Maroons cause heartache, Broncos cause elation

What a week of football. My prediction was that it would end up inversely - Maroons winning comfortably and the Broncos doing it tough. Let's start with the good. After a very average first 20 mins, the Broncos clicked into gear and did a number on the Dragon's that won't be forgotten any time soon. What I found most encouraging was our dominance in the middle - while missing Gillett, Te'o, McGuire, Tronc and Carlaw, we still managed to clear good yardage. Special mention goes to Hannant (54 tackles, 124m), Glenn (34 tackles, 105m) and Hala (1 Linebreak, 5 Tackle Busts) for their stellar performances.

The biggest concern for me was the defending from Yow Yeh. Noone can deny that in attack he is brilliant but his defence needs serious work. He received a bit of attention in Game 1 and was found out slightly, ever since then he has been targeted hard and has been caught out numerous times. He needs a good long lesson on playing the man and also when to leave his position, he's been mistiming that something fierce and it's difficult to watch to be honest.

Now, for the bad. Queensland lost to the better side during the week, that is a given. What I can't get my head around is why we played so badly. In the exact opposite of what the Broncos did Friday, QLD were nowhere to be found when the hard yakka needed to be done in the middle. In fact, during the second half, the lads didn't look like they even wanted to tackle NSW and gave them all the time in the world. Maybe complacency was the issue. Several players looked like they weren't even there mentally and a few were highly ineffective. Cooper Cronk, Yow Yeh and Thaiday had absolute shockers. Cronk thought he was Cam Smith and made run after run from dummy half and they read him like a book. Yow Yeh's defensive lapses were covered above. Thaiday played with reckless abandon and unbridled emotion which led to a lot of errors.

What happens from here? Quite simple really - Cronk dropped, Harrison to the bench, Dallas Johnson to Lock. The only thing that will save Yow Yeh will be the fact that Steve Michaels is the only replacement for him. That, or if Hodgo is fit, Nielsen can play there.

For QLD to win Game 3, they need to embrace what has treated them so well over the years. Hard hitting defence and hard work up the middle. Too often during Game 2 were QLD trying to push the pass when it wasn't on. QLD's brilliance has worked when the situation allows for it, trying to make a game-breaking play when the defence is in your face is a very low percentage play.

QLD can win this and should win this - they just need to play smart.