The latest chapter in the Maroons Origin dynasty has ended in an emphatic whitewash over the Mexicans from the below the border. In case you have been living on another planet, QLD became the first side in 15 years to whitewash a series with 2 wins down south, it was a beautiful sight.
This series for me has been one of my favourites. For the obvious reason, winning 3-0 is just an amazing achievement. It doesn't happen often but when it does, man I love it. The other reason this series was fantastic was because it had three different types of wins. The first was a clean victory over a Blues side that fought fairly admirably. The second was a stomping that we haven't seen in a few years - absolutely untouchable and the Blues were effectively a park football side.
This third win however was fantastic because they were up against it. The Blues failed in the first game, tried some rough house tactics in the second game (i.e. Luke O'Donnell) and it failed spectacularly. The third game showed the true colours of 2 players - Greg Bird and Michael Ennis. We already knew that Bird was the scum of the earth, his charge of glassing his girlfriend was more than enough proof (yes he was proven innocent but the fact he rang his mate to get to take the blame? Come on, really? Some mate you must be). Bird is a dirty player of the worst calibre - his tackles have more elbows than a Muay Thai fight. The Blues use the word enforcer to turn a blind eye to it - I prefer the word grub.
Ennis is a widely recognised niggler in the NRL. For those of you not familiar with the term, it's used to describe someone who gets under the skin of opposition players and they in turn concede penalties. Another one is Justin Hodges to a certain extent. The difference between Ennis and Hodges is the fact Ennis crosses the boundaries several times to do it, often breaching the rules of the game in doing so. NSW on Wednesday night were elbowing more than Manly in tackles all night and when Ennis copped the slightest hint of it against him, he had a brain explosion and unleashed several hits on Nate Myles who was getting to his feet. This is a prime example of the gutless wonder that is Ennis. It takes a big man to punch someone while he's down doesn't it. Thanks Mick, you handed us the win on a silver platter. The penalty that was deservedly given to QLD which led to a try and subsequently the win. Hopefully that's the end of him and Robbie Farah gets the nod next year.
Soak it up Queensland fans, the juggernaut that is QLD just keeps on rolling and it's a beautiful sight. Cop that NSW, cop that. Queenslander.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Tigers Review - Bitter Pill
You could see it coming. After dominating a game like that, the only fair result would have been a last minute try to sink and demoralise us right? The football gods didn’t disappoint, and handed the West Tigers a win in the last seconds of the match. It was a bitter pill for any Broncos fan to take. Just thinking about it is still making me cringe. But it could have been worse. I was super keen to go and watch the game, but couldn’t find anyone to go with me. The girlfriend was less than keen, and even Waldo turned the offer down. It turned out to be a masterstroke. If I had known before the game that I would be sitting in the rain for 2 hours watching our team bomb try after try, and throwing away a win, hell I wouldn’t have even watched the game on the TV.
But I did. It was a cracker of a game, don’t get me wrong. It’s just hard to accept the fact that we were ahead of every statistic except the scoreboard at the end of it. The Broncos combinations inside the oppositions 20 metres just weren’t clicking. After enjoying the lion’s share of possession, and eating up the metres through the middle of the park it was almost embarrassing watching us falter at the finish line every time. It was just one of those games where we couldn’t get across the line. All of our pressure amounted to nothing, and you knew it was just going to take one mistake for the game to be snatched away from us. McCullough did just that, and a little inexperience from Yow Yeh (getting out of position then slipping when he realised) gave the West Tiger’s an undeserved 16-14 win. Their words not mine.
Full credit to the boys though. Without Lockyer, Thaiday and Folau we still put up a hell of a fight. Parker had an enormous game, as did Tronc and Kenny, and Josh McGuire played fantastically as well. He’s definitely one for the future. People are jumping all over Wallace’s back saying he can’t deliver. It’s rubbish. He had a few mistakes, but he certainly didn’t lose us the game. He put tries on a silver platter for our team on a number of occasion, yet through poor control, poor running and poor decision making we managed to bomb them every time. It was inexperience cost us in the end, but Broncos fans have come to accept that during the Origin period. There were enough positives to take from the game, and hopefully our side will be at full strength for the remainder of the season.
One thing I do hope we take from the game above all though is an end to this experiment of playing Gillet and Te’o in the centres. They are great players, but they are second-rowers and Henjak has to come to accept that fact. Centres need one quality above all, speed. These two just don’t have it. Te’o got run down by a 50 year old Tuqiri with an 8 metre head start. Neither of them had the pace to get on the outside of their opposites, so instead they just tried to go through them. It’s alot easier to defend. When your centres have the pace to get outside their man, it creates question marks in the defensive line. The winger doesn’t know whether to stay on his man, or to come in and help and it leads to gaping holes forming. These kinds of questions just weren’t asked of their defence last night, and that’s the largest reason why we spent an eternity inside their 20 metres and didn’t put the points on the board to prove it. Surely we have some youngsters more suited to the roll of a centre?
We have a bye next week, which will hopefully give Hodges enough time to be back in time for our next match. That will add some much needed class to our three-quarters. It’ll also give our Origin boys a chance to get over any niggles, and allow us to mount an assault on the run into the finals. We’ll definitely be there come September, but we do have the quality to be more than just also-rans. With a little luck in terms of stability, which will lead to a little less of people being played out of position, we should be able to build a serious assault on the 2010 premiership. Wouldn’t that be a story after the start we had...
But I did. It was a cracker of a game, don’t get me wrong. It’s just hard to accept the fact that we were ahead of every statistic except the scoreboard at the end of it. The Broncos combinations inside the oppositions 20 metres just weren’t clicking. After enjoying the lion’s share of possession, and eating up the metres through the middle of the park it was almost embarrassing watching us falter at the finish line every time. It was just one of those games where we couldn’t get across the line. All of our pressure amounted to nothing, and you knew it was just going to take one mistake for the game to be snatched away from us. McCullough did just that, and a little inexperience from Yow Yeh (getting out of position then slipping when he realised) gave the West Tiger’s an undeserved 16-14 win. Their words not mine.
Full credit to the boys though. Without Lockyer, Thaiday and Folau we still put up a hell of a fight. Parker had an enormous game, as did Tronc and Kenny, and Josh McGuire played fantastically as well. He’s definitely one for the future. People are jumping all over Wallace’s back saying he can’t deliver. It’s rubbish. He had a few mistakes, but he certainly didn’t lose us the game. He put tries on a silver platter for our team on a number of occasion, yet through poor control, poor running and poor decision making we managed to bomb them every time. It was inexperience cost us in the end, but Broncos fans have come to accept that during the Origin period. There were enough positives to take from the game, and hopefully our side will be at full strength for the remainder of the season.
One thing I do hope we take from the game above all though is an end to this experiment of playing Gillet and Te’o in the centres. They are great players, but they are second-rowers and Henjak has to come to accept that fact. Centres need one quality above all, speed. These two just don’t have it. Te’o got run down by a 50 year old Tuqiri with an 8 metre head start. Neither of them had the pace to get on the outside of their opposites, so instead they just tried to go through them. It’s alot easier to defend. When your centres have the pace to get outside their man, it creates question marks in the defensive line. The winger doesn’t know whether to stay on his man, or to come in and help and it leads to gaping holes forming. These kinds of questions just weren’t asked of their defence last night, and that’s the largest reason why we spent an eternity inside their 20 metres and didn’t put the points on the board to prove it. Surely we have some youngsters more suited to the roll of a centre?
We have a bye next week, which will hopefully give Hodges enough time to be back in time for our next match. That will add some much needed class to our three-quarters. It’ll also give our Origin boys a chance to get over any niggles, and allow us to mount an assault on the run into the finals. We’ll definitely be there come September, but we do have the quality to be more than just also-rans. With a little luck in terms of stability, which will lead to a little less of people being played out of position, we should be able to build a serious assault on the 2010 premiership. Wouldn’t that be a story after the start we had...
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Broncos vs. Tigers - Line-up and Preview
1. Josh Hoffman
2. Antonio Winterstein
3. Matt Gillett
4. Gerard Beale
5. Jharal Yow Yeh
6. Corey Norman
7. Peter Wallace
8. Shane Tronc
9. Andrew McCullough
10. Nick Kenny
11. Ashton Sims
12. Ben Te'o
13. Corey Parker
Interchange
14. Ben Hunt
15. Mitchell Dodds
16. Scott Anderson
17. Josh McGuire
For the first time in years I'm not fearing the pre-Origin player drain that we usually suffer from. Three of our best, Darren Lockyer, Israel Folau and Sam Thaiday, are out of this weekend's clash due to Origin commitments. The reason I have no fear is because of the way the team has handled itself in the past 2 months. Flashy wins, tough victories and a truckload of effort has us sitting on 7 wins out of our last 8 matches. The only change to the line-up is that Gerard Beale comes in for Lagi Setu who today injured his knee, not entirely sure what the overall damage is as of yet. Setu had been the target of a rant or two from myself but to his credit he's been barnstorming in recent weeks.
The Tigers are an interesting opponent. I'm a big fan of theirs - I love watching them play because they throw caution into the wind and play attacking football. It's often at the expense of their defence however. They are one of the tougher opponents in the NRL - Gareth Ellis, Robbie Farah and Chris Heighington are dynamic ball runners and hard defenders which makes for a staunch opponent. Wade McKinnon at the back has the potential to be lethal in attack but I've always questioned his defensive abilities. Oh, and they also have a bloke called Lote Tuqiri who I'm sure you are familiar with.
What will the weekend's result be? I've been pretty average with predictions as of late but my guess is 30-24. Should be a high scoring game and entertaining to say the least.
Until next time, Waldo.
2. Antonio Winterstein
3. Matt Gillett
4. Gerard Beale
5. Jharal Yow Yeh
6. Corey Norman
7. Peter Wallace
8. Shane Tronc
9. Andrew McCullough
10. Nick Kenny
11. Ashton Sims
12. Ben Te'o
13. Corey Parker
Interchange
14. Ben Hunt
15. Mitchell Dodds
16. Scott Anderson
17. Josh McGuire
For the first time in years I'm not fearing the pre-Origin player drain that we usually suffer from. Three of our best, Darren Lockyer, Israel Folau and Sam Thaiday, are out of this weekend's clash due to Origin commitments. The reason I have no fear is because of the way the team has handled itself in the past 2 months. Flashy wins, tough victories and a truckload of effort has us sitting on 7 wins out of our last 8 matches. The only change to the line-up is that Gerard Beale comes in for Lagi Setu who today injured his knee, not entirely sure what the overall damage is as of yet. Setu had been the target of a rant or two from myself but to his credit he's been barnstorming in recent weeks.
The Tigers are an interesting opponent. I'm a big fan of theirs - I love watching them play because they throw caution into the wind and play attacking football. It's often at the expense of their defence however. They are one of the tougher opponents in the NRL - Gareth Ellis, Robbie Farah and Chris Heighington are dynamic ball runners and hard defenders which makes for a staunch opponent. Wade McKinnon at the back has the potential to be lethal in attack but I've always questioned his defensive abilities. Oh, and they also have a bloke called Lote Tuqiri who I'm sure you are familiar with.
What will the weekend's result be? I've been pretty average with predictions as of late but my guess is 30-24. Should be a high scoring game and entertaining to say the least.
Until next time, Waldo.
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