A year in review

[dannyt]

At the start of the year I predicted Dragons would finish 12th based on (in my opinion) shit coaching, a bog average 5/8 and the worst backline in the comp. The team has done far far better than that. The coach must be doing something right, the 5/8 went OK with a decent half, and the backline scored a lot of tries.

I'm more positive about the future. Graham and Sims demonstrated the ruthless streak that all good forward packs need. The backs look better with Pereira and Lomax. I've no doubt the coach has learnt that he must rest players after origin. And the team were reminded in no uncertain terms of how passionate their fans are, and what they expect.

I believe the team did better than expected despite the coach.

I also believe that the best we can expect with the current coach are this year's results.

 

[gregstar]

Injuries can occur at any stage.

and as i said - ours happened at the most crucial time.

However, the poor management of players all year was a contributing factor.

agreed. especially demelon & simmcity who both seemed to be running on empty during our slump.
hunt's issue was also origin (in his head) but hardly jowls' fault.
but vaughan's was hardly an origin issue.
widderp's was certainly not an origin issue. And if widderp had been playing last night, he would have had the ball on the 6th tackle.

One person to blame for that.

well that's just a given. jowls is to blame for everything.

 

[giboz71]

If you just want to finish top 8 or there about then Mc Gregor is your man.
If you want to finish top 4 let alone top 2 or heaven forbid win a comp then a new coach is definitely required
Mc Gregor has done enough for the BOD to let the coaching contract to run its course and the interest next year will be IMO more about how the board go about coaching for 2020 and beyond.

There are better coaches out there than Mary. You’re right, he’s probably good enough to get us there or thereabouts but nothing more. Clearly he’s got plenty to learn about managing a team with a big rep schedule.In fairness, it was his first time to deal with that situation this year. Origin did not help us at all.

He’ll see out his contract and we’ll have another similar year next year (unless some miracle happens and convince Bennett to go around one more time).

 

[possm]

I'd say our players played to their best ability, to a large extent it was not entirely their fault we lost however, they like others must take their share of the blame. I'd like to make the following observations:

We could have won last night if the coach, the water boy or a player within our leadership group instructed the playmakers to take a shot at field goal at the earliest opportunity. Souths did and we didn't and by what I saw last night, Hunt did not want to. Surely there must be a rehearsed plan practiced regularly for the way to set up for a field goal. But this was not the only reason we lost. Bench management again was poor.

Field who is a good option for taking a field goal was left on the bench and seemed to come onto the field late without instructions to take the one pointer.

Our co-captains had absolutely no idea about game management and what to do on the last tackle. Hunt went from kicking well last week to kicking poorly this week, Mann hardly kicked at all and there seemed to be no other options.

We keep talking about next year but fail to do the simple things this year. How about:
Recruiting not just good first graders backed up with juniors 'with potential'. We need first grade depth in the forwards and halves as a minimum. Everyone says that Millward is doing a fine job but we seem to be left with very little depth each year and a whole lot of juniors that just aren't ready yet.

Coaching we have 3 rookies in key coaching positions and in my opinion none of the have the skills or experience to coach our NRL squad. We need coaching staff that can keep players fresh and keen while at the same time pick players on form rather than on loyalty. If we are going to rely on our juniors to fill in for injured for those injured or fatigued, they need to be prepared properly for the task. This might include being part of a rotaton system off the bench each game.

I believe we could have and should have won last night even with key players missing. I'd say off field and on field leadership let us down.

For next season, sack the coaching staff prior to Nov 1 and bring in a talented and experienced head coach who can pick his own assistants. Have Millward report to the new coach so that the responsibility for man management is squarely with the new coach. And finally ensure that there is sufficient depth in our forward ranks and halves.

 

[Como Connection]

I'd say our players played to their best ability, to a large extent it was not entirely their fault we lost however, they like others must take their share of the blame. I'd like to make the following observations:

We could have won last night if the coach, the water boy or a player within our leadership group instructed the playmakers to take a shot at field goal at the earliest opportunity. Souths did and we didn't and by what I saw last night, Hunt did not want to. Surely there must be a rehearsed plan practiced regularly for the way to set up for a field goal. But this was not the only reason we lost. Bench management again was poor.

Field who is a good option for taking a field goal was left on the bench and seemed to come onto the field late without instructions to take the one pointer.

Our co-captains had absolutely no idea about game management and what to do on the last tackle. Hunt went from kicking well last week to kicking poorly this week, Mann hardly kicked at all and there seemed to be no other options.

We keep talking about next year but fail to do the simple things this year. How about:
Recruiting not just good first graders backed up with juniors 'with potential'. We need first grade depth in the forwards and halves as a minimum. Everyone says that Millward is doing a fine job but we seem to be left with very little depth each year and a whole lot of juniors that just aren't ready yet.

Coaching we have 3 rookies in key coaching positions and in my opinion none of the have the skills or experience to coach our NRL squad. We need coaching staff that can keep players fresh and keen while at the same time pick players on form rather than on loyalty. If we are going to rely on our juniors to fill in for injured for those injured or fatigued, they need to be prepared properly for the task. This might include being part of a rotaton system off the bench each game.

I believe we could have and should have won last night even with key players missing. I'd say off field and on field leadership let us down.

For next season, sack the coaching staff prior to Nov 1 and bring in a talented and experienced head coach who can pick his own assistants. Have Millward report to the new coach so that the responsibility for man management is squarely with the new coach. And finally ensure that there is sufficient depth in our forward ranks and halves.

I think the defensive coach from Penrith has really improved that area.
Cannot remember his name.
CC

 

[dannyt]

I think the defensive coach from Penrith has really improved that area.
Cannot remember his name.
CC

That's his name; The defensive coach from Penrith.

Bugger of a birth certificate, and signing documents is just a pain in the a@#$.

He joins a long list of coaches with difficult names, like the North Queensland attacking coach.

 

[ALSGI]

I'd say our players played to their best ability, to a large extent it was not entirely their fault we lost however, they like others must take their share of the blame. I'd like to make the following observations:

We could have won last night if the coach, the water boy or a player within our leadership group instructed the playmakers to take a shot at field goal at the earliest opportunity. Souths did and we didn't and by what I saw last night, Hunt did not want to. Surely there must be a rehearsed plan practiced regularly for the way to set up for a field goal. But this was not the only reason we lost. Bench management again was poor.

Field who is a good option for taking a field goal was left on the bench and seemed to come onto the field late without instructions to take the one pointer.

Our co-captains had absolutely no idea about game management and what to do on the last tackle. Hunt went from kicking well last week to kicking poorly this week, Mann hardly kicked at all and there seemed to be no other options.

We keep talking about next year but fail to do the simple things this year. How about:
Recruiting not just good first graders backed up with juniors 'with potential'. We need first grade depth in the forwards and halves as a minimum. Everyone says that Millward is doing a fine job but we seem to be left with very little depth each year and a whole lot of juniors that just aren't ready yet.

Coaching we have 3 rookies in key coaching positions and in my opinion none of the have the skills or experience to coach our NRL squad. We need coaching staff that can keep players fresh and keen while at the same time pick players on form rather than on loyalty. If we are going to rely on our juniors to fill in for injured for those injured or fatigued, they need to be prepared properly for the task. This might include being part of a rotaton system off the bench each game.

I believe we could have and should have won last night even with key players missing. I'd say off field and on field leadership let us down.

For next season, sack the coaching staff prior to Nov 1 and bring in a talented and experienced head coach who can pick his own assistants. Have Millward report to the new coach so that the responsibility for man management is squarely with the new coach. And finally ensure that there is sufficient depth in our forward ranks and halves.

Agree, well said possm.

 

[hazzbeen]

I think Jordan P had a great game tonight. He now owns his spot.
Lomax should be our choice in the centers
Blake Lawrie is going to be very good next year.
Injuries had a big impact on our finals campaign. If we had Vaughan and Widdop on deck we would have won tonight.
I feel that next year will be better then this year
Proud of the boys tonight. But it wasn’t meant to be.
I hope McIdiot has learnt from this year. He needs to improve his player management

We really could and should have won last night even without those players , Souths looked rattled ....

 

[hazzbeen]

tonights game summed up our whole 2018....SO close yet So far


Bring on 2019 with Bennett as coach, you will see Lomax, Dufty, Field, Lawrie, Luch, Robson all become superstars!

Hopefully if Benny comes we will have

Dufty
Oates
Jimmy Jet
Lomax
Nene/Periera
Widdop
Hunt as a backline


with hopefully Pangai JNr added to the forwards///

I prey to the footy Gods I am correct

Cant see it happening , they didnt sack Mary when they missed the semi last year , so they aint going to shaft him after this year ... Any way all the best to all stay safe and lets do it all again next year .....

 

[Mr Red]

Enter new regular first graders for 2019
LUC
LOMAX
BLOCKER
Did us proud and this final series performancd has set us up for next few years.

End of last season I was calling for Blake Lawrie to be in our 17 for this season, only to see plodder latimore take the spot that should have been for Lawrie. The improvement in Lawrie in the handful of games he played back end of the season was huge, imagine how good he would have been by now with a full season of first grade under his belt as he should have had....

 

[dannyt]

End of last season I was calling for Blake Lawrie to be in our 17 for this season, only to see plodder latimore take the spot that should have been for Lawrie. The improvement in Lawrie in the handful of games he played back end of the season was huge, imagine how good he would have been by now with a full season of first grade under his belt as he should have had....

Yep. I wonder who made that decision?

 

[MilanDragon]

At start of year I said my expectations were a top 6 finish, playing a good brand of football and making second round of finals.

We didn’t finish top 6, however were 2 points off a minor premiership. I thought our football was much better this year, our attack was actually exciting for most of the year. And we did make second round of finals.

Unfortunately we had another fade out in the second part of the season. The dogs and Eels’ Losses really put in a sour taste in most peoples mouths.

 

[ouryears]

We were in the top 4 most of the year. We made 2nd week of the finals instead of taking all of September off like most years.

This is what we ask for as fans, to stay engaged for pretty much all of the season.

Imagine being an Eels or Cows fan who would have nodded off back in May?

It’s been a good year, and yes it’s good enough such that Mary at the very least sees out his contract.

Again FFS, 6th in a 16 horse race is SHIT
Mary was quoting tip 4 all year
He HAS to be knifed in the back.
Get RID of him.

 

[ALSGI]

Again FFS, 6th in a 16 horse race is SHIT
Mary was quoting tip 4 all year
He HAS to be knifed in the back.
Get RID of him.

7TH

 

[ouryears]

7TH

We finished the minor prem season in 7th.
Two teams were knocked out week 1.
Broncos and Warriors.
6 teams left.
Officially 6th.
If it's not top 2.
We underperformed.
Again.

 

[Slackboy72]

Another season over and unlike a lot of folks I'm reasonably happy with where we ended up. Clearly without injuries late in the season we could be contending for the title. So what needs to change?

Forwards
I have no doubts that we had the best starting pack in the comp. Where we fell down is the quality of the bench. Ah Mau will be a massive loss but Korbs and Leilua may well step up to fill that role. Our whole game was centred around hard running and losing Vaughan, Sims and Widdop's distribution cost us the semi.

Backs
This was our glaring weakness. We don't have a first choice backline. For too long Lafai and Aitken didn't trouble opposition defences. Then we had Nightingale petering out. This left McDonald and Dufty as our only strike options of any real menace. In addition they were prone to leaking points with some sub-par defense. With Lomax and Dufty hopefully putting on some kgs and other juniors pressing hopefully we see not just stability but potency here. This is our biggest question mark for next year.

Spine
Hunt proved his worth. No doubt. Widdop's showed that he is central to the team's attack. McInnes stepped up before going missing on the back of a tired and lilting forward pack. If Dufty can build his strength and work on his positional play. I think we're okay here injuries notwithstanding.

Bench
Our bench did okay. Latimore proved better than expected. Ah Mau was great. Sele and others were liabilities at times. Leilua came good late in the season. Development of players like Lawrie will be vital next year.

Other
Clearly the story of the year will be management of injuries and player fatigue but we really don't know half of what happened behind the scenes and who was carrying what niggles. I can't really comment on that but some things like popped shoulders just can't be helped.
Perhaps we were so keen to make the 8 that we weren't willing to rest key players.

Anyway my thoughts.
See you merkins next March.


TLDR we're not there yet but we're not that far away.

 

[blaza88z]

Was this meant to go in the Dragons forum?

 

[Slackboy72]

Oops can a mod move this to the dragons forum

 

[Saints Forever]

Another year where the coaching staff wasted the opportunity to vastly improve and manage the squad.

Had Lawrie, Leilua, Lomax and Robson got consistent game time we would have finished in the top 4.

 

[FlameThrower]

Another year where the coaching staff wasted the opportunity to vastly improve and manage the squad.

Had Lawrie, Leilua, Lomax and Robson got consistent game time we would have finished in the top 4.

When does WIN Corp takeover - will be interesting to see what they make of the end of season review? Lomax and Lawrie will surely be fast tracked as permanent FG spots? Luc has done enough and deserves his spot.. not seen enough of Robson to comment.