way to go before he is even solid, let alone great.

But anyway, different stokes for different folks. As I’m tired, I won’t be saying any more on this topic for at least another week.

 

[Thelmus]

Maybe I'm in a glass half full mode, but beyond some ineffectiveness in our 20 and some wrong reads on opacic's side, I thought we were good. Not outstanding, but good.
We dominated a fairly strong pack but let ourselves down in the backs and some cheap metres from dummy half defensively.
As for our attack: think of offa's try. What happened there that got him over? It was the change of angle after a run by Roberts that put some indecision in the defenders. It was followed by a run with effort by offa. There was not enough of either of that. Too often we have one player running angle to pass or offload to someone flat-footed.
As for the criticism of Boyd. Say what you will but without him we lose tonight. Bird is a worry though, but remember it still is early days with him. If he is to realise his potential, we must be prepared to be patient.