Round 17 vs Melbourne

[Carlton]

One of the things during this game that really pissed me off was when there was a scrum near the Dragons line. Melbourne were gassed and Cameron Smith stuffed around in the scrum for ages giving his team a chance to get their breath back.

I have two questions, why didn't Melbourne get penalised for exceeding the scrum clock and second why wasn't smith sin binned for a professional foul?

On a side note, when is a team going to wake up and smash smith instead of letting him dictate terms. Hell, give away a penalty, give away a sin bin, I don't care belt the crap out of him and stop giving in to his agendas.

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

It may be part strength but what worries me is his positioning and his apparent reluctance to make contact. This was also the problem when he kicked the bomb, he had plenty of time to get to it but was not willing to commit.

Last week against Parramatta when Hayne scored Dufty was close enough to try to help hold him up but just stood and watched. Attack is a great thing but not at the expense of defence, fullback more than just about any other position has to be a complete player.

It was Quinlan-like.

Yes, I'm going to use the above term as an adjective.

And, I don't care what anyone says as a possible rebuttal: Dugan's defence at the back is sorely missed!

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

Melbourne were in steamroll mode at the time, it took me back to the 70-10 result in 2001.

Admittedly I am "Captain Pessimistic", but even so, events last night weren't nearly as bad as THAT game from 2000.

 

[SGMax]

Great effort by the whole team.
Clearly some are not up to it and we need more quality depth.
If we weren't going to get a quality 2nd rower or prop replacement we shouldn't have let Thompson go.
Can't believe we have used up his money on upgrades or whatever and risked a tilt at the premiership this year with substandard depth.
Hope the luck with injuries continues.

Anyway some observations from last night:
* I don't understand how full time NRL players can be so overwieght (like Lawrey, Luciano (even Merrin)).
* Not sure about Luc and Lawrie long term, they both need to harden up.
* Sele is OK but still misses tackles. Will be an OK depth player but thats it....just not big enough.
* Dufty needs to make sure he tackles someone, even if he lets in a try.
* Nightingale needs to be cover for a wing position only.
* We desperately need more top line props for next year.
* Smith is a sly pri*k. He was upsetting Graham by slowing the scrum down hoping there was something to overturn. The refs tolerate his antics and one day someones gonna give it to him.
* does no one think that there was a knee lift in Hosts injury?
* some defensive toughness would have got us win.
* After Storms 1st try after the break, our linespeed in defence was really good. Need to do it as much as possible.

 

[The Damo]

One of the things during this game that really pissed me off was when there was a scrum near the Dragons line. Melbourne were gassed and Cameron Smith stuffed around in the scrum for ages giving his team a chance to get their breath back.

I have two questions, why didn't Melbourne get penalised for exceeding the scrum clock and second why wasn't smith sin binned for a professional foul?

On a side note, when is a team going to wake up and smash smith instead of letting him dictate terms. Hell, give away a penalty, give away a sin bin, I don't care belt the crap out of him and stop giving in to his agendas.

I was blowing up at that too - it was obviously deliberate time wasting, and should have been penalised.
And yes, when he does his drifting sucking in defenders thing just bloody hit him. He’ll probably get the ball away first but but do hard and often he’ll slow down.

 

[Bests Golden Boots]

One of the things during this game that really pissed me off was when there was a scrum near the Dragons line. Melbourne were gassed and Cameron Smith stuffed around in the scrum for ages giving his team a chance to get their breath back.

I have two questions, why didn't Melbourne get penalised for exceeding the scrum clock and second why wasn't smith sin binned for a professional foul?

On a side note, when is a team going to wake up and smash smith instead of letting him dictate terms. Hell, give away a penalty, give away a sin bin, I don't care belt the crap out of him and stop giving in to his agendas.

Time wasting is a joke.
Melbourne score a try, we go to the video, 3 minuites there, try awarded, ad break (on nine), we get back and Smith is still lining up the kick.
It had to be a 6 minuite break.

I have no idea why teams who play Melbourne just don't instruct the marker to run up and smash him every time, he gets too much time at dummy half.

 

[Crush]

Have you heard of inference?

Have you heard of arrogance?

 

[kit66]

We played well for 60 minutes and laid on some excellent tries, just couldn't keep up with a more experienced side and Smith's spoiler tactics - I hate the guy but he's probably the best we've ever seen. Injuries have worked in Melb's favour forcing Bellyache to give his fringe players lots of game time this year and that showed last night.
A bit much to expect our kids to overcome a few hoodoos - Melb in Melb on a Thursday night.

Live and learn - for example, we need to get busy in the player market for a big bopper or two and back up halves for next year. more game time for Lawrie and Luc and Lomax when he recovers.

I hope our missing SOO boys watched that game and set their thoughts to a finals clash with Melb and making sure we showed them the real, full strength 2018 Dragons.....again.

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

Have you heard of arrogance?

Actually, I have.

Look up the word "Jimmy" in the dictionary....my photo is there.

 

[Carlton]

Just as a thought, why not move Nighty to the wing when he was getting gassed, move Mann to centre and then move Aitken to second row?

Or move Nighty to the wing and move Mann to second row?

There were options on the field to rest Nighty without using an interchange.

 

[slippery5]

I'm unsure about specifics but I do know one thing.

That is, every premiership winning team since 1908 (including those from the SOO era) did NOT have 50 points put on them during their successful seasons.

And, I'm sure that there have many clubs (for example, Brisbane) which were impacted far more heavily through representation commitments too.

Well I'm sure of this specific, if Vaughn, Sims, JDB, Fritz & Hunt play, we don't get 50 put on us,do you?

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

Well I'm sure of this specific, if Vaughn, Sims, JDB, Fritz & Hunt play, we don't get 50 put on us,do you?

Well, you'd hope that on the balance of probabilities, the answer would be no.

However, the lesson from 2000 should tell advise every SGI fan that anything is possible.

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

Just as a thought, why not move Nighty to the wing when he was getting gassed, move Mann to centre and then move Aitken to second row?

Or move Nighty to the wing and move Mann to second row?

There were options on the field to rest Nighty without using an interchange.

I would've thought the answer would be akin to trying to shove a square into a round hole.

Given Nightingale admirably (then struggled with 'defensive overload', what makes you think that either Aitken or Mann wouldn't have endured the same fate?

 

[blacksafake]

Watching the panthers play we signed the wrong 1/2 from the panthers lower grades

 

[hazzbeen]

Watching the panthers play we signed the wrong 1/2 from the panthers lower grades

Who is he mate .....?

 

[blacksafake]

Jerome Luai?
He’s scored 1 had a try assist, kicked well & playing with confidence

 

[hazzbeen]

Jerome Luai?
He’s scored 1 had a try assist, kicked well & playing with confidence

Thanks I can't get anywhere to watch the game ......

 

[ozbuck]

Admittedly I am "Captain Pessimistic", but even so, events last night weren't nearly as bad as THAT game from 2000.

Holy shit.

People are reacting as if we lost 52-0!! We were in the lead with 14mins to go. Neither coach would be happy with how their team played last night, but whoever's team won would've obviously been glad that they did win.

Bellamy would've been blowing up at his team for some shit they dished up. Mary too with the dragons. He was livid after that try before half time. In fact that halfback had another shit defensive effort that led to a storm try in the second half too. But that's life.

Point is: we were in the lead with 14 to go and looking like the team with more energy. They scored two quick tries and then a couple more late to ice the game. That's it. Nothing more to see here. It was a stupid game that I couldn't even take seriously tbh.

 

[blacksafake]

Holy shit.

People are reacting as if we lost 52-0!! We were in the lead with 14mins to go. Neither coach would be happy with how their team played last night, but whoever's team won would've obviously been glad that they did win.

Bellamy would've been blowing up at his team for some shit they dished up. Mary too with the dragons. He was livid after that try before half time. In fact that halfback had another shit defensive effort that led to a storm try in the second half too. But that's life.

Point is: we were in the lead with 14 to go and looking like the team with more energy. They scored two quick tries and then a couple more late to ice the game. That's it. Nothing more to see here. It was a stupid game that I couldn't even take seriously tbh.

Yea I feel a bit the same. Our completion rate was high as well which is a sign of form. There was enough to say they weren’t poor

 

[Dragons4me]

Yea I feel a bit the same. Our completion rate was high as well which is a sign of form. There was enough to say they weren’t poor

I agree. We were always going to be up against it playing those pricks down there. Proud of their effort. I just hope our S.O.O boys watched the game also and come back pumped ready to take us to the finals.