Round 21 vs. Sydney Roosters Discussion

[Big Pete]

Sydney Roosters vs. Brisbane Broncos
SCG, Thursday 4 August 2022
Kick Off: 7:50pm

1. James Tedesco 2. Daniel Tupou 3. Paul Momirovski 4. Joseph Manu 5. Joseph Suaalii 6. Luke Keary 7. Sam Walker 8. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves 9. Sam Verrills 10. Matthew Lodge 11. Angus Crichton 12. Nat Butcher 13. Victor Radley

Interchange: 14. Connor Watson 15. Ben Thomas 16. Drew Hutchison 17. Terrell May

Reserves: 18. Adam Keighran 19. Fletcher Baker 20. Kevin Naiqama 21. Renouf Atoni 22. Siua Wong

1. Tesi Niu 2. Corey Oates 3. Kotoni Staggs 4. Deine Mariner 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. Kobe Hetherington

Interchange: 14. Jake Turpin 15. Rhys Kennedy 16. Corey Jensen 17. Keenan Palasia

Reserves: 18. Te Maire Martin 19. Zac Hosking 20. Xavier Willison 21. Delouise Hoeter 22. Cory Paix​

 

[Big Pete]

Selwyn Cobbo returns for the Brisbane Broncos for Thursday's clash against the resurgent Roosters. The last time these two teams met it was the Roosters who came from behind to win 24-20 off the back of a strong Manu performance. Both teams have improved since then so it should be a quality way to kick off the round.

Brisbane will be without Patrick Carrigan who has accepted a 4 match suspension from the judiciary. I think Carrigan is lucky that the judiciary didn't throw the book at him as I was expecting a 6 week suspension considering the talk out of the NRL and NSWRL media. It's definitely a blow for the Broncos as Carrigan was in rich form but it could prove a blessing with Haas, Flegler, Hetherington, Palasia etc. getting more opportunities.

Selection wise, the biggest surprise was Jake Turpin being preferred over Cory Paix. Paix has struggled to make the same impact since his MCL injury and I presume Kevie wants to give him a week in the QCup to get his confidence up.

There was also some surprise over Kevie retaining Niu and Mariner in the team. Considering Mariner forced his way into the 17, dropping him after a really solid debut would have been premature and a poor reflection of Walters as a coach. Meanwhile Niu has impressed since his return and while he does have some issues with his game, giving him an assignment like this gives him every opportunity to impress. I do think the Broncos are a far more dangerous team with him on the field and he's still got areas he can improve in.

Sydney go in as favourites while the Broncos will be looking to bounce back after a scatterbrained performance against the Tigers.

 

[Showtime]

You don’t realise how average Capewell and Riki are until you watch other teams edge forwards

 

[Showtime]

I cringe every time Niu touches the ball in attack. Individually he can do great things but he is a handbrake on a backline move.

 

[Big Pete]

Sydney Roosters 34 def. Brisbane Broncos 16 (Oates 2, Capewell tries; Reynolds 2/3 goals)

12-8

The scoreline flattered the Broncos. The Roosters were all over them early and had they maintained that standard through out the contest it would have been a bloodbath. However once Radley got busted open and had to come off their structures fell apart and they blew a number of opportunities to let the Broncos off the hook.

The Broncos just couldn't go with the Roosters during those early stages. The back three in particular made a huge difference as Suaalii, Tupou and Tedesco kept putting the Roosters on the front foot which just allowed the Roosters to get on the front foot, play to Crichton and expose the Broncos on the edges.

Once again that right edge was exposed a number of times. Teams are beginning to realise that if you target 2-3 in, the Broncos don't replenish numbers down that edge so you can just double up and have an easy overlap. Whereas before they'd try and go after Cobbo and it would usually give Staggs enough time to recover and use the sideline to help shut the play down.

The Broncos did have an opportunity to fight back but the attack was very pedestrian. Teams are beginning to figure out that left hand shape with Ezra and as long as they rush him and number up on Capewell they can shut it down. Ezra did come up with a response to Oates but it was a forward pass and the Broncos were fortunate to get away with it.

The other play was to give Tesi Niu the ball down the right but he didn't play direct which gave Staggs and Cobbo very little space to work with. Tesi has become the scapegoat amongst Broncos fans and while they've been harsh it's clear he isn't cut out for first grade just yet and the Broncos would be better off with Te Maire Martin at this stage.

 

[DeeJ]

We got smashed out of the game by the Roosters forwards for the first 20 min and since then, they easily made metres.

We are failing to build pressure with our kick chase or from 5th tackle options unfortunately. Roosters are a tough opponent, hopefully they can improve this week.

I'm all for having Martin back at fullback while we go through this slump.