Lockyer shines in miserable conditions

(Picture courtesy of www.brisbanetimes.com.au)

On a wet and windy night on the central coast at Bluetongue Stadium the Broncos stood up and made themselves title contenders with a resounding 24-6 win over the Roosters. Lockyer's kicking game was without a doubt the key to the victory as the boys racked up 24 points on the scoreboard. There were at least 6-7 attacking kicks from Lockyer that led to either tries, forced line drop outs or making the opposition start their set from the 1 metre line.

Roosters coach, Brian Smith, was quoted in saying "He was just pulling the strings, in the second half in particular I thought he is what he is, and what he has been for a long time."

Unfortunately the Broncos record of not conceding a try this season in the second half has been broken with Roosters winger, Joseph Leilua, scoring on the right wing in the 67th minute. You could see it in their faces how disappointed they were when they conceded that try, hopefully Anthony Griffin can use this as motivation to gee up the boys to make sure we hold every team scoreless.

It's hard to find something to be critical about when discussing the Broncos; but for me personally, I'm not sure what Griffin is trying to achieve when bringing on Corey Norman and putting him at fullback. When Beale comes into the line and Norman is at fullback, the defence just looks so much weaker; the same thing happened last Monday vs. the Knights. Norman came on and Beale went into the line and we almost conceded two tries. Hopefully Griffin's experiment with playing Norman at fullback will come to an end after this week, and with Hoffman to come back from injury soon it's all looking good for the Broncos.

With the Dragons and Storm, who are both on 8 competition points, still to play this week, the Broncos are sitting pretty at the top of the NRL table with 10 competition points, a points difference of +57; and of course - still hold the stat as the best defence in the league (after 6 games only 50 points conceded.)

The Broncos go on the road again with a tough test at the SFS against the Wests Tigers. Benji Marshall has been in impeccable form so far this year, but the Tigers are coming off a loss to the Titans and will be hungry to bounce back with a win at home. This will be the biggest test for our defence this season and hopefully Locker and co. can walk away from the SFS with 2 competition points.