Longing for the day ...

Battling Broncos

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and respond to cries of "post-origin slump" about the Broncos before I've even heard them:

The problem the Broncos experienced yesterday had nothing to do with post-origin anything, it had everything to do with the lack of a regular organising halfback. Since Alf retired, Brisbane have not been able to put one guy in the No7 shirt for an entire season, and yesterday they were down to their third-choice halfback, without their first or second-choice hooker or Karmichael Hunt to provide variety. As a result they looked disorganised and one-dimensional - too eay to pick off.

Their first-up hits were as effective as ever but their support play was non-existent and too often the play was easy to pick because it ALL revolved around Darren Lockyer. Champion that Darren is, he can't run the entire show. Shaun Berrigan is another champion with, as Kevvie pointed out, an awesome running game but what Brisbane need is organisation and someone else to take the load off Lockyer. Previous seasons have demonstrated this clearly.

Also, the lack of a specialist hooker makes service slow - Casey McGuire threw some absolute clangers yesterday and was generally not up to it (especially compared to Robbie Farrah).

When they get Karmichael Hunt and a specialist hooker back, especially if they can get one of the two No 7s that served them so well at the start of the season back too, they'll be back on track. Go Broncos!!

**Late update (2/8/06) on the radio this morning is a story that Darren Lockyer set a club record for the most plays in a game last Sunday - proves my point. Alfie Langer was also quoted as saying that Lockyer is in danger of burning out if he continues his workload. Nice to know one of the game's great agrees with me. Thanks, Alf!

BTW - what the hell is Brett Seymour doing?? He should be concentrating on playing his best football ...