2017 Brisbane Broncos Thread - we hate them for their freedom

leaguegod wrote:moga wasn't perfect but geez when he had the ball he looked hard to tackle, hope he stays healthy, looks fit.

He runs like Hancock used to. All knees and elbows and hard to bring down.

Highlight of the game was McGuire kicking the ball at Gallens head and earning a repeat set for it. Fantastic. The type of play should always be rewarded.

ryno_ wrote:

Highlight of the game was McGuire kicking the ball at Gallens head and earning a repeat set for it. Fantastic. The type of play should always be rewarded.

I'm still trying to work out why Gallen was arguing with the ref about the call. Actually I know he was arguing, I just find it astounding that a guy who has played in the NRL for the best part of 15 years doesn't know one of the most fundamental rules in the game.

you see it all the time, 50% of league players don't understand that its only accidental if the guy in the offside position doesn't mean to touch it


we all follow a game played by meat heads lol

Yep. I was hoping to hear this:

Gallen "But it wasn't played at".

Ref "He caught the fucking ball you dipshit"

Hunt was counting those dragon dollars. Can't see him lasting the season if he keeps that level of performance

you can tell hunt is gonna be under the spotlight every game


opposition fans are gonna see if he is worth the money (which obviously he isn't, not many are worth what he is gonna get) and no bronco fan will be bothered to defend the guy

god i hate players signing deals for new teams before this season has even started

No Worries wrote:Hunt was counting those dragon dollars. Can't see him lasting the season if he keeps that level of performance

Yep. A few more games like that and you'd think Benji getting a run with the instructions of having a good kicking game, giving Roberts early ball, and don't worry about trying to play like Milford is a huge chance.

leaguegod wrote:you can tell hunt is gonna be under the spotlight every game


opposition fans are gonna see if he is worth the money (which obviously he isn't, not many are worth what he is gonna get) and no bronco fan will be bothered to defend the guy

god i hate players signing deals for new teams before this season has even started

Exactly.
BHunt wasn't actually that bad last night but the expectation on him now is immense.
It's Adam Blair at the Tigers all over.

Agree about signing at clubs ahead of schedule also.
Tell me one good reason that all signings and re-signings could't be suspended until a week after the GF?

Anybody know why dipshit Matty Johns has to keep taking pot shots at Wayne Bennett?

FebruaryChamp wrote:Anybody know why dipshit Matty Johns has to keep taking pot shots at Wayne Bennett?

i think you'll find any one who has affiliation, past or present with knights will have an agenda against bennett


gordie seems to love taking his shots too, has been for a while

FebruaryChamp wrote:Anybody know why dipshit Matty Johns has to keep taking pot shots at Wayne Bennett?

My hunch is it has something to do with the Sydney media bias against Bennett

If you don't know Bennett (and I don't), in many ways he seems like a pretty unlikeable bloke - left his wife for a younger woman, never goes out to promote the game like many other coaches, seems to undermine others (see Meninga and the national coaching position), and has generally always had a pretty good roster to work with between Brisbane Souths, Raiders, Broncos, Dragons, Broncos (with the exception being the knights), so I imagine he's actually a pretty soft target for people to take pot shots against.

Still it's a bit bemusing to hear speculation of him having "lost his aura" in the same week as rumours are going around that one of the biggest stars in the game in Keiran Foran wants to play under him next year even before he has played a single game for his current club, and in the week his team beats the defending premiers away.

Oz Sport Mad wrote:

Exactly.
BHunt wasn't actually that bad last night but the expectation on him now is immense.
It's Adam Blair at the Tigers all over.

Agree about signing at clubs ahead of schedule also.
Tell me one good reason that all signings and re-signings could't be suspended until a week after the GF?

The lower level players will get shafted and forced into less and less money by clubs that have way more bargaining power. While the higher paid players will be able to command more because they'll have the clubs over a barrel.

Introduce a mid season transfer/signing window. If the manager is found to be doing deals outside of this window then he loses his accreditation

Honeysett wrote:

The lower level players will get shafted and forced into less and less money by clubs that have way more bargaining power. While the higher paid players will be able to command more because they'll have the clubs over a barrel.

So how is this any different to now??

Mid season transfer window is horrific (plus it doesn't solve the issue) and I genuinely can't think of a reason why any signing and importantly re-signing can't be deferred to the end of the season.

It would be a level playing field for all clubs to work around in terms of their rosters going forward and it's not like the players need any more than a week or two to relocate.

Back to the game, being Rd 1 both teams were clearly pretty rusty but happy to jag the win and there were some promising signs I thought.

Boyd looks to have picked up where he left off.
Bennett looks to have reinvigorated the Folou comparisons with Moga.
TPJ was really impressive coming off the bench.
Simmsy looks to be revelling in his recall and will no doubt be a Blair-like bargain.
Was concerned that Milf looked sluggish/fat in Auckland but all of a sudden he has his spark back and looked as quick as he ever has.
Kahu showing why Parker should have handed over the kicking tee far sooner than he did.

It's not great as it is now, but no solution is. Like it or not clubs will still talk to players and their managers, and it will be impossible to police because there is managers can still be in constant contact with clubs just to see what things are like there, so they'll merely be saying something like "I was just discussing how their facilities are going at ____ and having a casual coffee with my old mates ____ and ____. As a good example look at all the circus that followed Gary Ablett when he signed for the Suns, but it wasn't able to be announced until a particular date. The whole world knew he was going anyway, so what's the difference.

I do agree that players can up and move in a week or two, so I have no problem with that side of things. If it was done genuinely (which I don't think it could) about the only argument I can think of is that you can't govern what the ESL does, so for arguments sake, they may make offers before year end that the players may like due to the security. I don't really see that being a huge issues with the stars having regard for the ESL salary cap, but it might apply to depth players, which is also important for the quality of the comp. It could be an issue with Rugby poaching though.

I'm not sure I have an answer for it. The clubs are doing it because if they don't fill their roster early, they only have the bones to pick from. Maybe they would be less inclined to sign so early if the player had the opportunity to pull out later, but which is the bigger evil there?

Personally I think the system we have now is okay compared to other options, and I think it is more a blight on either the player if they seem to not be putting in full effort, or the club's recruitment policy. You only hear about it when players perform poorly (and possibly were actually overachieving in the lead up to their signing). It didn't seem to be a problem when say Moloney signed a year before leaving the Warriors but still had a great season.

Dip wrote:It's not great as it is now, but no solution is. Like it or not clubs will still talk to players and their managers, and it will be impossible to police because there is managers can still be in constant contact with clubs just to see what things are like there, so they'll merely be saying something like "I was just discussing how their facilities are going at ____ and having a casual coffee with my old mates ____ and ____. As a good example look at all the circus that followed Gary Ablett when he signed for the Suns, but it wasn't able to be announced until a particular date. The whole world knew he was going anyway, so what's the difference.

I do agree that players can up and move in a week or two, so I have no problem with that side of things. If it was done genuinely (which I don't think it could) about the only argument I can think of is that you can't govern what the ESL does, so for arguments sake, they may make offers before year end that the players may like due to the security. I don't really see that being a huge issues with the stars having regard for the ESL salary cap, but it might apply to depth players, which is also important for the quality of the comp. It could be an issue with Rugby poaching though.

I'm not sure I have an answer for it. The clubs are doing it because if they don't fill their roster early, they only have the bones to pick from. Maybe they would be less inclined to sign so early if the player had the opportunity to pull out later, but which is the bigger evil there?

Personally I think the system we have now is okay compared to other options, and I think it is more a blight on either the player if they seem to not be putting in full effort, or the club's recruitment policy. You only hear about it when players perform poorly (and possibly were actually overachieving in the lead up to their signing). It didn't seem to be a problem when say Moloney signed a year before leaving the Warriors but still had a great season.

Yeah I have no problems with players exploring their options throughout the season because even though they may eventually choose to sign elsewhere; throughout the season the conflict of interest has been removed (as much as possible).

We can't make decisions based on other comp's or League's poaching players and to be honest, having them contracted doesn't really deter these other code's/comps anyway.

The clubs only need to fill their roster ahead of the other clubs so just make it happen for everyone (even re-signing current players) after the season.

Oz Sport Mad wrote:Back to the game, being Rd 1 both teams were clearly pretty rusty but happy to jag the win and there were some promising signs I thought.

Boyd looks to have picked up where he left off.
Bennett looks to have reinvigorated the Folou comparisons with Moga.
TPJ was really impressive coming off the bench.
Simmsy looks to be revelling in his recall and will no doubt be a Blair-like bargain.
Was concerned that Milf looked sluggish/fat in Auckland but all of a sudden he has his spark back and looked as quick as he ever has.
Kahu showing why Parker should have handed over the kicking tee far sooner than he did.

Spot on. I'll take a rusty win in round 1 over a classy loss any day, as things generally sort themselves out pretty quickly.

How good was Milf in the context of the game. Deadset, when we used our last interchange with about 14 minutes to go it looked like the Sharks would run all over us in the end. It was probably going to take one piece of individual brilliance to give us enough breathing space to hold on and he got that try when there was absolutely nothing on. If he doesn't do that I'm 90% certain we lose that game.

I'd like to see Niko given a bench spot to add some spark from dummy half, and the injury to Glenn showed that in most cases, 3 forwards on the bench will do the job.

I do seriously think that the game would improve if the 18th and 19th players were genuine bench players at club level. As far as I'm concerned it's the number of interchanges that is important, not the number of players. I think more teams would have a zippy hooker or half on the bench more regularly which would improve the game, but the teams are a bit worried about workload if one or two players go down injured so end up playing someone who can play hooker if needed eg Elijah Taylor. Can you seriously say that Joe O would have played significant minutes just because he was fresh if there were no injuries in that game? Bennett would take a fatigued Gillett/Glenn/Thaiday/Blair/McGuire over a fresh Joe O every day of the week, and I reckon if you look down the team sheets, there are very few teams where that would be any different. I think it's a little different in rep football because the 18th and 19th player is still a really good player, so I'd be happy in them only being allowed on the field where are player is independently ruled out of the rest of the match by a doctor.

I dont think enough has been made of this absurd 5pm kick off time in QLD. Absolutely bizzare move from the NRL. Stupid, fucking odd and weird move.

Broncos looked good last night, Moga and Roberts looked awesome, as did milf and gillett.

Dip wrote:If you don't know Bennett (and I don't), in many ways he seems like a pretty unlikeable bloke - left his wife for a younger woman, never goes out to promote the game like many other coaches, seems to undermine others (see Meninga and the national coaching position), and has generally always had a pretty good roster to work with between Brisbane Souths, Raiders, Broncos, Dragons, Broncos (with the exception being the knights), so I imagine he's actually a pretty soft target for people to take pot shots against.

Still it's a bit bemusing to hear speculation of him having "lost his aura" in the same week as rumours are going around that one of the biggest stars in the game in Keiran Foran wants to play under him next year even before he has played a single game for his current club, and in the week his team beats the defending premiers away.

Does moving a final from Suncorp to Dairy Farmers constitute "promoting the game"? Helping NZ and trying to rebuild the English national team constitute "promoting the game"?