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Ben Hunt Takes Responsibility for Dragons Woes

getsmarty

Immortal
Messages
33,485
Hunt is not the problem...the forwards are the problem. We have the second worst defensive record in the comp...the forwards generally apart from McInnes, Vaughn & Graham have been pathetic. Hunt's defensive lapses are highlighted by everyone, but at least he is in position to make the tackles...most of the other forwards are missing in action!! Look at the replays and you'll see that we have a lot of passengers in defence...where oppositions can make large metres every time they have the ball

The Forwards are ineffective because of McGregor's "Power Game" and his insistence on playing injured players..............

SACK McGREGOR and things improve instantly.
 

getsmarty

Immortal
Messages
33,485
huntb-190505_gt_18.jpg


DRAGONS


Hunt takes stand against online trolls
Author
Brad Walter NRL.com Senior Reporter
Timestamp
Tue 13 Aug 2019, 05:24 PM
walterbrad-head.png

St George Illawarra halfback Ben Hunt has reached out to former team-mate Josh McGuire after death threats and abuse by social media trolls forced the North Queensland enforcer to approach Cowboys officials about mental health support.

Hunt sought professional help himself 12 months ago after being worn down by the vitriol directed towards him over the Dragons' late-season slump and has been in regular contact with McGuire since last Thursday night’s Cowboys-Broncos match.

The Maroons and Kangaroos forward has been the subject of a relentless on-line hate campaign after being reported and subsequently suspended for a facial on David Fifita, which resulted in his third contrary conduct charge of the season.

Hunt played with McGuire at Brisbane and the Dragons playmaker said he had been trying to help his representative team-mate deal with the abuse, which prompted McGuire’s wife Tanyssa to go public with details of death threats against him.

“I am really good mates with Josh and I know he has been doing it tough the last couple of weeks,” Hunt said.

“He is a great fellow, if you know him off the field you will get along with him really well. Obviously some things have happened on the field that I am sure he is probably not proud of and he seems to be copping a fair bit for it.



McGuire upset, but not seeking sympathy

“I have had little chats with him in the last week. They are not crazy chats or anything but I know what he is going through.

“It is obviously a tough time for him and his family as well. It filters down, it is not just the player it is his wife, kids, his mum and dad, it’s everyone. He has a lot of brothers and it has hurt them as well, it is not just the player it filters down to everyone in his family.”

Hunt said suggestions McGuire had tried to eye-gouge Fifita were wide of the mark and he remained good mates with most of the Broncos players after playing 10 seasons for the club before joining North Queensland this year.

“There is no malice in it, he is not trying to hurt anyone on purpose or anything like that,” Hunt said.

“Josh is just a fiery player and he plays with a lot of energy and he is such a competitor. He really wants to win all the time and obviously coming up against his old club he was determined to get one over them.

“I know that he is great mates with most of those boys there and I am sure they had a chat after the game and there would be no bad feelings among them.”

The trolling of McGuire on social media coincided with abuse of Wests Tigers centre Paul Momirovski after he missed a conversion attempt on fulltime that would have sent last Saturday night’s match against Canterbury into extra time and a racial attack on Sydney Roosters centre Latrell Mitchell.



Josh McGuire hit with contrary conduct charge

However, it is not just on social media that players are being targeted, with staff at at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium revealing that Hunt and other Dragons stars were abused as they walked from the field after falling out of finals contention with their Round 20 12-4 loss to Parramatta.

“It’s always there, I just think it has been highlighted this week,” Hunt said.

“Players have been copping it for years and it is not going to get any easier, I don’t think.

“There is always going to be people on social media who hide behind their phones and computers and what not, and say what they want to say without being accountable for it. The best advice I can give if it is going to continue is just to stay off it. Don’t listen to advice from people who you don’t go looking for advice from.”



Tackle of the week: Round 21

Meanwhile, Hunt said he was starting to regain confidence and form after the physical and mental toll of playing three Origin matches at hooker for Queensland required him to be rested from the Round 19 match against South Sydney.

Hunt said re-uniting with captain Gareth Widdop after his return from a shoulder injury sustained in Round 3 had been a boost to him and the other members of the Dragons spine, while his performance in last Saturday’s 40-28 defeat of Gold Coast showed how much he had been missed.

“Gaz was exceptional, Corey [Norman] was good and I thought Cam [McInness] played really well. The things we worked on during the week and the plays we wanted to put on came together. We just stuck at our plan and it came off,” Hunt said.

“There have been a lot of ‘what ifs’ this season and not having Gaz is one. He is such a classy player, and another one is not having Jack de Belin. I train against him every week and he is carving us up with the reserve grade boys so not having those two guys for the major part of the year really hurt us.”


https://www.dragons.com.au/news/2019/08/13/hunt-takes-stand-against-online-trolls/
 

redandwhite4evr

Juniors
Messages
1,816
Pull yourself together muzby "Mick Ennis"?
Not only have you got it in for anyone who suggests Hunt is not so good but now you have it in for the rest of the panel on the TV.
See a lawyer and start proceedings against Mary as he has scrambled your brain completely.
On a serious note you are being pot calling kettle re "personal" as you are not squeaky clean in that area.
Re the team I agree they are well and truly down on form with the exception of Mc Innes who seems to have kept his form very consistent over the year.
Notwithstanding that there are plenty of threads and posts giving it to a range of players including Mc Innes funnily enough and the Hunt thread we are now posting in just happens to be one of them.
Hunt has not provided the team with anywhere near top shelf performances becoming a player of his reputation or pay grade and even Hunt admits that himself.
It appears to me that any criticism of Hunt is instantly met by a terse response form you and you deflect to a range of other issues, players, coaches etc etc.
Hunt like others in the team is well below form and the fans are entitled to voice their opinions about him without you constantly suggesting they are incorrect.

From one old timer to another- well said. I actually like Bent Hunt and wish him all the best for the future- somewhere else than SGI. Some have disputed the accuracy of the widely reported $1.2M per year figure and contracts are often back ended so he may be getting slightly less than $1.2M atm but no one seems to be disputing the $6m over 5 years deal,. I reckon he is about an $700,000-800,000 a year player. WIth the $400-500,000 saving, we could pick up a quality centre like Ramien, particularly if the Knights pay part of the freight.

We saw who was the true class act in this club last weekend- Widdop first, daylight second- and Widdop is on significantly less- no wonder he's leaving .
 

BLM01

First Grade
Messages
8,944
From one old timer to another- well said. I actually like Bent Hunt and wish him all the best for the future- somewhere else than SGI. Some have disputed the accuracy of the widely reported $1.2M per year figure and contracts are often back ended so he may be getting slightly less than $1.2M atm but no one seems to be disputing the $6m over 5 years deal,. I reckon he is about an $700,000-800,000 a year player. WIth the $400-500,000 saving, we could pick up a quality centre like Ramien, particularly if the Knights pay part of the freight.

We saw who was the true class act in this club last weekend- Widdop first, daylight second- and Widdop is on significantly less- no wonder he's leaving .
Just FYI. The $6 mill figure comes from Hunt has an option in his favour for the 6th year so basically they are giving him 6 year deal if he wants it. Reportedly 950 x 6 = $5.7..yeh lets round it to 6 is more like it and has 5 years concrete so lets just divide 6 mill over 5 years is where the 1.2 a year comes from. Probably media creating something or stetching the truth... but that has never happened before.
Anyway besides what the real truth is,,you are right even if 950K a year is correct we still paid overs but had to.
Agree re Widdop i have said that for years he is our best and brilliant player ..his only problem is trying to do too much out of the box or low percentage plays himself following shit / boring game plans and a team that can not score points and someone having to create something from nothing to get us going....on his own without a decent offisder. I have felt sorry for Widdop prior to Hunt's arrival without a decent 7 who was meant to be the messiah..
Widdop saw the light after 1 year and knew this team was not going to get no trophy under the coach or with the team outside of him..so he has gone somewhere with a chance to hold a trophy..Dont wont about going home to be with ma and pa.....smart career move also by Gareth.
 
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ALSGI

Bench
Messages
3,101
Just FYI. The $6 mill figure comes from Hunt has an option in his favour for the 6th year so basically they are giving him 6 year deal if he wants it. Reportedly 950 x 6 = $5.7..yeh lets round it to 6 is more like it and has 5 years concrete so lets just divide 6 mill over 5 years is where the 1.2 a year comes from. Probably media creating something or stetching the truth... but that has never happened before.
Anyway besides what the real truth is,,you are right even if 950K a year is correct we still paid overs but had to.
Agree re Widdop i have said that for years he is our best and brilliant player ..his only problem is trying to do too much out of the box or low percentage plays himself following shit / boring game plans and a team that can not score points and someone having to create something from nothing to get us going....on his own without a decent offisder. I have felt sorry for Widdop prior to Hunt's arrival without a decent 7 who was meant to be the messiah..
Widdop saw the light after 1 year and knew this team was not going to get no trophy under the coach or with the team outside of him..so he has gone somewhere with a chance to hold a trophy..Dont wont about going home to be with ma and pa.....smart career move also by Gareth.
Agree, with most of your post except Widdop made his departure decision public before what most thought would be a good if not great year for the Dragons. Before JDB, the train wreck start to the year and obviously before his injury.

My point is I believe he genuinely wanted to go home a long time ago, especially with a similar if not better pay packet. Also with his injury last year and his age a chance to play in the old dart where he has never played senior footy.
 

BLM01

First Grade
Messages
8,944
Agree, with most of your post except Widdop made his departure decision public before what most thought would be a good if not great year for the Dragons. Before JDB, the train wreck start to the year and obviously before his injury.

My point is I believe he genuinely wanted to go home a long time ago, especially with a similar if not better pay packet. Also with his injury last year and his age a chance to play in the old dart where he has never played senior footy.
We agree to diasgree. I really think if he thought we were a real contender in the next few years he would not of left before 2021 and then finished in England. His decision was made easy after last years fade out..before his injury in the Broncos game..and would'nt you do the same with the coaching staff we had.
We will never really ever know but who were the "most thought would be a good if not great year for the Dragons". Most on here did not think so..maybe a few maybe but it was clear to me and should of been most we did not have the back 5 to compete with the good sides and probably clear to Widdop too.
 

ALSGI

Bench
Messages
3,101
We will never really ever know but who were the "most thought would be a good if not great year for the Dragons". Most on here did not think so..maybe a few maybe but it was clear to me and should of been most we did not have the back 5 to compete with the good sides and probably clear to Widdop too.
I recall most on here thought a top 8 but quiet a few thought top 4 (me included). In any case outside of here, the betting world and indeed on most other clubs forums we were favoured to do well this year.

And with our playing roster we should have. We really should have.

Our most notable player losses were LAM and Mann. Garrick only played one bad trial in FG last year and had an average reggies season.
With some forwards and backs in reggies looking good there was hope, Pearson and Rav also sounded promising.

We all knew we’d miss LAM, but as it panned out we did miss the LAM of last year but so did the Warriors miss out on last years LAM, nor has Mann been as handy at Knights (so far).

Garrick at Manly on the other hand.......

Anyway, I think the majority on here thought we’d do much better than we’re travelling.
 

Brutalitops

Juniors
Messages
2,333
A shame the team let him down in the match, but congratulations to Benny.

An observation I picked up while watching the match again. With about 5 minutes left, Norman puts up a bomb for our left side to attack, and Hunt is literally the only player who got close, leaving him to perform a decent solo tackle to clean up. When he got up, he turned around and was absolutely screaming his head off, Graham style, at Aitken for standing back.

Final play of the game a few minutes later, Hunt saves a field goal with a really good charge down that was perfectly placed for Aitken to catch and he drops it cold.

I do wonder what the dressing rooms were like between them after that. It's not the first time I've seen Hunt bellowing at aitken either
 

blacksafake

First Grade
Messages
8,988
A shame the team let him down in the match, but congratulations to Benny.

An observation I picked up while watching the match again. With about 5 minutes left, Norman puts up a bomb for our left side to attack, and Hunt is literally the only player who got close, leaving him to perform a decent solo tackle to clean up. When he got up, he turned around and was absolutely screaming his head off, Graham style, at Aitken for standing back.

Final play of the game a few minutes later, Hunt saves a field goal with a really good charge down that was perfectly placed for Aitken to catch and he drops it cold.

I do wonder what the dressing rooms were like between them after that. It's not the first time I've seen Hunt bellowing at aitken either
I remember seeing Hunt giving Aitken a spray & thinking how can people say he doesn’t put in. From my angle Hunt tries all the time. sure he may not get it right all the time but at least he’s having a go.
 

Brutalitops

Juniors
Messages
2,333
I remember seeing Hunt giving Aitken a spray & thinking how can people say he doesn’t put in. From my angle Hunt tries all the time. sure he may not get it right all the time but at least he’s having a go.
Hunt never stops playing hard, and his scrutiny in comparison to other "million dollar" players is quite unfair and a carryover of his grand final drop.

DCE
Anthony Milford
Ash Taylor
Mitchell Pearce
Kieran Foran
Michael Morgan
Nathan Cleary (until this year he didn't deliver consistently)
Val Holmes
Jack Bird
Shaun Johnson (playing well this year)

Most of the above players play either to the same level as Hunt, or worse, yet don't get half the attention aside from maybe Milford this season. Hunt can be down on form yet attract 10 times the scrutiny of DCE for example, who has form drops every single season. Hunt puts in for this team and is regularly let down by those around him, and he clearly struggles mentally at time, but he is always happy to own his poor form in media and does what is best for the team.

If we have a look at some players earning around the 800k to 1 million mark in the NRL it really becomes shocking the share of bullshit that gets directed at Hunt

Russell Packer
Josh Reynolds
Moses Mbye
Corey Norman
Adam Blair
Matt Moylan
Josh Dugan
Dane Gagai
Darius Boyd
Matt lodge

Point is, relative to his pay packet, Hunt has always copped way way more than his fair share. He's straight up a better player than the majority of the above players and his poor form gets exaggerated a lot of the time. I would say he's been one of our top players this season since the move to 9, and in 2018 he was on fire for a huge portion of the year. Nobody remembers this though because the narrative has become "Hunt bad, Hunt overpaid, Hunt lazy" and makes valid criticisms of his play get hidden by regurgitated crap. Hopefully our new coach will build a game plan to his strengths and mentor his during his low points.
 

Inisai Toga

Juniors
Messages
1,427
Hunt never stops playing hard, and his scrutiny in comparison to other "million dollar" players is quite unfair and a carryover of his grand final drop.

DCE
Anthony Milford
Ash Taylor
Mitchell Pearce
Kieran Foran
Michael Morgan
Nathan Cleary (until this year he didn't deliver consistently)
Val Holmes
Jack Bird
Shaun Johnson (playing well this year)

Most of the above players play either to the same level as Hunt, or worse, yet don't get half the attention aside from maybe Milford this season. Hunt can be down on form yet attract 10 times the scrutiny of DCE for example, who has form drops every single season. Hunt puts in for this team and is regularly let down by those around him, and he clearly struggles mentally at time, but he is always happy to own his poor form in media and does what is best for the team.

If we have a look at some players earning around the 800k to 1 million mark in the NRL it really becomes shocking the share of bullshit that gets directed at Hunt

Russell Packer
Josh Reynolds
Moses Mbye
Corey Norman
Adam Blair
Matt Moylan
Josh Dugan
Dane Gagai
Darius Boyd
Matt lodge

Point is, relative to his pay packet, Hunt has always copped way way more than his fair share. He's straight up a better player than the majority of the above players and his poor form gets exaggerated a lot of the time. I would say he's been one of our top players this season since the move to 9, and in 2018 he was on fire for a huge portion of the year. Nobody remembers this though because the narrative has become "Hunt bad, Hunt overpaid, Hunt lazy" and makes valid criticisms of his play get hidden by regurgitated crap. Hopefully our new coach will build a game plan to his strengths and mentor his during his low points.
Great post; well expressed!
 

blacksafake

First Grade
Messages
8,988
Hunt never stops playing hard, and his scrutiny in comparison to other "million dollar" players is quite unfair and a carryover of his grand final drop.

DCE
Anthony Milford
Ash Taylor
Mitchell Pearce
Kieran Foran
Michael Morgan
Nathan Cleary (until this year he didn't deliver consistently)
Val Holmes
Jack Bird
Shaun Johnson (playing well this year)

Most of the above players play either to the same level as Hunt, or worse, yet don't get half the attention aside from maybe Milford this season. Hunt can be down on form yet attract 10 times the scrutiny of DCE for example, who has form drops every single season. Hunt puts in for this team and is regularly let down by those around him, and he clearly struggles mentally at time, but he is always happy to own his poor form in media and does what is best for the team.

If we have a look at some players earning around the 800k to 1 million mark in the NRL it really becomes shocking the share of bullshit that gets directed at Hunt

Russell Packer
Josh Reynolds
Moses Mbye
Corey Norman
Adam Blair
Matt Moylan
Josh Dugan
Dane Gagai
Darius Boyd
Matt lodge

Point is, relative to his pay packet, Hunt has always copped way way more than his fair share. He's straight up a better player than the majority of the above players and his poor form gets exaggerated a lot of the time. I would say he's been one of our top players this season since the move to 9, and in 2018 he was on fire for a huge portion of the year. Nobody remembers this though because the narrative has become "Hunt bad, Hunt overpaid, Hunt lazy" and makes valid criticisms of his play get hidden by regurgitated crap. Hopefully our new coach will build a game plan to his strengths and mentor his during his low points.
Very good post.
DCE has been poor for about the last eight weeks, especially against us but there has not been one mention of his form or amount of money he’s on.
 

Mjab

Juniors
Messages
967
Agree
Im appalled by the list of $800K-$1M players who are just terrible
It was and is a ridiculous inflated market of very average players getting paid crazy $$ for what they produce and contribute to the team
Hunt trys hard every week
unlike Norman
 

possm

Coach
Messages
15,587
I remember seeing Hunt giving Aitken a spray & thinking how can people say he doesn’t put in. From my angle Hunt tries all the time. sure he may not get it right all the time but at least he’s having a go.
I'm sure, like Bennett did during his term at the Dragons, Griffin will develop training programs and game plans to suit the squad he has for 2021. Central to his game plan will be a plan that allows his halves to perform to their best ability, taking into consideration the matters address during preseason training, the player's strengths and the player's weaknesses.

I feel sure that not only will there be squad fitness, strength and sprint training during the off season, each player will be involved in personal skill drills which are designed to address any skill-set shortages they have while also, improving the good skills they already have.

So first step, decide, recruit/promote players to the top 28 for season 2021. Then design a preseason training program as described above. I just hope that Griffin brings in some specialist coaches just for the preseason, to ensure all players are at their best for the opening trials and round one of 2021.
 

Blood Shot Eyes

First Grade
Messages
5,969
Personally I think Hunt should be our half, he is more effective in that position and looks far happier in that role...at times at hooker whilst he tries he looks disinterest...hes more value to the team than just a ball distributor from dummy half......if you ask him thats where he wants to play.....having said that he needs a better option in Norman who most times is to casual and ineffective ....there's a lot of talk re beefing up our forwards and thats true but for mine the position that needs priority is 5/8
 
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