NRL 2K16 - season over thank fuck

[mxlegend99]

James Tamou will be solid but I think we overpaid for him. Although I thought the same about Merrin and the only other lock that was better in 2016 is Taumololo... and fuck me that guy is a beast.

Realistically it should be a better year in 2017. Hopefully we bite the bullet and move Moylan to half.. after playing Origin 3 at 5/8th he was basically our 6 and 7 with a 1 on his back... and some of the tries he created were magical. He was the form half of the competition... while his fullback work was pretty average.

I think this is top 4 material:

1. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak - He was turning into a beast the second half of the season. Looks fully fit after his lung injury last year
2. Josh Mansour- second best winger of 2016. Rapana was the best
3. Tyrone Peachey - found his position at centre imo.
4. Dean Whare - if he is ever fit again.
5. Waqa Blake - really started to find his potential toward the back end of 2016
6. Matt Moylan - keeps his rep career alive
7. Nathan Cleary - hope hes not the next Tim Smith
8. James Tamou - hopefully our workhorse prop
9. Peter Wallace - no alternative atm
10. Leilani Latu - who doesn't love a ball playing prop?
11. Bryce Cartwright - needs his role simplified. 5/8th really effected his consistency and he tried too hard
12. Isaah Yeo - Easily our most underrated player
13. Trent Merrin - Our most consistent forward

14. Te Maire Martin - have him as our utility trying to learn hooker. Too good to not be in first grade
15. RCG - hopefully his broken spine doesn't effect him much
16. Grevsmuhl - Goulds favorite player. Went above and beyond to get him
17. James Fisher-Harris - our only real enforcer

Depth:
Sitaleki Akouolo
Peta Hiku
Sam Mckendry
Tim Browne
Villiame Kikau
Moses Leota
Dylan Edwards

Theres an Under 20s winger who plays like Mansour and has blistering pace... dont recall his name but I want to see him get a run too. Absolute freak in the 20s.

[Madmya]

Who has the better roster this year? Panthers or Broncos?
I would say Broncos and by a huge margin. How many Panthers would be in a combined team?

When was Ben Hunt at his peak? I would say 2014 and it carried into 2015. Griffin developed him... and 2 years later he has gone backwards massively.

Which coach has a roster full of representative players and then uses that as an excuse for not winning? Thats an excuse for 3 games maximum.. although with byes around the Origin period and other teams being weakened also. Its a shitty excuse.

Wayne Bennett made a grand final from a squad built and developed by Anthony Griffin. He has then backed that up with an average season which you declared would have been a failure by his standards.

Panthers meanwhile well and truly overachieved. Making it to week 2 of finals with this roster shouldnt have been happening until 2017 at the earliest, with 2018 being when these kids should be ready to make a go of it. Compare our spines and tell me we should have gone as far as Broncos did.

Broncos went backwards after being the raging favorites for most of the year for a premiership. Panthers went just as far in a rebuilding year.


Having said all that...

I dont think for a moment Griffin is a better coach. I'm not convinced he can back up this season with another top 8 finish. But for the monent he has improved a roster that no one rated while Wayne Bennett has taken his backwards. So its fun to troll the Broncos. A year ago everyone had them set for this years grand final and were certain they would make up for choking in last years. Instead they were ultimately just making up the numbers.

Too... much... mxlogic........

[Candy Arse]

Except in this case he's actually spot on.

Brisbane clearly regressed - I'm sure we all remember when they were handed the win against the Cowboys in their first meeting this year, where NQ were denied 2x fair tries in extra time. They were lucky to even finish 5th and then get the free pass to week 2 of the finals.

Penrith on the other hand improved in leaps and bounds in the second half of the season and absolutely overachieved, or at least you can say they're ahead of schedule like the Raiders and I would also say the Titans.

[Madmya]

You'd both make shit scientists.

[Candy Arse]

I'd be as good a scientist as you would a league analyst, big boy.

[Madmya]

Which is something that will keep me up at night.

[mxlegend99]

Who has the better roster this year? Panthers or Broncos?
I would say Broncos and by a huge margin. How many Panthers would be in a combined team?

When was Ben Hunt at his peak? I would say 2014 and it carried into 2015. Griffin developed him... and 2 years later he has gone backwards massively.

Which coach has a roster full of representative players and then uses that as an excuse for not winning? Thats an excuse for 3 games maximum.. although with byes around the Origin period and other teams being weakened also. Its a shitty excuse.

Wayne Bennett made a grand final from a squad built and developed by Anthony Griffin. He has then backed that up with an average season which you declared would have been a failure by his standards.

Panthers meanwhile well and truly overachieved. Making it to week 2 of finals with this roster shouldnt have been happening until 2017 at the earliest, with 2018 being when these kids should be ready to make a go of it. Compare our spines and tell me we should have gone as far as Broncos did.

Broncos went backwards after being the raging favorites for most of the year for a premiership. Panthers went just as far in a rebuilding year.


Having said all that...

I dont think for a moment Griffin is a better coach. I'm not convinced he can back up this season with another top 8 finish. But for the monent he has improved a roster that no one rated while Wayne Bennett has taken his backwards. So its fun to troll the Broncos. A year ago everyone had them set for this years grand final and were certain they would make up for choking in last years. Instead they were ultimately just making up the numbers.

Too... much... mxlogic........

Well this is your post from earlier in the thread:

Brisbane should finish top 2, and if they're not at least in the prelim final then the season is a massive fail.

Brisbane didn't make the top 4 and were knocked out week 2 of finals... would have been week 1 if the referees weren't instructed to make sure the NRL got a grand final rematch.

This season was a massive fail by your own expectations.

[Madmya]

It has been a failure. I'd have money on Brisbane beating both of these teams this weekend.

It's not often you have the team to win a premiership and right now we've got it. The fact we haven't won one in two years is not good.

[Candy Arse]

It's not often you have the team to win a premiership and right now we've got it. The fact we haven't won one in two years is not good.

This makes for a fantastic discussion - best teams to not win the premiership.

I don't subscribe to the idea that the best or most deserving teams make/win the Grand Final. I've seen undeserving/lucky teams make it many, many times.

I would say Canberra, NQ and Brisbane all had premiership-capable teams this year. Cronulla got lucky with Hodgson getting injured and then the Cowboys backing up after 2 weeks from hell. Melbourne got served up epic home cooking on Saturday night and are best viewed as the team that didn't lose rather than the team that went out and won.

Last year - unquestionably the right teams.

[mxlegend99]

It has been a failure. I'd have money on Brisbane beating both of these teams this weekend.

It's not often you have the team to win a premiership and right now we've got it. The fact we haven't won one in two years is not good.

You would lose your money.

Both teams are better. Through the regular season any team is capable of beating any team. But come finals the truly good sides make sure they show up and the best team will win more often than not.

Some teams just weren't ready yet... like Panthers and Raiders. Some just weren't good enough this year, like Broncos and Cowboys.
Titans were fucked by the referees... but they wouldnt have been good enough either.
Bulldogs were simply shit.

[Candy Arse]

Disagree about the Raiders not being ready...they lost two finals games to the Grand Finalists by a combined 4 points.

2016 joins 1993, 1995 and 2010 as years where I can honestly say "Shoulda won it all". The other years we were well off or not at the level of the very best.

Oh well.

[Madmya]

It has been a failure. I'd have money on Brisbane beating both of these teams this weekend.

It's not often you have the team to win a premiership and right now we've got it. The fact we haven't won one in two years is not good.

You would lose your money.

Both teams are better. Through the regular season any team is capable of beating any team. But come finals the truly good sides make sure they show up and the best team will win more often than not.

Some teams just weren't ready yet... like Panthers and Raiders. Some just weren't good enough this year, like Broncos and Cowboys.
Titans were fucked by the referees... but they wouldnt have been good enough either.
Bulldogs were simply shit.

What it looks like to be a frothing anti-broncos NRL supporter.

[Candy Arse]

Dally M awards Wednesday night. My selections are in bold.

Contenders for Team of the Year

Fullback: James Tedesco, Darius Boyd, Matt Moylan

Winger: Jordan Rapana, Suliasi Vunivalu, Josh Mansour

Centre: Joey Leilua, Jarrod Croker, Justin O’Neill

Five-eighth: James Maloney, Anthony Milford, Mitchell Moses

Halfback: Cooper Cronk, Johnathan Thurston

Lock: Jason Taumalolo, Trent Merrin

Second row: Matt Gillett, Josh Papalii

Prop: Ryan James, Andrew Fifita, Jesse Bromwich

Hooker: Josh Hodgson, Cameron Smith

Ricky Stuart coach of the year. Cameron Smith or Jarrod Croker captain of the year.

[mxlegend99]

It has been a failure. I'd have money on Brisbane beating both of these teams this weekend.

It's not often you have the team to win a premiership and right now we've got it. The fact we haven't won one in two years is not good.

You would lose your money.

Both teams are better. Through the regular season any team is capable of beating any team. But come finals the truly good sides make sure they show up and the best team will win more often than not.

Some teams just weren't ready yet... like Panthers and Raiders. Some just weren't good enough this year, like Broncos and Cowboys.
Titans were fucked by the referees... but they wouldnt have been good enough either.
Bulldogs were simply shit.

What it looks like to be a frothing anti-broncos NRL supporter.

No. That's what it looks like to be realistic.

Only a Broncos fan would think they could beat both grand finalists in the Grand Final despite not being good enough to win a finals game on their own.

Sharks and Storm are better sides. Fact.
Raiders and Cowboys were also better sides. Fact.
That's why those teams finished above Broncos and went further in the finals.

Its your biased opinion that you would have beaten those teams. They were all in better form through the finals.

[Madmya]

Yes, it is in my biased opinion that they would have beaten both teams.

You cherry pick trends to support your deranged opinion, excluding other important facts along the way. That is what I mean by anti-broncos derangement syndrome. That's you.

[Candy Arse]

Raiders having a big night at the Dally M awards...

[Candy Arse]

!!! !!!

Mansour over Rapana for winger of the year???

Gillett the grub over Papalli for second rower of the year????

Smith over Hodgson for hooker of the year?????

The NRL hates the Raiders - reconfirmed. This stinks

[Madmya]

I'm amazed Gillett and Papallii are our best second rowers in the game.

I thought Gillett was a bit down this year.

[Candy Arse]

Hence why him winning was a farce...Papalli was GREAT.

The anti-Raiders agenda is alive and well.

[mxlegend99]

If Raiders took out all the positions how could they possibly ever lose games?

Players from other teams have had good seasons also. I think Hodgson would have won had he not sat that game out, copped a 3 point penalty and also lost a chance at points (potentially costing him 6 points).

I would have thought Rapana would win winger of the year. But Mansour had a terrific season also. He was second on metres gained and had a higher average by a considerable amount over his nearest competitors.

Mansour
174.1m per game
5.4 tackle breaks per game
0.9 linebreaks per game
0.6 tries per game
0.9 errors

Rapana
146.6m per game
5.1 tackle breaks per game
1.0 linebreak per game
0.9 tries per game
1 error per game

Honestly they are statistically very even. Rapana bagged more tries. Mansour bagged more metres. Otherwise theres next to nothing in it.

Mansour had Peta Hiku, Will Smith, Tyrone Peachey and Zac Hardaker play left centre inside him. So he did well despite not having a wrecking ball to partner with. Peachey was the only one who did well and he didnt really get Mansour the ball. He usually went himself.

[Madmya]

Yeah, you could flip a coin between Rapana and Mansour. But given the easier draw the Raiders had I'd give it to Mansour.

[Candy Arse]

Stats aside, to me Rapana is a big reason why Leilua got centre of the year.

But no big deal, the NRL hates the Raiders and shall continue doing so.

[Madmya]

I don't think they hate them, I just don't think they care about them.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Ok we've had our fairy tale for the weekend. Carn Storm.

[Madmya]

Amen, carn storm!

P.S. Sharks aren't near the fairytale Dogs are. Mostly because they're a scummy club.