Round 12 vs. Storm Discussion + Voting

[Mr Saab]

Read on the telegraph website that Smith might not play for the storm cause of his flu. Would bring Brisbane right back into the game is this was the case

 

[Behold]

Had a look on the weather channel and its a shocking night in Melbourne according to them. I think this brings the Broncos back into it. We have been playing no frills football, and thats what you need in the wet. I would think Norman will be doing most of the in game kicking since kicking is something that really tests, groins and hamstrings.

 

[Big Pete]

Well...that sucked.

Thank god May is over, Hook just can't win in this month it seems.

Horror night, I didn't think we were that bad, we never gave in but nothing worked out for us and some of our players were just off. We had to score early to put them on the back foot but too many cheap turn overs (58% completion is terrible) & some soft defence made it too easy for them.

Our attack was very disjointed too. Wallace & Hoffman just didn't position themselves well enough to open up space on the outside & I thought Glenn & Reed down that fringe had their worse game in quite awhile.

Really thought tonight emphasised why Macca is so important. No offence to Hunt, but we just lose our shape with Macca off and lose that momentum through the ruck. He needs to play 60 min. from now on. Hunt should be in QCup putting pressure on Wallace.

3. Corey Parker - High involvement in both departments.
2. Andrew McCullough - We looked threatening with him on.
1. Ben Hannant - His second stint was great. Made some important tackles too which sealed it for me.

Special Mention: Josh McGuire, Ben Te'o, Matt Gillett, Scott Anderson

 

[Nerd]

Yes wasn't too flash. Wallace must be playing injured. If so give Hunt another run he couldn't be worse than Wallace was tonight.

3. Matt Gillett
2. Ben Hannant
3. Josh McGuire

 

[IBA]

Hunt wasn't too flash out there either. Pretty flat all over the park to be honest.

Real shame to see Hala go down like that. I like him out there. Wallace had a shocker and Norman was nowhere to be seen for the first 60 minutes.

I thought Copley and Anderson went well actually which is odd... Not man of the match well, but still...

Reed is having a bad case of second year syndrome and Hoffman is struggling with his timing in attack...

McCullough needs more minutes. He needs to play the first 40 at least. Him coming off and the 15 minutes up to half time is always our danger period.

Melbourne made our very average defence look worse, and we didn't bring anything in attack. There were actually a few little plays that were nice ideas but didn't quite execute.

Finally, 19/33 completions says it all. I don't think we would have beaten many teams tonight...

3. Parker
2. Hannant
1. McGuire

I guess...

 

[I Bleed Maroon]

A pretty ordinary night from what I hear (I was working so didn't watch the game). 3 losses on the trot is a little disappointing, and we've allowed 3 clubs to catch up to us.

I tipped the Cowboys to beat the Tigers, but now I'm suddenly hoping they lose.

 

[GoTheBroncs]

Well can't take too many positives out of that one I'm afraid. Thoroughly outplayed all over the park.

Agree with others in that Reed seems to be struggling second year. Wallace was terrible, just getting smashed all night with the ball. Norman looked ok when he decided to start playing in the last 20.

Our defence was basically non-existent and our attack was so telegraphed. I think I could tell exactly what we were going except for 1 play which surprised me. And we were standing so flat that every pass was nearly forward and we were standing flat footed.

3. Josh McGuire
2. Andrew McCullough
1. Ben Hannant

Storm played smart. Origin players backed up but only Billy had to play 80. They planned it well. Our forward should have been competitive but were out played.

 

[AceAv]

Well first 30 was shaping up to be a nice game. But we just started falling apart around the marker and ruck. I'm afraid melbourne are pretty much unstoppable this year. Smith, widdop, slater and co were cutting us to shreds. Our attacking chances were pretty high, but we made 5 crucial errors early. A lot of no cigar tries that would be executed against lesser teams. We have a lot of work to do before we face them again. The freezing numbing cold and players backingnup/ring rust/resting hopefully is a good excuse, but every team has a slump somewhere in the year. I just wish we actually did supported eachother on attack and defense like they did. Wallace, Parker, hannant -tho worked hard and did ok made some terrible reads. The counter attacks and grubby grapple & gouge tactics really seem to put teams off their game vs Melbourne, I dunno.

I'm more focused on origin this time of year to worry still. Our talent will get us to the finals, but it will be a shit fit for 2d place from here.

 

[Snappy]

Well first 30 was shaping up to be a nice game. But we just started falling apart around the marker and ruck. I'm afraid melbourne are pretty much unstoppable this year. Smith, widdop, slater and co were cutting us to shreds. Our attacking chances were pretty high, but we made 5 crucial errors early. A lot of no cigar tries that would be executed against lesser teams. We have a lot of work to do before we face them again. The freezing numbing cold and players backingnup/ring rust/resting hopefully is a good excuse, but every team has a slump somewhere in the year. I just wish we actually did supported eachother on attack and defense like they did. Wallace, Parker, hannant -tho worked hard and did ok made some terrible reads. The counter attacks and grubby grapple & gouge tactics really seem to put teams off their game vs Melbourne, I dunno.

I'm more focused on origin this time of year to worry still. Our talent will get us to the finals, but it will be a shit fit for 2d place from here.

Pretty much the story of all teams playing the Storm this year. You need to go with them for 80 mins, and the only team to do that was the Sharks. Dogs went 70, Cows went 50, and we could only go 35.

Storm were actually off their game in that first half but our inability to capitalise on that played them back into form.

 

[Mr Fourex]

No doubt there will be a lot of talk about why Griffin rested his SOO players and the likes of Bellamy and Souths didn't. Personally, whilst Thaiday, Hodges and Petero would have been welcome additions, I don't think having them on the filed would have changed the result.

The Storm were.....hot-ish, but some of the gaping holes that appeared in our defence really was deplorable.

Since others have already bagged Wallace...there's no need for me to, though suffice to say

at least he's a great defender..../

We were right in that game until about the 30-35 min mark. Don't really know what happened after that. A few of the boys really did have off nights. I thought Reed's defence at times was particularly ordinary.

Players who did do well IMO were, Ben Hannant who was tireless and stiffened up our middle when it was needed. Gillett played well...as much as he can, from the centres. I don't like him being out there tbh. I would rather see Copley be given a shot there when Hodges isn't playing. Copley has centre experience does he not? Copley was another one who I thought went alright. He is starting to come in looking for the ball more, his defence is soild and his error rate is becoming non-existent. His confidence is growing game by game and I think before the end of the year he'll have an absolute blinder.

Another thing that stood out was the passing from dummy half when Mc was off. It was atrocious, and it all wasn't just Ben Hunt. Wallace and Norman copped heaps of howlers from all and sundry.

David Hala's injury was heart breaking. That run and others he made during the game looked so so promising for the young bloke and for us. As a side note, Hadley was absolutely shitting me to tears by continuing to get Hala and Lui mixed up. Look at their numbers ffs Ray you dumb arsed merkin !!

Getting back to Griffin resting the SOO players. It's a thing that he decided to do early last year before SOO and he indicated that this year will be no different. He firmly believes that the replacements will do the job for us. I have to respect his fortitude in sticking with his plans. Just because other teams didn't do it means f*ck all to me. I still think we will be in good shape come the back half of the season and have all the players on deck when it counts.

2. Hannant
2. McGuire
1. Gillett
1. Copley

edit: Josh McGuire was once again......very impressive. I'm starting to notice the guy has great ball skills as well as being a mad merkin hit up man.

 

[AuDragon]

No excuses for this one. As Griffin said, worst game of the season by far!

3- Gillett
2- McGuire
1- Hannant

Honorable mentions to Copley and Te'o. That's it pretty much... :roll:

 

[Snappy]

Josh McGuire was once again......very impressive. I'm starting to notice the guy has great ball skills as well as being a mad merkin hit up man.

:lol:

Not arguing though

 

[GoTheBroncs]

The Storm were.....hot-ish, but some of the gaping holes that appeared in our defence really was deplorable.

As a side note, Hadley was absolutely shitting me to tears by continuing to get Hala and Lui mixed up. Look at their numbers ffs Ray you dumb arsed merkin !!

THIS

and

THIS

 

[Leagueaddict]

Yeah this one was pretty hard to watch to the death. So many of our players just ran hot and cold all night. Bad passes bad kicks. Kicking wise i don't think we bombed one on their try line all night? All we did was bomb trys! :? We had our chances early on but too many mistakes we handed it to the storm.

3 McCullough
2 Hannant
1 McGuire

 

[Behold]

3 McGuire
2 Hannant
1 Copley

Really question why Parker came off in the first half and I think he should've hooked Wallace at half time it wasn't his night. The main problem I've noticed this year is our lack of repeat sets. Wallace too often thinks we have to have to score each time we get inside the 20 Macca looks for them but his grubber from dummy half is never going to work out. We just arent applying that pressure.

 

[Bretto]

I stuck it out right till the end watching this one. It was bloody hard, the Storm got better as the game went on, and our defense got worse. Some of our defensive structure in the last 3 games has been woeful. Line speed has gone out the window, and there's a lot of shirt grabbers out there. I don't know what happens this time every year, but you can't blame Origin for poor defense by players - it's attitude, and it's something that needs to be fixed, and quickly, or we'll get rolled by much lesser teams.

I thought our attack was really terrible. Norman had a very quiet night - maybe a bit taken back by the situation, and the gravity of playing against Melbourne, in Melbourne maybe? Wallace was bad. Hunt was bad. Reed was bad - why the f**k won't he pass the ball to Copley? There was 2 times when Reed had the ball down that left side, and he'd got a 2 on 1 situation, but would not pass the f**king ball to Copley. This needs to change. Copley's runs in the middle are really quite good. He takes pressure off the forwards, he's quite strong, and he's turned into a safe player.

We really seemed to be missing something in this game. Maybe it was Hodges out wide, although he wouldn't account for the defensive lapses.

We went through this same thing last year. I think the team will come good, maybe they've been over training or something, I dunno.

 

[Snappy]

The main problem I've noticed this year is our lack of repeat sets. Wallace too often thinks we have to have to score each time we get inside the 20.

This. Just roll it into the bloody ingoal area god dammit

 

[Seagullsrock]

This. Just roll it into the bloody ingoal area god dammit

Easier said than done paticularly for McCullough.

 

[Bretto]

Lockyer was the best at getting repeat sets. I think too often modern players try and go for the big play on the last tackle, instead of just kicking it into the ingoal area and trying to get a repeat set. The Broncos halves really need to concentrate on basic footy.

 

[AceAv]

It was extremely hard to see Hala go down. I was pissed off with the lack of support our players offered each other. That injury should have not happened if we had Hoffman, Beale or someone offering support. Was pretty frustrating seeing 4 Melbourne players all turn up in support and no Broncs on many occasions. A big sign of how terrible they were all playing...

Agree 100% about the repeat sets. Melbourne is a team you just need to grind down and fatigue. It seemed Wallace resigned once again to. "Well don't know how to score against them, better put it up in the air for a gamble!"

It's amazing how lucky we are on the ladder to have all the teams who would overtake us lose in that week.