15 July 2012

Diabolically bad Brumbies let down themselves and their fans. Blues 30, Brumbies 16

| johnboy
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Foxsports tells the tale of a pathetic effort by the Brumbies getting rolled at home by the cellar dwelling Blues when playing for a finals berth.

Having paid good money to sit in the cold rain and watch this rubbish one can’t even realistically hope they squeak into the finals.

If it wasn’t for a moment of individual brilliance by Joe Tomane Henry Speight it wouldn’t have even be close.

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kennardly said :

JimCharles said :

johnboy said :

So what was more appalling? the 38 missed tackles? Or the four missed penalties?

The missed tackles undoubtedly, that’s something they’ve built their season on minimising.
Poor kicking in general, not finding touch, or overcooking clearances out on the full.
The penalties….well, Holmes has done his best with the short kicks but was 3rd choice after Toomua and Lilifiano and it showed in pressure situations…he’s been pushed in before his time, but there was no other option.

They lacked a lot of belief yesterday, and there were a lot of dropped heads without much leadership being shown to rouse them. I guess if this is what was meant to have been a developmental season with younger players, there’s no surprise there really.
If Hooper’s gone now, I reckon they should be going all out for Pocock this morning.

no other option? How about not taking the shot, kicking it out in the corner, and scoring tries. Worked for the Brumbies from 1996-2004.

He missed a few routine kicks, and the Red’s miss after the siren was a gamewinner (and ultimately, season ender)….he couldn’t avoid not going for those because they were so kickable.

JimCharles said :

johnboy said :

So what was more appalling? the 38 missed tackles? Or the four missed penalties?

The missed tackles undoubtedly, that’s something they’ve built their season on minimising.
Poor kicking in general, not finding touch, or overcooking clearances out on the full.
The penalties….well, Holmes has done his best with the short kicks but was 3rd choice after Toomua and Lilifiano and it showed in pressure situations…he’s been pushed in before his time, but there was no other option.

They lacked a lot of belief yesterday, and there were a lot of dropped heads without much leadership being shown to rouse them. I guess if this is what was meant to have been a developmental season with younger players, there’s no surprise there really.
If Hooper’s gone now, I reckon they should be going all out for Pocock this morning.

no other option? How about not taking the shot, kicking it out in the corner, and scoring tries. Worked for the Brumbies from 1996-2004.

SnapperJack said :

This was simply bad sportsmanship by the Blues. The Blues had nothing to play for, they knew the Brumbies were playing for a finals spot, yet the Blues went ahead and beat the Brumbies. Perhaps a handicap system should be brought in so useless teams like the Blues don’t rob more worthy teams like the Brumbies their rightful place in the finals.

Spot on SnapperJack … and the fact that they let the Brumbies make them look good was equally disgraceful – obviously the Blues have been foxing all year 😉

Anyway, given our expectations at the start of the year, it’s good to see we are annoyed at the Brumbies just missing out on the finals. Unfortunately our expectations were raised as the season went on only to be disappointed yet again.

At the end of the day, this season’s nobodies showed a huge improvement on the much more experienced line ups of recent years. Pressure is on Jake and the lads next year … Missing out on the finals for a ninth successive season is totally unacceptable.

Congrats, Brumbies on a generally good season.

A very disappointing end to what has otherwise been a very good yr for the Brumbies. We can take away a lot of positives from this season even though the final result didn’t go our way.

On a side note, regardless of results, going to games at Canberra stadium has completely lost its appeal. Conditions are beyond bearable this time of yr. There’s absolutely no atmosphere at the games. Overall, it’s a miserable experience.

It was a lacklustre game, played in lacklustre conditions. The Blues were simply too good, our tackling was horrible, and we (once again) kicked ourselves out of the game.

Given the Brumbies were not in the running for most pundits finals at the beginning of the season, we acquitted ourselves reasonably well across the season. Roll on 2013.

johnboy said :

So what was more appalling? the 38 missed tackles? Or the four missed penalties?

The missed tackles undoubtedly, that’s something they’ve built their season on minimising.
Poor kicking in general, not finding touch, or overcooking clearances out on the full.
The penalties….well, Holmes has done his best with the short kicks but was 3rd choice after Toomua and Lilifiano and it showed in pressure situations…he’s been pushed in before his time, but there was no other option.

They lacked a lot of belief yesterday, and there were a lot of dropped heads without much leadership being shown to rouse them. I guess if this is what was meant to have been a developmental season with younger players, there’s no surprise there really.
If Hooper’s gone now, I reckon they should be going all out for Pocock this morning.

SnapperJack said :

This was simply bad sportsmanship by the Blues. The Blues had nothing to play for, they knew the Brumbies were playing for a finals spot, yet the Blues went ahead and beat the Brumbies. Perhaps a handicap system should be brought in so useless teams like the Blues don’t rob more worthy teams like the Brumbies their rightful place in the finals.

So you’d prefer it if they threw the game?

So what was more appalling? the 38 missed tackles? Or the four missed penalties?

Shows how crucial that missed penalty after the siren against the reds was.

The injury to Lealiifano was a big blow to the season. To get this close to the finals without him was a great effort.

This was simply bad sportsmanship by the Blues. The Blues had nothing to play for, they knew the Brumbies were playing for a finals spot, yet the Blues went ahead and beat the Brumbies. Perhaps a handicap system should be brought in so useless teams like the Blues don’t rob more worthy teams like the Brumbies their rightful place in the finals.

Decided I could not face possible disappointment along with the cold, the rain, the parking, the catering, the facilities. So watched it on Foxtel, while drinking imported beer and eating nice things.

The first reaction is to agree with those who have commented on how woeful the Brumbies were in the game. Pretty much nothing was working as it should, or as it has for much of the season,and poor decisions were made. Out loud wonderings about drug testing for sedatives etc. Then the second reaction cut in – this was a team of (mostly) nobodies, handicapped by injuries at critical times, and seldom treated kindly by referees. Before the season started, they were a popular and rational choice to finish stone motherless last, with that expectation qualified by a recognition that they had a serious coach. They overachieved significantly, until this week – in this last regular season match, they played the Blues, a talented if ageing team which has underperformed severely in 2012. This afternoon, both teams probably played to the form that would have been expected at the start of the year and it was not surprising that the Blues won.

If the season ends today for Brumbies, it’s still better than expected. They beat home three Australian teams, each with more recognisable players. They finished even with, if technically behind, the Reds, who have a plethora of talented players. Brumbies players whose names were unknown to all but the tragics a few months ago have been selected for the Wallabies.

I suppose, considering the previous recent seasons, it’s funny that we’re now complaining about them (still technically potentially) *just* missing out on the finals this year. Kinda a compliment to them really!
Let’s face it, relative to the last year or so, it has still been a great year – even with this ending! 🙂

Also went today….what a shame, completely froze and the inexperience that’s been overcome this season came to the fore with poor decisions and execution.
Have to say though, suspected this might happen…..the cellar dwelling Blues have really picked up in recent weeks and under no pressure played a great attacking game.

johnboy said :

And now i’m reduced to cheering for the tahs

Pity they seem to suck, as usual….

Diabolically bad! Nagh its all relevant, if they were directing traffic they did a great job! Ineffectual defense? no it rhymes with ineffectual. What about their kicking game, not too bad for the blues?
Guess it don’t really matter now though, they would only have been a speed bump on the way to the finals anyway! Reality is if you don’t tackle and kick the ball to them then your going to get your pants pulled down. Probably appropriate.

CrocodileGandhi9:02 pm 14 Jul 12

That after the siren kick from Zac Holmes is looking pretty important right now.

Oh well, the Brumbies performed well beyond any of my wildest hopes and did themselves proud. They can only get better with time and experience.

well to coin a phrase

“there is always next year”

CrocodileGandhi7:01 pm 14 Jul 12

Henry Speight scored the try. Tomane went off early with injury.

The only decent thing about this game was when Nick White booted a penalty over the sideline and I caught the ball.

Apologies. We were at the other end of the ground

And now i’m reduced to cheering for the tahs

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