Round 8 vs. Cronulla Sharks Discussion

[Big Pete]

Brisbane Broncos vs. Cronulla Sharks
Suncorp Stadium, Thursday 28 April 2022
Kick Off: 7:55pm

1. Te Maire Martin 2. Corey Oates 3. Kotoni Staggs 4. Herbie Farnworth 5. Selwyn Cobbo 6. Tyson Gamble 7. Adam Reynolds 8. Corey Jensen 9. Billy Walters 10. Payne Haas 11. Kurt Capewell 12. Jordan Riki 13. Kobe Hetherington

Interchange: 14. Cory Paix 15. Rhys Kennedy 16. Thomas Flegler 17. Keenan Palasia

Reserves: 18. Brenko Lee 19. Jordan Pereira 20. TC Robati 21. Ezra Mam 22. Ethan Quai-Ward 23. Logan Bayliss-Brow 24. Ryan James

1. Will Kennedy 2. Sione Katoa 3. Jesse Ramien 4. Siosifa Talakai 5. Ronaldo Mulitalo 6. Matt Moylan 7. Nicho Hynes 8. Toby Rudolf 9. Blayke Brailey 10. Aiden Tolman 11. Briton Nikora 12. Teig Wilton 13. Dale Finucane

Interchange: 14. Jack Williams 15. Cameron McInnes 16. Royce Hunt 17. Andrew Fifita

Reserves: 18. Braydon Trindall 19. Wade Graham 20. Matt Ikuvalu 21. Mawene Hiroti 22. Lachlan Miller 23. Luke Metcalf 24. Franklin Pele​

 

[Big Pete]

Walters has announced an unchanged line-up against the Sharks for tomorrow night's game. Brisbane go in as underdogs as Cronulla have been one of the form teams of the competition and recently put 34 points on Manly before putting the cue in the rack. Meanwhile it took Brisbane 55 minutes to get into the game against a Canterbury side that invited them back into the contest, it's doubtful that Cronulla will offer them the same opportunity.

Players to keep an eye on will be Martin, Cobbo and Paix. Te Maire made a successful comeback after being out of the NRL for three years and went looking for work which was a positive sign. If he can build on that the Broncos may have found their fullback for the rest of the season. Cobbo came to life in the last few moments of the game and strung together some plays that justified the Latrell/GI comparisons. He appears to be improving each week so it'll be interesting to see how he goes against a talent like Mulitalo. Finally there's Paix who currently finds himself sitting behind Walters but if he continues to put in performances like last week he could wind up as the dummy half moving forward.

Broncos fans have been calling for Paix to be selected over Turpin for sometime and it did appear he was going to start at 9 before COVID knocked him down the pecking order. He appears to be the more dangerous player with ball in hand, but his defence does leave something to be desired. I don't think he'll be as good as Turpin in that department, at least not within the span of the season, but if he can work on his combinations he could be an improvement for them.

One name I'll be keeping an eye on is Jensen. He was among the Broncos best against the Panthers but he failed to follow that up the week after against Canterbury. I recall his inconsistensy being a knock on him against the Cowboys as well.

 

[Miller was a legend]

Nice job Pete

 

[Big Pete]

Brisbane Broncos 16 (Staggs, Farnworth, Capewell tries; Staggs 1/1, Reynolds 1/2 goals) def. Cronulla Sharks 7

4-4

I thought the Broncos were a lot better during the opening stanza. They clearly made a point to deny Talakai as much space as possible after his incredible performance against Manly and were largely successful for the majority of the match.

There were still some nervous moments for the Broncos and Cronulla did have the ascedency in the ruck for large periods but they couldn't quite convert their opportunities.

In attack it took awhile for the Broncos to click. They had their opportunities early but some poor execution at critical moments often let them down. It took them until the closing stages of the first half to really put any attack together when Gamble and Martin combined to put Staggs away. Even so, Cronulla were entitled to show Staggs the sideline, but Talakai bit on a dummy and Staggs did incredibly well to avoid the sideline.

The Broncos enjoyed a glut of possession to open the second half and made the most of it putting on two tries. The most pleasing thing for the Broncos is how organised their attack was. They stretched the Sharks defence before using their forwards to draw in numbers to the middle creating 1-1 scenarios which Farnworth and Capewell proved too strong.

Brisbane were entitled to score more points and created a number of line-breaks but just couldn't quite capitilise. The Sharks did very well to scramble but the Broncos also failed to find the last pass or got too fancy with flick passes. Their ambitious style still worked in their favour as Cronulla didn't have a lot in the tank and it appeared the return of Wade Graham may have over-complicated matters down that edge.

In the end, the Broncos were able to hold on running out the clock and scoring a very tough fought two points.

Both Reynolds and Haas had to come off the field. Reynolds copped an accidental elbow from Kennedy that required stitches. He was fine and his return was crucial for the Broncos second half as his work both in attack and defence was instrumental. Haas' shoulder went right before half-time and despite playing on he had to come from the field. At this stage he's expected to play next week but the doctors will reassess.

On the three players I highlighted - Martin combined well with the backline and outside of a few shakey moments where he was caught in the defensive line he looked very comfortable. Paix came up with a bad mistake on last tackle where he got caught at dummy half and didn't have as much impact as other weeks. He's still clearly a work in progress. Finally Cobbo did very well with his tough assignment. He made some good carries coming out of trouble, he defused a lot of kicks and was strong in defence denying Talakai right at the death. Jensen was also very solid and much improved on his performance from last week. He toiled hard and pushed himself as hard as he could. The poor guy was absolutely buggered when Moylan kicked between him and Haas for their opening points.