Watching through the second half since I was distracted during most of it on Friday.
- Classic Broncos start to the second half. Normally it wouldn't be worth mentioning but this season we generally seem to start even flatter and it's caused us to lose plenty of games this year.
- In particular I thought Norman got us off to a really good start. Great long kick in the opening set had the Sharks pinned inside their left hand corner and he followed it up with one of best kick returns of the season. It basically gave us the momentum for the entire opening ten minutes.
- Taufua's shoulder charge on Wallace was a controversial call. I can see the argument both ways but I don't think the referees should have played advantage for that long. I can understand why since it basically forced Prince to kick which allowed Carney to bring it back to the field of play.
- We were desperately unlucky not to score during this time. For all money Norman should have scored from that Wallace grubber kick but a brilliant read from Jonathan Wright saved the day for the Sharks. Then Norman butchered a 3-2 opportunity before an errand knee on Prince completely killed our momentum.
- I thought he was one of our best but gee Hoffman stuffed up big time when he let Stapleton run 40m down-field when he should have been forcing a goal line drop out. Thank god for Ben Hunt.
- TRY to Hoffman. Good work from Hunt to over-rule Wallace and put Hoffman away with a simple but effective draw and past down the blindside. I thought McGuire's run in the build up deserves credit too.
- TRY to Gordon. This was soft and it all started with our staggered kick chase which gave Cronulla an opportunity to put up a lottery bomb into the corner. Don't know if Kahu got a touch on that but I can see why the refs ruled the way they did and sure enough Cronulla score a well worked try. The lead up and eventual play was just very smart from Carney.
- TRY to Bukuya. Sharks were winning the battle of the ruck at this point and a few rucks from the backs was all they needed to create some quick play the balls. I really like the look of Feki - admittedly hadn't seen much of him this year but he earns a lot of territory and has a very quick play the ball. Dodds' effort was terrible and it basically gave Hoffman way too much work.
- TRY to Feki. This was the straw that broke the camels back. We had two shots at the Sharks line and blew them either through bad passes/Maranta slipping over or a prop forward deciding it was time to do their best Lockyer impersonation. This right here was the moment that I wanted Norman dropped for good. I don't care how good that bomb was, it had to be taken and to let the Sharks score off of it is unforgivable.
- TRY to Oates. It was basically an example of 'if at first you don't succeed try, try again. The short kick off resulted in a Carney field goal but this time in similar circumstances it results in a well worked try to young Oates. He ran a 'sexy' line and I'm sure that's the first of many for him in first grade.
- TRY to Kahu. Amazing what happens when you have some body in motions - good work from Prince to change tact, good support from Norman and a damn good finish to Kahu to score the try. Also found it interesting to see Macca back in the backrow - I thought he made a decent charge too in the build up.
- The final scrap was a frantic bit of footy. Would have been interesting to see what might have happened if Hoffman had have allowed the ball to bounce. I don't blame him for a second but gee...would have been bloody interesting.
In summation, it really was the TC show. Without his expertise on those 4 plays, the Broncos would have scored a remarkable victory but it wasn't to be. Couple of loose ends really hurt us but I was really proud of the boys efforts and it's just a shame it's taken this long for it to happen.
