Dragons vs St Helens

[denis preston]

Nothing changed from last season… one off running, no decoys, sloppy defence

no hope for improvement thiss season

You would be useful in the trenches ! How can you possibly make the last statement based on the players that didn’t play last night?

 

[Illusion]

You would be useful in the trenches ! How can you possibly make the last statement based on the players that didn’t play last night?

Maybe what he was trying to say is , they are coached , the same way they played last year ..... No change to the game plan ..... Time will tell .....

 

[hook hook]

Considering the team ran out from the start without a half back and a five eight I thought they did well and gave a positive showing.
How we are in a position to not have one or two reasonable to excellent quality back up halfbacks and five eights at the club is beyond me.
I know Moses went OK as did the kid who played five eight but seriously to win rugby league games you need on field generals (the half and five eight), organizing, taking charge and directing traffic.
Liked the Couchman brothers and Dan Russell.

Agreed, The couchmans were excellent and
Dan Russell should be the back up back rower over billy burns, he is more than capable with some excellent performances for PNG
Lui-Toso looked like a handful

 

[Dragon David]

I think the game was quite good for both sides. I did predict that we would lose and I hoped that we would not have any serious injuries which turned out right.

For us, we played to the best of the players' abilities for our first trial game and the combinations that could be arranged given that several of our more experienced guys did not play. We played a team that has won the Super League Championship and many of their players have plenty of experience and have represented England in the World Cup. Our coaches could have done more to show that we have put the 5 plays then kick routine behind us, but overall it was a good run for the boys.

For them, they played as you would expect a team consisting of Super League Champions and with all of their squad playing. If we had our more experienced guys on the field, we might have gone close to have beaten them. They had a good run but they will not be winners against the Panthers who will have their top blokes playing next weekend.

I think our young guys would have learned quite a lot out of playing the game. Most are still growing and learning and developing and they tried their best. The experience will help them in the future. We did lead them at one stage, but mistakes and decisions went against us to allow them to take control again.

I'm hoping that next week when we play Souths in the Charity Shield that we will account of ourselves much better.

 

[Old Timer]

The disappointing thing is the metronomic attack.

Yes the regular halves were out but 5 hit ups and a kick doesn't actually require them to be there anyway.

Liddle with a couple of darts looks effective now we need to see the halves actually come up with some variations in play.

If that doesn't materialise and in fact become the norm it will be a very long season indeed.

 

[Number of the Beath]

Geez. Calm down people. Let’s look at this objectively before reaching for the razor blades.
Players who didn’t play:
Hunt
Bird
De Belin
Sua
Sullivan
Sloan
F Molo
M Molo
Woods
Musgrove
Kerr
Fuimaono
Throw in Mbye at 7, Muhleisen at 6.
What were people expecting considering SH had 17 premiership players from last years GF playing tonight in their squad.

If anything let’s look at the positives:
Lawrie looked fit and was aggressive, looked hungry. BMM did some good things with the ball, Liddle looked fit and was dangerous out of dummy half on a few occasions, Mbye played well, Lui Toso had a bit of grunt and some of the young kids like the Couchman brothers looked good.

Absolutely spot-on assessment.
For a team with a new #9, a fullback on debut and a makeshift halves pairing I reckon going down 30-18 to a team with 4 consecutive Super League titles under their belt is pretty good. Especially when two of those tries came on the back of very friendly penalties.
Muhleisen impressed me and I think Liddle might just be keeping the seat warm for him. And it's early days but I'm getting definite Gourley vibes from the Couchman brothers, too.

 

[Spazer]

st helens are on the same level as a bottom 8 nrl side so even if we weren't full strength we were still being rolled through the middle by their forwards too easily which is a worry. I expect most teams will do the same to us.

Hook is probably leaning towards playing mbye in our spine judging by his minutes last night. I was hoping to see herring get more minutes over mulheisen and moga but oh well.

Toby couchman made a good impression. Egan looked keen. Savelio has a lot of potential, too.

 

[Dragons4me]

What was the reason for Hook playing Connor Muhleisen at 6? What did that achieve? Don't we have a back-up?

 

[denis preston]

What was the reason for Hook playing Connor Muhleisen at 6? What did that achieve? Don't we have a back-up?

Herrings bombs for the whole game would have been interesting.

 

[Dragon David]

NRL 2023; match report, St Helens Saints, St George Illawarra Dragons, WIN Stadium, Tommy Makinson, Zac Lomax | Dragons

Super League champions St Helens warmed up for their World Club Challenge clash against back-to-back NRL premiers Penrith with a 30-18 win against an undermanned St George Illawarra outfit

www.dragons.com.au

 

[Dragon David]

Match Highlights: Dragons v Saints | Dragons

The St George Illawarra Dragons and St Helens face-off in Round 1 of the 2023 Pre-Season Challenge

www.dragons.com.au

 

[twinkletoes]

You would be useful in the trenches ! How can you possibly make the last statement based on the players that didn’t play last night?

I’m not criticising the players… in fact I was thrilled by some of the young kids who got some match time and seeing them so eager lined up on the sideline itching to get on the field was fantastic. My point is they seem to be coached to play the same boring, inept structure of previous seasons… and that won’t work

 

[KogarahWarrior]

Savelio Tamale, for a young kid looked really strong when scoring his try. Regardless of super league or not, he was pushing grown men off him and kept charging which was awesome, kick chase was great too. The Finau brothers, wish we could have seen more of them. The Couchman twins were awesome. Egan seems to be extremely enthusiastic - love to see it. Herring looked good with limited time. The future is bright if these players are brought in well.

 

[Illusion]

With the right structure and coach ......

 

[St_Helens_Goat]

Saints fan point of view

We lacked intensity, that was the plan with Penrith next week. Players not wanting to get injured. We used all 26 players throughout the game so lack of fluency as well. Our last 30 minutes was our reserve side.

Good run out for Lewis Dodd who has missed 9 months with a ACL injury.

We was missing our best player in Morgan Knowles who adds so much to the team. When he plays he lifts the whole team.

Good run out. Like i said i think we had a great chance of beating Penrith in the UK at our stadium. Playing in Australia in that heat next week against one of the greatest NRL sides of recent years. I just want a decent performance. We spent 3x less on players with our salary cap so lets be realistic.

 

[Yow]

I did say “the players I chose to rate”.. read the fine print!!

Dont have to some you have you in your 12 you didnt rate some you left out you should have but all good i did like the Couchmans and the Ranga Ryan

 

[epDragon62]

What was the reason for Hook playing Connor Muhleisen at 6? What did that achieve? Don't we have a back-up?

He may want Connor to have minutes in his legs because he may be needed in NRL.

 

[Maximus]

Maybe what he was trying to say is , they are coached , the same way they played last year ..... No change to the game plan ..... Time will tell .....

I reckon a game with a hooker at 5/8th and another hooker at halfback and a rookie at fullback, and a club debutant at hooker probably isn't indicative of much.

 

[SEAT 1A]

Not a bad hit out I suppose. Did St Helens pull up after the first twenty.

No injuries, Liddle did well considering first game, noticed he could have got a ball away however, no one following him, Lawrie fired up, Mbye filled in without Hunt.

Hope Billy Burns gets more time next week, nice conversion by Lomax and Big Ben same as Liddle and the kids ripped in.

 

[Dragonslayer]

In context I think we went pretty well against a full-strength Saints outfit. A couple of their try's were, mmm, let's say piggy-backed from some questionable calls, but hey, it goes both ways right!

More important for me was those who (a) didn't play this weekend, due to injury, rep football or personal issues, most of these players would be in our starting 17.

So, out were: (and leaving out Amone and Ramsey)
Injured list: Hunt, Bird, Sullivan, Woods (ahem), JDB and Sua
Unavailable: Francis and Michael Molo
Rep duty: Sloan, Kerr, Fuimaono and Musgrove

Taking a look at the rep players performance yesterday:

1: Musgrove: 9 runs 84m, 49 pcm, 3 tackle breaks, 19 tackles 0 missed, 0 errors
2: Sloan: 5 runs 54m, 6 pcm, 1 line break, 0 tackle breaks, 5 tackles 0 missed, 0 ineffective, 0 errors
3: Kerr: 15 runs 135m, 51 pcm, 1 tackle break, 18 tackles 2 missed, 3 ineffective, 2 errors

Going to highlight Fuimaono as his stats a not a good read:
4: Fuimaono: 9 runs 80m, 38 pcm, 1 tackle break, 19 tackles 11 missed, 2 ineffective, 2 errors.

I would think Fui plays a lot of KOE Cup this year. Kerr seems to shine in these All-Stars games, but hopefully now can transfer to club level.

Importantly, this game did highlight our, imo, the correct call to focus on signings at the junior level. There were heaps to be impressed with and remember some of those playing yesterday are still eligible for SG Ball. A couple were also pulled into the squad in the last minute when the Molo brothers dropped out.

Our best indicator of how we have or haven't progressed will come in the CS game.