West Tigers vs Broncos post game talk *SPOILERS*

[ddd]

Storm are playing Bulldogs, beat them (as well as Cows beating Noughts, and Guppies beating Skinks) and the Broncos remain outright first until after Origin 1.

Devious - downright devious - looking at the big picture, what do you think NRL is? A thinking mans game?

Re Thaiday other posters - he is an incumbent so he gets first consideration, but his game, be it coaching or whatever, he is a bit out of sorts - perhaps last sunday's newspaper headline has had an affect on him?

 

[Bucking Beads]

That article didn't seem to affect Hunt the man who has been damaged most by the incident so why would it affect Thaiday now??? He had an off game has has been great for us this year and should have been in the test team a few weeks ago. Thaiday is a walk up start for Origin anyone thinking otherwise has rocks in his/her heads,

 

[ddd]

Different things affect people differently - perhaps it had no affect against K because he knows this is his last season here? "Should have been"s doesn't earn rep jumpers - and as that came out last week, perhaps we are seeing the affects for the first time....

We'll see on Tues whether he is there - hopefully he's done enough, but perhaps a kick in the guts like that will fire him up. But you can't deny he was woeful last night, woeful - cringed every time he touched the ball

 

[andirect]

what the hell? thaiday has been the broncos best forward along with parker all year. he was a bit off last night but i'd consider him a certainty for origin.

 

[Chumbason]

Any suggestion that Lockyer had a bad night is crap, I mean really. He is everywhere all the time and gets through a power of work. Seemed to have been a few passes where the runner went the wrong way and left both locky and hunt with nothing... Taylor twice I think.

 

[mjc]

I think Thaiday is being played wrong. He is doing all the hard work up the middle, which is what Sims, Te'o, Clinton should be doing. Thaiday should be running wide as that is where most of his impact comes from. He is an impact player, and should be used as such.

T'eo running wide is awesome though, he is also wasted carting it up the middle of the field. That's a role for Clinton, Kenny and Sims and I guess in the makeup of the Broncos team a role for Thaiday too as he is built much more like a prop than T'eo anyway. Lockyer shifting the ball right to T'eo running a nice hole or line has had a really good look about it the past couple of weeks. When Hodges is back to have him, Folau and T'eo all out there will be driving teams nuts.

 

[QUEENSLANDER]

lol expecting Lockyer to stop Tuiaki, it was good to watch Lockyer smash Marshall though.

never said i expected him to stop him :roll:
however i did expect him to at least attempt to slow him down, instead of just touching him gently.

 

[QUEENSLANDER]

how is thaiday considered a certainty for origin? i dont rate him, all he does is run at markers and drop to his stomach. Ok, this could be how the coach has him playing, ill give him that, but its useless and if he plays like that in origin he is just a wasted spot. he played horribly last night.

as for lockyer, he played ok in attack, but his defence was appalling. he tapped tuiaki on his way to a try, and wtf was he doing when the ball was grubbered in goal.

Proving that he shouldn't be played at fullback :P

Who is he proving that to ? I dunno if thats a bait at my expense but its been years since i thought locky could go back to fulback.

 

[schmix]

To be fair to Locky with that grubber, the ground was absolutely sodden and most kicks were just stopping dead or bouncing much lower than usual. He has always been fantastic at cleaning up in goal (even post-fullback days) and I would just put that down to slight error in judgement in really terrible conditions.

I really thought all the signs pointed towards a Broncos loss last night. We always seem to lose the games we should win, and we're obviously no good in the rain. Even during the game, it seemed like they were making it as hard as possible for themselves. So in the end I'm happy that they managed to grind out a win, especially on the back of some great defence. But wow, there are going to have to be some huge improvements after origin.

On another note, I thought it was illegal to sell cans at the football..? I don't know if it was shown on tv, but quite a few were being pelted from the back of the stands when Marshall got binned. This is bad news with any object, but a full can could really do some serious damage.

 

[schmix]

To be fair to Locky with that grubber, the ground was absolutely sodden and most kicks were just stopping dead or bouncing much lower than usual. He has always been fantastic at cleaning up in goal (even post-fullback days) and I would just put that down to slight error in judgement in really terrible conditions.

I've just watched it on tv (couldn't see the screen at the game) and I take that back. Looked like he lost sight of it behind the post. I still stand behind the second sentence though.

 

[mrslong]

I thought Karmichael was epic at the back, if he doesn't play we don't win. (also liked seeing him blow up at Michaels when he balked and allowed the pass to go into touch from K, lol, Michaels....he makes Winterstein look worse than he is)

Why did Glenn go to dummy half for a while? That really confused me, with 2 hookers in the team why did we have none on the field? PJ went awol for a while, that said they were still hugely better than Gorrell. Please, never come back.


Alex Glenn must surely be top of the running for Dally M Rookie of the Year?!

 

[john1420]

Whilst I agree that this team is not playing at the standard required to win a Grand Final, I also note with interest that it's not the Grand Final next week. As long as you are playing well enough to win enough games to put you deep in the 8, the only thing left that matters is how well you are playing in the finals series.

A team cannot perform at their peak for the whole season. The trick is to get the team performing at 70-80% for the first three quarters of the season, but win enough games to make the 8, and then roll into peak form in the last few rounds. Then you play 4 games in the finals of your best football for the year.

Teams that play at their peak in the first half of the year rarely win Grand Finals.

 

[Alec]

Yeah, I mostly agree John. Last year, 3 or 4 rounds before the finals people were saying we weren't playing well enough to win the premiership. Then in the finals we were one tiny knock on away from probably being the premiers. I'm confident that we'll improve just in time. It just seems like something the Broncos would do. Hopefully Hodges gets a few games in a row under his belt after the Origin series.

 

[Beale]

Imagine a team who can compete at their 'peak' for an entire year then?

....or 11 years straight lol

 

[broncosil]

Whilst I agree that this team is not playing at the standard required to win a Grand Final, I also note with interest that it's not the Grand Final next week. As long as you are playing well enough to win enough games to put you deep in the 8, the only thing left that matters is how well you are playing in the finals series.

A team cannot perform at their peak for the whole season. The trick is to get the team performing at 70-80% for the first three quarters of the season, but win enough games to make the 8, and then roll into peak form in the last few rounds. Then you play 4 games in the finals of your best football for the year.

Teams that play at their peak in the first half of the year rarely win Grand Finals.

A perfect example being Melbourne last year. Melbourne were so dominant but coming into finals they had nowhere near the intensity and skill that Manly did. Manly were improving with every game, but Melbourne were lucky to win most of theirs.

I wonder where the dogs and dragqueens will be come September?

 

[Bucking Beads]

Whilst I agree that this team is not playing at the standard required to win a Grand Final, I also note with interest that it's not the Grand Final next week. As long as you are playing well enough to win enough games to put you deep in the 8, the only thing left that matters is how well you are playing in the finals series.

A team cannot perform at their peak for the whole season. The trick is to get the team performing at 70-80% for the first three quarters of the season, but win enough games to make the 8, and then roll into peak form in the last few rounds. Then you play 4 games in the finals of your best football for the year.

Teams that play at their peak in the first half of the year rarely win Grand Finals.

A perfect example being Melbourne last year. Melbourne were so dominant but coming into finals they had nowhere near the intensity and skill that Manly did. Manly were improving with every game, but Melbourne were lucky to win most of theirs.

I wonder where the dogs and dragqueens will be come September?

Just one dominant performance from the Broncos would be nice. Hopefully thye show us hwo they will play in the finals against the Storm in 2 weeks