Round 12 vs. Melbourne Storm Discussion

[Big Pete]

Brisbane Broncos vs. Melbourne Storm
Suncorp Stadium, Thursday 27 May 2021
Kick Off: 7:50pm

1. Jamayne Isaako 2. Xavier Coates 3. Herbie Farnworth 4. Jesse Arthars 5. David Mead 6. Anthony Milford 7. Albert Kelly 8. Rhys Kennedy 9. Jake Turpin 10. Payne Haas 11. Keenan Palasia 12. Tevita Pangai Junior 13. Thomas Flegler

Interchange: 14. Kobe Hetherington 15. John Asiata 16. Ethan Bullemor 17. Tc Robati

Reserves: 18. Dale Copley 19. Selwyn Cobbo 20. Richard Kennar 21. Cory Paix

1. Nicholas Hynes 2. George Jennings 3. Reimis Smith 4. Justin Olam 5. Josh Addo-Carr 6. Chris Lewis 7. Jahrome Hughes 8. Jesse Bromwich 9. Brandon Smith 10. Christian Welch 11. Felise Kaufusi 12. Tom Eisenhuth 13. Dale Finucane

Interchange: 14. Aaron Booth 15. Tui Kamikamica 16. Trent Loiero 17. Nelson Asofa-Solomona

Reserves: 18. Dean Ieremia 19. Isaac Lumelume 20. Aaron Pene 21. Cooper Johns

​

 

[Big Pete]

The Broncos didn't get long to celebrate their major upset against the Sydney Roosters, booking a match against the defending premiers. Melbourne go into this game severely understrength with Papenhuyzen, Munster and Grant all missing from action along with Kaufusi and Welch but they still have plenty of talent on show.

For the Broncos, Anthony Milford returns for his third stint of the season in a do or die performance. For Milford I think he needs to be around the football, he needs to simplify his game and just execute when he gets his opportunities.

TC Robati will also make his debut. TC is one of those stories that simply wasn't possible last year without QRL. He wasn't on the radar until he started to excel in the Wynnum system and now he has a 3 year NRL contract. I don't expect him to star in tonight's contest but from what I've seen of him at Wynnum he usually steps at least one player and gets a late offload away for his support, Arthars or Coates could be on the back of that.

Even with the outs, I still think Melbourne go in as deserved favourites. Still it's an opportunity to see how the Broncos improve under Kevie and which players emerge out of the wreckage that was 2020.

 

[renouf]

Melbourne just put anyone out there and they still flog whoever they play, it's so easy for them. Something seriously wrong with this competition..

 

[ALX25]

Surely that's the end of Milford's Broncos career.

 

[Big Pete]

Back to normal transmission for the Broncos tonight. A very disappointing effort coming off of the morale boosting Roosters win.

I actually thought they competed quite well in the opening exchanges and had Albert Kelly taken that offload to give Brisbane first blood it was game on. Kelly loses it and Melbourne score a soft try which was always going to make it tough. Brisbane were still in the game but when Milford started his series of errors it effectively gave Melbourne the game.

I wrote at the start of the game what Milford had to do and he basically did the complete opposite. One of the worst halves performances in club history and I wouldn't be shocked at all if that was his last game for Brisbane. He was just awful, passes way off the mark, poorly executed kicks and just no game awareness. The play that summed it up was when Pangai Jr who has an offload on him threw a speculator expecting Milford but Anthony was standing in a huddle. Instead it goes to Melbourne and Jennings strolls away to effectively seal it for Melbourne early in the second half.

Also it appears Haas will be out for the next month or so with a knee injury which is a huge blow for the club. Especially if Lodge is off to Newcastle in the coming weeks as reported.

On a brighter note TC Robati was one of the Broncos best. He ran with plenty of intent and provided the Broncos with a lot of momentum to work off of. A very impressive debut in a tough night for the Broncos.

I also thought Hetherington showed more in his second game scoring a try and picking some good lines to get in-between defenders.

 

[Nerd]

As per above surely this is Milford's last game ever for the Broncos. He just stifles whoever the other half is and is barely ISC standard. A lot of unforced errors made the Storms job easy including Pangai who in the absence of a proper 5/8 was trying to ball play instead of taking on the line. But back to Milford, 3 passes find ground, 1 sideways terrible kick, nearly caught with the ball multiple times on the 5th causing a rushed shit kick from someone else and 1 kick that led to a try but at that stage the game was well and truly over. Sending Milford back to Souths is just him taking up a spot some young player should be playing.

 

[League guru]

It is interesting how Storm can pluck players out of ISC and they fit into the pattern of play seamlessly. They are happy to bring players along in ISC over a period of time. While Broncos promote players with supposed potential but little experience. It appears the Broncos have little systems in place and a highly overrated playing roster.