After experimenting with four other fullbacks, Anthony Seibold has been forced to bite the bullet and name former captain Darius Boyd at fullback. This move confirms how horrible the season has been for the Broncos since Boyd has no business being in the team let alone being at fullback. However, Isaako is away, Niu is out for the rest of the season and Milford was awful there last week so Boyd gets his wish.
Fingers crossed Jesse Arthars can come into the team, because Kennar is really just Manihera 2.0. He's decent at working the ball out of trouble and that's basically the tale of the tape. It'll also allow Herbie to return to the wing where he's far more comfortable.
I hope Seibs gets his interchanges right this week. He's contributed to the issues on the field with his bizarre interchanges and he's asking way too much out of his starting pack week in week out. I do think it's slightly stronger with Luke and Bullemor coming in. Gamble was a complete waste of a bench spot last week, I have no idea why he was drafted in when he was given such a simple role. It boggles my mind that they didn't give Hetherington that spot, especially since he can play 13 at a pinch. Regardless, Luke can come on and be given a license to run around for a tick.
There was some disappointment over the dismissal of Paix. I thought he played well last week and deserved the opportunity to play himself out of form, but I can understand the idea of managing his work-load and getting some use out of Luke while he's here. Paix is definitely a work in progress at this stage of his career, but he's the long term 9 if the coaching staff has any say.
Nice to see Riki's name back back in the reckoning. If he didn't suffer back to back injuries he would have played a couple of games by now. He's a prospect worth keeping an eye on and while I don't expect him to have an immediate impact like Fifita, he's certainly somebody who could develop over the next couple of years. He's very versatile, they had him playing out on the wing last year for Norths.
The Broncos were pretty up-beat with their performance last week. They felt they had the better of Melbourne at the start of the game until the likes of Hopoate and Gamble came on and surrendered Melbourne. With Turpin coming in which is a big inclusion, there's a feeling they could cause an upset and turn a corner heading into 2021.
