Daily Tele said:Broncos target Marshall, Prince
By Dean Ritchie
September 16, 2005
BATTLING Brisbane are preparing to test out possible defensive weaknesses of Wests Tigers halves Benji Marshall and Scott Prince in Sunday's elimination final.
The Daily Telegraph has compiled a dossier on both stars who can be suspect in defence.
Brisbane will throw numbers at Marshall - with and without the ball - in defence.
The theory is Marshall does get his shoulder into tackles but can get caught reading numbers and can become confused.
By defending on the right side, Marshall will confront Brisbane star Darren Lockyer, who generally attacks on the left side.
Lockyer will throw long cut-out passes and have players running either side into holes.
Prince, who defends on the left side, is not physically dominant and tends to leap or jump into tackles.
With both feet off the ground, Prince can be pushed off through a lack of balance.
"They'll try and isolate me on the edge, I expect Brad Thorn and Tonie Carroll to be coming my way," Prince said yesterday.
"They did it to us in the first round, they worked us over up the middle and dragged other defenders in. "That's when they come at us guys on the edge when we're a bit exposed.
"In that round one game they had us covered all over the park.
"With the size of their forward pack, they'll target us up the middle."
Brisbane showed this week they are ready to physically dominate the Wests Tigers by bringing into training the club's former hitman Peter Ryan.
Ryan urged Brisbane's forwards to turn up the aggression and test their smaller Wests Tigers rivals.
Ryan, fellow tough guy Andrew Gee, champion halfback Allan Langer and retired Origin five-eighth Ben Ikin all trained with the side with the emphasis on defence.
Brisbane's pack, led by 112kg giants Thorn and Shane Webcke, weighs in at a combined 622kg or 38kg more than the Wests Tigers who give away just over six kilograms a player up front.
"If you can belt them with defence early they could tend to go missing later in the game," said Ryan.
"It's about getting off the defensive line
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,16615453-23214,00.html
A team can do as many stats and figures they want but in the end, no amount of numbers and stats can stop a youthful team with bucketloads of enthusiasm, plenty of skill and nothing to lose.
Im not saying Tigers will win the GF(although I hope they do) I just think compared against the out of form ageing broncos who clearly ran out of steam 5 weeks before the semis started have no hope of containing the youthful tigers. I just hope the shalacking they gave cowboys didnt go to their heads.
Go Tigers!