OFFICIAL "Other" Grand Final Thread - Storm v Broncos

nvd001 said:

storm have no doubt been the benchmark all year, but the broncos are on a roll!!

except for their little wake up call against the dragons a few weeks ago the broncos have been the in form team in the comp for the last 6 weeks, and at this end of the season momentum counts for a lot!!

it will be a cracker of a game and will go down to the wire, but i'm tipping the Broncos by 7!!

GO THE BRONCOS

Click to expand...

Good pick! Did you put any money on this diff?

Broncos were lucky a couple of times but they were still the better team. Lockyer should have gotten the medal IMO....

Ersk said:

Good pick! Did you put any money on this diff?

Click to expand...

if only haha

i don't really care.... as long as my boys won!!

nvd001 said:

if only haha

i don't really care.... as long as my boys won!!

Click to expand...

You would have won a fortune on that score!

Something has got to be done about the standard of NRL refs and the performance of the video refs. I can't stand to watch it anymore! The whole world can see (via replay) that Hodges knocked the ball out of bounds late in the game yet the Donkeys get the feed to the scrum. The disallowed King try, the stripping penalty, those events have spoiled what was otherwise a pretty decent contest. I don't care what they do but get it right!

For the record, I lost money on Inglis, Hoffman and Boyd as the 1st tryscorer.
As well as Cronk and Hoffman for the Clive Churchill

The ref was terrible. Apart from the mistakes, the game was even, the mistakes however did this...

1-the "stripping" pen against slater for berrigan dropping the ball was a disgrace, leading to the Broncos getting 2pts

Mistake Scoreline Broncos 2pts-Storm 0pts

2-the disallowed Matty King try, which was sent to the vid ref, and STILL couldnt get it right (IMO), leads to 4pts, plus also losing out on the conversion, which honestly i reckon Cammy Smith would have landed in Yarra after the 1st one...

Mistake Scoreline Broncos 2pts-Storm -4pts

3-the disgusting bronco pen on the storm... but we will wait until the storm commit a questionable pen, leading to 2pts for the Broncos, no bloody wonder Berrigan won the Churchill, anytime he did anything wrong the refs didnt acknowledge it happened...

Mistake Scoreline Broncos +4pts-Storm -4pts

If you add 4 pts to the storm and disallow 4 pts of the Broncos... the scoreline is 12-11 storms way.

I still reckon if the pens hadnt been called, and the matty king try allowed, the storm would have won, and also that the game was even for the other 75 mins were the refs didnt act like a gimp...

end rant!

Wait till Evan sees this.....:roll:

like i said to Benny (DVS) today.....

at the end of the day (IMO) the broncos pretty much dominated the game and were rightful winners anyway!!

1. the slater strip: it's prety obvious Berrigan was fumbling the ball, but it was still in his hands and therefore Slater still has no right to strip it from him.

2. disallowed matt king try: IMO it's pretty obvious the ball came off Hoffmans arm, bounced forward into his head and then backwards where Matt King grabs it and puts it down. No try!

3. i don't even know what you are talking about in this point. Berrigan was a vital part in the broncos go forward and attack, but it was his outstanding defence that won him the Churchill Medal. i watched the replay last night and was dead set in awe of how well Berrigan played, especially how he shut down Inglis everytime he had the ball!! that's why the Broncos won....cos we were good enough to shut down the Storm's 'strike' players.

alot of people are overlooking the fact the the storm made too many mistakes and the pressure of the broncos defence was totally putting the storm off their game plan!!
Turner dropped a bomb which lead to a Broncos try. an awesome kick chase to pressure him forced the mistake. i counted about 5-6 'wayward' passes from the storm that went to ground of which 3-4 were passes from dummy half losing 15 odd metres on each play. 1 of which the storm showed no sign of rushing to jump on the loose ball while there were about 3 broncos players fighting each other to get to it!! matty geyer knocked on from dummy half near the try line when a try was begging!! and the amount of desperation try-saving tackles made by the broncos probably set a new record!! and cooper cronk....after his 40-20 kick in the first half was he even on the field?? he had very little impact on the game and his kicking game was not as good as it had been all year. the storm's apparent tactic to kick to their tall centres was read like a dirty mag by the broncos and was nullified several times they tried it out.

all these things are overlooked by people who are too busy whinging about the refs. i agree, some calls could of and should of gone to the Storm, but my point is that the Broncos completely outplayed the Storm and were deserved winners!!

i think i said it all.....

just my $0.02

a quote from Matt Geyer from todays Courier mail......

"we shouldn't have even been in a position where the refs were a factor anyway"
pointing out the fact that they think they were good enough to beat us either way, but weren't!!

like i said earlier in this thread..... a good team beats a bad ref!!

It was tough break for the Storm, and if I had my hard earned on them, it would be tough to swallow.

But it happens (I know it shouldn't) and the good teams will always find something to pull through.

just read this in todays Sunday Mail and thought i'd copy it from thier website and post it on here. it was written by a very respected (and unbiased) sports writer, Mike Coleman.

Enjoy .........

AND now for a final word on the NRL grand final. Shut up. As in shut up about the referee for crying out loud.

It's been a week since the Broncos beat the Storm and still all we hear is how the poor honest battlers from Melbourne were robbed by Paul Simpkins and his mate upstairs, Bill Harrigan.

I could be wrong but I think Fox Sports has devoted an entire channel to it.

I saw one panel of experts discussing it on Thursday night and another on Friday night – and that's not even counting Monday and Wednesday. On Tuesday night there was a Melbourne media expert all but breaking down in tears on 4BC.

Oh please, fellas. Get over it. Anyone who doesn't think the Broncos were a seven-point-better team than Melbourne was watching a different game.

Brisbane had a better game plan – and stuck to it. The Broncos had a better completion rate, they tackled better and, on that night at least, they had better players.

For weeks we have been reading and hearing about the magicians from Melbourne and how they could make the ball sing, dance and stand on its head. Funny, apart from one or two occasions when the Storm managed to beat the defence, I thought they looked pretty pedestrian. Matter of fact the most brilliant piece of ball movement didn't come from Inglis or Slater or even Smith.

It came from Darren Lockyer after Casey McGuire laid on some razzle-dazzle of his own.

Not that you read much about the lead-up to Brent Tate's try. It happened too fast for most of the reporters at the game to grasp what had happened. The Lockyer run on the fifth tackle, the McGuire blind pass back over his head, Lockyer picking up the crumbs and spinning around before sending Tonie Carroll on his way . . . it all took a split second.

Trouble was, the replay on the TVs in the press box didn't work for some reason and instead of reading about a single moment of brilliance – like we did last year when Benji Marshall put on his flick pass – all we get is complaints about the referees.

The Melbourne bloke on 4BC even came out with the astonishing statement, "it is a shame that this premiership will always be tainted for the Broncos".

Yeah, I noticed that during the week. After the motorcade through the city I heard one little kid in a Broncos jersey say to his mother as they lined up for autographs, "Gee Mum, isn't it a shame this premiership is tainted?"

Still, what can you expect? Sydney and Melbourne weren't invited to "their" grand finals this year, so they have to get involved somehow.

The Sydney media has concentrated on the refereeing angle because it backed the wrong horse and the Melbourne media has done the same because . . . well, because it's their job.

And it could have even been worse. I heard Warren Smith on Fox Sports' NRL show say that if it had been a Sydney team and not just the Storm which had been "dudded" by the ref, "we would have heard a lot more about it".

How could we possibly have heard more? Ray Martin doing a one-on-one with Matt King for 60 Minutes perhaps?

The amazing thing is that even biased Melbourne supporters admit there was only one blatant wrong call against the Storm. Because Shaun Berrigan ran around his own man, does that mean he wasn't hit high by Billy Slater?

The others were 50:50 calls, but as a Melbourne reporter said, "if half those calls had gone Melbourne's way it would have been a different game." Thanks Scoop, and if my aunty had wheels and a bell she'd be a bicycle. Look guys, it goes like this. You get a bad call, you don't panic. You regroup, stick to your game plan and harass the opposition. If you are the better team, things go your way.

Remember Origin III this year? You should. We played the thing down in Melbourne to show you how it's done.

That article is a load of crap. Unbiased my arse.

nvd001 said:

The amazing thing is that even biased Melbourne supporters admit there was only one blatant wrong call against the Storm. Because Shaun Berrigan ran around his own man, does that mean he wasn't hit high by Billy Slater?
[/I]

Click to expand...

Okay, that doesnt really make sense. If Berrigan running around his own man was called, Billy Slater wouldnt have been in any position to hit him high.

That line there is really poor journalism. Its one thing to show bias, hey most sports journalists are biased toward the town they report in, but that its just too far, and as many Melbourne supporters, and NRL fans in general, shake their heads at that line, and the article in general, just as many Broncos fans will shake their heads as well...

Oh, well, I will also say that having watched the GF again, at my girlfriends bequest and then demand, it was a good match, and its a pity that a few ref mistakes have been leapt on by many people (myself included). Apart from a few 50/50, and blantant mistakes, calls the game, IMO, was a tough game between the two opposing ideals: Offense and Defense, and Defense (Brisbane) won out.

bargey said:

That article is a load of crap. Unbiased my arse.

Click to expand...

Mike Coleman has an article in the Sunday Mail every week and i read it every week, and he says it as it is. so trust me, he is unbiased as they come!!

Like I said, even though I had a vested interest in the Broncos.

I can't help but think that "some" of those calls really did help.

Chnage the outcome of the game? Well, god only knows.

nvd001 said:

Mike Coleman has an article in the Sunday Mail every week and i read it every week, and he says it as it is. so trust me, he is unbiased as they come!!

Click to expand...

I don't trust you, you thought the game was fairly reffed in the first place. The storm got shafted, everyone knows it, end of discussion cause it won't get them the cup.

Matt King tells it like it is too, and the NRL fined him for it.

For all those that believe that the storm should of won....too bad.

The broncos won and there is nothing anyone can do about it. They deserved to win, and the reasons why are quite well spelt out in Mike Coleman's article. He also brings up an interesting point in the fact that, some of the great moments of the game have gone un-noticed due to the media and one eyed Melbourne supporters.

Billy Slater had the game of his life and had Melbourne have won, he would be wearing Berrigans medal. Have we heard about it though....nup....Lockyers brilliance, Maguires pass, Slaters kick returns....all missed because of the contraversy.....

All this has really done is taint the ever dwindling NRL reputation. I heard Andrew Voss say that NRL should take AFL head on and introduce Saturday Afternoon games.....you Idiot....you do that and the crowd and TV audience numbers will be lower than they already are....!!

End Rant....

P.S - Mike Coleman is a good journalist and is very unbiased. He often gets into the Broncos or Lions if they are not performing.

nvd001 said:

The amazing thing is that even biased Melbourne supporters admit there was only one blatant wrong call against the Storm. Because Shaun Berrigan ran around his own man, does that mean he wasn't hit high by Billy Slater?
[/I]

Click to expand...

that line there, which in my opinion simply states: so what if berrigan brokes the rules, slater did too... but after berrigan, which implies that the play should have stopped before slater had a chance to hit him high.

That line is not biased, its just strange, bt IMO, the article is a bit biased, but its not terribly biased, and after winning a flag, hey the Broncos supporters deserved a good piece of pro-Bronco writing, especially after all the rubbish happening after the game in the press.

Congrats Brisbane,

and as a diehard geelong supporter, i would care if Cameron Mooney killed 9 people in a GF, as long as we won!