Round 11 vs Canberra

[mickeylane]

I'd be bloody surprised if Aitken is picked for SOO Mickey. You need to get out more mate Xx

Didnt say Aitken will get picked for SOO - i said hes not a liability - up till last night i thought Aitken will be there but James Roberts and Mitchell should get the nod after last nights efforts

 

[mickeylane]

That was hard to watch

Positives:

2 Points
Individual brilliance of McInnes/Dufty/Widdop.
No serious injuries, Hunt and JDB played without obvious discomfort
It is a game we would have lost over the past 3 seasons
Sir James continues to set the team line speed

Negatives:

Handling errors
Penalties
Lack of concentration in defence
Right side defence continues to struggle
Sir James and Flo are running on old tired legs

Where to from here ?

Our team has the wobbles.

If our concentration and execution is as poor next week we will be smashed by the Panthers.

Can't expect Dufty and Widdop to score 2 miracle tries every week.

I cant see us beating Penrith 2 years in a row at home - if we do though - well pull out the cigars...

 

[ozbuck]

The only horse shit is coming from your mouth.

Please elaborate

 

[Dennis Papaioannou]

Any idea who let the soft tries in Dennis? BTW go Widdop.

Well I suppose you can single individuals out but the disorganization and lack of game awareness is what concerns me.
Failing to play the whistle and not defending a tap restart are fundamental schoolboy mistakes.
Not worthy of the competition leaders.

 

[Life's Good]

You have a point LG. Other teams have had to do it out of necessity (Injuries etc) and they've had great results. Broncs spring to mind. I'm just not sure our reserves are up to scratch barring a couple. I liked Periera and Leilua yesterday but the rest were bloody ordinary tbh.

And that may be the case but it’s killing the opportunity a)to give players game time for conditioning b)players coming in & forming combinations for upcoming games.

 

[Old Timer]

You have a point LG. Other teams have had to do it out of necessity (Injuries etc) and they've had great results. Broncs spring to mind. I'm just not sure our reserves are up to scratch barring a couple. I liked Periera and Leilua yesterday but the rest were bloody ordinary tbh.

LL and Pereira were shit yesterday as well.
LL only wants to play with ball in hand and Pereira is the epitome of a reggies player that is not missed by his former club.

Our ISP are a rabble because

1. Coach is useless.
2. Key players are brought to the 1st grade squad and not available to play ISP.
3. The only "seasoned" player running around to guide these young blokes is Allgood and that tells you everything.

Host, Sele, Lawrie, Lomax, Robson if they were at other clubs would all be getting a better go than they will ever get here.

 

[ouryears]

We lacked the ability to win scrappy in the past and I'm glad we did now because a game where the lead changes multiple times is usually not a happy one for us.

Yeahhhhhh, a positive supporter, I will join you on our bus to the top! Go Saints.

 

[ouryears]

LL and Pereira were shit yesterday as well.
LL only wants to play with ball in hand and Pereira is the epitome of a reggies player that is not missed by his former club.

Our ISP are a rabble because

1. Coach is useless.
2. Key players are brought to the 1st grade squad and not available to play ISP.
3. The only "seasoned" player running around to guide these young blokes is Allgood and that tells you everything.

Host, Sele, Lawrie, Lomax, Robson if they were at other clubs would all be getting a better go than they will ever get here.

Why, none of the players you mention are setting anything on fire in reggies. Unless it's really Dufty you are still after. Hmmm

 

[getsmarty]

Widdop and Dufty steer Dragons to win over Raiders
Author
Chris Kennedy
Timestamp
Sun 20 May 2018, 04:25 PM

On a perfect afternoon for football in Mudgee, Matt Dufty and Gareth Widdop have combined to help the Dragons return to the outright lead on the Telstra Premiership ladder with a 25-18 win over the Canberra Raiders.

After Dufty supplied a brilliant kick that resulted in Widdop scoring a spectacular try in the 49th minute, the diminutive fullback did it all himself to score what proved the match-winning try with 11 minutes remaining.

Widdop made sure his side secured a ninth win in 11 matches with a 76th-minute field goal.

A host of NSW Origin hopefuls including Jack De Belin, Paul Vaughan, Cameron McInnes, Tariq Sims and Nick Cotric each had impressive games.

The Raiders will be left to rue some sloppy last-tackle play from their halves and a couple of brain snaps that left Josh Papalii and Joe Tapine on report and in doubt for next week's home game against Manly.


It was the Raiders who started the more impressive with Nick Cotric bagging his third try in as many games when he powered over the top of Jason Nightingale in just the fifth minute.

The match's second try was also scored by a NSW Blues hopeful when Jack De Belin backed up from a huge Tariq Sims charge and burst onto a neat McInnes pass.

The Raiders reclaimed the lead in bizarre scenes shortly after; Blake Austin went through the line after sending it right to Joey Leilua and with Dragons defenders claiming an obstruction but failing to play to the whistle, Leilua walked over and placed the ball over the line uncontested.

Dragons forward Tariq Sims. Robb Cox/NRL Photos
Widdop drew his team level at 10-10 with a pair of penalty goals late in the half. The first came after a high shot from Josh Papalii on Dufty and the second after the half-time siren for a Joe Tapine shoulder charge, also on Dufty.

The Dragons produced one of the tries of the season in yet another lead change in the 49th minute.

McInnes, another pushing for a possible maiden Origin jersey, produced a brilliant run from dummy half from a quick play the ball to split the Raiders, finding De Belin. The lock then drew the defence and passed to Dufty whose brilliant chip ahead sat up perfectly for Widdop to score.

Attention lapses continued to cost the Red V, and for the second time they found their line breached in slightly embarrassing fashion when a Croker line break drew a penalty and Jordan Rapana caught the defence napping with a quick tap and sprint to the line.

The Dragons argued for a penalty try when Rapana took Nene Macdonald off the ball as the winger attempted to chase a kick for a try in the 61st minute and while the officials were not convinced Macdonald would have won the race to the ball, it was enough for Rapana to go to the bin and the Dragons levelled up at 18-18 via another penalty goal shortly after.

A stunning display of speed and footwork from Dufty to beat half the Raiders team from a short side play in the 70th minute opened up the biggest lead of a constantly see-sawing game at 24-18.

Some awful pieces of last-play execution – which had been an issue for the Raiders throughout the match – brought their attacking chances in the final 10 minutes undone and instead it was a 77th-minute Widdop field goal that put the result beyond doubt.


https://www.dragons.com.au/news/2018/05/20/widdop-and-dufty-steer-dragons-to-win-over-raiders/

 

[Brutalitops]

Considering the Raiders played as good as they did, yet still only scored 2 of their tries from blatant falling asleep by our defenders, should actually be a positive after that.

Fix that shit up next time (should be an easy lesson after today) and we will be right.

 

[Drag Queen]

Im pretty certain the Vaughan will be on the bench - hes improved year on year and thats what the selectors look for improvement and current form..
Im worried for Mciness though i think cook will get the nod and I think sims will be touch and go

And that may be the case but it’s killing the opportunity a)to give players game time for conditioning b)players coming in & forming combinations for upcoming games.

Sitting on the fence on that one LG. Bennett had no choice to play rookies. Lucky for him it paid off and even he wasn't confident of a win pre-game. Also lucky that he had brilliant young rookies with Isaako and Staggs to come in. Pretty impressive.

 

[getsmarty]

Match highlights: Dragons v Raiders - Round 11, 2018
The St George lllawarra Dragons have defeated the Canberra Raiders 25-18 in Mudgee.


https://www.nrl.com/news/2018/05/20/match-highlights-dragons-v-raiders-round-11-2018/

 

[getsmarty]

Villain turns hero as Matt Dufty steals win for scrappy Dragons over Raiders
NRL Premiership

• May 20, 2018 4:38pm
• Simon Brunsdon@simonbrunsdon
• Source: FOX SPORTS

Matt Duffy of the Dragons is tackled by Aidan Sezer.Source: Getty Images
ST GEORGE Illawarra’s young gun fullback Matt Dufty was the villain turned hero as he stole victory for the scrappy Dragons in Mudgee.

Dufty had a shocking start to the clash with Canberra when he spilt a regulation high kick, gifting the Raiders first points.

It the first of three errors for the game.

But the 22-year-old made sure to make amends and drag his side over the line despite what was a fairly disappointing outing for the table-leading Dragons.

Dufty helped set up a great team try when he pulled out a deft chip kick while at full sprint for teammate Gareth Widdop to score a crucial try in the 50th minute.

Then, with the game locked at 18-all on the scoreboard, it was Dufty who produced some individual brilliance to break the deadlock in the 70th minute.

He made something out of nothing when he danced through the Canberra defensive line on halfway, and then switched the burners on to beat the remaining three defenders with speed to score under the posts.

All in all it was a performance Dragons coach Paul McGregor won’t be overly pleased with.

The Red V gifted the Raiders two of their three tries with shocking complacency. One of them was a bizarre play in which three or four Dragons players simply stopped defending because they thought Canberra had made a penalty.

Still, the win keeps them on top of the NRL ladder for another week.

THE REPORT

It took the Raiders five minutes to open the scoring, which came through a strong try to Nick Cotric who barged his way over two defenders.

That opportunity was gifted by a Matt Dufty error under the high ball. The conversion was missed and it was 4-0.

St George Illawarra took their time, but eventually hit back after 20 minutes when Jack de Belin crashed over under the posts.

The conversion put them in front 6-4.

But then an astonishing brain fade from the Dragons allowed the Raiders to score one of the weirdest tries of the season.

Close to their own line, the Red V defenders stopped still when they thought Blake Austin had obstructed them.

But Joey Leilua walked through them and put the ball down anyway. The video bunker cleared the obstruction and it was a try, handing Canberra a 10-6 lead in the most bizarre fashion.

The Dragons kicked a penalty goal to bring the difference to two points soon after.

Then a shoulder charge from Joe Tapine on the stroke of half time gave Gareth Widdop a long-range shot after the siren, and he nailed it to square the game at 10-10 at the break.

After half time the Raiders stole the lead again with a penalty goal.

Then St George Illawarra pulled out some magic to take the advantage.

Cameron McInnes made a break then offloaded to de Belin, who offloaded to Dufty who chipped on the run for Gareth Widdop to collect the bounce and score a great try.

Widdop’s conversion made it 16-12.

Then some atrocious Red V laziness cost them the lead.

In the 56th minute, the Raiders caught a kick in goal, tapped and ran, the Dragons gave away a penalty and then Jordan Rapana quick tapped and sprinted 50 metres to score.

Rapana was allowed to talk through a lazy Dragons defence who were still catching their breath.

Jarrod Croker’s conversion made it 18-16.

The Raiders then lost Jordan Rapana to the sin bin in the 60th minute after he interfered with Nene Macdonald chasing through a kick.

Widdop knocked over the penalty from the sideline to make it 18-18.

IT was young gun fullback Dufty who broke the deadlock when he scored a great solo try in the 70th minute.

Dufty split the defence with some fancy footwork and then put on the speed to beat the remaining three Raiders to the line. It was 24-18 with nine minutes left.

Widdop kicked a left-foot field goal in the 77th minute to put the result to bed.


https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...g/news-story/796f001b7b7fa9be979ce768f6b60a71

 

[West coast dragon]

Blinkered logic ML
When Nightingale was playing on Lafai's side last year, he was scoring as many if not more tries than McDonald. That was with McCrone at half back not Hunt.
This year he is playing outside Aitkin who doesn't ever pass the ball and cannot create anything for his winger.
Put whoever you want on the right wing and the result will be the same.
Aitkin is a defensive liability and has to take a big chunk of responsibility for our weakness there.
Nightingale gets stranded over and over and obviously, as a smaller man one on one, his not going to stop Cotric that close to the line..
Aitkin was nowhere to be seen today - schooled by Croker and co. and other than being a hard straight runner, I don't see what all the hype's about. SOO candidate? hardly.
Ado Carr is scoring tries almost at will and together with the hatrick he scored against us, he has scored 9 tries in 4 games.

Ado Carr is a winger aitkens a Center lol and you said his logic was flawed hahaha proof read you posts before your click send on second thoughts don’t click send

 

[Old Timer]

Why, none of the players you mention are setting anything on fire in reggies. Unless it's really Dufty you are still after. Hmmm

1. Well very hard for Lawrie, Robson or Lomax to do anything if they didn't play this weekend.
2. Robson, Lomax, Sele have missed ISP games but not payed 1st grade this year despite not being injured so obviously " you know who" rates them enough to have them in the 1st grade squad and at the game.
3. You make the following statement "Unless it's really Dufty you are still after. Hmmm" what do you mean by that?

 

[Gareth67]

Well that takes the Dragons to 18 competion points , but hell that win certainly did not inspire much confidence in our premiership aspirations . I can only repeat what others have said - the flashes of individual brilliance basically won the game .

Unless we improve immensely our next match against Penrith we could very well be in for hiding . Those mountains boys are playing tremendous football and more importantly are playing as a team that is going places .

What concerns me is that the ' F' word would appear to be rearing its ugly head - yet again . I am just wondering if all of that heavy pre-season training is indeed the right way to go ? There are a few players who could really do with a weeks rest and the quicker the better .

 

[2010]

Terrible performance overall but we did grind out the win. No use looking for a scapegoat it was just not a good team performance.
We just need to put this game behind us, all teams have one of these games.
But need to improve next week against the panthers.

 

[Crush]

Just read thread.
Sounds like we lost heavily?
What was the full time score? 50 nil? 60 nil?
Surely someone needs to be fired here?

 

[VodkaSaint]

How was this a try. Quick tap and a fellow team mate in front of Rapana

 

[Life's Good]

Just read thread.
Sounds like we lost heavily?
What was the full time score? 50 nil? 60 nil?
Surely someone needs to be fired here?

If this was last year I would be very happy we got the win because I would have looked back to 2016 & be happy with any win.
Today’s was different in the sense that we are still talking about our bench selection/use, Nighty and a stuttering attack.
Sure, not all wins will be pretty but there are concerns given we all have short memories when it comes to a similar position in 2017.