Big wire billing. We're going to first grade mate.
Actually should be prong on top automatic actually.
A coops. It's a big some big things to talk about Dylan Brown situation, some of the poor performances of course a week, but first at least talk about tactically the Broncos. Well, it's not tactically but simple. There's magic in sweat. He worked them to the bone in the off season. There's been criticism that's over the top. But when you saw them in the trial game, they looked
rock hard fit. They are ready to go. And just the way they moved across the field when you're fitter and you know you're a big guy, and if you've lost a few kolos seem how much better their movement was, in their footwork, their defensive energy, everything.
Yeah, I find the commentrary really hard about Margeres training the Broncos too hot, Like, does anyone ever questioned what Ivan clearly has done with pen Does anyone have a questioned Craig Bellamy's army camp that he does every year.
No, there's a reason why you train.
To the red line so you know your players can touch it without going over it. And then when you come to the seventy eighth minute of a big game, you are redlining. So you need to build up resilience. And that's exactly what the good teams do. One thing I will say about the Broncos is sign of a good coach is when you take average players to.
Good, yes, good to great and great to elite.
Corey Paks has been terrific and then the other end of the scale, paint Ass was tremendous, Like.
Every time he touched the ball he did something. Paint us, He's got he's gotten better.
I listened to some comments going into the game ours before the game, and they're like Pakes the starting line, Heatherington, you know what's he doing? But just the evidence some of these were players they were going to let go. And like you said, Pakes was, yeah, just how strong he looked physically. Same with Kobe Heatherans to look far more athletic and Shiit of Saki. He's an example. And he said before like Payn Haass has just elevated himself
to another level. He was unstoppable. But the unbloke Zadier Willison coming off the bench like you look at like he looks really really good, is a sort of feel about Nelson suffer solomonia about it coming off with impact. They look fantastic and there's nothing tinty about what they what they do. It's all calculated, good hard work.
And it was forty minutes in the preseason against the Dogs was enough to show that they had something there and that combination of Adam Reynolds and Ben Haunt is going to be a very very good thing. Like Ezra Maam like, I wouldn't.
Move Ben Hunt.
I don't care what Ezra ma'am does from here on out. Ben Hunt is my five eight for the rest.
Of the year.
One the cultural peace right with what Ezra went through. But two I think with the talent the Broncos have stags Cobbo Walsh, payinhas Carrigan. Adam Reynolds in twenty twenty three got a lot of things right to control that team in terms of all the decision making, and to be fair, he made a couple of decisions the back end of that Grand Final that played a part in
them losing. Right now, with Ben Hunt, thirty four years of age, having done what he's done, I like that there's two guys either side of the field that are very good at making decisions. Their composure is great, so you can let Walsh out on a rain a little bit, but then one of them can pull them pulling back in on that side. So I like what Ben Huni did little short side down against the Roofs.
There's a three on two executed.
So he's gone from being a first receiver halfback dominating the Dragons, touching the ball a thousand times to basically picking his moments on the left hand side and complimenting what Adam Reynolds and Riss Walsh have. Like, I think it's very good against the Roosters and doesn't matter for me what Ezra man does.
Ben Hant stays there coops.
That's the thing. If you've got one experienced playmaker in your side, it's a god send. You see the difference that made to the Broncos when Adam Reynolds went there to that young Ford path that was so good but did never steering. Will he arrives and have two now in the field and on Ezra. Ezra is going to give Madge flexibility. He can plain Ford Hune. The other thing you can do as well is is like one
thing about Adam and Ben they're not spring chickens. There's going to be tying through the year that they need they need a break is going to give him the ability to just rotate the spine a little bit, which is going to be invaluable and time they're runs.
For the two thirty four year olds to play their best foot in the back. And that's the role Ezra Man would play after what I've seen from that and.
You just touched on it there. Like playing short sides, you know a side has had very good off season, not just in training but planning, getting getting down path out their structure and the science of their game and how they're going to do things when they play short sides. So well, there's the subtleties jumping out the open, switching back to get rid of the markers, and.
Just a little difference between playing halfback and five eight. The halfback is sort of really sort of got the blinkers on. There's a lot of eyes down the middle of the field about what he can do running the ball.
Or a short part.
When you're a second receiver five eight, your eyes are a little bit more wider looking at options for the outside right. So what Ben Hunt's brought to his game now is that he can actually start looking a bit further afield, looking for rees, looking for wingers, and he's coming up with plays.
Well, let's say talking about sixes and sevens. Later, we're going to talk at the difference between both. We're going to talk about Dylan Brown a little later.
But Jerome Lewe so a lot of hope for the Tigers and at the game on the weekend, before the nights before the game, like, there was a lot of excitement around what Jerome could do. When you play five eight, you might touch the ball, let's say forty times a game. When you play half back touched the ball closer to sixty times a game.
That's twenty more decisions that Jerome has to make.
And when you're half back, yes you got to set up tries, Yes you got to score, You've got to do all these things.
But how can you win a game when you don't have the ball as a half back.
So at the Panthers, they were the best defensive team, one of the best completion rates, and their run meters through their forward pack of back three got them basically over halfway majority of their time.
At the Tigers, he doesn't have that.
They're the worst defensive team from last year, discipline, paul, all those things. So he's going to be let's say, fifteen to twenty meters away from where he normally kicked the ball to where he will be for the Tigers. And in the fiftieth minute, leading eight tonil, Jerome Lewie puts up a kick which he might have done four or five times with Nathan. Now he's kicking the ball
let's say ten to fifteen times more. Plus he's put a kick in seven tackle set, Calen Bonger catches it back, Knights go down the other end, score a try eight to six.
They lose ten's too long by inches.
Inches and that twenty more decisions that Jerome has to make is going to play an impact when they're not defending well, when they're making errors, when their discipline's poor. So Jerome can play. We've seen that he can dominate. What he did last year was arguab his best year of Yeah, I think, But when you're a half back of a team from the bottom of the ladder, how can you win a game without touching the ball? How
can you drive consistency in all those other areas? And Benji's got a part to playing this about improving that defense and discipline and all that. But there's a lot of more challenges for Jerome obviously, But that's a bit of the halfback verse five eight mentality.
I mean, what's going to help him enormously is happy chorus. How come back in the site? You know, like on the weekend one of their main direct focal points in that middle of the field was missing. That put a lot more pressure on Jerome on top of all the responsibility's got anyway Buller coming back in the site, So I want to getting that year is I just see so much upside for this Tiger side. Now, I thought
their defense on the weekend was was fantastic. Now they missed fifty five tackles, but that's yeah, statsa means to an end. You can miss fifty five tackles. A lot of it's scrambling.
Defense lost a lot of tackles last year.
Miss tackles aren't miss tackles, you know what I mean. You know, you can miss a lot of tackles. But it's yeah, and I.
Agree, I think I like the energy that's around are the Tigers. But there's just a couple of other things that to me after the weekend that says, hey, Jerome, like you are a good player, but if you want to be that dominant half back and lift the Tigers from where they are to potential finals, then there's a few things that have to be taken consideration.
Is it a cage or bastard made like so, he's coach the Dolphins last couple of years and he knows his players inside out, and what he did the other night he ran a standard shape at Herbie Farnworth every time, and every time he ran it he went and obviously the talk between young Katoe and Herbie wasn't that good. But right at the last second Herbie couldn't help himself, lost his nerve and turned in like that's Wayne coaching.
He just knew, you know, inside out, how Herbie would react under pressure and that certain shape and just very very clever coaching. And blokes tell me it's funny we always look at Wayne and go eye. He's a man manager, that's what he does. But blokes do a coach by him and they say he has very good, great attention to detail as far as attacking shapes. It's just it doesn't be note himself about it.
But he's also got that ability to use someone's strength and weakness against them, right, as history shows Herbie Farwerth. But on the flip side, the ballplane of Cody Walker. Give Cody Walker a cute defensively, and he will tear you apart when he's got his when he's styled in.
And the other one was manly. What do you think of Manly on the weekend?
Mainly were fantastic, but it was a manly type of game in terms of it like manly. My knock on Manly is this right? Is that they have no breaks their bang bang bang attack. It's just relentless and on the weekend, like all of it's stuck. And they found themselves on a blink of I thirty points clear, and so they just kept rolling and rolling and rolling and against an opposition which allowed them play that sort of football. Now,
why knock on Manly? Sys coups is so often when I think of Mainly, I think of dry Sunday afternoon noon football that I'll watch them in the first twenty minutes and they're going whack bang, wham wham, They're going to win this game by thirty points. But then invariably when little bit of fatigue comes in and all of a sudden errors come into the game. Is they let
the opposition back in. They have inconsistencies week to week, but they have inconsistencies which sit in the game, and I want to see them win a game coop against an elite team where things aren't going their way, when the ball's not sticking and they've got to defend their way to victory.
Yeah, so they're outside backs and the halves and their billy to score points is up there against most other teams. The big question mark from last year and lead into this year for Manly is can their forward pack dominate and can they defend for long periods of time against
the best attacking teams. What I saw from Prosecca and Ola Calato, we didn't see that defense because Cowboys it was a no show basically, But what I saw from Prosecca and Ola Calat, it looks like their forward pack's got some arrogance and swagger about it, which is going to complement Cherry Evans and Turbo and their billy right and just looking at their game, Jerry Evans just turned thirty six and you can go out a bit of a limbir They've got five of their first seven games
at home. They are lightning quick at home, particularly on a dry track. As we said, they could be on the top of the ladder after eight weeks. Jerry Evans hasn't decided what he's going to do for Origin and Rep football. Just turned thirty six. I think he's going to see himself in six or eight weeks time and go, you know what, this is my best chance winning a comp. And he might just pull the trigger on Rep footy and go, you know what, I'm on slipstreaming here. I've
got to Travoivic out of the back. Luke Brooks is energetic of forward. Pack's going well and a lot of things have to fall into place. I'm not saying they're going to win it, but I'm just saying, Cherry, this might force him into thinking, you know what, was it playing Grand File in twenty thirteen was his last one? Yeah, maybe one or two prelims outside of that. He's never really gotten close for ten years, so.
This is this is his go. He just might pull the pin and focus on it because.
At thirty six years of age is a half back playing for thirty weeks plus origin. Now the fuel tank will get low. So maybe he's just double down and it's he's still playing very good.
Yeah he has. It's gonna be test for Anthony Soubold this too, Coops, because if what you say happens where they're top of the table. So this has got a propensity to overshare. That makes sense, you know what I mean, It's going to be important they when things are flying, it's Cooper lid on it.
I haven't looked at their draw but whoever they play at home, out those five or seven five seven, and they're a chance of bend every one of them.
I'll ask your question here. I post this to the boys last night on the on the shower. So box A, box B. Right in box A, you've got Penrith, the Broncos and the Melbourne Storm. The rest of the competition is in boxbury. What price do you give either.
I'm taking box those guys Storm, Penrith what they did in Vegas, and the Broncos like they are top line betting.
I'm doubling down on them. Everyone else is chasing sports.
But dollar fifty five box A, which I think is actually quite generous, but lower than that. Yeah, well, in boxby the two sides the two wild cars, but they're still could elevate themselves.
Is me shark?
The other two are some of the things the Dogs in there. Yeah, I'm under estimating the Dogs, which.
I don't think they've got the attacking flare to beat those teams.
Yeah, but defensively they can keep it close.
That was a terrific game like that was That was a game that I thought had upset written all over it. Dragons at home full house point to prove new players, but Dogs got it done.
About the Dogs, So my question mark for them lead into this year was soroldose defensive system is proven. He's gone character over talent as such, because he wants people who can defend and move and make defensive decisions and all that stuff. And when you go from the worst defensive team to one of the best takes a lot of effort and heart. And I was wondering whether Reed Marni, kick out Crichton, Connor Tracy could go again defensive Yeah, and I think that again.
I saw that on the weekend.
Their attack is not near some of those gun teams, but their defense holds up.
It's a lot of discipline, you know, coops the year before to have not a lot of expectation on you, and you've got a point to because it comes down here comes into the individual competed to this year where the expectation as well, you've got to reach the second week of the finals. Let's progress when it's so hard to part the course to say what he did last year?
So we spoke manly, spoke dogs. What about sharks on that second?
I want to see I want to see more from more from the Sharkies in that. When I watched the side coops right and I watch them for the first time for the year trial game round one. I don't want to see a team who's picked up where they left off. I want to see a team and go, wow, look that they've worked on there. There's different aspects of their game. For me, Cronulla is they just can't rely on the elevation that Adam field Bay is going to give them. I just want to see some different things
for us because we're Harves. We saw it half by. I want to see some different attacking shapes. I want to see Trendle and Nicico just approached the defense a little bit differently. They've got themselves into an algorithm of forty five degrees to find their target defender. I just want to see a little bit, a little bit of something different from the Sharks capable of winning it. They've got They've got the Blaker with the buye of the
Year Vanilla. Blake's just a machine. But I just want to see a little bit more from well.
I think the little point of difference for them to use is Brayley. I think Brayley if he can become you know, he had a really good year last year. But if he becomes like a Harry Grand equivalent of like really creative when there's chaos, and use someone like Adam Fanil Blake straight close to the line, that could be ten tries right there.
We'll see Coops, can they win the comp? Yes, they can more than capable of winning it. And round one was a good performance of very good performance, but Coops, they got beat by Penris. And when the game was on the line, when you're going to blink, who's going to win it? They gotta beat by Penis. When there's really vital moments where you're going to win, you're going to lose. It's not about it was a very good performance is you're lost. They've got to start nailing those games.
You marry up attack and defense and they probably meet Penrith and Melbourne. But when it comes to blinking, yeah, Storm.
And let's do some straight talking.
What you got.
People always start these things by saying, this is not a criticism, and this is not a criticism. This is just facts, straight talking, but straight talk. But this is just a fact. Is that Dylan is a six. We've already spoken about the difference between six and the seven. Right, Dylan can impact a game heavily. He can have a big impact on a game. But to do that, he needs someone alongside him to control the game. That's what he needs. Dylan is an explosive player. He impacts the
game through moments. He's not a seven. He's a six. Dylan's game is the game of a deputy. Like you know which most sixers are. They are deputies the moment. He's a reactive player. He's a deputy. He's a pure six. Hell of a six, very good six, but he ain't a seven.
Yep.
So go back and listen to what we spoke about with Jerome Lui. The forty touches to sixty, the decision making. Every decision has consequences. When you're half back, kick the ball three times, Now, all of a sudden, I have to kick it fifteen times a game. The one thing I will say is I was disappointed in what Dylan Brown delivered when Mitchell Moses.
Was out last year.
We've said this before that when a five mate as their main man go down, sometimes it's really good learning and development for you to go whar the seven and find out what it takes in eighty minutes and during the week to say, oh, that's what Mitch does through the week. Oh that's what Nathan does. Oh that actually when I go back to six, I'm going to bring that to my game. And he moved halfback and didn't really do too much.
And like, look, I don't blame him fierce like yesterday, I'm still been last year when there.
Was that window where he moved his half back.
As someone that loves watching doing Brown play, I thought, you know, this is a chance, this is actually going to elevate his five eight play understanding what Mitch goes through every week.
But it just didn't have that impact.
And yesterday, like we said, I really felt you don't understand I said this in the show Last Tight. I don want to sound condescending. I really felt for that a lot of those young Paramittal players yesterday to go out there in again, they hadn't been exposed to a game like that against the Melbourne Storm, dry sound afternoon. They're in the mood to play, and you could just see that was shell shocked. Their eyes were rolled on the back of their heads. And I can totally understand why.
If I'm Jason Ryles like, it's obviously a bad stuff, But I don't mind that. There's the benchmark. We just sit here if we want to get to where Melbourne are. These are the things we have to do. One defend like your life depends on it. For every minute, every game, every tackle counts. You've got to be prepared. You've got to get ready at you know, in the morning, on away trip. These are all the things they will learn from that. But you know, for Rosie, that's a tough initiation going.
Down there like a young fighter step in the ring with Muhammad Ali, exact funny the great you know where you stand. That's right. Those young players yesterday said, they said, we've watched Monster, We've watched Grant We've watched pappen House and Hues and that, but we just didn't know what it was like to be on the receiving end of that.
They got punched in the face yesterday, but they know what's coming now.
The young side they did with the Cowboys, a lot of young guys there would have been shell shocked and look Toddy Toddy Canty. Toddy Payton ended the season under fair bit of pressure because I think even though they played finals last year, I thought they under choeved. I thought the standard of football they're capable a lot better of the year before terrible. The way they've started this year is alarming. They've got the Sharks next week and
that the Broncos after that. Todd Toddy can't afford another loss like Saturday night.
It was bad.
It was a bad start, like mainly were unbelievable. But since it was it twenty two, the Cowboys did their thing. They went to a prelim. Ye it was twenty two, played a really high level.
They looked like a side that was going to roll into the next year and picture too.
Yeah, twenty three bad, twenty four we're inconsistent.
We got back to a point I think they've lost their consistency.
Yeah, they've lost their They've got top end talent, but they've also lost a little bit of that sort of work ethic that sits below the top end talent. And like they just their forward pack, just let Perseca, Jake ta Voievic, they just let.
Them run coops. That that excellent season when they got to the final four, it almost make it very very close to making the Grand Final, perilously close. Is that that that year their game is based on fitness, discipline and defense. Somewhere in between that last game, in the first game of twenty twenty three, they just become attack of obsessed. They just got intoxicated. But what they can do with the football, and they were the same last year.
They if you play them every day of the week, because they're happy to win forty two forty, they'll let you play football. They've just got to develop a much harder each.
What did you say the thing in twenty twenty two they built their game on, was it defense, work ethic and all those things? Right, that's exactly discipline. Yeah, it's exactly what Craig Bellmy has done for twenty three years. Yeah, right, he knows exactly what he's good at, and he just keeps coming back to the table every time. He lets other people worry about the attack, all the changes and things like that.
So no, just follow at it. You blokes are ordinary roosters, Well.
They need to tackle anyone, neither of Today.
It's good. The Broncos, well, I mean, look what you go, tell me, Tell me what do you think?
Give me your take on the Roosters? What else?
I understand under strength all those things. But the side you put out I looked at it on the night right and I liked the Broncos going in. Everyone did. But teams tell you what, mate, it's still a good It's still a good rooster side.
Yeah.
Well there's Taedasco Towns and Crichton, Colin's Radley Watson off the top.
To go out in wet weather and be able to put fifty points on a team says a lot about the Broncos and know how they're prepared for the season, But it says a lot about the Rooster's defense. I saw and cooped. I was so dislocated at times. It was structurally it was bad, like you know, there was some bad one on one missus. But more than that, it was structurally they were so poor. And it's round one.
When you sort of predicted to have a challenge in year. The one thing you probably need to focus on are the hardest parts of the game. You like the defense, like to kick, chose all those things. So alarming that the game against was week two of pre season was the Knights into the Broncos game when Trent Robinson historically when he's won Comps has been the best defensive team.
I mean, so that's the focus. That's the thing.
And talking about Jerome Lewi on how to win a game as a halfbacker without touching the ball, well, Chad's got a little bit of that. He's a smart guy, but he's not going to break over the game with a run and a dash. I'm going to have to work on ways to win games of football.
A very difficult start to his rooster's career. That's get new club on when you went there first of all, took a little bit of time to beat yourself down.
I think you were calling from my head and everyone.
Absolutely I still am.
That's really worked out.
What we're going to do this you cap, We're going to do a thing called let people in focus. Now we could focus on a game, a player, mom rabul league history. What we're going to do next week, we're going to focus on the similarities between rugby league's golden period the eighties rolling into the nineties and where we sit at the moment, what produced such a great era, and the warnings we should hear.
Because our games in a good spot.
We just need to not get lost in what's possible focus on.
We do word word,