Norman field goal seals Dragons win

Bet you have no issue with any of the decisions that went the other way though, right?

20,000 is pretty good don't you think?

#refsfault, one decision decides the game. Dubious penalties to make the game closer.... Sounds a lot like another Manly supporter on here. One who is accustom is using multiple pseudonyms.

Broncos created few attacking chances against Storm & again last night. Successful against Cowboys as North Queensland's main weapon was"accidentally put of action" early. LOve affair with Seibold will start to wane Paul White may have to recall Griffin.

You seem upset. It got them back into the game but the overall point was that these 50-50 strip ball decisions are so significant they decide games. I note the dubious penalties went to the trailing team also got them back in it - who was ref again?

You maybe right, that “The Broncos issues last night were errors, not bench rotation or whatever else you think Seibold brought.” As I said, Seibold may get better, I am not writing the Broncs off. But last year Souths scores points primarily through their left shift and secondarily through Cook’s speed and to a lesser extent, Reynolds boot. After Rd 17 ( I think it was) Souths attack went backwards as teams blocked up those point scoring roots. For the Broncs; the left shift thing is now defended better, they don’t have a dangerous atracking hooker and they don’t have a strong attacking kicking game (the level of Reynolds anyway). So he has to come up with something new and while yes it is early days, he hasn’t yet. The Broncs are grabbing points through talent and or perseverance, not tactics. I get it is early days but that is all we have. When added to the back end of last year it makes for a slightly larger sample size. I get Broncos fans need to have faith - you are invested in him for 5 years, but for now I remain a sceptic acknowledging it is based on the small sample size.

as in playstyle, Haas isn't the rush out and put on a big shot type.

How did the stripped ball decision decide the game...?

I didn’t criticise your grammar, that’s the last thing I’d criticise some one for. I just highlighted how the words you chose showed you were talking about the team in general and not specifically that performance. You’re enitled to your opinion on Seibold as a coach, even if I don’t agree. My point is that the only thing last nights game is proof of is that they had a poor game (and it wont be the only one), trying to use it to prove your own opinion on Seibold says more about what you want to see then reality. Guess what, the Broncos played pretty poorly in last two games against the Dragons (arguably much worse), but that was a completely different coach, or was that proof that Bennett’s a poor excuse for a coach as well? Every team in the comp has bad games, even the Storm looked woeful at times last year. The Broncos issues last night were errors, not bench rotation or whatever else you think Seibold brought.

Haas is a 20 year old who has played all of 3 NRL games. I'd hardly expect him to "steady things".

I didn’t say close, I said closer. I don’t think too many people that watched that game would say the Broncos outplayed the Dragons. I think most would say the final score line flattered the Broncos.

You are quoting me so I guess you are annoyed by my comments (and if you want to correct my grammar, that's cool, but make sure your post doesn't have spelling mistakes.... :) ) I am not a Bronocs basher. I have made it clear I think they have ballsed up with Seibold, and I make no apologies for that. They have signed a guy who had 17 good rounds in his career for 5 years. It was four and as you know they managed to turn it into 5. That isn't subjective - that is a fact. That is risky. yeah you earn some luck (like Roberts did last night) because of skill, or limiting opponents, but Seibold had no hand in the Oates try or the Roberts try. You can say they put pressure on for the last try, but it still broke down with a pass which found the leg of Boyd and it was only that Widdop got injured that he lost control of the ball. I agree, the Eels win was overrated in the sense that they scored a couple of tries from turnovers also. Again, good skills from Lane and Ferguson, but an element of luck and not points earned through sustained pressure and completing the game plan. Their attack is disjointed. It wasn't just last night - plenty of passes going to ground in the first three weeks - and often from the halves. Last night they ran more - probably looked better - but, in my opinion they still have a 14 at halfback and it is going to be a hard thing (in my subjective opinion) to overcome. To think there is going to be any great change at this point from Nikorima is pretty optimistic. Bird has looked great and there is promise there. But playing left centre, he is looking great, angling back infield and taking the hit ups. The use of the bench - yep probably over analysed - but brought on by him because of his misuse last year. Seibold got worked out last year by all their late season opponents except for Cleary (one of the most unsuccessful coaches in history of the game). He deserves time to work it out in Brisbane and while we don't see 90% of a coaches work, I think I am allowed to be out on thinking he is so amazing that he should have been signed up for 5 years at a club that has only ever had three coaches and that he should be replacing one of the best ever. he may work it out, but he hasn't yet. The Broncs have enough talent, they will make the 8 purely on talent. But I don't see the coach who will mastermind a Finals run for them.

If that's close to the Dragons best they're in for a rough year...

Another stripped ball/knockon? decision decides the game though it was early. The trailing team always comes back

This is a bit of a left field comment but I wonder how much for & against points will play in this years comp? I was looking at the ladder to see where the Broncos & Dragons match up and both have only 2 points, though Brisbane have clearly played the better footy over 3 rounds, last nights game excepted. The Broncos are in 7th but because of it's poor opening games, the Dragons are in 13th. MacGregor and his coaching staff need to be getting this points differential under control early on, otherwise it might come back to bite the Dragons at the end of the season.

I guess it wasn't hard to be the best forward - perhaps that was the problem. He had more hit ups and metres than Sua who was on the field for twice as long as Flegler, He had more hit ups and metres than Gillett who was on the field 44 minutes more than Flegler - all three played in the middle. Gillett is completely wasted in the middle of the field - you hardly see him. Fafita was ok, but a bit sideways. Ofah by the numbers probably had more involvement than I realised to be fair, but couldn't have been that impactful. TPJ was still good, but he wasn't at the level he was last week, which is where he needs to be. Glenn does next to nothing. 5 runs in 80 minutes when yo play on the side of the field that most of their attack comes to... Granted he had the errors, so maybe he wasn't, but when Glenn is twiddling his thumbs on the edge, Gillett can't hit the bal up and Su'a is being Su'a. I think you are mis using the forwards.

Fair points. I’m not trying to dismantle the broncos season off the back of that performance. With the young talented pack they have and the halves they have there are going to be games when they absolutely smoke teams and there are going to be games where they’re off the boil. The Broncs are a side with an enormous ceiling so from my perspective it’s going to be a letdown when they don’t deliver, even if that is to be expected.

Believe me...I didn’t put Fergo’s intercept down to brilliance... :-)

Because while the Dragons weren’t great they played a lot closer to their best than the Broncos did. They made fewer errors, created more point scoring opportunities, were in front for more of the game and were the better team for more of the game. There were more Dragons players that you could say played well as opposed to Broncos players. Defence was on par between the two teams. And they won...

I probably sound like I'm saying the Broncs had a fine game, they didn't, they were pretty poor. But some people seem to be trying to use last nights game as evidence fundamental issues affecting the club and proof of their chances this season. From the original coment i was replying to:- "If you weren’t an Anthony Seibold believer, this game didn’t convert you" - clearly a fundamental issue with the coach. "The attack still looks hopelessly disjointed" - "looks" not "looked", as in not last night but in general. 53 points in two weeks is pretty poor I guess. "The use of the interchange is still highly questionable" - another mark against the coach, if very subjective. This is where the "looking for criticisms" comes in. The Broncos were poor last night for sure, but don't try and use that as some new benchmark for the club to validate your own preconceptions (not you TB, people in general). I do think there is a difference between getting lucky and dismissing points as luck, you don't get gifted trys you get gifted oportunites. I do find it ironic that Fergo scores a 90m try off an intercept and its down to pure brilliance but Roberts takes a kick by his fingertips and runs 90m to score with a dodgy achilles and it's dismissed as undeserved, don't tell me there's not a naritive here. But maybe I'm just being too touchy about the predictable influx of comments following a broncos loss.