Is this the worst Season ever?

[Slippery Morris]

Is this the worst season you have had to experience following the Dragons? I know there are other season that the Dragons did not make the finals but from memory at least they provided some good footy now and then like Parra do occaisionally this season. Parra are coming last but they have at least won a couple of games playing nice attrractive footy and scored heaps of points doing so.

Saints have played like crap all year. The only highlight I can think of is the Tigers game earlier in the year but appart from that have been rubbish.

I have not seen them win a spoon yet and hope I never do but winning a spoon would be an all time low for this great club.

I really hope they don't have to put up with this rubbish next season. They have the players to go well so hopefully they can learn form this season and use it for motivation next year.

 

[hewi]

The last time i can remember such a shambles was in the ninties when Craig Young was coach. He was sacked and replaced by Brian Smith. So, when will it happen again , the sacking that is.

 

[KiamaSaint]

No.

 

[Willow]

Anything below 13th is arguably our worst season ever.

2007:
Worst season ever?

2007 was arguably the worst season ever for the Dragons.

In finishing 13th, and on 20 competition points, St George Illawarra narrowly managed to avoid the wooden spoon. The last-placed Panthers ended up on 18 points but did so with a differential of -68. The Dragons, struggling with a differential of -78, were just one loss away from adding the spoon to an already woeful season.

There have been worse seasons for the joint venture partners. Since their formation in 1982, Illawarra have at times struggled at the lower end of the ladder, the Steelers finishing with the wooden spoon three times. The St George club too has seen darker days, some 70 seasons ago. Indeed, the last time a St George team saw the wooden spoon was in 1938, finishing last in an eight team competition. It still remains, however, that since the club's formation in 1921, no first grade rugby league team bearing the Dragon emblem has ever finished 13th on the competition ladder.

The Dragons season of 2007 was consistently poor. The team only managed two consecutive wins on one occasion, in rounds 16-17. After defeating eventual grand finalists the Sea Eagles 26-22 and backing up to thrash the Raiders 58-16 one week later, the Dragons gave fans slim hope that the annual charge towards the semis was still on the cards. But in round 18, Saints came crashing back to earth after suffering a 44-16 defeat at hands of the Warriors. For all intents and purposes, the Dragons of 2007 were a write-off and from that moment on, the question was one of survival.

Injuries - root cause for dismal season?
Dragons officials pointed to an inexperienced squad being hit hard by injuries. It is true that Saints have had another season of players being repeatedly sidelined. When Mark Gasnier suffered a pectoral injury in the pre-season Charity Shield clash, it set the pattern for a horrendous run of injuries in the opening rounds of competition.
In 2007, Saints used no less than 32 first graders, including 11 first grade debutants. To put this in perspective, you have to go back to 1995 to find the last time a Dragons side used more than 30 first grade players in a season. The most players a Dragons team has ever used in one season were 35 (1971, 1982 and 1983). The Dragons club of 2007 busted through the 30 player barrier after just 12 rounds of competition.
Nevertheless, the casualty ward only tells part of the story. In the latter part of the season, with players coming back from injury, the Dragons still couldn’t win the games that mattered.

Is the coach to blame?

The coach is applauded during the good times, so it stands to reason that he must shoulder some of the blame during the lean times. Many fans were calling for the head of Coach Nathan Brown in 2007, club CEO Peter Doust responded by giving ‘Brownie’ his full support. For the time being at least, Brown’s 2008 contract as head coach of the Dragons will remain intact.
Nevertheless, the Dragons struggled for form throughout the season. Lack of discipline (the Dragons conceded 176 penalties) as well as poor options in both attack and defence severely hampered the team's chances in 2007.

http://jubileeavenue.com.au/history/2007.php

Sound familiar?

 

[blacklock]

no...only because im still riding the euphoria of 2010 lol i mean it sucks we probably wont be in the finals this year, but the fact we atleast have won a comp makes it easier to swallow.

i can speak on behalf of my friends who happen to be dragons fans...we all seem a little more at ease. had it been 2005 etc then the sentiments wouldnt be the same. especially considering all the close calls we had had. screwing up 1999, all the grand final losses of the 90s.

so 2012 wasnt good...but the memories of 2010 leaves some of us satiated. for a season or two longer hehe

 

[Slackboy72]

Not by a long shot.

 

[biff malibu]

Nah, there has been positives, Rein, De Belin, Merrin has come of age. It is the season the dragons had to have.

 

[gorilla]

Is this the worst season you have had to experience following the Dragons?

Gawd no. A couple in the 1970's, some of the 1980's, disappointing many years since joint venture.

 

[Slackboy72]

I can only assume all the Price-Hate and Doust-Hate threads are coming from people who've only been supporting us since 2009.

 

[dragons__]

2007 was very bad imo. it all depends on how we finish this season off.

it starts tomorrow with the naming of the side, but unfortunately i see the headline being: 'Price sticks solid with his team. Mostly unchanged line up from last week'

 

[Minh]

We've been pretty bad no doubt about it 2007 and late 80's were just as bad. The thing that hurts most is that we have gone from heavyweights to easy beats so soon.

 

[Willow]

We definitely had a worst time of it in the late 80s.

I can only assume all the Price-Hate and Doust-Hate threads are coming from people who've only been supporting us since 2009.

No, the Doust hate threads have been around for yonks, and coach hate threads are nothing new. But there's more of it lately for obvious reasons.

But I take your point. I had a theory that the angst was greater than usual this year because some people had never felt this type of disappointment before.

Our support based definitely lifted after the success of 2009 and must have spiked in 2010. Plus there would have been train loads of 'dormant' supporters who always had Saints as their favourite team but had better things to do when other sides were winning the comp. They all came out of the woodwork in 2009-2010 and became 'hardcore' supporters after that.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing, success on the field is sure to attract more supporters and I say the more the merrier. But it does lend itself to greater disappointment when the crash happens. It's a learning curve I guess and the hardiest will stick around to support the team through thick and thin.

Of course others just wanted 2010 to keep going. Unfortunately we crashed, and teams do have a habit of crashing after a premiership win. In our case, the talent was gutted and there are no saviours on the horizon.

There was certainly a lot of disappointment after 2007, the fear that our best years of the 2000s were wasted and there was ingrain acceptance of mediocrity that had taken over the club. But we came back.

But in comparison to 2007, the disappointment of 2012 is more intense imo.

 

[Mr Red]

The last time i can remember such a shambles was in the ninties when Craig Young was coach. He was sacked and replaced by Brian Smith. So, when will it happen again , the sacking that is.

Craig young coached 2 seasons - 89 and 90. it was a failure for 2 reasons:

1. a great player doesnt necessarliy make a great coach. Young was a great player but couldnt coach.
2. promoting a guy to coach the year after he retires was always going to be tough - coaching the guys you played with the season before and having to coach all your mates is never a good idea.

having a coach that is close mates with the players is a recipe for disaster IMO. it also failed with Brown and i believe its part of the problem with Price as well.
when will they learn?

 

[Mr Red]

We definitely had a worst time of it in the late 80s.

.

yep tough times but at least we won the national panasonic cup (midweek comp) in 1988... something in the trophy cabinet that was looking pretty bare at the time...

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

We've been pretty bad no doubt about it 2007 and late 80's were just as bad. The thing that hurts most is that we have gone from heavyweights to easy beats so soon.

We have gone from heavyweights to easy beats so soon.... your spot on with that statement Minh....thats what dissappoints me the most as well......I understand that its hard to be up there year after year but barring Weyman and occasionally Cooper, Scott and Stanley our injury toll has been relatively minor so to speak......and whats even harder is listening to bloody Qld'ers mouthing off that you only won the comp because of OUR coach......which imo is/was total rubbish to a degree.

 

[Elias1983]

2000 for me was far worse than this year...

The club sacked David waite mid-year,Mundine left. We finished on 24 points for the season.

Not to mention that Melbourne game....

 

[Minh]

2000 for me was far worse than this year...

The club sacked David waite mid-year,Mundine left. We finished on 24 points for the season.

Not to mention that Melbourne game....

Fair point what was it 70 zip our worst defeat I have ever seen. David Waite was a very good coach in my mind I'm surprised he has gone missing in the NRL ever since.

 

[Drain the Dragon]

1974 would have to be a candidate for the worst season in my memory. It was the first time Saints failed to make the semi finals for 23 years. It was virtually unheard of for us to not be there in September.

 

[Minh]

We have gone from heavyweights to easy beats so soon.... your spot on with that statement Minh....thats what dissappoints me the most as well......I understand that its hard to be up there year after year but barring Weyman and occasionally Cooper, Scott and Stanley our injury toll has been relatively minor so to speak......and whats even harder is listening to bloody Qld'ers mouthing off that you only won the comp because of OUR coach......which imo is/was total rubbish to a degree.

Bennett inherited a bunch of very committed footballers with a common goal of winning the premiership and both Bennett and the players were equally responsible for our victory. I can handle losing I've seen it plenty of times over the years but I think we definately underachieved this year, we had a good mix of seasoned pro's and youngsters in the team yet we struggled to beat nearly all of the bottom teams all year.

 

[Drain the Dragon]

Bennett inherited a bunch of very committed footballers with a common goal of winning the premiership and both Bennett and the players were equally responsible for our victory. I can handle losing I've seen it plenty of times over the years but I think we definately underachieved this year, we had a good mix of seasoned pro's and youngsters in the team yet we struggled to beat nearly all of the bottom teams all year.

And when you compare our roster to that of Newcastle, who are now hitting some pretty good form, it shows how disappointing we are. Our roster is comparable with theirs, but it appears Bennett has figured out what works there, yet Price still has no clue at all.