Round 15 vs. Newcastle Knights

[Big Pete]

NRL 2019 - Round 15
Newcastle Knights v Brisbane Broncos
McDonald Jones Stadium, New Lambton (TICKETS)
Saturday 29 June 2019

1. Kalyn Ponga
2. Edrick Lee
3. Hymel Hunt
4. Jesse Ramien
5. Shaun Kenny-Dowall
6. Kurt Mann
7. Mitchell Pearce
8. James Gavet
9. Connor Watson
10. Daniel Saifiti
11. Lachlan Fitzgibbon
12. Sione Mata'utia
13. Tim Glasby

Interchange
14. Jamie Buhrer
15. Herman Ese'ese
16. Josh King
17. Pasami Saulo

Reserves
18. Mason Lino
19. David Klemmer
20. Jacob Saifiti
21. Aidan Guerra

1. Darius Boyd
2. Corey Oates
3. Kotoni Staggs
4. Gehamat Shibasaki
5. Richard Kennar
6. Anthony Milford
7. Sean O'Sullivan
8. Matthew Lodge
9. Andrew McCullough
10. Payne Haas
11. David Fifita
12. Matt Gillett
13. Tevita Pangai

Interchange
14. Jake Turpin
15. Joe Ofahengaue
16. Thomas Flegler
17. Patty Carrigan

Reserves
18. Xavier Coates
19. Jaydn Su'A
20. James Segeyaro
21. Shaun Fensom​

 

[Big Pete]

Ofahengaue returns, McCullough and Turpin swap positions and Kennar comes in for Isaako who has been left out of the team for 'personal reasons'.

18 year old sensation Xavier Coates has been name as a reserve. Su'A has also been named despite reports he's off to South Sydney. The move may take place after the game.

 

[renouf]

Not expecting any other then the usual rabble they produce away from home, McC back at 9 isn't going to move us forward either. Shibasaki is a liability

 

[GoTheBroncs]

If Ponga plays this could get ugly.

Horrified that MCullough is still in the side. Is Seibold really too scared to drop him because other players like him as a bloke? Don't the players actually want to win games? Wtf...

Horrendous looking backline in general. Good forward pack on paper but not in good form, particularly the back row.

Fingers crossed it's not a flogging!

 

[Nerd]

I'm also amazed that McCullough is starting. We have two live wire hookers in Turpin and Segeyaro and he starts with McCullough??

 

[Bronco18]

Talk that Milf and Boyd will swap positions

 

[renouf]

It's worth a go..

 

[DeeJ]

Who's gonna do the kicking though? Milf does 90% of it and I don't think Darius has the skills or hamstrings.

Unless Milf turns into Lockyer I'm not sure how it will work. Lockyer was 3rd string as a kicker, even though he put through plenty (at fullback).

 

[GoTheBroncs]

To me this would be bizarre. Milf would need to a whole pre-season to prepare for playing fullback again. Plus Boyd doesn't have the skillset for 5/8. I guess it's good that they might be thinking of moving Boyd away from fullback, but this aint the way to do it.

 

[Nerd]

I'm happy with anything that gets Boyd out of fullback.

 

[GoTheBroncs]

This is officially the worst Broncos side I have ever seen.

On the plus side, this should give enough ammunition to never see Boyd in a Broncos jersey again.

 

[Nerd]

I now know how the NSW fans felt when they kept picking Mitch Pearce year after year. Surely Siebold has to drop Boyd after that display. Milford looked good at fullback and did something Boyd has failed to do all year - a line break returning the ball. With Boyd in the team it's like we are playing with 12 men. We would be better just sticking one of the bench forwards at 5/8 like Flegler. I also don't think that it was a coincidence that all our points were scored when Turpin was at hooker and McCullough was off the field. On our other half O'Sullivan doesn't look to be at NRL standard and young Dearden cant come back fast enough for my liking.

 

[renouf]

Not much point in Boyd playing 5/8 since he isn't a long term option

 

[DeeJ]

Not much point in Boyd playing 5/8 since he isn't a long term option

So where can we hide him?

 

[GoTheBroncs]

So where can we hide him?

On the bench and only play three reserves. Incredibly, it would be a stronger team.

 

[renouf]

Milford is out now, ffs

 

[Big Pete]

The challenge is trying to come up with any positives for the Broncos. I thought Milford at the back was a noticeable improvement over Boyd and while the Broncos failed to bring him into the game in an effective manner, his carries at least created momentum coming out of trouble. The forwards also produced a couple of nice carries and you can see why they're so highly regarded by the Rugby League fraternity.

However that's where the praise ends. The Broncos defensively have fallen into a hole and there's just no character or bite. The players are losing that initial contact with and without the football and they just keep getting lost for numbers to the point where teams are getting easy two man over-laps. In the modern game, defence outweighs the attack and the Broncos cannot or sustain any pressure with their defensive structures.

The Broncos attacking structures are hardly any better. The backs aren't helping out the forwards enough and the middles are getting far too much ball in the red-zone. The Broncos are usually running four set-up plays in each set and they're doing nothing to challenge the defence. The few times where they did look dangerous was running off of their edge forwards, but even so I thought Pangai and Gillett were guilty of over-playing their hand. I understand that they were chasing points and a miracle offload may have been the ignition they needed, but sometimes it's better to consider the next play.

The issue doesn't come down to one or two players, there were a lot of issues on the night. The injury to Kennar completely destroyed the structures and players found themselves in foreign positions and made some really bad mistakes there (Staggs knocking on a loose ball, Fifita's multiple mistakes on the left). While Milford made some good plays, the 1-6-7 combination didn't work well at all and came up with a lot of mistakes or simply didn't assert themselves enough.

I'm just wondering when we're going to see rock bottom with this team. I thought the Round 8 clash against Souths may have been it, but they've been outdoing themselves these past couple of weeks. With the Sharks looming and Milford out injured, surely things must turn around soon.