Re: Bradford 3rd April - Home : Sun Apr 03, 2022 7:33 pm  

Smithers99 wrote:

I'd say the Broncos are a "general on the pitch" away from winning a game like today. Would the chap now at Barrow have filled that role?

A few observations.

Thomas looked much better today, especially with the ball in hand.

Does Ferreira now the rules? I think he turned it over twice with an infringement after being tackled and looking to make a standard restart. Don't know what they were (knock-ons?) as I don't the rules myself.

Bienek looks a massive threat ball in hand. But again played very limited minutes.

Once again Siti telegraphed a grubber kick 10 yards out resulting in an 80 yard break by Bradford. Just like he did against York.

Dalton Grant looks our best centre, he was sin binned after 60 minutes during which Broncos scored. Not a position of strength mind.

Two Hookers on the pitch. Bradford put in and neither in the scrum. Scrums are about as serious as not allowing a shooter to be defended in Netball!

Forwards look good. Need a play maker in the backs. Ullberg and Walker stand-out in the backs.

20+ minute delay in the first half as a Bradford fan was helped by the medical staff.

A good assessment Mr Smithers. We seem unable or unwilling to kick on the last tackle and when we did kick it wasn't brilliant. A lack of creativity in the halves was evident. We didn't seem to have the guile to unlock Bradford. To be honest they weren't great and if you drop Sammutt into that Broncos team I would think we would have won. I've always liked Bienek since I saw him play youth team rugby at Ealing before the main event in his first spell with Broncos. I suspect he would have benefited from staying with us longer and playing that year in super league.

I thought being part time we might fade late in the game but if anything we really started to play as Grant was sin binned in the 65th minute. Didn't that also happen in the York and Barrow games?

Today was my first sight of Broncos since the Toulouse game last year and my first visit to Plough Lane. A nice well appointed stadium. I used to enjoy Ealing and used to switch ends at half time but I guess that ship has sailed. It was a long hike from my part of the world - a couple of hours by train. As others have commented parking doesn't seem brilliant although I did note the road opposite as an option. My wife likes to come, but she has been seriously ill over the winter and because of the risk to her of infections doesn't want to use public transport, so I may have to brave the Dartford crossing and M25 for the Dewsbury game. It was nice to be back and see a spirited if not especially competent performance.

Re: Bradford 3rd April - Home : Sun Apr 03, 2022 7:54 pm  

From what I've seen on Twitter the weather was perfect, so I assume there was plenty of handling errors from both sides?
We do seem to lack structure in attack with last week's draw coming from a hail Mary hoof down field and our last play kicking options seeming limited this week.
If we need a general/playmaker as has been suggested, then it needs to happen soon. We have a key series if fixtures coming up where we must start winning. Sheffield, dewsbury, batley, Newcastle and Workington are all winnable....but winning is a habit that this team and their coach seen unable to develop.
Win at Sheffield or a change of coach .....it's that simple.

Re: Bradford 3rd April - Home : Sun Apr 03, 2022 9:10 pm  

So much good ball, such little quality in good ball. Clunky and then some, with the only try a bash over.

Felt sorry for the forwards as they were great.

Re: Bradford 3rd April - Home : Sun Apr 03, 2022 9:39 pm  

Mash Tun wrote:

So much good ball, such little quality in good ball. Clunky and then some, with the only try a bash over.

Felt sorry for the forwards as they were great.

It is a concern that we are the lowest scorers in the competition with 25% of it gone......this is the worst start to a season with the exception of 2014.

Re: Bradford 3rd April - Home : Sun Apr 03, 2022 9:59 pm  

The Broncos still lost - AGAIN. So what if the score was close - we still haven't won a game after almost 1/3 of a season - and other scraping a victory over Whitehaven probably won't. Basically, we have uncreative halves, a poor coach and no goal kicker.

Re: Bradford 3rd April - Home : Sun Apr 03, 2022 10:34 pm  

jbuzza wrote:

What was the attendance ?

Didn't hear any announcement today.

Re: Bradford 3rd April - Home : Sun Apr 03, 2022 10:41 pm  

Torbreck wrote:

The Broncos still lost - AGAIN. So what if the score was close - we still haven't won a game after almost 1/3 of a season - and other scraping a victory over Whitehaven probably won't. Basically, we have uncreative halves, a poor coach and no goal kicker.

League express showing attendance at the game as "Not Given".....the veil of secrecy comes down 4 games into the "brave new dawn".

Re: Bradford 3rd April - Home : Sun Apr 03, 2022 10:49 pm  

Torbreck wrote:

Basically, we have uncreative halves, a poor coach and no goal kicker.

Totally agree with the first and third points.

I can't really comment on the coach as I have nothing to compare with, nor do I know the true quality/level of the players and thus whether he is doing well or badly with what he has. Having said that he was primarily responsible for recruiting them and the end result is a single draw to date. Of course the (vast) consensus is agreeing with you and I have no reason (apart from my limited knowledge, which isn't a reason anyway) to disagree.

Re: Bradford 3rd April - Home : Sun Apr 03, 2022 11:15 pm  

Hockley Bronco wrote:

I thought being part time we might fade late in the game but if anything we really started to play as Grant was sin binned in the 65th minute. Didn't that also happen in the York and Barrow games?

It's interesting that we are indeed now finishing stronger rather than fading, which is a good thing.

Now to sort out the early part of the match. After eight matches (640 minutes), if I'm correct, the Broncos haven't held a lead all season, not for even a minute!

Re: Bradford 3rd April - Home : Mon Apr 04, 2022 12:08 am  

Smithers99 wrote: Totally agree with the first and third points. I can't really comment on the coach as I have nothing to compare with, nor do I know the true quality/level of the players and thus whether he is doing well or badly with what he has. Having said that he was primarily responsible for recruiting them and the end result is a single draw to date. Of course the (vast) consensus is agreeing with you and I have no reason (apart from my limited knowledge, which isn't a reason anyway) to disagree. March 2015 Coleman was appointed head coach at London Skolars. In his time there I believe the Skolars played 130 league and super 8 games, winning 41 of them (31%). In my 20 years following the London Broncos, we had Tony Rea (win ratio 37%) who assembled a play-off grade side at Griffin Park that saw us start off well when we moved to Harlequins but thereafter, when Hughes took sole control of the club, we have struggled to find "good" managers or uncover nuggets like Dorn, Moran and McLinden..... Hughes appointed Brian McDermott, who for all his silverware at Leeds (I could have coached them to SL titles that team were that good) only had a 36% win ratio with us, Hughes then appointed Rob Powell (24%), he appointed Grima (8%) on the say so of a player???? before he "Lucked out" with Henderson (67%) followed by Ward (54%), who he told to leave after he said he would leave immediately at the end of the year and briefly Tom Tsang (50%) Hughes referred to Coleman as a "HIGHLY SPOKEN OF" young coach. I am at a loss as to where he gets this from, as a plucky loser he may be, but he's a loser all the same and losing is a habit that he's brought with him along with a huge number of players who weren't good enough in L1 last year and who aren't good enough in the level above this! His London Broncos W/L is currently 0%. We have lost to 3 of the current top 6 sides but have yet to play either of the top 2, which isn't to say we are all bad, but we have scored fewer points than anyone else in the comp and are in a relegation dog-fight. Hughes has a record of refusing to sack people as he doesn't like to admit he's made mistakes, but given Henderson and Ward "inherited" their roles, I am struggling to find any appointment made by Hughes during his 14 years as sole owner IN ANY ROLE that hasn't turned out to be an error. I predicted out first win would be Sheffield away. and I reckoned Coleman would be gone by May. I've no idea of the other predictions being correct as the club have stopped announcing the gate

Smithers99 wrote: Totally agree with the first and third points. I can't really comment on the coach as I have nothing to compare with, nor do I know the true quality/level of the players and thus whether he is doing well or badly with what he has. Having said that he was primarily responsible for recruiting them and the end result is a single draw to date. Of course the (vast) consensus is agreeing with you and I have no reason (apart from my limited knowledge, which isn't a reason anyway) to disagree. March 2015 Coleman was appointed head coach at London Skolars. In his time there I believe the Skolars played 130 league and super 8 games, winning 41 of them (31%). In my 20 years following the London Broncos, we had Tony Rea (win ratio 37%) who assembled a play-off grade side at Griffin Park that saw us start off well when we moved to Harlequins but thereafter, when Hughes took sole control of the club, we have struggled to find "good" managers or uncover nuggets like Dorn, Moran and McLinden..... Hughes appointed Brian McDermott, who for all his silverware at Leeds (I could have coached them to SL titles that team were that good) only had a 36% win ratio with us, Hughes then appointed Rob Powell (24%), he appointed Grima (8%) on the say so of a player???? before he "Lucked out" with Henderson (67%) followed by Ward (54%), who he told to leave after he said he would leave immediately at the end of the year and briefly Tom Tsang (50%) Hughes referred to Coleman as a "HIGHLY SPOKEN OF" young coach. I am at a loss as to where he gets this from, as a plucky loser he may be, but he's a loser all the same and losing is a habit that he's brought with him along with a huge number of players who weren't good enough in L1 last year and who aren't good enough in the level above this! His London Broncos W/L is currently 0%. We have lost to 3 of the current top 6 sides but have yet to play either of the top 2, which isn't to say we are all bad, but we have scored fewer points than anyone else in the comp and are in a relegation dog-fight. Hughes has a record of refusing to sack people as he doesn't like to admit he's made mistakes, but given Henderson and Ward "inherited" their roles, I am struggling to find any appointment made by Hughes during his 14 years as sole owner IN ANY ROLE that hasn't turned out to be an error. I predicted out first win would be Sheffield away. and I reckoned Coleman would be gone by May. I've no idea of the other predictions being correct as the club have stopped announcing the gate