NRL 2024
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@bayimports Sounds like a good assessment. Brisbane will have to offload a fair amount of cattle to acquaint Walsh and Mam. Time will tell, I only see the Broncs loosing much of their roster to cater for a couple of guys on big money.
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The Broncos are in a spot with their roster nearly every other club would kill to be in. Their holes aren't that big, they have youth, and the ability to score.
Madge needs to make them far more defensively resilient. "I'll just score more than you" is not a long term plan.
You won't see a better middle 1-2 punch than Haas and Carrigan, they need to build the rest of that rotation. They do have a couple of good youngsters to help our. Not relying on those two to play huge minutes would help.
Their back row is ok. Riki reverting to his 2022 form means maybe he loses his spot. Again, tehy have cheap youth to fill in. Piakura continuing to develop, and staying fit would help.
Their spine isn't bad. Walsh needs taming, but you cannot beat pace. Mam is as good a running half as there is. Hooker will be better now that Billy Walters isn't playing all the time. Reynolds won't stay fit, but they need to develop an organising half, and there aren't many in a better spot to do that than Reynolds.They do need to solve Selwyn Cobbo, and either get him motivated or move him on (i would do everything to keep him on board he's so talented).
If you offered me a straight swap of the Warriors roster and the Broncos roster, including the cap headaches, i would bite your hand off.
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Walters not likely to stay after the treatment of his father. Cobbo and Staggs would need to stay. November 1 will be critical. See what happens. If Madge does gel with the club, it could be an awesome move, could go either way, he is a Blue going into enemy territory. I just see the future as the Dolphins, if they can pick up a few Broncos, their rise will only continue.
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Walters not likely to stay after the treatment of his father. Cobbo and Staggs would need to stay. November 1 will be critical. See what happens. If Madge does gel with the club, it could be an awesome move, could go either way, he is a Blue going into enemy territory. I just see the future as the Dolphins, if they can pick up a few Broncos, their rise will only continue.
Actually think the young kid Blake Mozer was excellent in the limited minutes he got, if Walters leaves I dont think it is the end of the world for Brisbane
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@mariner4life said in NRL 2024:
not too much wrong with the NRL awards.
Favourite won. Probably closer than it should have been.
Team of the year looked pretty much bang on as well.Try of the year a heartbreaker for Warriors fans
Tackle of the year Deardon's run down try saver on Selwyn Cobboonly thing that would have been wrong is Teddy winning by a couple of points after Jerome got that minus 6. thankfully that didn't play out
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Looking forward to the game , as a storm supporter happy with everything except I just don’t like the minor premier leading the comp all year scenario, for whatever reason it just doesn’t play out that well usually, look at the swans as an example.
My gut feel just tells me Penrith are in a better position with their experience in winning at this time of year, 2024 form probably goes out the window now .
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Melbourne are as well placed to win as they can be.
Their form is excellent. Since they beat Penrith, they've beaten the Dolphins 48-6, lost to the cowboys with a B side, but only just, beat the Broncos 50-12, the Sharks 37-10, and the Roosters 48-18. That's exceptional. And most importantly their big 4 were huge last week.
The Panthers haven't been at their best. They lost to the Storm, lost to the Raiders, beat the Bunnies 34-12, the Titans 18-12, the Roosters 30-10 and the Sharks 26-6. Still good, but not to their usual standards. As you say though, 5 GFs in a row means this is nothing new to them, and i think we all expect them to fall straight back in to that familiar and so successful pattern.
What Melbourne will also be wary of is that Brisbane turned up last year with a similar form line and played 65 minutes of amazing footy and still came 2nd. Bellamy is not Kevin Walters though.
I hope it's another great GF.
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While Bellamy has followed a similar formula with this team compared to his last by building the million dollar spine and building the side around that . He’s playing a very different game plan to the last team .
This spine is very different, smith and Cronk were very measured and calculated playing to a formula . This spine loves to play a bit more ad lib footy so the game plan to suit that, is very fast and hectic , more fun to watch .
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Storm deserving of their lead IMO.
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@antipodean said in NRL 2024:
Storm deserving of their lead IMO.
All went downhill for them after I wrote that.
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Storm can't keep up. Penrith are running downhill and Melbourne will be thanking their lucky stars that halftime has come.
Call me out if I'm wrong but I think Penrith run away with this in the 2nd half. They've been keeping the powder dry this whole time.
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Five final appearances and four titles in a row is an impressive feat in the modern era.
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@antipodean said in NRL 2024:
Five final appearances and four titles in a row is an impressive feat in
the modernany era and any sporting comp.FIFY
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Best rugby team I have ever seen.
In the cap era, to lose the elite players they have, and still win 4 in a row? In a comp that proved 2 in a row was a unicorn? Unbelievable.
And tonight all they did was defend like demons and wait for someone to make a play. And today that was Liam Martin. What a performance.
Seriously how are they still so good? How is their linespeed and hard shoulders still so good? How are they so accurate? What a team
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For Melbourne they got swamped. They couldn't break the shackles that Penrith put them in
Grant and Munster were enormous but no one else could do anything against that swarming defence.
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@antipodean said in NRL 2024:
Five final appearances and four titles in a row is an impressive feat in
the modernany era and any sporting comp.FIFY
St George won 11 in a row mid 50s to 60s , you would think that will never get beaten
My old man played against that team, Sydney premiers played the Auckland premiers ( ellerslie) in 59, st George won 11-10
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@mariner4life said in NRL 2024:
For Melbourne they got swamped. They couldn't break the shackles that Penrith put them in
Grant and Munster were enormous but no one else could do anything against that swarming defence.
I actually thought storms defense was enormous given penriths possession and field position , but yeah couldn’t get their usual attack going ,
also made a few but not too many crucial eras at times when it felt like they were getting back into it . And then handed back momentum .
5 in a row for a reason , just so bloody good .
