Use of the bench

[Drag Queen]

Not good enough. The prop rotation needs to be 4 top line props. For goodness sakes, with Walmsley on board we have the forward pack to dominate any team in the comp and with the backup props in reserve grade of Allgood, Latimore, Lawrie and Kerr, we have the depth to take care of vacancies due to injury and rep duties. We are one top line prop away from having the best forward pack in the competition. .

Walmsley is not coming.

Not good enough. The prop rotation needs to be 4 top line props. For goodness sakes, with Walmsley on board we have the forward pack to dominate any team in the comp and with the backup props in reserve grade of Allgood, Latimore, Lawrie and Kerr, we have the depth to take care of vacancies due to injury and rep duties. We are one top line prop away from having the best forward pack in the competition. .

Last I heard, Walmsley was attending Jonny Lomax's wedding and taking a couple of weeks off before training back at St Helens. Just curious if you have info that we have paid overs to get him out of his contract?

 

[BennyV]

Nah, its perfect.

Perfect, ay?!

So you’ve got 8 interchanges, whats the strategy? Which props replace our starters? Where’s the impact? Who gives McInnes the mid-game break he needs to become more effective? And with Friz, Sims and JDB all playing long minutes, where do Sele, Host AND Leilua get their chance to influence a game?

 

[Overseas dragon]

Like him or hate him, but Gus Gould had the theory of picking his 4 bench players firstly then selecting the run on team for NSW Origin. He claimed the bench players were chosen to make an impact and lift the team. Mary seems to choose bench players on "What if.....spare parts scenario" and give them 6 minutes at the death!
Our coach and his inept use & understanding of the bench are our biggest Achilles heel.

Using the Gould THEORY our bench
FRIZELL
SIMS
LEILUA
MANN .,...,but no way mcidiot has the foresight

 

[Life's Good]

All jokes aside, can Sele play some minutes at hooker to give McInnes a break?
Strikes me as having the same sort of build as Havili.
Im definitely advocating McInnes gets a break to boost his running game to compliment Hunt(I’ve said this a few times).

 

[Coffs dragon]

Using the Gould THEORY our bench
FRIZELL
SIMS
LEILUA
MANN .,...,but no way mcidiot has the foresight

I would swap Frizell for Graham on the bench. Starting props are Vaughan & Ah Mau with Fritz, Host & JDB the starting backrow. At the end of last season I heard many commentators mention that James Graham would and should be a great impact bench player to really lift a team rather than been flogged as a workhorse.

 

[Drag Queen]

Perfect, ay?!

So you’ve got 8 interchanges, whats the strategy? Which props replace our starters? Where’s the impact? Who gives McInnes the mid-game break he needs to become more effective? And with Friz, Sims and JDB all playing long minutes, where do Sele, Host AND Leilua get their chance to influence a game?

McIness isn't a big guy and one would think he shouldn't be used purely as a tackling machine. I realise you disagree with my favour towards Rein with a running game Benny. I also saw a few forward passes from young Cam bit I duly like him. Given his age and fitness he could play the full 80 minutes with a few tweaks. He doesn't have Cam Smith's physicality and looked burnt out by the end of his season. Another question is who are the moderators on this forrum? I just got three alerts that I broke protocol with the Langlands case. My guess is Old Timer has something to with this, He has a beef to bear and Langlands might well be a friend of his. Hard to believe an immortal from our team is beyond redemption.

 

[Overseas dragon]

Maybe guys should be presumed INNOCENT until they are proven GUILTY.works for me

 

[Overseas dragon]

I would swap Frizell for Graham on the bench. Starting props are Vaughan & Ah Mau with Fritz, Host & JDB the starting backrow. At the end of last season I heard many commentators mention that James Graham would and should be a great impact bench player to really lift a team rather than been flogged as a workhorse.

If Mann's on the bench a stint at dummy half might work late in the half

 

[Dragon Revival]

This year when Vaughan, Packer and De Belin left the field our forward drive was reduced. We need to balance out our bench rotation. Hopefully Host, Lawrie, Leilua and Sele can provide more impact next season or otherwise we will need to look elsewhere as I believe that Allgood and Latimore are not high impact players.

 

[Dragons22]

Mary's use of the bench.

 

[BennyV]

McIness isn't a big guy and one would think he shouldn't be used purely as a tackling machine. I realise you disagree with my favour towards Rein with a running game Benny. I also saw a few forward passes from young Cam bit I duly like him. Given his age and fitness he could play the full 80 minutes with a few tweaks. He doesn't have Cam Smith's physicality and looked burnt out by the end of his season. Another question is who are the moderators on this forrum? I just got three alerts that I broke protocol with the Langlands case. My guess is Old Timer has something to with this, He has a beef to bear and Langlands might well be a friend of his. Hard to believe an immortal from our team is beyond redemption.

Rein would probably be alright as a bench hooker and used 15 minutes either side of half time. But his poor passing and defence can’t be carried long term and his decision making cost us time and time again.

The most obvious answer was to not lose Havili, but other than that there’s probably a chance to start being Robson through with 15-20 mins a game.

As for Cam - easy to say he shouldn’t be a tackling machine, but the guy is a natural leader, string defender and is targetted in defense (as many hookers are). Hard to pull that away from him.

 

[dragonssamy61]

All jokes aside, can Sele play some minutes at hooker to give McInnes a break?
Strikes me as having the same sort of build as Havili.
Im definitely advocating McInnes gets a break to boost his running game to compliment Hunt(I’ve said this a few times).

Good idea also has the ball skills if alound to use it

 

[Life's Good]

Good idea also has the ball skills if alound to use it

I was just thinking outside the box. Given we haven’t got a genuine back up 9 ready to go there has to be someone hi could step in for a short period in each half. Just a thought anyway.

 

[Miller was a legend]

McIness isn't a big guy and one would think he shouldn't be used purely as a tackling machine. I realise you disagree with my favour towards Rein with a running game Benny. I also saw a few forward passes from young Cam bit I duly like him. Given his age and fitness he could play the full 80 minutes with a few tweaks. He doesn't have Cam Smith's physicality and looked burnt out by the end of his season. Another question is who are the moderators on this forrum? I just got three alerts that I broke protocol with the Langlands case. My guess is Old Timer has something to with this, He has a beef to bear and Langlands might well be a friend of his. Hard to believe an immortal from our team is beyond redemption.

Huh,you get pulled up by the mods and it's old timers fault? Geeze a bit rich DQ.

 

[possm]

McIness isn't a big guy and one would think he shouldn't be used purely as a tackling machine. I realise you disagree with my favour towards Rein with a running game Benny. I also saw a few forward passes from young Cam bit I duly like him. Given his age and fitness he could play the full 80 minutes with a few tweaks. He doesn't have Cam Smith's physicality and looked burnt out by the end of his season. Another question is who are the moderators on this forrum? I just got three alerts that I broke protocol with the Langlands case. My guess is Old Timer has something to with this, He has a beef to bear and Langlands might well be a friend of his. Hard to believe an immortal from our team is beyond redemption.

Langland's is not fit enough to defend himself and so I doubt he will ever be convicted. So without a conviction he cannot be found guilty.

Langlands, Billy Smith, Reg Gasnier and Johnny Raper are my all time favourite Dragons players. So it hurts me really bad to see Langlands in a bad place and not able to defend himself. None of us know the true facts and so I think we should just let it go.

 

[Dragonslayer]

For mine this is one of the most damning areas of McGregors "coaching" tenure and in 2018 it will make or break us.
One of his major deficiencies is game watching rather than game managing, its like he's hoping something will happen that will change the game instead of making it happen.
Obviously LAM and Sims the bench props. If Host is the starting back rower then either Leilua or Sele as the 3rd bench player. Sele is an inteteresting player as he could play multiple positions in the forward line. Leilua is definitely an impact player but edge forward only.
The last bench spot is the most divisive i think. Do we play a utility back like Mann/Field or even young Lomax or do we play a pack-up hooker like Robson or do we play a back-up forward?
The issue with the #17 is the amount of actual game time which in turn, based on current use, leads to decreased game fitness.
IMO each bench player should expect to play around 20min a game minimum. Currently our #17 gets between 0 and 10.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned would be a good analogy of McGregors use of the bench so far we can only hope 2018 will spark something new.

 

[Crush]

Perfect, ay?!

So you’ve got 8 interchanges, whats the strategy? Which props replace our starters? Where’s the impact? Who gives McInnes the mid-game break he needs to become more effective? And with Friz, Sims and JDB all playing long minutes, where do Sele, Host AND Leilua get their chance to influence a game?

Flexing your football experience muscles here Benny?
What position did you play?

 

[BennyV]

Flexing your football experience muscles here Benny?
What position did you play?

Prop! Which speaks volumes about the number of brain cells I have and value of my analysis of footy! (Damn coaches can’t see a decent 5/8 when they see one, even though I weighed in over 110kg and took 20m+ to hit top speed lol).

Anywho, these are the thoughts that need to go into using the bench - impact, balance and logistics. It’s why the use of an outside back (or people calling for Field on the bench) seem so poorly thought-out!

 

[giboz71]

2 props and a backrower who can also play in the middle should fill the first 3 spots.

Ah Mau will be the first bench prop, then take your pick between Allgood, Latimore and Lawrie for the 2nd prop. Sims could conceivably take the 2nd prop role as well.

Leilua, Sele or Sims (if he’s not the 2nd prop) can fill the 3rd forward role (assuming Host will take over Thommo’s spot).

The 4th bench spot is a tough one. Ideally a back up hooker who can play as another running forward to spell McInnes would be handy (shame Havili is gone). As some others have said, perhaps we could try Sele in this role if he can’t crack another spot on the bench?

And whilst unpopular on this forum, I also wouldn’t mind seeing Field used at 17 with Hunt at hooker late in the game, particularly if we’re chasing points.

 

[Old Timer]

McIness isn't a big guy and one would think he shouldn't be used purely as a tackling machine. I realise you disagree with my favour towards Rein with a running game Benny. I also saw a few forward passes from young Cam bit I duly like him. Given his age and fitness he could play the full 80 minutes with a few tweaks. He doesn't have Cam Smith's physicality and looked burnt out by the end of his season. Another question is who are the moderators on this forrum? I just got three alerts that I broke protocol with the Langlands case. My guess is Old Timer has something to with this, He has a beef to bear and Langlands might well be a friend of his. Hard to believe an immortal from our team is beyond redemption.

Apology required on your part and your guess about me is as far off the mark as some of your posts.
Get rid of your bias, go back and read my posts properly and then you will see quite clearly I mount no defence for him whatsoever other than the fact that he is entitled to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
At no stage have I said the accuser is anything but entitled to make their case and at no stage have I offered an option as the veracity of her claims.
However in your case you portray Langlands guilty without 1 shred of reliable evidence other than people supposedly said this or that to you.
As I said put up or shut up as to his guilt.