Brisbane Broncos vs North Queensland Cowboys match thread *Spoilers*

[Stranger]

3-4m forward easy.

Passed behind the line caught infront.

 

[Canard]

Haha, have to tell my mate to get some glasses.

He was probably watching it from behind or something too!!

 

[jimmy_the_greek]

well done to the cowboys on their win

 

[salivor]

Congrats Cowboys on the win.

As for us, hate losing but we got dicked by them in the opening match last year and took out the title so I'm not too worried. The real positive for me was Hunt, he was brilliant tonight in his first first grade game at halfback. I know it's early days but from what I've seen tonight, if Lockyer and Hunt stay injury free and build on that we'll have the best halves combination in the league and go damn close to going back to back.

As a whole I really like the look of the backline, there's no real weak link there besides maybe Tate who I'd like to see pushed to the wing as Michaels is such a great talent who is being wasted sitting outside him. Bring Ennis back into the picture rotating with Berrigan and we really are a powerful attacking unit.

Only downside obviously though is Parker's injury, I'd assume it'll be at least a couple of months on the sideline and of course the Carroll incident could become a concern as well.

Overall though, I'm feeling really positive about the side regardless of the loss. Our trial form has been pretty poor and we're obviously going to build into the season like we did last year.

 

[aqua_duck]

Was impressed with Karmichael at halfback offensively but defensively he's still the biggest turnstyle in the nrl

 

[Red Bear]

Lol at cutie - that tackle attempt was aweful on bowen.

FNQ go up 1-0 in the annual redneck sorry sunshine state cup.

Didnt watch that much but some of the scenes near the end showed half of what is wrong with league. the attack was so flat footed!, get some depth and hence some movement along the backline, creates far better football to watch.

 

[salivor]

Lol at cutie - that tackle attempt was aweful on bowen.

FNQ go up 1-0 in the annual redneck sorry sunshine state cup.

Didnt watch that much but some of the scenes near the end showed half of what is wrong with league. the attack was so flat footed!, get some depth and hence some movement along the backline, creates far better football to watch.

With the speed of defence's now (and Melbourne have taken it up a level again) you can't attack that way as if you attack too deep you'll end up going backwards. The style of the Tigers and Melbourne have proven much more successful and just as good to watch.

 

[Jono078]

Awsome game, well done to both teams on putting in a cracker of a round 1 match.

Bowen was at his best, they mentioned last year he wasnt as quick as he could be, tonight he was pretty damn quick!

 

[Walt Flanigan]

Yep you could see evidence tonight of attack adjusting to the fast defence. Alot of second phase dummy half plays.

 

[Stewie Griffin]

thought the game could have been won by both sides.

the broncos just could not hold on to the ball. thought that we played very well despite losing and also hunt at 7 looks good.

bads though are a couple with the most critical being parker. Hope its not broken and just fractured. and the carroll thing? looks worse that it really is i reckon. but won't complain much if he does get suspended. was awfully close to the eye.

Another thing. Our backline, typically the wings are very weak in defense. They are very good in attack, but because of the age, and physique, they seem to be ineffective when defending the line. Looks like we will be weak against the high ball also.

overall a good performance, but a couple of bad carries cost the game.

 

[jimmy_the_greek]

i think the cowboys were great tonight, didnt play as well in the first 20 minutes of the 2nd half, but made up for it at the end, if the cowboys continue this impressive form, they will most likely be looking at a top 4 spot this season.

 

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

best game of the night IMO, dont you love the hard hits?

 

[strewth_mate]

Just me or was Jason Smith a bit of a plodder in defense tonight? Seemed to be having trouble with players coming back inside and in replays of Broncos tries he looked to make a key appearance in a few of them, usually not trying to lay a hand on the fellow running past him because he was quite wrong-footed. Broncos took advantage of that pretty well. Only really an issue for me because the commentary team gave him a wrap at the end that seemed to ignore this part of his game tonight, I realise he's better than that.

Good performance by the Cowboys, fantastic game all round. Particularly impressed by Graham and Henry, very strong all night. Should be a very interesting year for the Cowboys' backline, looking forward to it really.

 

[Stewie Griffin]

best game of the night IMO, dont you love the hard hits?

no disrespect to webcke, but the broncos did not show that they missed the champion. It may not show until later, but in todays game our forwards did not look like they needed any inspiration from webcke. Petero provided.

 

[miccle]

Awesome match. Cracker. Bell-ringer. Add in any word here.

The atmosphere was incredible - 50,400-odd was an AWESOME turnout and the players really turned it on for us.

The game had absolutely everything and I think I aged 10 years just riding the highs and lows.

Congrats Cowboys on the win and congrats to the NRL - the best advertisement for the start of this season happened tonight

 

[Tigertread]

Just me or was Jason Smith a bit of a plodder in defense tonight? Seemed to be having trouble with players coming back inside and in replays of Broncos tries he looked to make a key appearance in a few of them, usually not trying to lay a hand on the fellow running past him because he was quite wrong-footed. Broncos took advantage of that pretty well.

I also found him a liability in defence, the Broncos were getting past him quite easily with the inside runner.

 

[Canard]

I think Jase could turn out to be a good asset for the club, but some of the "hype" surrounding him in the last few weeks has made out that he is the perfect footballer or something.

That sort of crap is always going to come back to haunt you.

 

[Charlie124]

Great game, i took something like 96 photos, had a great night.

LOL @ cutie at halfback, oh dear. from the comments on here he must have looked a hell of a lot better on TV than he did live, cos watching him from the stands he was dead set laughable appart from his solo try (which was basicly a fullbacks try). Hope he stays there.

Smith was very quiet, hopefully just dusting off the cobwebs, Matty Bowen was showing a lot more skill than he showed last year, not his best though.

Bring on round 2.

 

[Stewie Griffin]

I also found him a liability in defence, the Broncos were getting past him quite easily with the inside runner.

similar to what i wrote in another thread. After the chain of huge tackles the broncos made in the 1st half, Smith looks frozen and wanted nothing of the ball in his hands. Looks like he is the Perry of cowboys, a little bit better in attack, but definately worse in defense.

 

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

no disrespect to webcke, but the broncos did not show that they missed the champion. It may not show until later, but in todays game our forwards did not look like they needed any inspiration from webcke. Petero provided.

imo petero was the best prop of last year, and went real close the year before. if the broncos won, he shoulda got MOM imo.