Well done Dragons.
For Brisbane, it has to come back to Bennett, it's a coaches responsibility to get his side up mentally for the big matches and Brisbane were flat from the outset. It's a coaches responsibility to set the game plan and tactics and tonight he was schooled by Nathan Brown who had the Broncos simplistic and unimaginative style completely worked out. It's a coaches responsibility to make sure his players aren't being distracted so why he still hasn't come out an flat out denied the Roosters rumours is beyond me, just go, the club needs a change and urgently.
I definately agree with you in some respects. I thought Bennet's efforts this week were extremely poor regarding the roosters rumours. Was he just being contrary? The way he made an issue out of it really annoyed me. Whether or not it had an impact on the players I don't know, but why even take that chance? He should have just flat out denied it. It was as bad as the way he kept arguing about the semantics of whether or not we're in a slump. Bennett has a stuborn, difficult streak which was at its worst this week.
Secondly I'll be angry if Hodges doesn't return to the centres. The whole concept of playing him at the back with Hunt on the wing just doesn't work. If Brisbanes attack is going to spark it needs an X factor. I can't say for sure that Hunt is that factor, but he's the closest thing we have to it. He should be as involved as possible. The Broncos are at their best when they stand deep and Lockyer runs wide with Hunt joined at his hip everywhere he goes. Perry just needs to get into first reciever and throw some long balls. Hodges is just as good at centre as at fullback (I question some of his instincts at fullback anyway). Remember he was Qld's best player in two origin matches there. Balanced against this, Hunt is a poor winger and could really be exposed by someone like Johns. I'll be devastated if Hunt is on the wing next week.
As for Bennett's coaching, I tend to blame his previous decision making for Brisbane's failures than his current tactics. I think over the last few years it has been the failure to sign a decent halfback (or keep one) thats really hurt us. Without that player I'm not sure anyone could have done a whole lot better with the players we have. I think Lockyer requires someone decent inside him and without that he strugles. For instance tonight Brisbane tried extremely hard and didn't give up. Their defense was quite good again and St George had a couple of bounces go there way off kicks. But Perry just didn't provide Lockyer with enough space. I don't think you can blame that on Bennetts coaching , its just Perry isn't up to it. Maybe with Hunt comming back into the team Bennett can extract enough points out of this team to win on the back of our pack and defense. The only problem I have with our tactics in attack tonight was a lack of offloads near the line. Brisbane should just keep it alive as much as they can to break up the defense.
I don't really care about tonight. I always thought we had that performance in us, even the way we've played the last two weeks. I'm glad we had it occured this week and not next wekk. Hopefully Brisbane realize that they need to chance their arm a bit more and get Hunt involved if their a chance to win.
