POST GAME Round 9 - Broncos vs Bulldogs

Unbreakable said:
Anyone who thinks Opacic had a good game is moderately delusional, it was his lack of speed that cost us one of the tries, and he offers absolutely zilch in attack. It's time for him to go.

I'd be strongly considering either Isaako or Roberts at Fullback for next week, both of them attack the ball, and attack the line when they have the ball. Darius is currently playing like he's scared of the football, and that's no joke. I've never seen a persons attitude change so much, in 2015 he was good and in 2016 he was our best player and one of the best players in the comp, suddenly he's playing like a whipped dog. It's kind of sad to watch, but someone should put him out of his misery, because I don't see any signs of it turning around, even last week, which was his best game in a while, he was still scared of giving it his all on that line-break because he didn't want to pull another hammy or something, he's literally playing in fear.

I think it would be best for his mental state if he's moved to left centre, that way he can still chime in on the left side sweeping plays and doesn't have the pressure of touching the football when it's not passed to him, which is apparently his biggest fear in life at the moment.

1. Roberts
2. Oates
3. Boyd
4. Bird
5. Isaako

This is the back line that makes the most sense across the board to me, we retain our best 2 wingers, move our most dangerous runner in to a more predominant role, and move our 2 out of form players to the centres where they can hopefully play themselves in to a bit of form without the pressure of being relied upon for anything resembling game management decisions.
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I must be delusional then because I thought he and Oates got through a ton of dirty work. He wasnt brilliant, but he wasnt poor either. Came up with some good solid tackles and watching from the sideline its noticable more so than on tv how well he and Oates combine and Switch positions and communicate, which I've never really noticed before. He did however miss badly on hopoate. I know Tommy isnt the quickest, but there is a good reason I think will become clear at the end of the season why he is probably lacking a bit of acceleration.
 
Thelmus said:
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.
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Tbh, and I like Bird, but I think he has massive issues at the Broncos. He is literally offering nothing, and he doesn't look like he is prepared to dig deep and battle through it.
 
Super Freak said:
Personally, I thought Boyd took a dive.

He was interfered, but on the slow-mo it looked like there was a bit of a delayed reaction from Boyd.

But **** it. How many players dive against us?
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I haven't read the rest of this thread yet so apologies if this is a repeat.
I watched this at Wynnum Leagues club and said to the Dogs fans before the penalty was given that would be 10 in the bin and a penalty. The refs have been pretty consistent with deliberate attempts to stop tries this year ( regardless how feeble ).

Sure there was nothing much in it but then why do it? just let play go on. I hope the refs keep this up.
I haven't heard the commentary around this yet, but I imagine it's all against the decision, and calling it soft, but those fuckwits don't get it and don't get to decide how the game is played anymore and I fucking love it.
 
Wolfie said:
Tbh, and I like Bird, but I think he has massive issues at the Broncos. He is literally offering nothing, and he doesn't look like he is prepared to dig deep and battle through it.
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That’s what I’ve been saying all year. He hasn’t got the ball playing ability of a half. He might be able to throw a pass here and there but his kicking game is non exsistent from what I’ve seen. Just a terrible option.

Horrible Horrible signing. Hope he gets home sick and wants back at the sharks. Could have spent that money somewhere else!
 
Donny said:
That’s what I’ve been saying all year. He hasn’t got the ball playing ability of a half. He might be able to throw a pass here and there but his kicking game is non exsistent from what I’ve seen. Just a terrible option.

Horrible Horrible signing. Hope he gets home sick and wants back at the sharks. Could have spent that money somewhere else!
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Nah, Hunt and Taylor aren’t worth a million, can’t have two million locked up in the halves but you can spend it on bird. :awwwyeah:
 
Am I missing something here or being overoptimistic?

We have 2 Aussie forwards to come back, a hooker who came back early and an emerging champion forward pack.
A very potent backline with a misfiring halves combo which, if given time, will click.
As bad as we have been and as lucky, ( we are allowed to have some) we are currently 4 points from first and 2 points from second.

SoO this year will be kinder than it has ever been. We will come into the back end of this year ( barring injury ) with more upside than most sides.

We have more potential than nearly any side, so put the razor blades away people, things are not as bad as they seem to some.
 
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Where to start after watching this...?

Coaching: 2
What a fucking mess! Until that incredibly stupid swap around of players and positions, we were a better team, and were not up comfortably because of the grass (and shoe choices) and some very unlucky bounces of the ball.
If you want so hard to fit Nikorima into the team, put him at Fullback, and move Boyd to centre.
Why were our players slipping around on the turf like ballerinas? Yes the turf is horrible, but so is using wrong shoes and/or pins. That's on the coaching team!

Darius Boyd: 4
Boyd started quite well, running freely and threw a magnificent trademark pass for Oates' try. Unfortunately it quickly went to shit after that, first with the slip, and the aggravated hesitation to attack the ball. He does deserve credit for not being just a spectator, especially the last minute captain's effort to chase the Roberts kick (added 2 points to his tally). Almost took points of him for each bullshit excuse @Morkel brought up, but that would've put him firmly in negative numbers. He was absolutely better than we've been used to this season, not because he was good, but simply because the bar is so unbelievably low.

Corey Oates: 7
Quite unlucky with the bounce of the ball and the state of the turf, which cost him 2 tries. Otherwise very good as has been usual in the last few weeks.

Tom Opacic: 5
He worked hard without a doubt, but his ceiling just isn't very high. I understand the comparisons to Reed in terms of work ethic, but he really isn't close to the ranga.

James Roberts: 6
Under utilised thanks to the absolute meal that is the half position next to him, he also works his arse off and has at least a couple of moments per game where he can turn things around. His work for Ofa's try was the Broncos salvation.

Jamayne Isaako: 6
Same problem as Roberts in regards to the half on his side, but was solid, albeit his defensive weakness went pretty much unchallenged this game. Great goal kicking elevates his score.

Anthony Milford: 8.5
Was in pretty much everything remotely dangerous from us, except the Ofa try. His kicking game is getting better and better, and he will hopefully be able to re-engage his running game soon (probably when he gets an actual half next to him).

Jack Bird: 4
I didn't think he was going too bad until the novel decision to move him into the backrow, to continue the failed Nikorima at halfback experiment. As such, I will not judge him as harshly as I would otherwise have. He's not a halfback FFS, but neither is Knik!

Matt Lodge: 7.5
Did the work expected from him, and did it well, especially taking into account his ribs condition.

Andrew McCullough: 6.5
The usual Macca... how the hell does this guy recover from injuries this quick? Went back into old habits of useless dummy runs and had multiple pretty crappy passes, which Milford did well to catch.

Sam Thaiday: 5
I cannot understand why he is a starter, I really cannot! His laziness within 5 fucking minutes, combined with Milford's slipping, resulted in the Dogs first try. Let him save his dignity by coming on for some impact 10 minutes in each half, but don't start him... ever again!

Alex Glenn: 8
A victim of those player swaps. Has been one of the most solid and consistent Broncos players this season and was subbed for Su'a for exactly what reason? Excellent step for his try.

Jaydn Su'a: 7
Another victim. He was hitting hard in defense, running hard and dragging players with him, and is growing into an excellent edge forward, until... well, you know the spiel by now.

Tevita Pangai Junior: 9
Yeah, this guy needs a contract for life. He's starting to reach Taumalolo's levels of greatness. What a fucking machine!

Payne Haas: 4
Didn't have a chance when he lost his balance and hit the prick's shoulder. Not enough to judge him on obviously, and fervorously hoping he didn't hurt his ankle in that awkward fall.

Jo Ofahengaue: 8
He has been at least at Lodge's level for the last 4-5 weeks, and is more than deserving of the starting spot. Fantastic effort to get the equalising try!

Kodi Nikorima: 4
Brought absolutely nothing more than Bird, except the disruption that the player shuffle to insert him in the team cost. Still think he could be absolutely lethal as a fullback.

Korbin Sims: 7
Better than average game from him, 2 weeks in a row too, which is highly unusual. Keep it up, because you're definitely the weakest link on the bench at the moment, provided we persevere with Niko as the utility.

Referees: 8
Can't believe I'm going to say this, but... the best team on the park, by far.
The Isaako dropped ball was clearly knocked back, no doubt about it. It's also absolutely obvious that Mbye grabbed his shoulder in the last play, which according to the rules and keeping with how every other similar situation was officiated this season, was a clear sin-bin. Whether Boyd was going to reach the ball or not, is completely inconsequential.

Suncorp Turf: 0
Seriously and totally unacceptable from Stadiums Queensland and Suncorp Stadium management, regardless of how many teams play there. I'm gonna go ahead and say that the Broncos were far unluckier than the Bulldogs, although footwear choice probably had an impact.
 
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Dexter said:
I haven't read the rest of this thread yet so apologies if this is a repeat.
I watched this at Wynnum Leagues club and said to the Dogs fans before the penalty was given that would be 10 in the bin and a penalty. The refs have been pretty consistent with deliberate attempts to stop tries this year ( regardless how feeble ).

Sure there was nothing much in it but then why do it? just let play go on. I hope the refs keep this up.
I haven't heard the commentary around this yet, but I imagine it's all against the decision, and calling it soft, but those fuckwits don't get it and don't get to decide how the game is played anymore and I fucking love it.
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Anasta started by blowing up about it saying there is no way it was a penalty, the rest put him in his place and he went away with his tail between his legs.

Typical Anasta really.
 
People keep blaming the shoes for slipping over but the turf is literally coming out of the ground, that is what is making them slip over. Better studs wouldn’t have changed anything.
 
Bulldogs fans are extra salty:

https://www.change.org/p/every-rugb...d-sutton/share_for_starters?just_created=true

200w.gif
 
Haven't read through the 9 pages. But why did the dogs get a scrum when Haas came off? He didn't lose the ball at all from what I could see.
 
Unbreakable said:
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.
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I agree he was atrocious. His passing game was awful tonight as well. Threw one around Milfords feet causing him to knock on, and even the one to Oates as high (he had to jump) and behind him... Boyd is definitely not in the top 10 fullbacks in the game anymore. Any other coach would have dropped him. He is a terrible captain (he doesn't talk to the players and get them firing at all from what i can see at the game). I just hope, pray, that he retires because if we are stuck with him for 4 years, we won't be getting a premiership anytime soon.
 
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