LIVE GAME Round 5 v Broncos

Live Game Discussion
Rock Hopper Steve said:
Tell you what I've noticed about Bula he is always dangerous when he's running and it's just a last effort to hang on from the defender preventing him from breaking the line.
If only he was a bit stronger in the legs or could increase his leg drive he would make a lot of linebreaks.
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Stronger prehaps but not bulkier. I think he is the perfect physique for Fullback.
 
stephen said:
I'm a fan of Bula but would like him to be a bit more switched on at times. I know it's early in his career & don't want to bag him unnecessarily. Just has a few things to work on.
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Agree completely. He is not the star in the making that people claim he is but he is a very talented player.
There are a few faults in his game but I'm not sure lazy as some have claimed is one of them. I think his biggest issue is that he didn't grow up a fullback. Many of the finer points of positioning and setting up the defensive line are going to take longer for him to learn than most rookie fullbacks.
It is really his desire to learn that will determine what he achieves in the game. Only those within the club would be able to assess that desire but I've only ever heard positive things about him.
If we had a stand out alternative I'd like Bula playing elsewhere in the backline until he develops these skills on the training paddock. Currently even with his shortcomings he is still probably our best fullback.
 
It was difficult for bula as he and walsh were both converging towards the sideline, his dominant contolling arm for the pass exposed to walsh, he couldnt straighten from memory nor could turuva cut back in
I too thought he made it more difficult but it was by no means a regulation draw and pass
 
I'm a huge Bula fan.

He got away with the try in question.

That said- there was another try that got missed due to Toa being pushed out just before the line. For mine- Bula needed to straighten the attack on that one but he continued pushing wide before passing- giving Toa & Turuva very little room to work with.

I can see the faults in his game.

But he is genuinely learning on the job. I swear he's the closest thing to David Peachey I've witnessed. If we can get our halves right, Bula could be an absolute weapon being put through holes by Luai & Galvin/Fainu etc.
 
liltiger said:
Frustrating , I know. If I'm a coach I'm calling all the coaches and organising for all of us to spray the N.R.L about the standard of officiating and the way the games being run. What will the N.R.L do fine all the coaches, if they all agree to tell the N.R.L to shove their fines and not pay them what will they do reregister all 17 coaches, I don't think so.
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What do you hope to achieve by doing this though? Sure, the refereeing standard is arguably at an all time low but unless you believe they are deliberately making incorrect calls how will spraying them improve things.
There are less and less people putting up their hand to ref junior sports and fewer still that want to develop further. Just as players progress through the grades to eventually reach NRL level so to do refs.
Now I'm not saying referee decisions shouldn't be analysed but ref bashing, particularly an organised movement to do so from coaches at the highest level, isn't going to increase the willingness of anyone to pick up a whistle.
 
Let's be fair- the Refs didn't bring in the high tackle rule. Or the crusher tackle rule. The hip drop. The 6 again etc.

They are overweighed with intricate little ticky-tacky rules in a game built around fast collisions & messy outcomes.

Whoever vetoed the insanity of a high tackle on a player falling forward into a shoulder, or a high tackle on a player horizontal to the ground where the arm collects around the shoulder/neck...or every tackle where an attacker gets pretzeled in a 4 man tackle becoming a potential 'crusher'...the list goes on.

Refs have to interpret 50000 rules in 80 minutes. And you know what the outcome of all these 'keep the players safe' outcomes has been? Just as many injuries as there was before they started to crack down.

Don't get me wrong- this doesn't excuse the Cobbo forward pass.

Or the touch judge missing Cobbo being outside the stadium to knock it back into play the previous week.

Or the Latrell pass/Walsh pass over the weekend that had commentators orgasming before they sheepishly rewatch it & you hear them go "ohhh..."

But....I bet they would be more switched on to that if they were not so worried about if the inside or outside shoulder was brushed by the defender on the other side of the field 4 tackles back in the build up play that lead to the Dan Marino touchdown pass for a try...
 
Rock Hopper Steve said:
Tell you what I've noticed about Bula he is always dangerous when he's running and it's just a last effort to hang on from the defender preventing him from breaking the line.
If only he was a bit stronger in the legs or could increase his leg drive he would make a lot of linebreaks.
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I notice this too. I think it will come with time and confidence. Still a bit quiet, shy and unsure of himself.
 
weststigers said:
2 classy plays from 2 classy players got us in the end.

The 40/20 from Hunt was a foot on the throat early in the second half and followed up by individual brilliance from Reynolds.

You won't often see 2 plays like that in a game, let alone back to back, so you can't say much there.

It's unlikely we pull that lead back even with the forward pass try and some speculation that May got his foot under the ball for one of their tries, but there's 4 point scoring plays that went against us and we lose by 22 points.

I didn't think we were uncompetitive and as has been said, the score didn't do justice to our performance.

Plenty to work on and still a couple of classy players short in the forwards, but we did well considering 2 key players out and losing Latu for a long period of the game.

Based on our last 2 weeks, I'd be disappointed if we don't bounce back against Newcastle and Parramatta in successive weeks, otherwise the season is looking pretty shocking after 7 rounds.
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^ this and his 2 point field goal just before half time. We were in it. We missed three goals in the first half and the first try they scored was definitely a no try if you are the tigers scoring at least. But for those, we could have been up 18 - 6 at HT.
 
Re Bula to Turuva - Watching it live - he slowed up and passed too early - the dummy and score under the posts was definitely on. Give him time though it was the % play and executed ok with a strike winger. We scored and had poor goal kicking. I think API missed every attempt at goal in the warm up which was ominous before the game.
 
gregjm87 said:
What do you hope to achieve by doing this though? Sure, the refereeing standard is arguably at an all time low but unless you believe they are deliberately making incorrect calls how will spraying them improve things.
There are less and less people putting up their hand to ref junior sports and fewer still that want to develop further. Just as players progress through the grades to eventually reach NRL level so to do refs.
Now I'm not saying referee decisions shouldn't be analysed but ref bashing, particularly an organised movement to do so from coaches at the highest level, isn't going to increase the willingness of anyone to pick up a whistle.
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We have a situation where the current admin are not adequately training referees, the ref's today are robots with absolutely no ability to get a feel for a game or think on the go. They're told to tow the line and they just do. The standard of referring over the past decade has gone over a cliff. What has allowed that to happen, two things imo. First the inability to criticise a referee, don't care about people not wanting to ref in the future, no one is above criticism, players who perform poorly get criticised all the time, we don't worry about kids not wanting to play because they may face criticism. We're all adults, ref's should be made to do a press conference after every game to explain any dubious decisions they made, all the fans of every team deserve that transparency. The ref's are too isolated in cotton wool imo. The second problem with the state of refereeing is the big one for me, the N.R.L should relinquish any training rights or coaching, the N.R.L should just hand out the guidelines and rules for any season and the referees should be trained in an autonomous independant academy just for the referees. The N.R.L have gotten them to the point they're too scared to make a decision. I think independence for the referees would be perfect. There would be no bias in training and procedures.
I'd also scrap the bunker, it's absolutely useless, they're making mistakes anyway and the people looking at things 100 times are no better. But they wont because the first thing they did with the bunker, was turn it into an advertising hoarding to make money for the game.
I'd put the referees on blast with all the other coaches to show the N.R.L it's nowhere near good enough and things need to change massively, all the fines in the world and threats of suspensions mean nothing if everyone does it togeather.
 
It was a strange game for me to watch. I already knew the score when I sat down and it looked on paper like a flogging, a late try to make it more respectable - typical Suncorp performance.

But watching the first 30 minutes, I started to wonder if I got the score wrong because Tigers were everywhere: strong defence, gallant running; even slowpokes like Twal taking intercepts, running into holes, putting on shots. The Broncos are a monster pack and Tigers really gave them stick, I can't recall many games like it where the other team had a clearly more experienced / notable pack and we really went after them.

We never really got on top of Carrigan unfortunately, he's such a smart footballer, but we handled Haas well and most of the other lads until Willison got his double.

Typical Tigers unfortunately losing concentration in and around half-time, but you can't take credit away from Broncos for stepping up when those opportunities presented. Would have helped immensely if we'd kicked 2 or 3 of those first tries.

It's obviously a big deal for us not to have Luai, even if both sides lost their halfbacks, it takes away that rudder that Broncos fell back on when we got into the wrestle.

You have to remember that as a fan: when the opposition turns up for the arm wrestle, teams have to fall back on their basics to get the W - kick/chase, shoulders into tackles, presenting a straight line, ball control, opportune runs from DH. Unfortunately for our lads Broncos did those moments better, the classic 1%ers when the game was there for the taking.

Agree with an earlier comment that Galvin has to stay his hand; it's not touch footy, he doesn't need to turn up everywhere. His kicking is pretty good and I don't mind when he decides to run. His support is great.

Galvin's main downside, apart from the sometimes-frantic play, is he will often hold the ball a little too long and kill the play if the defence gets up in a line. Usually that means doubling-back inside and taking the run. His outside players get left empty-handed A LOT. It's again that classic touch footy play where you probe the line then step back to reconsider your options, before driving at selected defenders to get the quick PTB for the next play. That doesn't work in League, they will monster you and slow the PTB if you half-heartedly pull out of a play. He needs to either run intentionally or distribute a bit earlier.

BUT I was fairly optimistic after what was not a great scoreboard. I agree with another poster that this team just needs to get into the habit of winning, to get more outcome from their efforts. Every team fancies their chances against Tigers, because of our reputation, even late in the game and it makes it a little harder to put teams away. We don't yet have that winning formula or elite talent to fall back on for every tough match.

Benji seems cool-headed, I like it.
 
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jirskyr said:
It was a strange game for me to watch. I already knew the score when I sat down and it looked on paper like a flogging, a late try to make it more respectable - typical Suncorp performance.

But watching the first 30 minutes, I started to wonder if I got the score wrong because Tigers were everywhere: strong defence, gallant running; even slowpokes like Twal taking intercepts, running into holes, putting on shots. The Broncos are a monster pack and Tigers really gave them stick, I can't recall many games like it where the other team had a clearly more experienced / notable pack and we really went after them.

We never really got on top of Carrigan unfortunately, he's such a smart footballer, but we handled Haas well and most of the other lads until Willison got his double.

Typical Tigers unfortunately losing concentration in and around half-time, but you can't take credit away from Broncos for stepping up when those opportunities presented. Would have helped immensely if we'd kicked 2 or 3 of those first tries.

It's obviously a big deal for us not to have Luai, even if both sides lost their halfbacks, it takes away that rudder that Broncos fell back on when we got into the wrestle.

You have to remember that as a fan: when the opposition turns up for the arm wrestle, teams have to fall back on their basics to get the W - kick/chase, shoulders into tackles, presenting a straight line, ball control, opportune runs from DH. Unfortunately for our lads Broncos did those moments better, the classic 1%ers when the game was there for the taking.

Agree with an earlier comment that Galvin has to stay his hand; it's not touch footy, he doesn't need to turn up everywhere. His kicking is pretty good and I don't mind when he decides to run. His support is great.

Galvin's main downside, apart from the sometimes-frantic play, is he will often hold the ball a little too long and kill the play if the defence gets up in a line. Usually that means doubling-back inside and taking the run. His outside players get left empty-handed A LOT. It's again that classic touch footy play where you probe the line then step back to reconsider your options, before driving at selected defenders to get the quick PTB for the next play. That doesn't work in League, they will monster you and slow the PTB if you half-heartedly pull out of a play. He needs to either run intentionally or distribute a bit earlier.

BUT I was fairly optimistic after what was not a great scoreboard. I agree with another poster that this team just needs to get into the habit of winning, to get more outcome from their efforts. Every team fancies their chances against Tigers, because of our reputation, even late in the game and it makes it a little harder to put teams away. We don't yet have that winning formula or elite talent to fall back on for every tough match.

Benji seems cool-headed, I like it.
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The improvement in the team from the last 5 years is night and day
 
jirskyr said:
It was a strange game for me to watch. I already knew the score when I sat down and it looked on paper like a flogging, a late try to make it more respectable - typical Suncorp performance.

But watching the first 30 minutes, I started to wonder if I got the score wrong because Tigers were everywhere: strong defence, gallant running; even slowpokes like Twal taking intercepts, running into holes, putting on shots. The Broncos are a monster pack and Tigers really gave them stick, I can't recall many games like it where the other team had a clearly more experienced / notable pack and we really went after them.

We never really got on top of Carrigan unfortunately, he's such a smart footballer, but we handled Haas well and most of the other lads until Willison got his double.

Typical Tigers unfortunately losing concentration in and around half-time, but you can't take credit away from Broncos for stepping up when those opportunities presented. Would have helped immensely if we'd kicked 2 or 3 of those first tries.

It's obviously a big deal for us not to have Luai, even if both sides lost their halfbacks, it takes away that rudder that Broncos fell back on when we got into the wrestle.

You have to remember that as a fan: when the opposition turns up for the arm wrestle, teams have to fall back on their basics to get the W - kick/chase, shoulders into tackles, presenting a straight line, ball control, opportune runs from DH. Unfortunately for our lads Broncos did those moments better, the classic 1%ers when the game was there for the taking.

Agree with an earlier comment that Galvin has to stay his hand; it's not touch footy, he doesn't need to turn up everywhere. His kicking is pretty good and I don't mind when he decides to run. His support is great.

Galvin's main downside, apart from the sometimes-frantic play, is he will often hold the ball a little too long and kill the play if the defence gets up in a line. Usually that means doubling-back inside and taking the run. His outside players get left empty-handed A LOT. It's again that classic touch footy play where you probe the line then step back to reconsider your options, before driving at selected defenders to get the quick PTB for the next play. That doesn't work in League, they will monster you and slow the PTB if you half-heartedly pull out of a play. He needs to either run intentionally or distribute a bit earlier.

BUT I was fairly optimistic after what was not a great scoreboard. I agree with another poster that this team just needs to get into the habit of winning, to get more outcome from their efforts. Every team fancies their chances against Tigers, because of our reputation, even late in the game and it makes it a little harder to put teams away. We don't yet have that winning formula or elite talent to fall back on for every tough match.

Benji seems cool-headed, I like it.
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Really good thoughts and you've articulated what I couldn't put my finger with Galvin in terms of our backline plays
 
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