"Spirit" wake up numbnuts calling a spade a spade please tell me something different. I love the dragons but been talking the same shit for years with no results go give yaself an upper cut
l think Jak was pointing out that you probably fell under the heading on the original list... "Disgruntled fans being very negative about certain players and the team". l like how our "fans" continue to make our supporter base the most toxic in the League. And always under the veil of "ohh don't get me wrong - l love the Dragons"... If we ALL love the Dragons lets show it... Lets declare a "No More Putting Shit On OUR Team" year. Give it a year. Maybe then we may actually see some improvement across the whole club. I have seen many clubs in Local & Country footy turn around in one season - all on the back of a figure head bringing everyone together. And the winning came on the back of firstly bringing everyone together and setting standards. l know NRL is a bigger beast - but is it really. Wayne Bennett turned us around. But it seemed to me that he broke down all the pathways and they have taken quiet a while to get back to having juniors who want to be at OUR club. When Gus went back to Penrith he found that the pathways had been eroded and the community was pessimistic about the Panthers brand (sound familiar). He went about building an immediate side of 'journey men' to provide a base for the juniors to funnel into. As always topped up where necessary with astute signings. l liked what l saw at our club 'on the field' this year. We were "in" games. We have sufficient talent. And yet the same tripe got thrown at OUR team (unfortunately by our so called supporters). Give it a rest guys - we won't win every game. Even Penrith lost games they should have won this year. Before the Broncs won the GF... we actually had won a GF more recently than them and spent a lot less as well. But here's the thing... we had Ben Hunt on just under $1M and he walked... We had Lomax on $900K (or thereabouts) and he walked. They signed at their destination clubs for $500K and $650K. The REAL problem on why we are in the spiral is due to the lack of action by the NRL on addressing how that can happen. While we are at it - Wighton left Raiders with a $1M contract offer from the Green Machine and turned up at the Bunnies for $650K... Galvin left the Tigers and turns up at Dogs for $650K when Wests were willing to (and tabled) an offer of $1.1M... none of these digressions were adequately investigated. And there in lies the problem - teams that are perceived to be on a downward spiral in the player manager community are made to pay nearly double for the same player... and the NRL continues to allow it to happen under Salary Cap Rules. Then if OUR own supporters keep telling everyone that we are a shit club.... well l guess players might just listen.
Hence l believe that we as fans invest our passion into the OUR team - we accept the realities and welcome those who really do want to be part of OUR progress back to where this brand should be. We really do need 2 front rowers who will act as a go forward and bend the line. Only then can we truly judge our halves. We have Loko and maybe Jett Luiu to rotate thru the forward rotation; and good back rowers from the crop off juniors. Overall l liked what l saw from our back line this year... but of course extra speed would add to the skillset. Gutho was good directing the team around from the back - on certain days you could actually hear him at the ground. But again he won't find speed unless he had an injury. But he is what we have until a better option comes around.
Just remember - most of the guys our supporters love to bag actually did beat the Storm, Manly, Broncs, Raiders and Gummies. We also had a moral victory against the Dogs and l reckon we were a lot closer to Pennies then the scoreboard showed. And l am sure people will then argue - "look at all the games we lost". Sure we were not undefeated; but even if we were l'm afraid some of our supporters would still criticise the two Flanos.
And everyone stop suggesting that every player on the market is who we should chase. For instance... we need Props but l would not sign Nelson because he has already been penalised out of the game and will only cop worse treatment if he is in a lower rated team (by the Refs). So he will cost too much and will sit on the sidelines for more than half the year. l would sign Tino - BUT only if Flano/Ando/Timbo had a coffee with him and they truly believed he wanted to be at the Dragons to lead the young men that we have in OUR team. But just as importantly l would sign Klem - after all he proved he wants to be here and gave us reasonable go forward on reasonable money - albeit on his own most of the time. l would not have signed Metcalf because he will be coming back from major injury and never really shown that he wants to play for us... in fact everytime he talks he only speaks of wanting to be at the Wahs. So what is his motivation to come to us - probably more money (and then you ask yourself did we learn nothing from Ben Hunt milking the Golden Goose). I would consider Tannor Boyd because he has something to prove. We need guys who want to be part of OUR journey, want to be part of OUR success.
But anyway - no more putting Shit on each other for 12 months and lets watch OUR team improve.
grab for the company what a shocker its so obvious.
