POST GAME Round #16 vs Newcastle Knights

[Super Freak]

I think this ref had money on Milford FTS..

Look how red he is. His face looks like a giant strawberry.

 

[morganmorgan]

Yeah. I think if reed plays we probably score 1 more try and stop 2 of theirs. At least it keeps the boys level headed

 

[Super Freak]

Bennett in the presser..

"What do you take away from a game like that, Wayne?"

"Two points."

Gave Hodges a bit of a laugh.

 

[Porthoz]

Disappointing game, and I'm not even including the McGuire loss. We had the chance to show every other team what we were made of, and all we did was turn over possession cheaply and then immediately concede points. Some fantastic cover defence at times, immediately ruined by poor decision making and inexperience. We really need Reed back.

Perhaps I'm being harsh, last week would have taken a lot out of them. And we never ever looked like losing. And two of their tries were scored directly because we had injured players - Blair not being there to cover because he copped a boot to the face, and then McGuire going down and leaving a yawning gap. But still... I just expected better.

Actually, 3 of their tries come right after an injury to our players. The Blair kick to the face, opening that avenue for Levi, the Sims one after Moose's misfortune and when Kahu miss-tackled Gagai, he was still groggy from an (accidental) elbow to the face by Uate (when he intercepted that Milford pass).

Speaking of Milf, he really was rocks and diamonds tonight.
Fantastic try, great assist for Gillett's second, great chase to slow down Gagai enough so he could be put in touch with Kahu's help.
On the other hand, he was targeted and found out a few times in defense, often grasping at air, and that translated to his outside men, who were less effective than usual. It's obvious he has built a good rapport with Reed, and that didn't translate last night.
There were also a few risky passes in attack, which resulted in intercepts and the opposition running almost the length of the field, one of which resulted in Uate's try.

As usual we scrambled really well and our goal line defense was very good, but we opened a few gaps in that left side defense, which Tapine and Gagai took advantage of, but the Knights were pretty lucky to get 4 tries out of this game to be honest.

On the positive side of things, Hunt's kicking wasn't too bad, neither was our go forward, despite Moose's loss. Parker's goal kicking was great, our attack combinations are great with Boyd chiming into the play very well and taking the right option at the right time, which has always been his best attribute. I hope he's able to replicate 2010, where he was awesome for the dragqueens.

Individually, many players deserve praise, like Oates, Glenn, Parker, Macca or Hodgo. The bench was also quite good, with the exception of poor Coops, who can't catch a break this year. Parcell had one mistake, but kept us otherwise on the front foot, and was fundamental in that finish to put away the Knights, Wallace did the job, and Dodds was hitting hard in defense and took a few good hit-ups too. He's the guy I'm looking at to help overcome McGuire's loss.

Finally my top 3:
1pt for Maranta doing everything well, in defense as usual, but also in attack where he seems to have lost most of that indecision that made me think he would never make it as a FG regular. The kid is making me eat my hat, and kuddos to him, he certainly deserves it!

2pts for Blair, who had imo, his best game for the Broncos. His chase of Uate prevented a try and illustrated his will to do the 1%'s most coaches want. Well done!

3pts for Gillett, who looks to have more license to attack from Wayne, now that he has fixed his defensive lapses. He was a machine out there again today, both in attack and defense, and we will need him at his best to go far in the comp!

 

[Brent81]

First game I've gone to this season and Josh does his achilles FFS.

Some poor defence but excellent attack, must be an unwritten rule for 44-22 type games to induce a Mexican wave.

To be fair, the defence wasn't bad.

The Knights scored 12 points directly as a result of injuries. Blair got kicked in the face (third try) and they made a break through where McGuire would have been standing.

 

[broncsgoat]

pretty gutting when you set the line at -23.5 and win by 22

 

[Bucking Beads]

Shatterd to hear about Josh McGuire. A huge loss for the Broncos but an equally bigger loss to the Maroons who have nobody to replace him with. The Broncos at least have some depth in the forwards this season so they'll still be right. Just sucks to see one of the good guys of Rugby League get dealt such a blow.

 

[mieko]

Not the best game by a long shot but happy to come away with the win although at a cost. Gutted for McGuire, poor bastard. Was having a great season till now, will be a huge hole to plug. Defense was a bit all over the place there for a while but stepped up in the last 20. We really should have shut the game out being 20 nil, still some work to be done.

wins a win, roll onto next game.

 

[Bull Shark]

Disappointing game, and I'm not even including the McGuire loss. We had the chance to show every other team what we were made of, and all we did was turn over possession cheaply and then immediately concede points. Some fantastic cover defence at times, immediately ruined by poor decision making and inexperience. We really need Reed back.

Perhaps I'm being harsh, last week would have taken a lot out of them. And we never ever looked like losing. And two of their tries were scored directly because we had injured players - Blair not being there to cover because he copped a boot to the face, and then McGuire going down and leaving a yawning gap. But still... I just expected better.

very difficult for a team in any sport to not suffer some sort of let down after a big physically & mentally draining performance the game before (especially NRL) ... particularly if they win and then there's a shortish turnaround to the next game.

It was a tough spot for Brisbane last night and while it was fortunate they were playing a team that was extremely low on form & confidence, the up & down performance they produced last night was to be expected imo.

... and next week's bye is exactly what they need.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Bennett said in the press conference that they didn't train well this week and he was half expecting a mediocre performance.

 

[rnabokov]

Very fair comments about tiredness, the effects of last week and short turn around, and it was a good win. 2 points is 2 points, and there were a lot of positives (as well as the damn injury negatives).

I just want to see the ball get passed a lot more rather than playing it up the middle - brings back too many bad recent memories.

 

[Sproj]

1. Boyd - He's definitely getting his zip back, great to see. Still has some issues with positioning at fb though. How long did it take him to recover from his Achilles? 7.5
2. Oates - Put him in origin either on the wing or bench, he just does so much whenever on the field and seems to score every game he plays. Is already a superstar, unbelievable what he could become. 8.5
3. Kahu - Not his best game and possibly his worst. He seemed injured from early but still pulled off a fantastic try saver on Gagai from fb. 6
4. Hodges - Was very effective as always but seems to have started a free-for-all at dummy half with everybody pushing everyone else out of the way regularly for a run now. Fantastic in attack. 8
5. Maranta - He is a cross between Willie Carne and wing Darius Boyd in my view. What a great winger he has become. 9
6. Milford - I love that he seems to be getting more responsibility each game, once he fixes the errors, we have two lethal halves and other teams will struggle even more to contain us than they already do. His solo try was good fun. 7
7. Hunt - He was pressured all night and still controlled the game really well. Some beautiful tries he set up. 8
8. McGuire - Yep, this one hurts. He was brilliant yet again before it happened. Will be missed. 9
9. McCullough - I cannot believe Newcastle fell for the dummy! He is just a tackling machine and then switches to lock/second-row late in games for even more work! 8.5.
10. Blair - I am very tempted to give him a ten and hat shocks me as much as anyone. He was amazing from start to finish. His chase on Uate was awesome. He then stepped up his output and hit ups when McG went down. Even though he got kicked in the eye, could he have made it back to plug that hole? 9.5
11. Glenn - Threatened with every run but seemed to lack a little spark tonight which is understandable. Still very good. 8
12. Gillett - Two tries, great defense and just a menace everywhere. Origin 2 has awoken out sleeping giant, look out!! 9.5
13. Parker - How many different colours was his nose tonight? He must be feeling woozy from how much blood he lost from that thing. Kicked well and seemed to relish last week's rest. 9

14. Parcell - Still has some silly little errors in him and got bullied out of the way a bit by Hodges but just has so much upside! 7
15. Dodds - He tackled a lot but I didn't not if the same energy in his runs as last week. We need more from him now than ever before. 6
16. Wallace - The last couple of weeks he has started to slowly get back to his early season form and I thought he ran very well last night and especially after Moose went off. We need that from him now. 8
17. Copley - looked good in the two minutes he was on but probably won't remember much of it. Could he become a wide running second rower? 4

 

[Huge]

Very fair comments about tiredness, the effects of last week and short turn around, and it was a good win. 2 points is 2 points, and there were a lot of positives (as well as the damn injury negatives).

I just want to see the ball get passed a lot more rather than playing it up the middle - brings back too many bad recent memories.

True, one outs are annoying but I think most of our tries came from passing and we did score quite a few. Were it not for a couple of injuries at certain moments we would have won by 30 or more. When you consider the 5 day prep, emotional come down etc it wasn't a performance that really disappointed and I think if we counted the passes we probably made quite a few. Next game we get the boys back, battered and bruised but for once the two points won't be of critical importance and we will still be comp leader ! ( cows upset by sharks tonight )

 

[Sproj]

True, one outs are annoying but I think most of our tries came from passing and we did score quite a few. Were it not for a couple of injuries at certain moments we would have won by 30 or more. When you consider the 5 day prep, emotional come down etc it wasn't a performance that really disappointed and I think if we counted the passes we probably made quite a few. Next game we get the boys back, battered and bruised but for once the two points won't be of critical importance and we will still be comp leader ! ( cows upset by sharks tonight )

Gallen is out right? Very strong possibility Sharks do win then.

 

[rnabokov]

True, one outs are annoying but I think most of our tries came from passing and we did score quite a few. Were it not for a couple of injuries at certain moments we would have won by 30 or more. When you consider the 5 day prep, emotional come down etc it wasn't a performance that really disappointed and I think if we counted the passes we probably made quite a few. Next game we get the boys back, battered and bruised but for once the two points won't be of critical importance and we will still be comp leader ! ( cows upset by sharks tonight )

I have taken those points you made into account in my post and I am not disappointed with the result. It's just that one out running makes me shudder.

I also have my misgivings about the defensive structures we employ about which their is a separate thread. Yes, it worked a treat against the Storm, and yes, our overall defence is superb - tackling technique, support, communication and the way our slide works so very well. It was truly brilliant last week.

At the same time, unless it was because of all the caveats posted about this game, Gagai's 1st try looked to me as a result of the defence waiting for him, standing flat footed, and his power and speed showed what can happen if you wait for someone like him to come to you at speed.

The points about Slater/Cronk being, or not being there last week have been made and I won't re-visit that, but I wonder, as I have already posted, how our "new" defensive structure and style will stand up to a side with genuine game breakers running with momentum at a defensive line waiting instead of moving forward to meet them with momentum, and cutting down their space and time.

The Storm had no game breakers. The Knights did in Gagai.

Anyway, time will tell about our defence when we come up against Souths, Roosters and Dragons who have clever halves, offloading experts and/or strong, elusive runners like Inglis Jennings/RTS and Dugan.

Again, I am NOT taking anything away from this great win, nor am I pouring scorn on Kearney Koaching. I just want to see it work against the very best, full strength attacks in the competition.

 

[Huge]

I have taken those points you made into account in my post and I am not disappointed with the result. It's just that one out running makes me shudder.

I also have my misgivings about the defensive structures we employ about which their is a separate thread. Yes, it worked a treat against the Storm, and yes, our overall defence is superb - tackling technique, support, communication and the way our slide works so very well. It was truly brilliant last week.

At the same time, unless it was because of all the caveats posted about this game, Gagai's 1st try looked to me as a result of the defence waiting for him, standing flat footed, and his power and speed showed what can happen if you wait for someone like him to come to you at speed.

The points about Slater/Cronk being, or not being there last week have been made and I won't re-visit that, but I wonder, as I have already posted, how our "new" defensive structure and style will stand up to a side with genuine game breakers running with momentum at a defensive line waiting instead of moving forward to meet them with momentum, and cutting down their space and time.

The Storm had no game breakers. The Knights did in Gagai.

Anyway, time will tell about our defence when we come up against Souths, Roosters and Dragons who have clever halves, offloading experts and/or strong, elusive runners like Inglis Jennings/RTS and Dugan.

Again, I am NOT taking anything away from this great win, nor am I pouring scorn on Kearney Koaching. I just want to see it work against the very best, full strength attacks in the competition.

I never thought you were being disparaging at any stage and I do know you had made most of those points previously. I thought playing Melbourne in Melbourne would have been a good gauge to our progress but I think for most of us it raised a few questions too. I have an idea that our defence is based on the notion that we waste enormous energy jumping off the line which is something Ipswich count on the opposition doing.

I think WB has reasoned we should step a pace or two forward but do so at a steady rate, concede the extra metre or two we may have gained but when defending inside our 20 we employ a forward and slide approach. I mean after watching the Melbourne game our goal line defence seemed quite good and I know superior fitness plays a part but maybe we just had more reserves because we weren't trying to jump off the line so quickly. I wonder how many off side penalties we concede..be interested to know that stat.

 

[Super Freak]

 

[Morkel]

That's how I pictured we'd carry Harry down the aisle when he found "the one".