Which is why I think we should go into the market for a Lama Tasi or Tom Learoyd Lahrs, even a Kane Evans if we can. We need somebody with a bit of size to compliment the work ethic of Parker and Hannant through the middle. It may sound crazy considering how much of how cap is already invested into our pack and some of our players coming through but it's an area I feel is misunderstood.
I'm happy with that set up GTB, we may even go half and half with the tally. You can handle the first four rounds, I'll handle the last four.
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Re-watching the game as we speak on NRL.com and I'm glad we did. Couple of talking points out of the game.
The Opening 10 Minutes
A total reverse on last week where the Souths surprised us with how poor they were, Eels played with a lot more energy than the boys had anticipated. The opening sets really tell the story here, Parra made an impressive gain of 60m and even had us under pressure with a tricky Hayne chip kick. On the back of that, Brisbane struggled to gain half of that. Resulting in Parramatta establishing a 10 point lead in their next two sets.
The Craig Hall award
Now you guys might be thinking who or what is this award about, let me explain.
In that golden point thriller game against the Knights in 04, the Knights had this nuffy of a winger named Craig Hall. Except he wasn't a nuffy in Round 10 2004, oh no, he was a wrecking machine, powering his way over the line like he was Manu Vatuvei.
Y'see there seems to be this phenomenon where truly average players tend to play like immortals against us. In Round 8, the honor went to Jason Clark who showed the foot-work of Reg Gasnier to find his way to the line, this week, I'm prepared to give it to Luke Kelly for those first ten minutes alone.
The Northern Territory junior threw an excellent dummy to give Hayne all the room he needed to score. Then he showed some real confidence promoting the ball in the last, resulting in Loko's chip kick play which saw Luke's name on the scoreboard before ending the rampage with a sublime kick into touch which had Brisbane camped down inside their own 10m line.
Ben Hunt
It was only a matter of time before Prince's dodgy hammies played up and sure enough it was right when he was showing some good signs. The silver lining here is that it gave former NYC player of the Year, Ben Hunt the chance to stake his claims. I'll be honest with you all, I've got a soft spot for Hunt and really see him as a long term option. He may not have the skills, but he has the instincts and you can't teach those.
So he was on my BP Player Cam. Overall, I thought he was solid. Threw some nice tip on passes that created half opportunities, including one that resulted in the opening try of the night. Defensively, I thought he committed himself very well, cleaning up a lot of kicks in the in-goal which could have easily resulted in Eels points and forced the odd mistake too.
Second half wasn't as good, threw some bad passes namely to Gillett when it was a 12-12 game then later on with ten to go he put Wallace under all sorts from dummy half. I'll touch on that circumstance later. What I liked was that he gave Hodges some good early ball.
It astounds me how something so simple isn't
Ashley Klein & Gavin Reynolds
When you get beaten by a side like Parramatta, the referees should be the last people you point the finger at. However, a lot has been made on here and across the forum on their performance and reviewing their performance became a priority.
And yes, they sucked.
I'll nominate a few examples.
- 50/50 forward pass ruling against the Broncos when they had all the momentum.
- Hayne being a mile offside at marker when he knocked the ball out of Macca's hands.
- Thaiday penalised for a late tackle. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that play. Both teams received soft penalties, but this was just blatantly incorrect.
- Kahu ruled to have knocked on when attempting to force Hodges' grubber when in fact, Hayne had knocked it into him. This call is forgiveable given it wasn't picked up until replay, but never the less, another call that didn't go the Broncos way.
- Kahu ruled to have knocked on again when the ball clearly went backwards.
- McCullough penalised for Sandow running straight into him. McCullough was stationary when Sandow tripped himself over him. This gave the Eels the 7 point lead which we couldn't cut down.
- Originally ruling no try against Ben Hunt when it was one of the more clear cut decisions you're going to get.
- I'm also skeptical about the Reed no try decision. Fox Sports never gave us a proper replay and I'd like to be able to judge it for myself. I'm happy to give Klein the BotD on that call though.
The two decisions that Parra fans are crowing about weren't really bad calls. They sin-binned the wrong player, Lussick should have been binned for running third man in and throwing punches but that's it.
The penalty against Loko for putting Norman into touch when it was Norman who put his hand over the sideline really had no bearing on the game. Either way, it was the Broncos ball since Norman put his hand on the sideline in the act of getting ready to play the ball. Regardless, in those situations 99% of the time it's a penalty against the opposition.
Still, refereeing isn't what lost us the game. I just thought I'd make mention of it since a thread was made about their performance in the NRL board.
Jordan Kahu
Showed some really good signs. I don't think Lachlan Maranta would have scored that opening try and I think he's a stronger carrier of the football. Unlike Maranta who usually gets dominated by the defence, Kahu was making good metres and getting a relatively decent play the ball together. He did make a meal of a bomb early in the game which was thankfully ruled as a knock back but didn't receive much luck later on when Norman threw that pass to him.
Bit early to go crazy over him but as it stands, he's earned his spot for next week.
That Pass
Stop the fight, there's your Steve Michaels award winner for this week. The Michaels award, for those who aren't apart of BHQ, is awarded to the player who comes up with the dumbest play of the week, honoring of course Steve Michaels 2009 season, regarded as one of the worst in club history.
What a dumb play. There was nothing to be gained from it and it was a dumb pass. No wonder fans are quickly turning on Norman.
Final Ten Minutes
The decision to take McCullough off with ten to go was baffling. Brisbane had to completely restructure, forcing the following changes...
1. Josh Hoffman
2. Jack Reed
3. David Stagg
6. Corey Norman
9. Ben Hunt
and it clearly hurt us because Hunt's service isn't as good as McCullough's and Hoffman isn't adept at the second man play at the line.
Ultimately, it lead the boys to work it out of their own half and make a number of low percentage plays which were never going to pay off.
Votes
3. Sam Thaiday
2. Corey Parker
1. Josh Hoffman
Thought Sam really lead from the front and put together his best performance as a prop forward in that game. Very good in both attack and defence I thought.
Typical Parker performance with some great runs thrown in that should have given us more momentum.
Tough pick for the last point. Could have gone to Kahu, Hunt, Wallace or Glenn but I thought Hoffman gave us a real boost with his runs and it deserved some attention
