What is happening at the Broncos?

[winslow_wong]

Haha I'm sorry I don't remember stating our current side was the equal to 2006. Can you quote it for me to ensure Im not in the early stages of dementia. I mentioned 2006 to highlight to you both that after 23 other games-the first round means nothing, if anything it's better to perform shit now and get all the crap sorted early rather then taper down towards the end of the season...
You do understand what hyperbole means right? You have started a thread called "what is happening at the broncos?" which strongly insinuates that we are at a terribly low point in our history-we finished 3rd last year, and 5th and 2nd the 2 years before! We have played one game this year haha they might be shit this year but there is no way I'm judging off 1 or even 2 or 3 games.

We're going on 12 years since our last premiership. Since we came 2nd in 2015 it's been a downward spiral ever since. Round 1 did little to convince optimistic fans that things were gonna be different. It's hard to be hopeful when it's the same old problems occurring again and again.

 

[lynx000]

Haha I'm sorry I don't remember stating our current side was the equal to 2006. Can you quote it for me to ensure Im not in the early stages of dementia. I mentioned 2006 to highlight to you both that after 23 other games-the first round means nothing, if anything it's better to perform shit now and get all the crap sorted early rather then taper down towards the end of the season...
You do understand what hyperbole means right? You have started a thread called "what is happening at the broncos?" which strongly insinuates that we are at a terribly low point in our history-we finished 3rd last year, and 5th and 2nd the 2 years before! We have played one game this year haha they might be shit this year but there is no way I'm judging off 1 or even 2 or 3 games.

I think you might be well past the early stages of dementia. That is excellent that you read the title of the thread. Did you then go on to read the rest of it? Am I wrong that there were issues with our recruiting in 2009 to 2015 and that it has had a flow on effect? Joel Clinton, Martin Kennedy, Barba, Shane Tronc, Scott Anderson, Luke Capewell, etc.

I well understand the meaning of hyperbole and it was the perfect description of your post.

For a club that has prop forwards of the calibre of Greg Dowling, Lazarus, Shane Webcke, Petero Civoniceva, Andrew Gee to wind up in a position where our starting props are Lodge (with a total of 12 or 13 NRL games) and Thaiday is indicative of our failings in recruiting.

For a club that has had halves like Langer, Walters, Lockyer to be in a position where we do not have a true half-back and do not have a game manager is an indictment on our recruiting and development. And when I say recruiting, I mean recruiting both in the sense of decisions about who we decide to buy and decisions about who we retain.

We may well have finished last year one game away from the grand final, but do you realistically think we were ever any chance of winning it?

If you cannot see that this club has slipped substantially from what it once was, then I do not consider that you are being realistic. I am afraid that the Cowboys have overtaken us and are now what we once were (a bitter pill to swallow, but true).

The club via Paul White have very much got the business side of the operation humming along, I cannot say the same about the football operation. The side will in all likelihood make the finals, I think more likely from 5-8, but unless something miraculous occurs, I do not see them having any real hope of winning the competition.

 

[Lockysillegitimatechild]

We're going on 12 years since our last premiership. Since we came 2nd in 2015 it's been a downward spiral ever since. Round 1 did little to convince optimistic fans that things were gonna be different. It's hard to be hopeful when it's the same old problems occurring again and again.

Lol... we finished 3rd last year! Is the spiral going horizontally? And 12 years, you mean the 12 years that included 6 without bennett? I understand that no premiership sucks and I get that we get hammered in the media and it's hard to avoid but I strongly suggest you stop reading/watching rothfield, Kent, m johns, etc and realise that there are about 12 other teams who'd want our last 3 years

 

[winslow_wong]

Lol... we finished 3rd last year! Is the spiral going horizontally? And 12 years, you mean the 12 years that included 6 without bennett? I understand that no premiership sucks and I get that we get hammered in the media and it's hard to avoid but I strongly suggest you stop reading/watching rothfield, Kent, m johns, etc and realise that there are about 12 other teams who'd want our last 3 years

I don't read the media when it comes to the broncos at all. I just go off the team Culture, tactics and attitude. since 2015, to me something has been pretty off for a while now. It's been the same tired old plays and i was just frustrated to see it all again against the dragons.

 

[Lockysillegitimatechild]

I think you might be well past the early stages of dementia. That is excellent that you read the title of the thread. Did you then go on to read the rest of it? Am I wrong that there were issues with our recruiting in 2009 to 2015 and that it has had a flow on effect? Joel Clinton, Martin Kennedy, Barba, Shane Tronc, Scott Anderson, Luke Capewell, etc.

I well understand the meaning of hyperbole and it was the perfect description of your post.

For a club that has prop forwards of the calibre of Greg Dowling, Lazarus, Shane Webcke, Petero Civoniceva, Andrew Gee to wind up in a position where our starting props are Lodge (with a total of 12 or 13 NRL games) and Thaiday is indicative of our failings in recruiting.

For a club that has had halves like Langer, Walters, Lockyer to be in a position where we do not have a true half-back and do not have a game manager is an indictment on our recruiting and development. And when I say recruiting, I mean recruiting both in the sense of decisions about who we decide to buy and decisions about who we retain.

We may well have finished last year one game away from the grand final, but do you realistically think we were ever any chance of winning it?

If you cannot see that this club has slipped substantially from what it once was, then I do not consider that you are being realistic. I am afraid that the Cowboys have overtaken us and are now what we once were (a bitter pill to swallow, but true).

The club via Paul White have very much got the business side of the operation humming along, I cannot say the same about the football operation. The side will in all likelihood make the finals, I think more likely from 5-8, but unless something miraculous occurs, I do not see them having any real hope of winning the competition.

Do you understand what dementia is? It's not a condition where you don't read every comment in a thread.......

Where did I say we are the same side? Where did I say we are as good as any of those sides? Who cares about those years now, that was a completely different club and coaching staff then-we have recovered from that. A gf appearance, and 5th and 3rd show that.

This whole thread was in reaction to a round one loss! Would you have wrote this if we won? Why are you bringing up 2009-2014 recruiting for a 2018 round one loss? Haha seriously.. cowboys are ahead of us right now, that's due to the years without Bennett where we fell behind. I can guarantee you it won't happen forever, we are the biggest club in the nrl & under beenntt we are re-learning that. I'm not sure what you want to happen? We have got rid of the crap that got us into a pathetic position for 6 years and now after 3 years of good results we have a round one loss and we are back in the dark ages?

 

[Renegade]

Don’t forget club legend and premiership winner Shane Perry

Thing is, someone like Shane Perry would be an absolute godsend for us in 2018. Milf would thrive with someone like him in the side.

 

[Jedhead]

Have never tipped against the broncs in my life but am seriously considering it this week.

Me neither and the thought never crossed my mind. It's a bit like adultary, You do it once and you live with the guilt for ever.

 

[lynx000]

Thing is, someone like Shane Perry would be an absolute godsend for us in 2018. Milf would thrive with someone like him in the side.

I agree.

 

[tommy]

Me neither and the thought never crossed my mind. It's a bit like adultary, You do it once and you live with the guilt for ever.

Yeah I'm struggling. I'm having an identity crisis. If I had a better week this week there's no way I even entertain the thought but I got 2/8

 

[lynx000]

Do you understand what dementia is? It's not a condition where you don't read every comment in a thread.......

Where did I say we are the same side? Where did I say we are as good as any of those sides? Who cares about those years now, that was a completely different club and coaching staff then-we have recovered from that. A gf appearance, and 5th and 3rd show that.

This whole thread was in reaction to a round one loss! Would you have wrote this if we won? Why are you bringing up 2009-2014 recruiting for a 2018 round one loss? Haha seriously.. cowboys are ahead of us right now, that's due to the years without Bennett where we fell behind. I can guarantee you it won't happen forever, we are the biggest club in the nrl & under beenntt we are re-learning that. I'm not sure what you want to happen? We have got rid of the crap that got us into a pathetic position for 6 years and now after 3 years of good results we have a round one loss and we are back in the dark ages?

The list is reasonably long about what I want to happen, so I will not bore you with it. Some of the signs are there, that steps are being put in place.

I hope you are correct and that it will be all sunshine and lollipops later in the season. I still find it very interesting about this site that someone can't post a critique about a poor performance without the white knights getting defensive. I have had similar misgivings to Winslow that something just isn't right within the team or the culture. For a start we have a major leadership issue.

 

[Lockysillegitimatechild]

The list is reasonably long about what I want to happen, so I will not bore you with it. Some of the signs are there, that steps are being put in place.

I hope you are correct and that it will be all sunshine and lollipops later in the season. I still find it very interesting about this site that someone can't post a critique about a poor performance without the white knights getting defensive. I have had similar misgivings to Winslow that something just isn't right within the team or the culture. For a start we have a major leadership issue.

The white knights? Haha seriously.. didn't you start a thread to discuss the topic then you got annoyed at another comment/person because they disagreed with it and now I'm a white knight for giving some perspective to the round one loss. We finished 3rd last year, fact. Since then we have played 1 game-we win it would you have posted this thread? No you wouldn't have. It's like you were patiently waiting for the club to lose a game to confirm your point of view, very similar to what the Sydney media does. When we lose next game will we be shoe-ins for the wooden spoon? The irony that you said I was hyperboling when that's exactly what a thread like this is...

 

[holdzy]

The white knights? Haha seriously.. didn't you start a thread to discuss the topic then you got annoyed at another comment/person because they disagreed with it and now I'm a white knight for giving some perspective to the round one loss. We finished 3rd last year, fact. Since then we have played 1 game-we win it would you have posted this thread? No you wouldn't have. It's like you were patiently waiting for the club to lose a game to confirm your point of view, very similar to what the Sydney media does. When we lose next game will we be shoe-ins for the wooden spoon? The irony that you said I was hyperboling when that's exactly what a thread like this is...

Who gives a shit where we finish if we can't go on and make a gf? (And you know, win it).

Doesn't matter if it's round one if we lose in similar fashion in round 26, or the play-offs. To a lot of fans, it doesn't feel like we are on the up, even if other shit teams envy our runner up status.

Something is off at the Broncos.

 

[winslow_wong]

Who gives a shit where we finish if we can't go on and make a gf? (And you know, win it).

Doesn't matter if it's round one if we lose in similar fashion in round 26, or the play-offs. To a lot of fans, it doesn't feel like we are on the up, even if other shit teams envy our runner up status.

Something is off at the Broncos.

Exactly. We haven't been winning off team performances. We win off individual plays like Roberts scoring a solo try or someone picking up a fumble to score etc. if these flukey plays don't occur we struggle to put points on top 8 teams. This has been a common theme since 2016.

 

[holdzy]

Exactly. We haven't been winning off team performances. We win off individual plays like Roberts scoring a solo try or someone picking up a fumble to score etc. if these flukey plays don't occur we struggle to put points on top 8 teams. This has been a common theme since 2016.

And it's not acceptable considering the quality of the players in the team - it's not ability. Which means it's either attitude or tactics or both.

And it is now a consistent problem. Wayne has allowed this mentality to set in. Hopefully he can help fix it.

 

[rnabokov]

Our biggest issue is we just dont have any top players these days like we used to. When you think we could field teams containing the likes of Thorn, Lockyer, Webcke, Petero, Carroll, Tate, Tallis etc and compare that to now. All we have really is potential elite players. In the past, we have actually had blokes who could walk the walk.

Um, sort of makes a coach's job easy doesn't it.

 

[Mr Fourex]

I am afraid that the Cowboys have overtaken us and are now what we once were (a bitter pill to swallow, but true).

How many grand finals have the Cowboys won?

 

[Porthoz]

Apologies in advance for the long post. Those allergic to criticism to Wayne and Boyd should skip right ahead to the next post...


Everyone (should) knows I'm happy to bash Wayne when it comes to tactics, but what happened Thursday in terms of possession, defense, and especially crucial errors, is unlike any team coached by WB. He will be responsible for a small part of it, but no coach survives that amount of dropped pill and errors.

I do think there is an attitude issue, which starts with the captain and flows on to the rest of the team. And the problem is that the captain is a protected species, and will keep his position regardless of his performance and attitude. That may not go down well with the rest of the player's group, who are competing for every inch available in the 17...
Admittedly, the latter is pure speculation on my part, and may have nothing to do with the team's lacklustre showing.

While I also totally agree with the OP in regards to player retention and recruitment after 2008, I definitely don't think we stopped screwing the pooch after Hook's departure.

At the risk of copping the ire of @Mr Fourex , letting Peter Wallace go was a grave mistake we haven't recovered from, especially with Wayne compounding it with the probably even worse mistake of letting Taylor go and bringing Boyd back to a team which had no shortage of outstanding choices for the Fullback position.

I know the below benefits from hindsight, but it's not like I didn't say these things at the time...

- Once Corey Norman's lack of heart and consistency became clear, Hunt probably would have flourished as a 5/8 next to the ranga (although Ben mostly has himself to blame for not capturing a halves spot before 2014).

- Wallace in turn, would've served the Broncos well until we had a better halfback (Taylor or Jnik potentially), with the added bonus of being a perfectly capable Hooker.

- Although there is no doubt about Milford's talent, the promise of slotting him at 5/8 was a mistake given the availability of Hunt, Barba, both Nikorima brothers and Ashley Taylor at the club. This also enabled Bennett to bring his favourite back to the club, while getting rid of the guy that could stand in his way, and according to fairly solid sources at the time, also blocked the recruitment of DCE (given the Titans episode, it may have been a good thing), which would have left no room in the cap for Boyd.

- There was zero reason to recruit Boyd, at least for the fullback position, especially given his meagre years post 2010, when we had Kahu, Barba (even after his less that stellar 2014), KNik and Milford on the way.
Yes, there is no denying his good 2015 and very good 2016 seasons, but would we have been worse off without him?
I'm not sure to be honest, but what I do know, is that he's now also costing us somewhere in the neighbourhood of $800K per season, which could have been used to retain players like Arrow and/or Ese2 for example, not to mention bringing Taylor back...


There is no doubt the (not so) magical year of 2015 would invalidate a lot of the above, given how close we came to a premiership, and who is to know what shape the team would be in today?
I may end up cursing that year, despite the sometimes amazing footy it offered the Broncos fans up to a well deserved spot at the big dance, because it may simply also have cost us way more than that fateful 80th minute in the Grand-Final. It cost us Taylor and Hunt (never recovered from that game), cemented Boyd's stand within the club, enough to become a millionaire 4 year contract captain, and brought us to where we are today...

I don't expect misery, and I do believe we will make the finals again. But I don't see us as contenders any time soon, unless we uncover a good game manager (Troy Dargan, please be that man!) and let Kevvie take charge of the tactical aspects.

 

[lynx000]

Apologies in advance for the long post. Those allergic to criticism to Wayne and Boyd should skip right ahead to the next post...


Everyone (should) knows I'm happy to bash Wayne when it comes to tactics, but what happened Thursday in terms of possession, defense, and especially crucial errors, is unlike any team coached by WB. He will be responsible for a small part of it, but no coach survives that amount of dropped pill and errors.

I do think there is an attitude issue, which starts with the captain and flows on to the rest of the team. And the problem is that the captain is a protected species, and will keep his position regardless of his performance and attitude. That may not go down well with the rest of the player's group, who are competing for every inch available in the 17...
Admittedly, the latter is pure speculation on my part, and may have nothing to do with the team's lacklustre showing.

While I also totally agree with the OP in regards to player retention and recruitment after 2008, I definitely don't think we stopped screwing the pooch after Hook's departure.

At the risk of copping the ire of @Mr Fourex , letting Peter Wallace go was a grave mistake we haven't recovered from, especially with Wayne compounding it with the probably even worse mistake of letting Taylor go and bringing Boyd back to a team which had no shortage of outstanding choices for the Fullback position.

I know the below benefits from hindsight, but it's not like I didn't say these things at the time...

- Once Corey Norman's lack of heart and consistency became clear, Hunt probably would have flourished as a 5/8 next to the ranga (although Ben mostly has himself to blame for not capturing a halves spot before 2014).

- Wallace in turn, would've served the Broncos well until we had a better halfback (Taylor or Jnik potentially), with the added bonus of being a perfectly capable Hooker.

- Although there is no doubt about Milford's talent, the promise of slotting him at 5/8 was a mistake given the availability of Hunt, Barba, both Nikorima brothers and Ashley Taylor at the club. This also enabled Bennett to bring his favourite back to the club, while getting rid of the guy that could stand in his way, and according to fairly solid sources at the time, also blocked the recruitment of DCE (given the Titans episode, it may have been a good thing), which would have left no room in the cap for Boyd.

- There was zero reason to recruit Boyd, at least for the fullback position, especially given his meagre years post 2010, when we had Kahu, Barba (even after his less that stellar 2014), KNik and Milford on the way.
Yes, there is no denying his good 2015 and very good 2016 seasons, but would we have been worse off without him?
I'm not sure to be honest, but what I do know, is that he's now also costing us somewhere in the neighbourhood of $800K per season, which could have been used to retain players like Arrow and/or Ese2 for example, not to mention bringing Taylor back...


There is no doubt the (not so) magical year of 2015 would invalidate a lot of the above, given how close we came to a premiership, and who is to know what shape the team would be in today?
I may end up cursing that year, despite the sometimes amazing footy it offered the Broncos fans up to a well deserved spot at the big dance, because it may simply also have cost us way more than that fateful 80th minute in the Grand-Final. It cost us Taylor and Hunt (never recovered from that game), cemented Boyd's stand within the club, enough to become a millionaire 4 year contract captain, and brought us to where we are today...

I don't expect misery, and I do believe we will make the finals again. But I don't see us as contenders any time soon, unless we uncover a good game manager (Troy Dargan, please be that man!) and let Kevvie take charge of the tactical aspects.

Pretty much nailed it with this comment. I was initially open minded about Boyd's return, but with hindsight your views were correct. We have gone on to compound the problem by making him captain.