That level of reasoning frustrates me. And it’s because of the way our club is perceived. a once proud club, an international brand, has turned to a joke. You are right Frank
I thought Host has gone alright the last 2 weeks. I would have him there ahead of Lawrie. At full strength I would be looking at a forward pack of 13 Merrin. I think he is too small for prop 12 T Sims 11 Frizell 10 Vaughan 9 Hunt 8 K Sims 14 Graham I would want Graham on to provide experience when our starting forwards are off the field. 15 Host 16 Kerr 17 Sailor
Either: a) no winger worth his salt wanted to come to SGI or b) salary cap issue prevented the club from pursuing someone so desperately needed. It’s been an unaddressed issue ever since Brett Morris left a Millenia ago.
Agreed....McIdiot’s inability to effectively use the bench was once again in full view. Some things will never change under this imposter. I thought the inexcusable limited game time given to those you’ve named was appalling, although I hadn’t heard of Gale previously. It seemed one mistake from Blacker was enough of an excuse to replace him.
Sad that the once famous RedV has morphed & look like the Heinz Big Red soup team that constantly dish up slop....
Agree. The encumbants can make as many mistakes as they want. Watch the Mary panic selections kick in and we will field the same side as last year with Zac replacing Widdop. As mentioned earlier by others but I forgot to talk about how bad our attacking kicking game is especially close to the line. We are the worst team in the comp for cetain facets of the game Its Flanno and Shepherds fault as Mary was on the side line and he let Flanno and Shep run the coaching from the box up high....or so he will tell the board that is how it is.
Was mentioned in JA that the fringe players weren’t getting too much game time, that’s what the Newy trial was for. Mary always uses this game for the same purpose, to get miles in the legs for the starters. They all played more minutes against a whole line up of fresh players Souths brought on for the 2nd half. That was always the intention. I’m as disappointed as anyone with the result, but last night won’t really be an indicator for our season. And I would have said the same thing had we won the game.
Lomax - has the potential to be a handy full back, but once again this is going to need time (and I'm not sure how much patience the fan base has). We are still very unsettled with the back line positions 2, 3, 4 and 5. This problem came to prevalence when Nightingale retired and McDonald left for the Cowboys (so in other words it's existed since October 2018 - two pre-seasons and a full season to sort it out). If Aitken and Lafai are our best centres (lol - lets face it they will be starting there round one) - we might as well concede now that a bottom four finish is inevitable. Norman and Hunt will be the halves, despite shortcomings with Norman (he looks very unsettled) and our attacking kicking game close to our goal line. The pack is reasonably strong even when you factor in no de Belin again this year. Mary - I still don't get his selections, tactics and use of the bench. Again, the trial last week and the Charity Shield was an opportunity to blood juniors and again they were given limited game time. The same backline issues still exist, and we are supposed to believe the dribble that things have changed?
McGregors idea of working out his playing roster is to sort by contract price on an excel spreadsheet. I mean, if they’re on big bucks then they MUST be good right? This also keeps the board and Millard happy as it justifies their decisions to sign those players in the first place.
Both teams were guilty of taking their opposition for granted in different halves. Souths overplayed their hand by going wide to Latrell and Roberts too often In the first half, they looked disjointed and out of sync. St George did the same in the second half, they thought it would be a walk in the park against a very young and inexperienced Souths team. Both teams showed enough grit when it counted and both will feature at the business end of the season.
You guys defended well in that first half. While you were up against Souths reserve graders in the second half, they were fresh v saints guys who were having their first full hitout....hence why the score looked ugly. I would not look too much into the defence fail in the second half....you'll be fine in that department. Attack is a problem. You looked slow, simple and clunky. Souths looked a lot smoother despite only scoring a try in the first half...but I attribute that more towards Saints good defence.
Mary just isn't helping himself is he? What I mean is, he is the one as head coach to ensure that all his players go through proper skills training at their training sessions every week and also down the line for the players in the other grades. If he is unable to get the boys up to speed with the basic skills needed to play league in such things as passing, catching, tackling, side stepping etc he certainly does not warrant being head coach. Even though he has assistants to help with these things, he should be over sighting this. Our guys do lack size and menace and as Blacksafake says we are easily manhandled. The use of Sailor, Clune, Saab and Gale for very limited periods I feel shows that Mary shows little regard for their abilities. As it was only a trial game, why not use these guys for a full half, certainly no harm done is there? Mary has not learned a thing in the years he has been coach, not one thing and it is so disappointing. Get bloody Aitken to learn to pass even if he has to pass every time he gets the ball so that he can get use to it. Catch and pass, catch and pass!! Or just piss him off! Get the bigger guys to growl and growl at each other and believe that they cannot be tackled and become more menacing on the field. Just go into a game then after reaching all advanced skill levels with the attitude of winning all the time.
Souths will be the bench mark of this years comp. They have got good depth and as JD is now earmarked to take over from Bennett, he is plying his assistant coaching skills very well and making sure that he gets the players well drilled. How amazing is it that clubs such as souths, roosters, storm etc get to be so efficient and managed so effectively? We have got loads to learn from the top to the bottom in comparison. Cheers
If I was the Chairman of Selectors, on the basis of the trial v Newy and last nights shit-show, my 1-17 would be : 1 Sailor 2 Pereira 3 Lomax 4 Williame 5 Saab 6 Clune 7 Norman 13 Host 12 Sims 11 Frizzell 10 Vaughan 9 Hunt 8 Graham 14 Brittain 15 Fuimaono 16 Ford 17 Merrin 18 Gale Yes, this side has weaknesses - long term I don't fancy Sailor at fullback cos he'll get rag-dolled by defenders just like Duffty. Lomax hasn't exactly been stellar in the last two outings at fullback but he is a dependable centre. Merrin is the bench prop, Sims and Host could probably fill in at prop also.Hopefully Kerr is fit soon and someone gets hold of Blacker and turns him into the beast that he potentially is. Even with this side, I predict Wests to roll us. Probably by 18-8. Hopefully not worse. They always seem to edge us when we play them in Round 1.
I fully realize that - ‘ it was only a trial ‘ but the signs are still there as they were last year. Mary made some bluudy awful decisions with Lafai on the wing , I mean if that dude was ever a speedster then it was in another lifetime. But still perhaps the maestro, along with Flanno , Sheppard and the cleaner may come up with a more stable side that can get both their attack and defense into sync. The season is still very young so let’s not get too down at last nights result , from memory the boys were in a very similar situation a few years back only to begin a winning run which they held for a few months .
There in lies the problem. Who is responsible for attack and who is responsible for defense? And whilst saying that, certain individuals are still doing exactly the same thing, both in attack and in defense.
We just do not have what it takes to finish backline plays. All our tries come from kicks or forwards barging over close to the line. Last night there was a good example. We were on top. Forwards did their job and rolled through the middle. Halves did their job and got good quick ball out wide with an overlap. Then it all broke down. The centre passed too early failing to draw his defender and the winger was stuck having nowhere to go. THEN what happens is the heads go down from the forwards and the halves and the other team rolls up through the middle and scores. This will happen all year long! In our 1-5 there isn't one great player. ALL of them are fringe first graders at other clubs. This is a massive concern.
That’s what you get with unacceptable off season recruitment. Blind Freddy knows the Dragons obvious fault lies within the backline, so what does the club do in response? Picks up an unwanted hooker looking for his last pay cheque, a discarded backrower and a “lock” whose best days were at prop. The only person remotely close to what the side need comes from a bloke who was unremarkably plying his trade in the ESL, which is barely reserve grade standard. Changing tangent now, could you see Wayne Bennett picking Norman with that absurd hair colour. Here was a coach who told Khalifa Fai Fai-Loa that he wasn’t going to ever be considered for first grade unless he went to the barber shop. Soon afterwards, he had a nice short back and sides.
