Brisbane Broncos thread on how to lose a GI and a Lock and a semi final

Yeah it's a bit different with me as you know because I wasn't blowing smoke up Hoffman's arse when everyone else was; I never really found him to be acceptable as a fullback.

I genuinely despise your attitude about merely basing your team selections around a tactical launch at a premiership season, and treating entire seasons as warmups for future seasons. I hate it and if clubs really did do that all the time I would probably lose all interest in the NRL as a competition. You have a duty to the integrity of the competition, the other teams, the fans, the sponsors, everyone at the ground and everyone watching on TV to put out the best side you can.

It would honestly be a dreadful competition if at the start of every year five teams decided they were genuine contenders and the rest said "Nah, we can't win this year, lets work on combinations for a tactical strike at the premiership three years down the track." So many games would become completely and utterly pointless; if the club bosses aren't taking those games seriously then how do you expect the players to put in or the fans to show up? Every NRL game is sacred and is a competition within itself. Winning each game every week is important, even if you don't think you're a genuine shot at winning the comp or making the eight or even avoiding the spoon. It's wholly defeatist to just assume you can't win the premiership in the first place, and even if you can't it's wholly disrespectful to the game to not see every game as its own sacred competition.

I also think you have a duty to the players involved who actually do the right thing and let you know early that they won't be around next season. If Norman knew he was going to get dropped just for announcing that he was signing with the Eels then he would've just done the deal in secret and told the Broncos he didn't want to negotiate his contract until the end of the season. If his form held up and you wanted to keep him then you'd be saving cap space the entire time only for him to tell you the day after the season was over that he was fucking off. If you screw players over the moment they say they're leaving then that's what they'll do; they'll screw you back. Instead he trusted that it wouldn't count against him if he did the right thing and his form held up, so he let the Broncos know well in advance he was gong. In the end Norman was dropped because his performances were sub-standard and that's fair enough but his contract with the Eels should have nothing to do with it AFAIC.

Picking project players you think need NRL exposure before they show their ability is a different matter of course but leaving blokes out merely because they're leaving or retiring this season or next season or before whenever you think you can win a premiership or is just not on at all IMO. All it does it decrease the standard of the NRL.

 

They should use Thaiday exclusively as a front rower next year really. Glenn, Gillett and Oates should have the second row rotation covered and they'll still need that fourth prop.