Guest recap: Broncos vs Tigers

[Editor's note from Sassy: Lord knows most of the Errol girls (even Lozzy) are ridiculously biased against pretty much everything football-related that comes from north of the border so we're lucky that our girl Bree agreed to write a guest recap for us this week.

Not just because we are all for ladies who know their league, but because it means that we actually get a recap involving Queensland teams that doesn't include profanities or tirades of abuse about Karmichael Hunt and his awful facial hair. So thank you darlin! Over to you pretty lady.]

Firstly a little about me; I’m 20 from the Sunshine State and I live, breathe and worship NRL. I am just learning this whole blog thing, so hopefully you guys enjoy this.

I’ll also just put it out there that my memory of the game may be slightly patchy due to an excessive intake of alcohol throughout the day. I am not a raging alcoholic, but I had just finished uni exams for the semester, so what better way to celebrate than to drink from 11am, get tanked and go to the footy?

[(Kiki: None).]

I am surprised and impressed Suncorp Stadium let me in.

The pre-match entertainment is all a blur. It’s the same week in week out and I won’t bore you with it. The hot pink vinyl wearing cheergirls (see below for the monstrosities they wear) came out and “performed”.

I am constantly amazed at how shockingly awful the thing they do is. It’s something that the six year old sister I don’t even have could easily do.

[Sassy: The outfits! Good god! THEY BURNNNNNNN.]

The game started with a minute’s silence in memory of the ‘Godfather’ of Queensland Rugby Leage, Dick ‘Tosser’ Turner. Of course some moron shouted out half way through the minute and started the whole crowd off.

The Broncos started sloppily with a Joel Moon kick that landed out on the full and wasn’t even close to being in. It could quite easily have ended up grabbing a drink from the bar 35 rows back. From the Moon error, Chris Heighington made a bust through some very sloppy Brisbane defence. In fact I think I could have done a better job on that occasion and I have absolutely NO idea how to tackle. Try to the Tigers.

From the restart Matty Head had butter fingers and dropped the ball, and the following set of six saw the Broncos get a penalty for the Tigers pushing Tonie ‘Tunza’ Carroll over as he was trying to play the ball … it didn’t look like there was much in it, but maybe Tunza fell over that chin of his? The Broncos took the kick for goal (God knows why when they’re trailing 6-0, fools) and Michael Ennis slotted it for 6-2.

Mugshot for emphasis:

Neither team really played much entertaining footy, and the next passage went by fairly uneventfully until another penalty gave the Broncos good field position. A good run and a fancy step from Joel Moon, who by the way I have always found very attractive – even more so in the last few weeks with the shaggy mop of hair he’s been spotting. He’s his hair and wasn’t looking as good yet still went through the defence and scored. Broncos went in front 8-6, until the Tigers were awarded a penalty of their very own and tied it up at 8-8.

[Sassy: Agreed. Moon is still a contender for hottest bitch in league for 2008, but that haircut cuts me deep.]

I had thought it would stay that way going into half time, but oh, no. My Broncos decided that I wasn’t nearly stressed enough and needed a little bit more heartache after the siren, so they let the Tigers in to score. At half time Tigers were up 12-8, and this Queen B needed to head to the bar to down some more alcohol.

[Sassy: Course you did darlin. That's my girl]

Half time came, half time went, and I was still ridiculously wound up. The first 10 minutes or so back were intensely boring and I was completely occupied talking to the guy next to me when Brisbane’s Dave Taylor snatched a wayward Tigers pass out of nowhere and made an impressive 60 metres before being bought down by Bryce Gibbs.

AND WHAT A SIGHT IT WAS. A 185cm, 115kg Dave Taylor train thundering down the middle of the field. It’s probably further than the poor kid (he’s only 20) has run in his whole life. From the play the ball some good hands from Joel Moon to PJ Marsh, to Karmichael Hunt, to Darius Boyd, and finally on to Denan Kemp to run in a try in the corner of the field. All the while this was unfolding, exhausted Dave Taylor was still dying slowly from his 60 metre effort so was quickly replaced.

Ennis slotted the conversion from the sideline for a 14-12 score. Benji Marshall took the restart, and continued his completely awful kicking form for the night by kicking it out on the full. From the penalty restart on half-way the Broncos attacked, and Nick Kenny ran a brilliant angle to grab his maiden first grade try. He looked just like a kid in a candy store after the video ref gave the try, and Ennis missed an even easier conversion than the last to leave the score at 18-12.

Broncos looked the better of two mediocre teams for most of the second half. A Hunt grubber got the Broncos a repeat set before Nick Emmett got held up on his back. From that the Tigers went the length of the field with some luck to score under the posts. After conversion, the score was 18-all, and your Queen B’s nerves aren’t holding out real well.

12 minutes on the clock and this is all way too close for my liking.

9 minutes to go, still 18-all.

The Broncos are in attack but not really looking like scoring until a nice backline movement and some brut strength from Emmett got him over the line but held up. Emmett dead set thought he’d scored, it was hard to tell on the video replay, refs eventually said no try.

[Sassy: Ok, now even I'm finding this overwhelming and stressful]

8 minutes to go.

From Emmett’s play the ball, Karmichael Hunt sets himself deep and the ball is fired out to him. He is provided by good, yet somewhat illegal coverage from Corey Parker, and slots the field goal to put the Broncos 1 in front. Now if you saw Origin II and Hunt’s attempt at field goal then, you would be excused for thinking it could not possibly have been Hunt who slotted it right over the black dot from 30 meters out.

7 minutes to go.

Darius Boyd knocks on at dummy half and gives the Tigers field possession about 20 meters out. Tigers can’t do anything with the ball. John Morris misses a field goal to the left with 3 minutes to go and from there the Broncos do what they do best and close out the game.

The heart is still pumping, the nerves are still shot. But my boys got home and made for a great night out to celebrate my freedom!! Thanks boys, now please get it together for the Panthers next weekend!

- Bree