10 Lessons from the Storm game

[slippery5]

To be replaced by?????

Bubbles the monkey.

 

[slippery5]

Aitken has got this habit of rushing up for the big hit. It's not working and, sad to say he needs to be dropped to work on that
It's obvious opposition coaches have looked at him and direct their attack at him.
People say that Flo has lost speed. I agree but another hat trick today shows he still has it and his defence is ok.

Yes but ,I felt so saddened when he was embarrassingly burnt for speed twice. He didn't really have to do anything special to finish of those try's. So in conclusion he scored +3 (- 2) = + 1. Let him finish the year off & get 100 trys then go & enjoy his retirement. Thanks for the memories.

 

[Joey_dragons]

from round 2 against the eels, this problem should of been solved. mary should of seen how the eels were killing us down aitken's side and nothing was done about it.

 

[hazzbeen]

from round 2 against the eels, this problem should of been solved. mary should of seen how the eels were killing us down aitken's side and nothing was done about it.

Agree I could see it you could see it Mary could not see it ....

 

[SGMax]

Great post.

Can I also add our Defensive structure is shocking.

Running up 5 meters and planting your feet is an absysmal system that we only use.

Cheers.

Agree, but its an improvement.
Last year it was 2 metres then plant......
Best results are when they hunt as a pack and continue to move up in a line.

Its one of those habits that Price started and its taken years for us to break even slightly.
Even in 2015 with our great defence, it was more to do with effort and commitment than good defensive strategy.
We were stopping other teams from scoring but were allowing them to march into our territory very easily then starting our sets in our 10m zone.
The result was few opportunities to put pressure on opponents and few attacking plays deep into opposition territory....and also a battered team unable to maintain this for the season.

This year has been a big improvement but at times they revert back to the habit of stopping and waiting for the opposition to run and make their play. It makes some teams look like worldbeaters (eels) because we put so little pressure on their playmakers until they choose to run into our defensive line.

 

[RedV Resurgence]

Thanks Melbourne! Yesterday was not the Grand Final, so our flanks were exposed. Now Mary Over to you to fix. We can fix this now and become better.

Notes from Yesterday.
1. They didn't run through us, They ran around us. This should be easy to fix.
2. We had little luck in the first half, and Smith had his boots on.
3. When we go the ball we scored points. Last year we would have fallen apart.
4. Our Boys looked a little affected from the Roosters Game. Melbourne looked Fresh.

Please Mary, a new Centre get the centres and wingers to mark up properly. Our Inside defenders are coming across well, it just hard to get to the wing.

 

[possm]

Yes but ,I felt so saddened when he was embarrassingly burnt for speed twice. He didn't really have to do anything special to finish of those try's. So in conclusion he scored +3 (- 2) = + 1. Let him finish the year off & get 100 trys then go & enjoy his retirement. Thanks for the memories.

I agree with you but you can't blame it all on the players. Nightingale was playing to a defensive plan devised by his coach. He was bound to keep to that plan until it was changed in the second half.

If you ask me the up and in idea should have never been employed mainly because it had failed before however, once it was clear that the Storm were on to it - after the first try on our right edge - it should have been shelved. That and the selection of Aitken and the previous Mann non-selection errors is evidence enough that Mary is not up to it. I mean it is enough to be given the luxury of only having 'to be concerned with coaching', it another to botch some of the essential elements of coaching which I believe costed the Dragons the game yesterday.

Hats of to the boys who gave their all against the leaders of the competition. They should not bare any blame for the loss.

 

[St_Bondi]

I thought Aitken's defense was spot on ... Time after time he was able to shut down their 18th player who I think was named as, THIN AIR

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

The biggest lesson I learnt yesterday was that even though we got burnt early the boys fought back right to the end.....I saw something in our blokes that hasnt been there for many years.... to be honest I think when we started to play some footy like we know we are capable of we actually gave Melb something to think about....and I dont mean when Cronk was off.....and I dont believe Melb had put the cue in the rack either.....teams like that dont do that........they played well Im not disputing that but if the shoe had have been on the other foot and we had got the early jump on them with the iffy penalties things could have been a lot different.....as I said their a good outfit but with our full team in (Milne for Aitken ) they are certainly beatable

 

[possm]

Did 'thin air' get MOM or was it the Ref that got MOM?

 

[Lewish33]

About time Mary or the club are willing to stump up $10k to start criticising referees performances and let it be known that we're not happy.
Obviously doesn't help for this game but will for future games.
Seems to work for other coaches.

 

[possm]

About time Mary or the club are willing to stump up $10k to start criticising referees performances and let it be known that we're not happy.
Obviously doesn't help for this game but will for future games.
Seems to work for other coaches.

Doust should be making noises at the NRL and doing interviews with various media outlets. There is something just not right when we see the rich clubs constantly getting the rub of the green when it comes to referee decisions and dare I say recruitment preferences. Surely this is sailing very close to the winds of corruption.

 

[Lewish33]

Doust should be making noises at the NRL and doing interviews with various media outlets. There is something just not right when we see the rich clubs constantly getting the rub of the green when it comes to referee decisions and dare I say recruitment preferences. Surely this is sailing very close to the winds of corruption.

I think at least the intimidation factor of various people in the club making plenty of noise in the media is what it comes down to.
It's not luck that teams like Melbourne get the 50/50 calls or better when Bellamy is always letting his disappointment with officiating decisions be known, and that's win, lose or draw.
Same as Robinson saying things in the media prior to the Dragons game.
It's all a very calculated means to an end.

 

[Gareth67]

[QUOTE="Lewish33, post: 12167838, member: 42221"Seems to work for other coaches.[/QUOTE]

Lewish33 - Yes , it sure does !

 

[Slippery Morris]

Seriously can you name 1 team that would have beaten the Storm yesterday? They were red hot and everything went perfect for them in the first half. That perfectly weighted kick by Slater to the Winger and the the Winger staying within millimetres of the line before that freakish dive and put down. The Storm at their best and Saints not at their best with their key attacker out and to miss out by a try and a few goal kicks is a good result. Nighty got shown up big time but Addo-Carr is a one of the fastest in the NRL. To be honest McDonald gave him a good run later on and only got caught a meter or 2 from the line after he intercepted Billy Slappers pass so Nene showed some speed which was pleasing.

Not too many drastic changes required just Aitken to be given a sting in reserves for Milne and the Dragons will be the better.

1 thing for sure is that Saints are not that far behind from the benchmark teams. Last year they were miles behind.

 

[Lewish33]

View attachment 12919 [QUOTE="Lewish33, post: 12167838, member: 42221"Seems to work for other coaches.

Lewish33 - Yes , it sure does ![/QUOTE]
Proves the point perfectly!!
I think our management need to start playing in all other areas of the game.

 

[possm]

Seriously can you name 1 team that would have beaten the Storm yesterday? They were red hot and everything went perfect for them in the first half. That perfectly weighted kick by Slater to the Winger and the the Winger staying within millimetres of the line before that freakish dive and put down. The Storm at their best and Saints not at their best with their key attacker out and to miss out by a try and a few goal kicks is a good result. Nighty got shown up big time but Addo-Carr is a one of the fastest in the NRL. To be honest McDonald gave him a good run later on and only got caught a meter or 2 from the line after he intercepted Billy Slappers pass so Nene showed some speed which was pleasing.

Not too many drastic changes required just Aitken to be given a sting in reserves for Milne and the Dragons will be the better.

1 thing for sure is that Saints are not that far behind from the benchmark teams. Last year they were miles behind.

Yes the Dragons with Bennett as coach.

 

[dragonssamy61]

Defence between centres and wings is atrocious and wings come in too much leaving gaping holes on the wings of mostly Mac Donald and sometimes Nightingale. The backrowers should not be tackling for the wingers. Dugan is not a goalkicker.

Spot on .
McDonald rushes in a Aitken panicks that is why we burnt down that side

 

[st.phil]

OUr whole defensive structure is balls. Left and right were exposed today. Admittedly, Aitken seems to be the least able to adapt when need be, but it's an issue with the pattern too.

Great to see Simms score a great try on the edge with an awesome line. No reason Friz cant do that, but agree that he was trying to do too much. Also seems like he gets brought back on the inside a lot.

Mann looked good. For his first game in the 6 in a long, long time and up against a tough Melbourne side, he looked dangerous.

I have noticed that Friz almost always tracks back centre field and rarely runs an out line as Sims did for that try and last year vs sharks. Friz all heart but no line breaks this year

 

[giboz71]

I have noticed that Friz almost always tracks back centre field and rarely runs an out line as Sims did for that try and last year vs sharks. Friz all heart but no line breaks this year

Yeh I noticed that too. He normally runs off McCrone on an inside pass.

I'd prefer someone like Duges running those lines to expose a lazy defender. Keep hearing about Duges and his running game, why don't we use it?

Sure there is more we can do with Duges other than bashing the defence through his kick returns.