Round 18 vs. Sharks Discussion + Voting

[Nerd]

Big effort tonight but just not good enough.

Look Maranta is probably a great kid who tries hard but he is obviously way out of his depth in first grade. Surely there must be someone in under 20's that can replace him?

If it's lack of depth in the roster that stops him being replaced who's fault is that. The head coach is the man responsible for our roster!

Saying that, it's not Maranta's fault that we lost tonight. With the amount of field position we had in the first half the Bronc's should have put on at least 2 to 3 tries before half time.

Peter Wallace needs to be told to stay away from the ball once we get in another teams 20m zone. Prince at least looks dangerous with the ball in his hands unlike "last tackle cross kick Wallace" who has no clue.

Now is the time to drop Norman and start blooding some younger players in the team for next year.

 

[unbreaK]

"To the players credit they never stopped trying, never stopped believing, and they all earned the right to wear that jersey tonight" - Anthony Griffin at the press conference.

Delusional coach, lacklustre backline, heartless fullback, old and incompetent halves, this team will go a long way.

 

[Big Pete]

3. McGuire
2. Hoffman
1. Hunt

Hook is talking out his ass. Some players played out of their skins for us tonight and did everything they could to score us the win. On the other hand, others didn't or simply weren't up to it and that's where we lost.

Brisbane have accepted mediocrity and it's time for fans to voice their displeasure.

Hook gets a chance post-Origin to make some changes. I could accept not making any tonight, but the time is definitely upon us and it's time to start rolling the dice.

 

[Ghoulies]

In the spirit of Griffin's enduring optimism, I'll add to my earlier post by mentioning a few of the guys who played well/not as ordinary as they usually do.

McGuire was a beast. Tasi was effective both with and without the ball. McCullough actually threatened from dummy half on a couple of occasions (our support play was dismal though). Oates looks a good prospect. Maranta only tripped over himself once.

I feel better already.

 

[unbreaK]

1 - Joe Bond
2 - Jordan Kahu
3 - Justin Hodges
4 - Corey Oates
5 - Josh Hoffman
6 - Peter Wallace
7 - Ben Hunt
8 - Ben Hannant
9 - Andrew McCullough
10 - Josh McGuire
11 - Alex Glenn
12 - Sam Thaiday
13 - Corey Parker

14 - Matt Gillett
15 - Lama Tasi
16 - David Stagg
17 - David Hala

Good place to start

 

[Eddy]

This is said slightly sarcastically, but if Griffin can't fault the effort of any of our players then are we just a very bad footy side? If everyone is putting in 100% and that's what we get, we are going to find it pretty hard to make the eight let alone contest for a premiership anytime soon.

What I want to see is Hook getting away from playing people out of position just to get them in the 17. Thaiday is a test backrower, Hunt won player of the year at halfback so why are we playing them in different positions? Part of our strength early last season was Gillet coming off the bench and exposing tired oppositions either side of half time.

And one thing I definitely want to stop hearing is "Getting into the grind". We're getting into the grind just fine, we just don't know how to score any points! It was quite disappointing to not hear him at least acknowledge our terrible fifth tackle options and lack of attacking structure in the opposition 20.

Right, enough complaining. A couple of questions.

Where do we see Kahu's best position? He's finished some great tries out on the wing but I hear he's a pretty handy fullback. Should he be playing centre while Reed is out?

How good was Moose? Surely he's secured a starting spot with that performance.

 

[some11]

What I want to see is Hook sacked

[youtube]OOvBgmZXs5Q[/youtube]

 

[unbreaK]

If McG didn't secure a starting spot with those last 2 performances, he never will, and should probably look for another club.

8 - Hannant
10 - McGuire
11 - Glenn/Gillett
12 - Thaiday
13- Parker

14 - Gillett/Glenn

Sorry to one of Gillett or Glenn, but one of you guys needs to be coming off the bench.

 

[Country Bronco]

Difference between the two sides tonite was Todd Carney. Plain and simple. Sharks never looked like scoring unless he had something to do with it. As for the season over comments? Its been gone for sometime. For weeks upon weeks are ineffective attack has been obvious. Poor structure, No set plays, no support play, poor fifth tackle options, mistakes at crucial times and no finishing quality are all attributes of a floundering team. You've got to have speed also. We were in the grind last night. In the grind you look for a crack to get momentum. We did that with Hunt working with speed and playing a true half role by playing what's in front of him. Then we handed field position and a try then straight away before you knew it they had momentum and a winning lead. The game was gone. It comes down to playing the full 80. Our defence, completions, kicking game and forwards had kept in the game for a long time. Those tries at the end were on the back of our dominance is these key areas. But for 10 minutes we were woeful. McGuire, Dodds, Glenn, Hunt, Stagg, Hala, Oates, Prince, Hoffman, Lui, Kahu, Tasi, Anderson and Macca all had good games. Wait a minute....... Just checked stats on nrl.com McGuire 121m and 62 tackles. McGuire had a GREAT game. This leaves Wallace, Norman and Maranta as bad games. With the forwards doing so well, its going to be hard once Hannant and Origin players comeback for team selection. But here's my team

Hodges
Kahu
Oates
Glenn
Hoffman
Prince
Hunt
Hannant
McCullough
McGuire
Thaiday (not to play in middle)
Gillett
Parker

Wallace/Tasi
Hala
Dodds
Stagg

 

[Dazzat]

Difference between the two sides tonite was Todd Carney. Plain and simple. Sharks never looked like scoring unless he had something to do with it. As for the season over comments? Its been gone for sometime. For weeks upon weeks are ineffective attack has been obvious. Poor structure, No set plays, no support play, poor fifth tackle options, mistakes at crucial times and no finishing quality are all attributes of a floundering team. You've got to have speed also. We were in the grind last night. In the grind you look for a crack to get momentum. We did that with Hunt working with speed and playing a true half role by playing what's in front of him. Then we handed field position and a try then straight away before you knew it they had momentum and a winning lead. The game was gone. It comes down to playing the full 80. Our defence, completions, kicking game and forwards had kept in the game for a long time. Those tries at the end were on the back of our dominance is these key areas. But for 10 minutes we were woeful. McGuire, Dodds, Glenn, Hunt, Stagg, Hala, Oates, Prince, Hoffman, Lui, Kahu, Tasi, Anderson and Macca all had good games. Wait a minute....... Just checked stats on nrl.com McGuire 121m and 62 tackles. McGuire had a GREAT game. This leaves Wallace, Norman and Maranta as bad games. With the forwards doing so well, its going to be hard once Hannant and Origin players comeback for team selection. But here's my team

Hodges
Kahu
Oates
Glenn
Hoffman
Prince
Hunt
Hannant
McCullough
McGuire
Thaiday (not to play in middle)
Gillett
Parker

Wallace/Tasi
Hala
Dodds
Stagg

Not a bad side, except Hodges body would never stand up to running 150+ metres a game bringing back kick returns.

Glenn has no attack whatsoever this year, so playing him in the centre is counter-productive. I agree with unbreak - one of the two Gillett and Glenn have to start off the bench.

If Hunt can make such a big difference coming off the bench as a No. 9, imagine Glanville or Baptiste. If Griffin doesn't make this move by the end of the year we'll know that he's clueless.

 

[Russell Crowe's Band]

I thought your blokes played really hard.
Looked stronger hitting it up. Looked probably better than us with the ball.

Forwards really played strongly. But Wallace and Prince didnt do enough.
Toddy did when it mattered.

It was quite an entertaining game given the players out.

That McGuire looked really good.
As did Oates. Ran a good line.

 

[AceAv]

Maybe grif is overly loyal to the players because he's afraid he'll develop a bad relationship with them & turn up on the trash heap with henjack...

Besides that hopeless catch that cost us try 3. I thought Norman troubled sharks a lot. Made some good kick returns and was definitely trying. Please give examples to prove otherwise tho, as I would love the excuse to put bond in no#1

 

[Bretto]

There's no denying our effort. As mentioned, McGuire was absolutely fantastic last night. Easily the best on the field. The whole forward pack played like they wanted a first grade spot. They dominated the Sharks pack and made mountains of meters, but then when we got into the Sharks 30m zone, we didn't know WTF to do with the ball. I got so sick of seeing Wallace just bomb the ball to the corner. You see when Ben Hunt came on and sensed the defense was short down the blind side, drew 2 men and put Hoffman through a gap for the try. That's the play of a Halfback who plays what he sees.

Oates was impressive. The kid is only 19? Sign him up ASAP. I know BigPete, you've said he's a natural backrower, but I think we've seen enough to verify he can play centres legit. Tasi had a great debut. Heaps of enthusiasm and hit hard in defense.

To me, the problem last night was blindingly obvious. We have no problem making meters. Our forwards are great. We have no problem getting into the grind and completing our sets - At one stage last night we had completed 31 of 31 sets. Not a single mistake. Our problem is our Halves. Always has been. There is zero creativity there to finish off the forwards hard work.

3. McGuire
2. Hoffman
1. Hunt

I changed my 1 vote to Hunt from Oates.

 

[Russell Crowe's Band]

Both teams attacking kicks left a lot to be desired.
Bombs taken by the opposition. Over and over and over.

 

[Dazzat]

If one could look inside Griffin's head, I reckon you'd see re-runs of Peter Wallace's tackling, over and over again. Because that's the only thing keeping him in the team.

His limited attacking arsenal is cruelling the team. Case in point, the half break he made last night and just didn't have the speed to capitalise. Every halfback needs something to put questions into the opposition - speed (Shaun Johnson), step (Alfie Langer), acceleration (Steve Mortimer), uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time (Terry Lamb) or guile (Cronk).

Peter Wallace has none of these. Prince does have guile and used to have speed is obviously slowing down.

 

[1qaz]

Funnily enough Gagai was at the game last night to support the boys.
Shame one of his boys continues to play like a softcock.. you know in the same position Dane should be playing in for the Broncos for the next 10 years :crazy:

 

[Bretto]

Funnily enough Gagai was at the game last night to support the boys.
Shame one of his boys continues to play like a softcock.. you know in the same position Dane should be playing in for the Broncos for the next 10 years :crazy:

Left right out?

 

[Country Bronco]

Not a bad side, except Hodges body would never stand up to running 150+ metres a game bringing back kick returns.

Glenn has no attack whatsoever this year, so playing him in the centre is counter-productive. I agree with unbreak - one of the two Gillett and Glenn have to start off the bench.

If Hunt can make such a big difference coming off the bench as a No. 9, imagine Glanville or Baptiste. If Griffin doesn't make this move by the end of the year we'll know that he's clueless.

Hodges ? Only could really trust him at fullback. He's injury prone for sure. But it's a risk worth taking as he would provide a threat from a kick return and in attack in general. Defensively strong as well. Glenn just fills in until Reed returns then he goes to back row and Gillett to bench. Baptiste or Granville would get a shot if Wallace fails at utility role.

 

[Big Pete]

After Round 2 I believe Hodges' days at the back are numbered. He was absolutely gone after just ten minutes back there and I don't believe he's in better nick this far into the season.

Would be a good option if it was on the table but I don't believe it is.

Would rather we just play Bond back there. He's a stop gap option but at least he has some speed and he might give us some highlights to talk about.

I thought our forwards defended really well in the first half. Dodds was strong in the middle and Stagg handled a lot of traffic out-wide. I was pretty impressed with their performances and almost feel like Stagg should start to handle that defensive work-load and give Gillett/Glenn ample time to focus on their offence.

Difference was Carney and Gordon last night. Put them in a Broncos jersey and we win by a decent margin.

 

[Russell Crowe's Band]

No doubt.
Flash goes good.

It's been a long time since someone competent was in the sharks #1 jersey.
Have to go back to Peachey to be honest.