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The WTF Awakens. A Dragons Story.

Frank Facer

First Grade
Messages
5,069
If we were outside the 8 and someone said would you be happy to be winning the comp and playing shit? I would take it, we all would take it. Dohhh wait, we are no1?
Yeah. Just imagine if someone would have said to one of us at the start of the year, would you take us leading the comp after round 14? lol Many on this forum would have laughed at the suggestion, they would have even questioned ones sanity for even suggesting it was a genuine proposition. lol
 

MilanDragon

Juniors
Messages
902
Indeed it does, and this is the time of year that teams at the top of the ladder are generally patchy in form. If we win most of our next 4-5 games scrappily that’s fine, so long as we then start trending up in form.

Exactly right. I’m happy to go start a season strong, go through patchy form and hit peak end of season/finals.

I actually don’t mind if we are patchy for another month or so, as long as we start building after that for a finals run and hit peak form round 2 of finals.

We’ll also find if we bank up wins now, later in the season we can rest players and the Seles/hosts/Lawries of the world get more game time.

There’s not many teams out there who are dominant for 26 weeks.. one that springs to mind was Parra 2001, but yet they lost in the end anyway.
 

hazzbeen

Bench
Messages
4,617
Indeed it does, and this is the time of year that teams at the top of the ladder are generally patchy in form. If we win most of our next 4-5 games scrappily that’s fine, so long as we then start trending up in form.
True Damo I don't care how we win and I don't care what our coach does , as long as we keep winning and and do start to improve our form over the next few weeks . What I don't want to see is the slide that happened last year , at the moment the similarities are there but we seem to be able to hang on , so hopefully we can keep grinding and come out the other end firing ready to go on with it ........
 

BennyV

Referee
Messages
22,441
Indeed it does, and this is the time of year that teams at the top of the ladder are generally patchy in form. If we win most of our next 4-5 games scrappily that’s fine, so long as we then start trending up in form.
Which is fantastic in theory. But what evidence do you have in Mary’s time as coach or in our time with our current conditioning staff that this is the case?
In reality, those banking on this are just trying to look for false positives and excuses for our ‘patchy’ form (putting it nicely).
 

The Damo

Juniors
Messages
1,991
Which is fantastic in theory. But what evidence do you have in Mary’s time as coach or in our time with our current conditioning staff that this is the case?
In reality, those banking on this are just trying to look for false positives and excuses for our ‘patchy’ form (putting it nicely).
A wish and a prayer?
I’m not actually banking on it at all. I think it’s a reasonable possibility. For a few reasons;
I don’t find the burnt out player argument convincing, have detailed why not elsewhere plenty. It would show in the stats. And I’d need some evidence that our players are playing through injuries that other players generally don’t. I’ve asked, no ones come up with any.
We’ve got a more competent and consistent half back. Even Hunt at 80% isn’t gonna give away those 7 tackle sets at the worst times like McCrone did half a dozen times at the back end of last year.
We’ve got a better prop rotation than we had.
With Sims and JDB’s development our back row is markedly better than it was.
Nene and Aitken are much improved too.
Dufty is a better attacking full back than Dugan was.
McInnes looks both more dangerous in attack and physically capable of playing 80 through the year.
Mary is not a great coach, but he’s got a good team who has played both very good and average football this year, and is 10-3 through a pretty tough draw. If we can repeat our form from earlier at the pointy end, we’ll be very hard to beat.
So maybe a little more than a wish and a prayer.
 

The Damo

Juniors
Messages
1,991
So just a little more context for the burnout argument. We can all agree Bellamy is pretty much the benchmark for coaches? So here’s how he used several players over recent seasons (have just included reg season games)
Finucane at lock
2016 - 24 games average 62 minutes
2017 - 23 games average 62 mins. Not sure why he missed 1 game. Probably suspension or injury not rested though.
Kaufusi at second row (only became starting player 2017)
2017 - 24 games average 77 mins
Harris at second row
2015 - 24 games average 77 mins
2016 - 24 games average 78 mins
2017 - due to injuries played only 11 games
Bromwich at prop
2015 - 24 games average 64 minutes
2016 - 24 games average 59 minutes
2017 - 20 games (missed 4 to injury, not rested, broken thumb I think) averaged 50 minutes.

What Our forwards are doing is normal for top level first graders in their positions.
 

denis preston

First Grade
Messages
8,157
A wish and a prayer?
I’m not actually banking on it at all. I think it’s a reasonable possibility. For a few reasons;
I don’t find the burnt out player argument convincing, have detailed why not elsewhere plenty. It would show in the stats. And I’d need some evidence that our players are playing through injuries that other players generally don’t. I’ve asked, no ones come up with any.
We’ve got a more competent and consistent half back. Even Hunt at 80% isn’t gonna give away those 7 tackle sets at the worst times like McCrone did half a dozen times at the back end of last year.
We’ve got a better prop rotation than we had.
With Sims and JDB’s development our back row is markedly better than it was.
Nene and Aitken are much improved too.
Dufty is a better attacking full back than Dugan was.
McInnes looks both more dangerous in attack and physically capable of playing 80 through the year.
Mary is not a great coach, but he’s got a good team who has played both very good and average football this year, and is 10-3 through a pretty tough draw. If we can repeat our form from earlier at the pointy end, we’ll be very hard to beat.
So maybe a little more than a wish and a prayer.

The other point for me is we have tapered off and probably lucky to win 2 of the last 4 games , but these are games we would have lost last year. If we compare ourselves to Penrith and Souths now , we have no chance BUT will Penrith & Souths be playing the same standard of football come September ?
It will help us enormously as well if the 3 stooges come up with a strategy against rushing defenses.
 

The Damo

Juniors
Messages
1,991
The other point for me is we have tapered off and probably lucky to win 2 of the last 4 games , but these are games we would have lost last year. If we compare ourselves to Penrith and Souths now , we have no chance BUT will Penrith & Souths be playing the same standard of football come September ?
It will help us enormously as well if the 3 stooges come up with a strategy against rushing defenses.
Yeah I agree. It’s gonna be about who can produce their best games at the pointy end of the season.
Biggest problem those games was lack of offloads and only going one wide. If teams are getting on top by rushing then we’ve gotta get players trailing and really push for offloads.
 

denis preston

First Grade
Messages
8,157
Yeah I agree. It’s gonna be about who can produce their best games at the pointy end of the season.
Biggest problem those games was lack of offloads and only going one wide. If teams are getting on top by rushing then we’ve gotta get players trailing and really push for offloads.

Yes, perhaps two tactics will help against rushing defenses and we have the skill in the halves to implement them.The factor here is speed wide so we may be stuffed here.

1. 2 Quick long passes to wide receivers ( couldn't be used with Flo on the wing )

2. 3rd or 4th tackle kicks behind the opposition defense.
 
Messages
2,910
Yes, perhaps two tactics will help against rushing defenses and we have the skill in the halves to implement them.The factor here is speed wide so we may be stuffed here.

1. 2 Quick long passes to wide receivers ( couldn't be used with Flo on the wing )

2. 3rd or 4th tackle kicks behind the opposition defense.

Perhaps the best option would be to explain to Mary and JDB that he is not in fact the halfback and to get the hell out of first receiver.
 

Saint_JimmyG

First Grade
Messages
5,067
Seriously WTF is wrong with that bloke we laughingly refer to as a "Head Coach"

He drops Nightingale for Mann, but moves Nightingale to the bench for a 9 minute cameo for appearently no reason at all.
Mann, despite this forums hard on for him, when he is selected in the run on side, has a shit game.

Then he drops Lawrie from the bench despite his amazing performances in the 3 minutes of game time he's had, for Host, who dosnt get on the field.

We play a crap game, that at various stages we looked tired and lethargic, but, no, the two bench players we have can cool thier heals for 71 minutes and 80 minutes respectively.

What the hell is going on with this "ironman" football he seems determined to play?
We had 4 players backing up, Frizz, despite his enthusiasm in attack, was objectively terrible in defence.
JDB looked buggered at various stages, so did Vaughn, no replacements with bench players.

We will never win a comp with this idiot.
If Nighty was so bad he needed replacing, why didn't Lomax play?
It was a forwards game, as it is against the Dogs, why didn't Host play?
Why did Lawrie get dropped from the bench.

This stuff is beyond third grade level.

Amen.

This sums up things succinctly. Mind you, Frizell's defence has been 'iffy' for a prolonged while now (but hey, let's solely concentrate on a winger!!!)

And, you're spot on about the team's general laziness particularly straight after the halftime break. Saints had several players AMBLING back on side less than 90 seconds following me resumption of play.

That's 90 SECONDS!!!

From this it's clear McGregor has failed to grasp two rudimentary flaws within his coaching strategies.

These are:

1. not having a contingency plan should the power game fail to aim up and,

2. not being able to utilise the full 17 players at his disposal.
 

MilanDragon

Juniors
Messages
902
So just a little more context for the burnout argument. We can all agree Bellamy is pretty much the benchmark for coaches? So here’s how he used several players over recent seasons (have just included reg season games)
Finucane at lock
2016 - 24 games average 62 minutes
2017 - 23 games average 62 mins. Not sure why he missed 1 game. Probably suspension or injury not rested though.
Kaufusi at second row (only became starting player 2017)
2017 - 24 games average 77 mins
Harris at second row
2015 - 24 games average 77 mins
2016 - 24 games average 78 mins
2017 - due to injuries played only 11 games
Bromwich at prop
2015 - 24 games average 64 minutes
2016 - 24 games average 59 minutes
2017 - 20 games (missed 4 to injury, not rested, broken thumb I think) averaged 50 minutes.

What Our forwards are doing is normal for top level first graders in their positions.

Impressive stats.

Funny no one responded.. proves too many people wrong in the burnout argument.

I’d say also looking at that, those that averaged about 77mins probably only played one or two games all season where they didn’t play the full 80. Similar to a certain Frizz and Sims. But we’re supposed to bench them.. go figure.

Our problem is that maybe our forwards don’t play long enough minutes!!
 

The Damo

Juniors
Messages
1,991
Impressive stats.

Funny no one responded.. proves too many people wrong in the burnout argument.

I’d say also looking at that, those that averaged about 77mins probably only played one or two games all season where they didn’t play the full 80. Similar to a certain Frizz and Sims. But we’re supposed to bench them.. go figure.

Our problem is that maybe our forwards don’t play long enough minutes!!
Yep, your right about what that average means. it’s just not unusual how our forwards are used, despite constant claims it’s terrible.

Credit where it’s due BennyV and couple others responded in jubilee ave with good observations.

But if your best player can play 80 most games, doesn’t get injured or suspended, and is under 30 - they get rested at most once in the last half of the year. And generally not. Not by Bellamy, bennet or any other benchmark coach.
 

2010

Bench
Messages
3,490
I still think Hunt and JDB were not 100% last few games.
I am expecting them to have big games against Manly
 
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