2018 Brisbane Broncos Thread

leaguegod wrote:

i don't think you could ever expect them 2 to control a game in the traditional sense, they're ball runners and there will be games where that shows and they create multiple opportunities pother halves won't



bigger problem for the broncs is their pack, Pangai aside, the majority were really poor. some of their bigger names you only noticed when they dropped the ball, no go forward for the most part by any of them and milf/niko are gonna need some momentum to get a  chance to do what they do well

Bennett's refusal to buy an A grade forward is why our forward pack gets demolished by the better packs in the league. Don't get me wrong developing guys like TPJ and Ofa is exactly what I want but our best forward signing in the past couple of years has been Korbin fucking Sims. Add to that Thaiday is still getting a game somehow.

Bennett was happy to keep playing Thaiday and Blair at prop and let Wallace walk which is still infuriating to me.

Ice wrote:

He chose Milford, FAC and Boyd over Hunt. I would have taken Hunt over any of those for 2018. He clearly has the most upside. Milford is way more rocks and diamonds than Hunt. Hunt just gets shit cause he dropped a grand final. (Yes, a massive fuck up) But his game management (current and scope for growth) and heart is waaaay bigger than Milford who they did throw Thurston money at.

did you watch Hunt play last year? he was half the player Milford was (and Milford didn't set the world on fire either) up until he replaced McCullough at hooker, he didn't get dropped to reserve grade for nothing. there was not a single fan upset that we didn't drop $1.2 million a year on keeping him.

i'm not overly happy about Milford's price tag either, i don't think he's earned it, but the vultures were circling and we couldn't afford to lose both of them, at the moment Milf and Hunt are essentially the same player, except Milford has the higher ceiling and has 5 extra years over Hunt to become the well-rounded player he shows glimpses of, and reports to be believed, at a price $200,000 less than what Hunt is being payed

They need a real halfback but anyone who thinks it should be Hunt at over a million a year has rocks in their head.

In good news for the Broncs, Pangai could become something special.

The real regret was letting Taylor go, but even then it's hard to fault the logic - coming out of 2015, it looks like Milf/Hunt is a set and forget halves pairing for at least the next 5 years, Taylor is off contract the year after and is gunna get money thrown at him from all directions that far outweigh what we can sensibly pay him as a back-up half, so Wayne lets him go early, to show good faith in-case there was ever a need to dangle the carrot to get him back, which has unfortunately wasn't enough.

surmo13 wrote:

did you watch Hunt play last year? he was half the player Milford was (and Milford didn't set the world on fire either) up until he replaced McCullough at hooker, he didn't get dropped to reserve grade for nothing. there was not a single fan upset that we didn't drop $1.2 million a year on keeping him.

i'm not overly happy about Milford's price tag either, i don't think he's earned it, but the vultures were circling and we couldn't afford to lose both of them, at the moment Milf and Hunt are essentially the same player, except Milford has the higher ceiling and has 5 extra years over Hunt to become the well-rounded player he shows glimpses of, and reports to be believed, at a price $200,000 less than what Hunt is being payed  

Milford is one of, if not the most overrated player in the game for mine. He is the new Ben Barba at best. His ceiling is nowhere near the ceiling of Hunt. He can be brilliant, no doubt about it, but he simply doesn't have the football brain to lead a team to the promised land in my view.

Hunt had a bit of a down year that still saw him make the Australian side, he showed his versatility when dropped then being moved to hooker. He was the best of the Broncos once he came back into the side and struggled early in the year behind an average pack with a half partner that really couldn't take any pressure off. He and Widdop will be a great combo and he will prove far better value over the next 5 years than Milford will be.

Broncos will most probably go after Cleary for 1.3million a season

surmo13 wrote:The real regret was letting Taylor go, but even then it's hard to fault the logic - coming out of 2015, it looks like Milf/Hunt is a set and forget halves pairing for at least the next 5 years, Taylor is off contract the year after and is gunna get money thrown at him from all directions that far outweigh what we can sensibly pay him as a back-up half, so Wayne lets him go early, to show good faith in-case there was ever a need to dangle the carrot to get him back, which has unfortunately wasn't enough.

I agree with that - but there are also glaring decisions like keeping alex glenn, thiaday, blair and co for too long. In the process, letting Arrow and Wallace etc go.

I mean, with all the wraps that were on ash taylor - for the last 5 years or so at least - surely bennett should have had the foresight to let hunt walk early, or tap him on the shoulder (it wouldnt be the first time he had done that either), in order to hold onto what what everyone knew was going to be a superstar. Unless he thought Taylor wasnt going live up to the hype. Its not the first time he hasnt kept guys who went on to be legends of the game.

He bloody had an A grade prop in Wallace that he let go, he didnt need to buy one or chase one. Nope, lets play Blair, Thaiday, Glenn and Korbin farking sims.

MrCashman wrote:Broncos will most probably go after Cleary for 1.3million a season

That's probably not too far off the mark. Both Cleary's have said they want to work together and you would think it will be the next contract. So if the Tigers don't keep Ivan it's a package deal. Roosters have been rumoured for an after Cronk replacement. Bennett has lost his aura and he's not getting any younger. It would make sense.

Pieman wrote:

I agree with that - but there are also glaring decisions like keeping alex glenn, thiaday, blair and co for too long. In the process, letting Arrow and Wallace etc go.

I mean, with all the wraps that were on ash taylor - for the last 5 years or so at least - surely bennett should have had the foresight to let hunt walk early, or tap him on the shoulder (it wouldnt be the first time he had done that either), in order to hold onto what what everyone knew was going to be a superstar. Unless he thought Taylor wasnt going live up to the hype. Its not the first time he hasnt kept guys who went on to be legends of the game.

it amazes me that we haven't let Glenn walk, such a run-of-the-mill backrower holding a starting spot when we are backed up with easily the most talented bunch of young forwards going around.

The decision was made in the 2015-2016 off-season, just after Milf & Hunt had spent the 2015 season looking like they could be the next QLD Halves combo when Cronk & JT hung it up... Ash only had a year left on his contract, so clubs were free to send him all their big money offers for 2017... and you're telling me, that months after being a very big part of what got us to the grand final and 1 tackle away from winning the thing, you'd tap Hunt on the shoulder and go 'fuck off wherever, we're going to go with this highly-hyped unproven youngster', keeping in mind that Luke Brooks was supposed to "Andrew Johns 2.0" when he debuted and has gone on to become a very mediocre player.

Off the top of my headL: He tapped Wally on the shoulder.
He asked Barba to leave - who then went on to win a comp at FB.
There are prob a shit tonne more.

Its indisputable that he has made some clangers regarding recruitment in the last few years with the amount of talent he has let go v the amount of talent he has retained.

Ash Taylor has been hyped since he was about 14 years old and was literally in the system. Its a clanger of a decision to release him early/choose hunt and milford over him. Sure, hindsight is great, but it doesnt change the fact it was a wrong decision.

Who knows though, IMO, Milf and niko will have some absolutely ripping games together this year and will tear some teams apart with their running. But against the good sides where their forwards dont go forward, they will be shit, like they were against the dragons.

Pieman wrote:Off the top of my headL: He tapped Wally on the shoulder.
He asked Barba to leave - who then went on to win a comp at FB.
There are prob a shit tonne more.

well yeh, he has made big decisions in order to spark an underperforming team, i'm yet to see him shit-can someone that literally just took his team to a grand final... being a star half in the 20's doesn't automatically mean you'll be the best thing going around the NRL, i could write a list of players that have come in being the next big thing and turned into nothing, it sucks we don't have him, but the timing of everything made it impossible to keep him, unless we had nostrodamus managing our player roster

surmo13 wrote:

well yeh, he has made big decisions in order to spark an underperforming team, i'm yet to see him shit-can someone that literally just took his team to a grand final... being a star half in the 20's doesn't automatically mean you'll be the best thing going around the NRL, i could write a list of players that have come in being the next big thing and turned into nothing, it sucks we don't have him, but the timing of everything made it impossible to keep him, unless we had nostrodamus managing our player roster

Well it wasnt impossible. But yep, it didnt happen through some bad decision making.
Nope. of course it doesnt, but someone like bennett should be able to tell the difference between the Tim Smiths and the Ash Taylors of the game, considering he is widely regarded as the greatest coach of all time. And as I have mentioned, making tough decisions and asking star players to move on is not something new to him.

Soooo not a bad trial game the other night hey.....

What is this shit though??
It's bloody Rd 1 of a new season and a first up loss see's simpleton's like Pieman lining up to start criticising our retention and recruitment.

How about we wait a few weeks to see how the teams settle out, before we start calling this a bad loss, or for the sacking of the best coach that has ever donned a whistle and picked up a clipboard...

As a Broncos fan I'm certainly not worried and I dare say the coach wouldn't be either.

Oz Sport Mad wrote:Soooo not a bad trial game the other night hey.....

What is this shit though??
It's bloody Rd 1 of a new season and a first up loss see's simpleton's like Pieman lining up to start criticising our retention and recruitment.

How about we wait a few weeks to see how the teams settle out, before we start calling this a bad loss, or for the sacking of the best coach that has ever donned a whistle and picked up a clipboard...

As a Broncos fan I'm certainly not worried and I dare say the coach wouldn't be either.

In fairness OSM, your Coach has already pretty much checked out, so not sure he is really worried about all that much bar whether he will have to fetch his  Courier Mail off the pavers or the grass in the morning.

Although kudos to his dedication after all these years, I'm hearing he was the last man to leave Kogarah last Thursday night; after being found in the Dragons dressing room by the closing security still celebrating the first up win.

Oz Sport Mad wrote:Soooo not a bad trial game the other night hey.....

What is this shit though??
It's bloody Rd 1 of a new season and a first up loss see's simpleton's like Pieman lining up to start criticising our retention and recruitment.

How about we wait a few weeks to see how the teams settle out, before we start calling this a bad loss, or for the sacking of the best coach that has ever donned a whistle and picked up a clipboard...

As a Broncos fan I'm certainly not worried and I dare say the coach wouldn't be either.

Well to be fair, I was criticising the player recruitment and retention last year too. Its not a new thing. And there are clearly some valid points.
It is a season defining loss? Not by any means.

my tv broke wrote:We looked incredibly flat, that may be a result of being flogged for the last two weeks.. who knows.

I'm not particularly worried. If things don't change over the next 3 or 4 rounds then I'll be worried. But I've no doubt we will lift for the Cowboys.

We definitely have issues with the halves, but the key will be working with what we have, and not trying to make them into something they are not. NRL is all about effort and 1%ers and we weren't doing any of that on Friday.

Maybe that was the issue, the game was on Thursday. They rocked up on the wrong day.

Broncos will need a lot of lift out of young guys in the forwards. They'll need to out do where their development is at the moment for the Broncos to be successful. Milford and KNik aren't good enough players to play behind a beaten forward pack (few half-backs are)

Having the Thursday game and subsequent short turn around was definitely a factor.