Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 2631707, member: 1899"] [B]Round 6 2002 Brisbane Broncos vs Penrith Panthers[/B] If there is one season I'd love to revisit, it's 2002. I just have a lot of good memories associated with this season and I'd love to figure out what I'd make of it now. This is one of those games that interests me because I don't recall watching it. Back then, I didn't watch every game and the idea of sitting through replays felt boring to me and a last resort if nothing else was on Cartoon Network (I'm dating myself with that confession, ha) Suffice to say, this will be like watching the game fresh. Turning my attention to Penrith, this is actually a pretty interesting time to watch them since we're one season away from their amazing premiership season. By this point, they were one of the easy beats of the competition and outside of Girdler & Priddis, none of their players were highly regarded. However looking ahead, the likes of Wesser, Lewis, Rooney, Gower, Sattler, Puletua, Galuvao (imagine all the time I botched the spelling of his name) & Lang would of course go onto become important cogs in their premiership season. Let's get this show on the road... - Penrith started well. Defensively they hurt Brisbane, Sattler in particular cleaned Gordie up with a big hit that knocked Gordie loopy and they managed to score first points through Lewis who beat some really weak defence from Walker & Kelly to slam the ball down in the corner. - Civo cleaned Lang up with a high swinging tackle off the kick off. These days if the tackle happened, Civo would be placed on report and the commentators would be weighing up how many weeks he'd receive. Back then, the commentators don't even bat an eyelid as Penrith are told to play on. - They would have been filthy too as Michael Ryan managed to strip Priddis of the ball on the next play. Two plays later, Broncos go right through Langer who finds Lee who turns it back to Webb who brushes through some soft defence to score. The strip looked pretty dusty from Ryan, looked like he knocked on but the Channel 9 commentators didn't bat an eyelid. 6-4 Broncos. - Broncos go back-to-back through Tallis. I remember this try, Tallis flings Sattler off like a fly and goes straight through the Penrith defence, beats Wesser with a show and go before propelling himself off Lewis' cover tackle to score. Probably the best Tallis try in his career. 12-4 Broncos. - Grrr looks like this version I've got is clipped. I just lost about six minutes worth of action as Langer accepts a Civo offload and races 40 odd before earning a six again. Unfortunately Tuqiri spills an inside ball close to the line. - Just as Penrith were building momentum, Lockyer made his mark on the game with a 60m+ drop goal that ended up bouncing to the Penrith 20m mark. This forced Penrith to surrender position over pretty meekly and off a penalty, Lockyer once again shows his class scoring off a well weighted grubber kick intended for his outside men, but ended up being a slick solo effort. 18-4 Broncos - Lockyer is really into the thick of the action now as he throws a lovely long pass to Kelly who finds Walker back on the inside who slams the ball over the try line. The put down looked dusty since the ball flew in the air afterwards but replays show that it's a try. Replays show Johnny Lang blowing up at one of his trainers on the sideline to move out of the way so he can see a replay and then apologising. Love human moments like that. :laugh: Broncos 22-4 [B]HT Brisbane Broncos 22 (Webb, Tallis, Lockyer, C. Walker tries; De Vere 3/4 goals) lead Penrith Panthers 4 (Lewis try; Girdler 0/1 goals)[/B] - Mark this down as a game where Webcke put up a bomb! Yes! Wasn't bad either, shame Stuart Kelly was offside since it forced a bobble from Lewis. - Jot this down for the blooper reel. Off a tap restart, Donato passes the ball onto Gall who juggles it straight into the hands to Donato gifting possession straight to the Broncos. Not long after that, Lockyer works a slick run-around play with Lee and sends Webb over on the right fringe. Broncos 28-4 - Brisbane were doing it comfortably until Sattler put through a dinky grubber kick that was touched mid-flight and caused a violent crash between Kelly & Walker which caused the Broncos to go on the defence for a few sets. They held them out and got their hands back on the ball but tried to turn defence into offence which gifted Penrith another opportunity at their line. Penrith made no mistakes this time as Gall went one on one with Langer, got an offload away to Girdler who wrong footed Lockyer to stroll over. Brisbane 28-10 with 23 to go - Penrith virtually go back to back. Lewis chipped and chased for himself which ended up giving them six again, then off a goal line drop out, Penrith establish the numbers out-wide with Priddis going through the hands down the short-side for Lewis to pick up his double. 28-16 Broncos - And again. Gower, who's kicking game has by and large been spot on, forces a Broncos scrum on their 10m line. From that, Berrigan throws a hospital pass to Tate who does well to bring it in before undoing that good work by blindly throwing the ball over the sideline. From that play, Penrith isolate Langer who misreads the play allowing Galavao to stroll over on the fringe. Brisbane 28-22 with 14 to go. - Penrith were threateing to score again after a few breaks but the Broncos were able to just hold on. The turning point came when the Panthers were pinged for a forward pass well inside the Broncos territory. Langer actually came up with a great tackle on the play which clearly gave him confidence as he came up with a great kick that pinged Penrith back inside their own territory for the first time in about 20 something minutes. From that, Brisbane were able to earn a penalty for accidental off-side, once again through the efforts of Alfie and De Vere 30m out from in-front made no mistakes. Brisbane 30-22 with 6 to go. - Thank goodness too since Penrith managed to score off their next set. Once again, they aimed their play down the Broncos left hand side with Gower switching back to Sattler who threw a good ball to Elford who put Lewis over for his hat-trick. Girdler wastes little time missing the conversion but then has the audacity to set the kick-up for the Broncos. De Vere still takes his time anyway. :laugh: Broncos 30-26 - Penrith throw it around with 90 seconds to go but their passes are off the mark and after Tate went close to coming up with it one moment, Alfie was able to pounce on a loose pass to effectively end the game. Brisbane Broncos 30 (Webb 2, Tallis, Lockyer, C. Walker tries; De Vere 5/6 goals) defeat Penrith Panthers 26 (Lewis 3, Girdler, Galavao tries; Girdler 3/5 goals) [B]Overall[/B] - Can only imagine how bi-polar members on here would have been over this game. Reminds me a lot of those performances we had against teams like Canberra in 2011 where there was a fair bit to like but also a lot of frustration and nerves. Could only imagine how many expletives I'd come up with - considering Cronulla earned about 67 and a half (I mumbled one) it'd have to be around the 50 mark. Obviously a very patchy performance from the Broncos. They took Penrith for granted and nearly paid the price. Losing Tallis definitely hurt but it was an eye for an eye scenario with Lang off the field for Penrith. I thought when the Broncos were at their best, Lockyer, Civo & Webb were the best in that order but wouldn't consider this one of their better afternoons of football. Lowlights would be the backs in Tuqiri, Walker, De Vere, Kelly, Tate & Berrigan. I didn't think they helped the forwards out and gave Penrith an easy advantage in the territory stakes. Parker was pretty ordinary too. Meanwhile for Penrith, I thought when Ben Roarty came on for them, he really lifted the tempo and got them going. Was also impressed with Sattler, Lewis, Gower & Galavao. [/QUOTE]

Verification

Active Now

No members online now.

Total: 46 (members: 0, guests: 46)

Reply to thread

Log in

Active Now