What can we say at the moment?

[Dee]

Good evening,

As a passionate, Sydney-based Broncos supporter for many, many years, this is absolutely heart breaking to watch.

I'm not sure what the answers are.
I am not sure if the Broncos should sack Henjak.
Is it all of our injuries mounting up?
Possibly.

Losing Wayne Bennett was, and always will be the biggest loss our proud club has encountered, just look at the team we are now, compared to the team we were when Mr. Bennett was running things.
The aura of that man is remarkable.
I cannot believe how he has transformed the Dragons, I cannot believe it, but at the same time, what else were we to expect?
This man is the greatest Rugby League coach the game has seen.

I can almost bet my life that if Wayne was coaching this VERY SAME Broncos outfit, with all the injuries included, we may still have only 2 wins, but our proud club would have played the FULL 80 minutes in over 95% of their games so far. Who can disagree?

Anyway, I am venting.
We have endured so much success at the Broncos that, I'm not entirely sure how to handle these losses in 2010. We, as a club and as it's supporters, have never really endured seasons like this, and I must say, it's a horrible feeling.

The injuries may be a factor to all this, but I think the Broncos offices isn't up to par.
What's going on over there @ Red Hill?
Who's a supporter of Mr. Bruno Cullen?

I must say, some of the decisions that man has made over the years have been abysmal.
How can we lose our defensive cornerstone David Stagg, our next Shane Webcke, Ben Hannant, and a star player like Michael Ennis - to gain ONE player, Israel Folau?
It just doesn't make sense to me.
That is NOT smart business/football decision making, and that decision sounds like it was made by a man who does not have a Rugby League brain and doesn't know what makes a successful footy team.

We have no real strike power in the forwards.
Lockyer is left to do it all on his own, even when Wallace was playing.
Folau doesn't get nowhere near as much ball as he should.
Our defense though, jesus christ it's HORRIBLE. We are dropping off tackles so many times that it's embarrassing.
We are leaving holes in our defensive line the size of the grand canyon, my god!

Our attack is flat and disjointed. There's no creativity or flow to it. It's easily read by the opposition and they know every play we are about to make.
It's not good enough.
We are doing the same ball movements each set of six to the left side that other NRL clubs are studying during video sessions and picking our runners off with ease.

Anyway, this is my little vent.
I know there's some of you out there wanting to share similar feelings, so feel free.

I am still a proud Broncos supporter, and I will be forever.
I love them, and no matter what - they will get my support 110%, each and every year, wooden spoon or no wooden spoon.

Thanks,
Dee.

 

[Kimlo]

Awesome post, I agree.

 

[Nashy]

The bubble was always going to burst.

 

[jeremydt]

What dee said!

I'll love my Broncos, win-or-lose, I'll even cheer them on until my throat is horse... but this season is a joke. Is it Henjack? Is it the injuries? Or have the players lost sight of our proud history.... I don't have the answers; but I'd like to get some answers rather than Ivan blaming "simple handling errors".

 

[Dee]

On the positive side, it is only Round 7.
There is time to fix this. But I honestly don't think this season is fixable.
We were always going to have our re-building stage, and this is our time, 2010.

We also do have alot of key injuries to a number of strike players (Hodges, Wallace, Kenny, Winterstein etc.)

But, even so, even when those players return, I don't see it changing much.
We are not playing for each other.
We are not playing the full entire 80 minutes.
We look lethargic, not interested, do we really want to be on the field?
We have no passion, no hunger, no heart.

It pains me to type those words about our club, but reality is always a hard pill to swallow.

 

[rnabokov]

Ah, which Broncos team are you proud of? It changes every week. The only thing that is constant is the coach's inability to coach.

 

[Dee]

I am not so much focused on winning (but it is always a great feeling!)
I just want us to play for the entire 80 minutes as a team, complete over 90% of our sets, and miss under 8-10 tackles per game.
Do this, and we will do something in this years competition.

 

[rnabokov]

I'll say it again. We don't have a team. We have 7 teams. The only one that cut it was the first, in Round 1

 

[Dee]

Yeah...the team that played in Round 1 was okay, do you want to discuss the 2nd half fade out in that game?

Look mate, we have been very, very poor all year so far, there's no denying it.
Our best performance so far, IMO?

32-0, Half-time lead over the Sharks (terrible opposition, I know, but still).
Didn't we complete like, 18 sets from 18?
Very few missed tackles?
Played as a TEAM?

 

[rnabokov]

The opposition in Round 1 was quality. The Goldfish were crap.

Yeah, we faded against the Cowgirls but that is excusable given it was Round 1 with lots of new faces.

It was the only match where we showed real skill and flair in attack. That was a great start. Since then, there has been none of that, and injuries only account for a fraction of the explanation.

Henjak can't coach. Period.

 

[Big Pete]

We were better against the Dragons and Sharks.

 

[Big Pete]

From the sounds of it, 2011 was always going to be the year that Henjak wanted to be judged on.

That was the year he felt he would have the squad he wanted.

Although, with Izzy and Karmichael gone who knows?

 

[brisbroncosboy]

at a time like this all you can do is look forward hows this for a possiable side for 2011

1. HOFFMAN
2. KEMP
3. INGLIS
4. HODGES
5. YOW YEH
6. LOCKYER
7. WALLACE
8. HANNANT
9. MCCULLOUGH
10. CIVONECIVA
11. THAIDAY
12. PARKER
13. GILLETT

14. TRONC
15. LUI
16. TEO
17. KENNY

 

[Big Pete]

This is all hypothetical but say if Henjak is asked to leave, I'd much rather see Anthony Griffin taken over the reigns than anybody else in the NRL.

His stints at Redcliffe and with our Toyota Cup side have really impressed me. If nothing else, our TC side was always gutsy.

 

[Bucking Beads]

That is another option, I think Ivan is out of his depth and ultimately has no clue at all. Griffin could be the man for the job.

 

[mick]

For one, I still believe that the match against the Dragons was our best performance of the year so far. By a fair margin IMO.

I think criticism of Henjak is unfair. Like most of our players, he's still relatively new in the role and is still finding his feet. Put the team line-ups that we've fielded this year in front of Wayne Bennett and Jack GIbson in their primes and they would've struggled to do any better.

We're not losing games because of lack of ability or a lack of heart. We're losing games because we're fielding young, inexperienced players en masse for the first time in the club's history. Over the last 20 years, we haven't noticed it when two guys have debuted in the one match - it hasn't affected them because there were 15 other guys in the team with 100+ matches each, at times.

There have been occasions when most of the team hadn't reached their 21st birthday throughout the early stages of this year, and I think hoping or expecting much more out of them just because of the history of our club or the pride we have in our jerseys in unrealistic. It reminds me of kids who expect their parents to buy them a car, build them a granny flat and take them to the US for a holiday on their 16th birthday...

 

[Foordy]

For one, I still believe that the match against the Dragons was our best performance of the year so far. By a fair margin IMO.

I think criticism of Henjak is unfair. Like most of our players, he's still relatively new in the role and is still finding his feet. Put the team line-ups that we've fielded this year in front of Wayne Bennett and Jack GIbson in their primes and they would've struggled to do any better.

We're not losing games because of lack of ability or a lack of heart. We're losing games because we're fielding young, inexperienced players en masse for the first time in the club's history. Over the last 20 years, we haven't noticed it when two guys have debuted in the one match - it hasn't affected them because there were 15 other guys in the team with 100+ matches each, at times.

There have been occasions when most of the team hadn't reached their 21st birthday throughout the early stages of this year, and I think hoping or expecting much more out of them just because of the history of our club or the pride we have in our jerseys in unrealistic. It reminds me of kids who expect their parents to buy them a car, build them a granny flat and take them to the US for a holiday on their 16th birthday...

well said ... i totally agree with you

 

[Dexter]

Mick I agree with most of what you said but I think what ppl are angry about is how we arrived at this point in such a short space of time. We should never really have been in this position.

Fair enough we have had massive injury problems but the we have let players go in the hope of signing Hunt and by signing Falou, maybe these things could have been avoided with better management, maybe not but at the end of the day the club has put itself in this position and it pisses most ppl off.