Round 8 vs. Warriors

[Nerd]

Why does everyone think Milford is a fullback. Your more exposed at 1 then you are at 6. He simply doesn't even put in, bit hard to dump it off to someone else from fullback.

Milford is either a fullback or out of the team. When he went back to fullback last year I thought his play improved and was much better than him in the halves.

 

[League guru]

Okay, then out of the team will do nicely thanks.

 

[Nerd]

Thinking back on this game there appears to be some basics that the Broncos are not doing well. Let's leave aside the fact that Darius Boyd is somehow still in the team week after week.

We are doing a huge amount of defence because of simple error after error and after all Rugby League is a simple game and it doesn't appear the players are well drilled in the basics. For example both Oates and Flegler put down the ball when taking a hit up because they were more interested in looking at the defence than catching the ball. Surely they still teach young players to turn their body towards the ball when receiving it making the body more front on to the ball and which subconsciously makes the player in that split second concentrate on receiving the ball instead of the defence.

Also in attack it seems to be a one out runner followed by another one out runner which invariably is so predictable that this one out runner is smashed by 2-3 defenders. I get the first run being a one out runner to get the set going but after that why not run in pairs with the dummy half occasionally doing a face ball to the outside runner? This prevents gang tackling from the defence as the outside defenders have to stay on the outside runner and also makes more of the defensive line have to come up therefore tiring them out.

Speaking of defence I noticed last night and in previous weeks that the majority of defenders try to take the ball runner high. If your a centre, winger or fullback I get this as they are trying to stay on their feet in case the ball is passed late and they have to slide to defend against another player. But for some reason all our forwards seem to be doing this instead of the first player going low and stopping their momentum and the second defender hitting them upstairs to prevent the offload. When blokes the size of Dearden or Milford attempt to go high they are invariably either brushed off or are just carried by the larger attacking player 5 or more metres past the point of contact causing our whole line of defence to be on the retreat when the inevitable quick play the ball happens because the attacking player is still on his feet.

Still on defence the days of slowing the tackle down are over but some of the Broncos don't appear to have received that message. The NRL have made the game much quicker like it was in the 80's and 90's and some advice from someone who last played in the early 90's is to stop trying to slow the tackle down so much and concentrate on getting back to marker to one prevent being penalised for not being square and two to prevent the dummy half from taking advantage of there only being one marker.

Sorry about the long rant but it's so frustrating to see the team I support playing so badly because as I see it they are getting the basics so wrong.

 

[gUt]

Basiv

Thinking back on this game there appears to be some basics that the Broncos are not doing well. Let's leave aside the fact that Darius Boyd is somehow still in the team week after week.

We are doing a huge amount of defence because of simple error after error and after all Rugby League is a simple game and it doesn't appear the players are well drilled in the basics. For example both Oates and Flegler put down the ball when taking a hit up because they were more interested in looking at the defence than catching the ball. Surely they still teach young players to turn their body towards the ball when receiving it making the body more front on to the ball and which subconsciously makes the player in that split second concentrate on receiving the ball instead of the defence.

Also in attack it seems to be a one out runner followed by another one out runner which invariably is so predictable that this one out runner is smashed by 2-3 defenders. I get the first run being a one out runner to get the set going but after that why not run in pairs with the dummy half occasionally doing a face ball to the outside runner? This prevents gang tackling from the defence as the outside defenders have to stay on the outside runner and also makes more of the defensive line have to come up therefore tiring them out.

Speaking of defence I noticed last night and in previous weeks that the majority of defenders try to take the ball runner high. If your a centre, winger or fullback I get this as they are trying to stay on their feet in case the ball is passed late and they have to slide to defend against another player. But for some reason all our forwards seem to be doing this instead of the first player going low and stopping their momentum and the second defender hitting them upstairs to prevent the offload. When blokes the size of Dearden or Milford attempt to go high they are invariably either brushed off or are just carried by the larger attacking player 5 or more metres past the point of contact causing our whole line of defence to be on the retreat when the inevitable quick play the ball happens because the attacking player is still on his feet.

Still on defence the days of slowing the tackle down are over but some of the Broncos don't appear to have received that message. The NRL have made the game much quicker like it was in the 80's and 90's and some advice from someone who last played in the early 90's is to stop trying to slow the tackle down so much and concentrate on getting back to marker to one prevent being penalised for not being square and two to prevent the dummy half from taking advantage of there only being one marker.

Sorry about the long rant but it's so frustrating to see the team I support playing so badly because as I see it they are getting the basics so wrong.

In other words our coach is out of his depth

 

[GoTheBroncs]

To be honest the comments from Oates before this game really concerned me.

Basically said that he didn't deserve to be dropped, because he wasn't going that bad and why weren't other under performing players being dropped.

News flash if you play crap for > 1 year then you are deserving of being dropped, regardless of how anyone else is playing.

Secondly, and more importantly, why throw your team mates under the bus like that?

There has been a lot of crap dished out in the media by the Broncos recently, but this one has really stuck with me. It really points to poor culture at the club, which is what I am afraid of the most. If that's the case, we can't turn this around quickly.

 

[Big Pete]

Just when you think it can't get any worse they go 2-6. The last two weeks were winnable games, they didn't give themselves an opportunity at all against the Gold Coast and then they let the Warriors game slip. Led 10-0 before the Warriors scored right before HT and from that point on it ended up 26-6.

Outside of the amazing Maumalo try, all the tries were incredibly soft. Classic Broncos defence with Coates jamming in off his wing to leave a mile of room down the left, then the Warriors just began isolating the small defenders.

The attack wasn't much better. Two tries came off the back of Warriors mistake, the only try they earned came off a suspect decoy from Farnworth who just barrelled into Beale. There was no review from the video referee, but it's one of those ones that could have easily been taken off them. Personally I think Farnworth was going on the inside and Beale just committed to the tackle.

At least they fired a shot this round. The past few weeks have been that bad, that seeing them actually lead was a marked improvement. I liked that they used the edge more and actually got the ball out of the middle. I could have done with less inside passes to Glenn, but it was a start and at least they used different points of the field to attack. I thought the kicking game was pretty solid, they just didn't capitilise on it as much as they should have.

Niu - Wasn't tested under the high ball as much but his kick returns largely left a lot to be desired. Seems to have difficulty hitting gaps and is an easy target on the defensive line. Only positive I see at this point is that he has quicker hands than Isaako on shift plays.

Isaako - Too many mistakes coming out of trouble and doesn't have the size or speed at wing.

Boyd - Came up with one good play where he salvaged Carrigan's offload to put Coates into some space enabling Croft to get a good kick in at the end of set. Otherwise just offers nothing and makes it easy for teams to triple up on Milford. His one run is usually out of dummy half going back into the middle of the field.

Farnworth - Was solid in defence, got physically dominated a few times working it out of trouble. Needed to show better judgement with that kick into the in-goal, once it bounced past him, needed to trust the kick or Coates to force the goal line drop out.

Coates - Had some superstar touches, that kick return coming out of the corner was fantastic and he's running a lot harder coming out of trouble. His defensive reads still need some work and he has a rookie error in him.

Milford - Was disgraceful in defence, hardly put any impact in his defence and was an easy target for the Warriors attack. Completely over-played the Coates break when all he had to do was run straight and pin the ears back. Had a couple of good touches, the strip was handy but he still spent far too much time hanging out on the left doing next to nothing.

Croft - Just seems like a limited player. He has a good dummy in him and his short kicking game is solid but he doesn't offer much. Not a great defender, but at least he puts more effort in than Milford.

Flegler - Constantly gets bounced off in defence and finds himself in weird positions. Has good foot work before the line but really has to fix up his technical facets.

Luke - Has been an improvement over Paix but he's never on the same page as his halves. Can only remember one occasion he got out of dummy half and put his half on the front foot, every other time he just tucked it underneath his arm and was easily tackled. He milked the Broncos one and only penalty, but then gave away a dumb one the next set which the Warriors would score off of. SOS Turpin.

Haas - Great carries coming out of trouble, defence isn't great but 200m+ right through the middle is nothing to sneer at. His best performance in quite some time.

Glenn - It was good to see him more involved with the football. Did come up with that one mistake where he over-played his hand and got Isaako bundled into touch but it's a start. As captain, I still want to see more involvement from him.

Pangai Jr - Started the game with a strong carry that saw Nikorima miss the rest of the game, but otherwise we hardly saw him. His defence on the right edge is really weak, too often Croft is left 1-1 and still has that odd bonehead play in him. At 10-0, Brisbane could have run away with it late in that first half, only for Pangai to throw it all away with a silly offload.

Carrigan - A little bit shakey but was strong through the middle, like Haas one of the few players who can hold their heads up. I still need him to improve his defence if he wants to stay at lock in this capacity.

Dearden - Was completely lost out of dummy half. Applied himself as best as he could, but has no feel for the position and struggled in defence. Has to be in the halves or not at all.

Kennedy - The game shifted the Warriors way when he came on. Just seems too big and slow for first grade.

Te'o - Barely noticed him. I've liked some of his contact when he's come on in the past few games, but he's clearly carrying a few kegs and can't get through a lot of work.

Oates - Came up with a bad error and looked just as lost in defence as Pangai but not a total loss. A couple of his runs were really productive and actually stretched the Warriors. I thought the interchange wasn't timely last week, but genuinely like him in this role.

 

[GoTheBroncs]

Hey BP, what's your thoughts on Niu?

He has only started out but I just don't see the superstar potential that has been reported. He is quite small and gets dominated by defence, and doesn't seem overly fast or agile to compensate. Probably still an upgrade on Isaako though.

Don't mean to pick on him as we have bigger problems, but just looking for the positives. So far this season the only obvious positive for me is Coates. Has a few things to fix up but you can just see that superstar potential.

 

[Big Pete]

That's a fair assessment, I've only seen a handful of games but even in U/18s he was one of those players where he struggled under the high ball and if he dropped one early the head would go down and that would be the game.

Niu is good in support and it was his combination with Tanah Boyd that won Souths Logan the Mal Meninga Cup against a strong Norths Devils line-up. In QCup, I thought he had some nice touches but struggled to get involved in games.

I thought if he was going to be picked this year, it would be at right centre and he'd re-ignite his combination with Coates. I think that's his spot if he can work on his defence, but I think he's at least a year away from making a real impact.