Round 10 vs. Manly Sea Eagles Discussion

[Big Pete]

Manly Sea Eagles vs. Brisbane Broncos
Suncorp Stadium, Friday 5 May 2023
Kick Off: 8:05pm

1. Tom Trbojevic 2. Jason Saab 3. Brad Parker 4. Tolutau Koula 5. Reuben Garrick 6. Cooper Johns 7. Daly Cherry-Evans 8. Taniela Paseka 9. Lachlan Croker 10. Sean Keppie 11. Haumole Olakau'atu 12. Kelma Tuilagi 13. Josh Aloiai

14. Karl Lawton 15. Ben Trbojevic 16. Ethan Bullemor 17. Aaron Woods

18. Samuela Fainu 19. Kaeo Weekes 20. Ray Tuaimalo-Vaega 21. Christian Tuipulotu 22. Ben Condon

1. Reece Walsh 2. Jesse Arthars 3. Kotoni Staggs 4. Herbie Farnworth 5. Selwyn Cobbo 6. Ezra Mam 7. Adam Reynolds 8. Thomas Flegler 9. Billy Walters 10. Payne Haas 11. Kurt Capewell 12. Jordan Riki 13. Patrick Carrigan

14. Cory Paix 15. Corey Jensen 16. Keenan Palasia 17. Martin Taupau

18. Deine Mariner 19. Xavier Willison 20. Jock Madden 21. Delouise Hoeter 22. Kobe Hetherington​

 

[Big Pete]

Haas and Mam return in the Broncos first game against their former coach Anthony Seibold.

Both teams are very up and down which makes the game difficult to judge. I consider both Top 4 smokies but they have some serious questions they need to answer before they can cement a spot. For the Broncos it's their ability to get into the arm-wrestle. Too often they're guilty of passive in defence and giving away cheap penalties. It basically means unless they're holding the football and drawing penalties, their handle on games is tentative at best.

With Manly it just comes down to the fitness of Turbo and whether he can ever get to 100% or even get by at the rate he's going now. I think Koula is a big inclusion for them and should make them more deadly down their right. I expect a lot of cross-field kicks coming Arthars way, so that side is going to have to protect him the best they can.

 

[Big Pete]

Brisbane Broncos 32 (Selwyn Cobbo 3, Billy Walters, Jesse Arthars, Herbie Farnworth tries; Adam Reynolds 4/5, Kotoni Staggs 0/1 goals) def. Manly Sea Eagles 6

8-2

I thought Manly had the game to beat the Broncos, fortunately for Brisbane they didn't execute on it. Manly kept letting Brisbane off the hook with cheap errors and Brisbane made them pay. Payne Haas and Patrick Carrigan led the way, going straight through the front door of the Sea Eagles defence which gave the likes of Reynolds, Walsh and Mam the space they needed to weave their magic.

Cobbo and Arthars nailed their assignments and with a 20-0 half-time lead, the Broncos set themselves a nice buffer in the second half. Manly played better in the second half and caught Brisbane out a few times down their left-hand side. The Broncos scrambled and when Tommy Turbo floated a desperate pass for Garrick, Cobbo was there and just like he did in last year's Magic Round, he scored against the run of play to seal the win.

It was a good bounce back from the Broncos. They put the Manly back three under all sorts of pressure with their kick and chase then they executed well off the back of it. In the second half they could have been tempted to over-play their hand, but they just went set for set with Manly where they eventually got them in the back-end.