Are we becoming blazé?

[Dragon]

Bit O/T, but the thing that has me scratching my head is why the Panthers arent getting talked about. Merkinbury were in a similar position this time last year and it was a blue 'n white wankathon from the 'experts', yet the Pennies get no such love.

 

[Mr Red]

hmmmm interesting topic - i think the opposite.
the reason why this win isnt getting talked about is because once again it displayed a glaring problem with the dragons - the same problem that was there last year for all to see. When another team comes out with high intensity and stick it to us we have nothing in return...
manly did it to us last week and smashed us, and we were lucky that the bulldogs arent that good and were only able to hold that intensity for 20mins. the first 20 minutes they killed us but then faded and allowed us to rally.
its something that the team still has to address - when another team comes out and physically dominates our forwards dont match the aggression - and Jamie Soward is no where to be seen...
luckily Ben Hornby is in super form and rallied the team like a great captain should..

 

[Willow]

Except that we dominated for the following 60 minutes.

The players learnt a lot from the Manly loss and it showed.

 

[Ribs]

We've collectively become even-tempered and self-assured. It's quite natural for fans to take on the characteristics of their coach. Look at the whiny Cronulla fans as your paradigm

 

[Willow]

You can see it in the bulldogs supporters eyes, can't you?

No, but I have a feeling you have a good handle on that.

 

[Slippery Morris]

I tend to agree but not only the Dragons fans but the whole NRL community expect them to win every week. On the Sunday Roast they were talking about how good the Dogs were on Friday and the Dogs lost. On top of that they only scored 1 try and that was in the 3rd minute. They could not score a try in the remaining 77 mins. Can't be that good. If they were that good then the Saints were even better. Saints did not even get credit for their awesome display. The bombed a try and could have easily win by 20.

A couple of weeks ago Saints flogged Cronulla 38-0 and the Storm beat a weakened Bronco's 34-16. The next day they spent 10-15 mins on the footy show bragging about how good the Storm were and spent about 30 seconds with the usual Saints were clinical line.

When Saints Lose it is like a shock to the system. Manly beat a below strength Saints and we kept getting reminded of it.

 

[TheRev]

What he said was "I will be here until the job is done."

When pressed on whether that meant winning a Premiership, he said "Not necessarily."

Yes, Bennett cant promise a premiership, nobody can, it might be another 50 years, but certainly he is affording us every opportunity.

I remember a few weeks ago when the dragons were winning easily, I think it was Sterlo or Gus that said it needs to be done at the pointy end of the season (winning). I feel that others think that we play boring football and that it is expected that we will be there or there abouts, but not go all the way again.

Yes the Dragons still need to prove themselves by winning a premiership, thats what every opposition fan comes back to after we beat them mid-season... but I for one have really enjoyed the regular season games more than ever, partially because were winning obviously, but its so refreshing to know you are playing consistent good footy every weekend, we are a pleasure to watch.

Opposition supporters will claim we are boring to watch, but its nonsense, we just don't let many tries in thru lack of mistakes and good defense.. and um.. thats not the sort of 'excitement' I want in our game.. if the NRL wants more than that, drop it back to 11 or 12 players on the field, and have more tries scored.

Seriously, if these things got said in any previous year we would be raving about it for weeks.

Yes I have noticed this too.. we talk more when we lose games than win.. because well.. there are areas of improvement that we can see, there are changes to make, right now we keep winning, and there are some small things we dont like, but overall the team is winning, you dont need to change that, unless injuries or rep duty comes into play.

Of course another part of being a Dragon Supporter is humility, most of us are yet to see a grand-final win, and were not st00pid enough to start singing too many praises.. especially now that we are genuinely in there with a chance under the watchful eye of Bennett.

 

[Mr Red]

Except that we dominated for the following 60 minutes.

The players learnt a lot from the Manly loss and it showed.

i would say that our agression and intensity remained the same for the entire 80 minutes.. the team only started to dominate as you say due to the dogs intensity dropping..
same as previous game against manly where our intensity remained the same for the 80 minutes - only manly kept their intensity high for 60 mins and therefore won easily.
i still think there is an underlying issue where if another team comes out to play with their agression and intensity levels to that of which finals/grand finals are played then i am still yet to see the dragons raise their intensity to counter act this...

 

[Jersey No 14]

Everyone of us is waiting for the semi's.
We are a consistent footy side, though still with some good room for improvement.
It's not blase. It's a new found of inner piece and patience.
Come semi's there's no doubt we'll be collectively on edge.