Charity Shield 2021

[Gareth67]

Consistent strong defence will win a team most games. We have a lot of improvement in basically all of our positions. We relied on JDB and of course McInnes to do most of the hard yakka and now that we have neither, our current crop of forwards lack intensity and sustainability in 80 minutes of football.

We have problems in our backs as well.

Hook and Co. identified this but somehow I don't think they are capable of turning us around as seen in our trial matches.

If they cannot improve our defence then forget about 2021.

I believe that the game showed just how much the Dragons had relied upon Cam’s defense , all the cleaning up the poor bloke had to do as a result of his teammates sheer laziness.

 

[redandwhite4evr]

While Griffin was in an experimental mood in the CS I would have loved it if he put Ramsey to fullback once the reserves come on and give Dufty a little go at 5/8. His fullback skills are not out of this world, and to be honest in terms of safety and general returning of the ball we would almost be better off going with Mocoidreke. It is once we are in the opposition's red zone that he really comes alive and in that area he is as good or better than most of the top line fullbacks including Teddy and Paps. If this is his strength why not at least give him a go at 5/8?

Quite a few of us on this forum agree with you and have been advocating Dufty to 5/8 for some time FCD. But in reality, the whole spine needs revamping. Souths has probably the best club spine in the RL world right now and the first half devastation they unleashed on us was a sight to behold but also a salutary lesson. Get the spine right, and a lot of good things happen- at least in attack. Our defence needs major attention as well but one thing at a time.

IMO, McCullough is a very limited hooker who doesn't have a kicking or running game but does a lot of mopping up in defence- I'd move him to lock. Hunt, who does offer a kicking and running game should return to Hooker.
I'd give Jayden Sullivan and Dufty time to develop a halves combination with Ramsey to full-back.
Clune would offer the spark off the bench-either at dummy half or in the halves.
Norman to a new (soccer) position- left right out.

 

[Saints Forever]

Macca has been here for 5 minutes.

he is not the problem.

We all need to take a chill pill and understand our pack is weaker than it was last year.

Don’t expect the halves to excel in that environment.

Our pack needs to lift mentally and give 150% every game to be competitive.

If the forwards roll over the advantage line and a couple of them start offloading the ball to create second phase ball, we have the speedsters capable of burning sides.

it’s too early to start throwing the toys out of the cot.

 

[to_ddeath]

Quite a few of us on this forum agree with you and have been advocating Dufty to 5/8 for some time FCD. But in reality, the whole spine needs revamping. Souths has probably the best club spine in the RL world right now and the first half devastation they unleashed on us was a sight to behold but also a salutary lesson. Get the spine right, and a lot of good things happen- at least in attack. Our defence needs major attention as well but one thing at a time.

IMO, McCullough is a very limited hooker who doesn't have a kicking or running game but does a lot of mopping up in defence- I'd move him to lock. Hunt, who does offer a kicking and running game should return to Hooker.
I'd give Jayden Sullivan and Dufty time to develop a halves combination with Ramsey to full-back.
Clune would offer the spark off the bench-either at dummy half or in the halves.
Norman to a new (soccer) position- left right out.

Dufty doesn’t have the defence to play in the halves let alone FB...

 

[redv13]

Dufty doesn’t have the defence to play in the halves let alone FB...

I agree. Defensively at 5/8 he will get eaten alive

 

[getsmarty]

DRAGONS


'Not good enough': Griffin knows hard work is ahead
Author
Chris Kennedy NRL.com Reporter
Timestamp
Sat 27 Feb 2021, 09:48 PM

Share on social media

• Share via Facebook
• Share via Twitter
• Share via Reddit
• Share via Email

Dragons coach Anthony Griffin says his side were taught a lesson by a potent Souths team on Saturday night but also found some positives to take from the 48-16 loss.

Griffin praised his team's enterprise in attack, making their own fair share of line breaks, and said it was more useful running into a red-hot attacking side than having a loose scrappy game.

"They were pretty slick; they were 19 from 19 in the first half, they're a really good side obviously and they taught us a lesson," Griffin said.

"I thought defensively down the other end of the field we made them kick the ball to us but as soon as they got good ball they just outplayed us."

Griffin wasn't too alarmed but admitted plenty needs to be fixed up in the two weeks before the season proper.

"We just have to get better. Disappointing, it's not good enough. Lucky it's a trial and not round one," he said.

"We get to have a look at ourselves against some really good opposition and there is a lot to work on.

"To their credit, their scramble defence was brilliant … We probably bombed two or three tries with poor handling but their scramble defence was really good.

"We were just on the wrong leg all the time, if a ball went to ground they picked it up and we didn't."

Despite all that, there were still plenty of positives to take away, according to Griffin.

Ramsey steps back inside


"No-one likes getting 30 points put on you in a half of football but there's a lot of positives to what we did with the ball, some of our kicking game, putting them under pressure down their end of the field was pretty good but up the other end we have a lot of work to do.

"We have to turn it around quickly. The good part about tonight is we got a real lesson which will make the learning more obvious.

"If we came here and they hadn't have played so well and we got done by six or eight we might have felt a bit better about it but they played brilliant.

"We got a really high-quality attack to pull us apart like they did, that's more valuable than scrambling away and having a loose game and thinking we don't have too much work to do."

The Dragons still have a decision to make over whether Cody Ramsey, Mikaele Ravalawa or someone else partners Jordan Pereira on the wing in round one while Josh Kerr's move to edge back row was inauspicious, leaving a question over who Tariq Sims' edge partner will be.

But for the most part, the team is settled and in terms of take-outs from the trial there weren't many questions to be answered, Griffin said.

Vaughan drives hard to score


"Not really – just that we have a lot of work to do," he said.

"We've got a line break in us in attack. When we've got the ball we look pretty good, when we had to defend our own end or defend one of our errors we just weren't good enough.

"They were too good for us and we clearly weren't anywhere near where we need to be."


https://www.dragons.com.au/news/2021/03/01/not-good-enough-griffin-knows-hard-work-is-ahead/

 

[Banjo2014]

I think the Charity Shield is more than a trial game. It is a chance to put a piece of silverware in the Trophy Cabinet and that is always a good thing.

 

[Gareth67]

I think the Charity Shield is more than a trial game. It is a chance to put a piece of silverware in the Trophy Cabinet and that is always a good thing.

You are correct Banjo2014, I suppose that it is all to easy for many of us - including myself to devalue the game as merely a trial match , more so when it is the Dragons on the wrong end of a lop sided scoreline .

It has not only prestige associated with winning the trophy , but of course the donation itself going to the respective clubs hospital . Also that we were playing in a regional area that had expected both teams to put on an attractive game for them . When we were competitive- many years back we would be blowing our horn about winning the trophy.

Hopefully the boys can find some teamwork and pride in themselves , so as when next year comes around we will be able give the Charity Shield the justice it deserves .

 

[boardlumps62]

Watching a replay of the charity shield in a little more depth highlighted to me

- Cody Ramsey , Zac Lomax , Jack Bird and Jordan Periera’s edge defence in the first half was horrific and South’s exploited that

- Corey Norman is a passenger

- Ravalawa should definitely start on 1 wing his defence is probably the best of all the backs

- Dufty seems out of the loop

- Nothing creative seen from McCullough but I’d give him time

- Brayden Williame ain’t even reserve grade standard

- our Forward pack was completely destroyed by south’s

- Was impressed by Fuimaono and Fa’amusili

- Kaide Ellis, Trent Merrin, Blake Lawrie and Daniel Alvaro are all plodders

Overall in my opinion it’s gonna be a long year - our backline attack wise has heaps of potential but defence is bloody worrying

our forward pack is complete and utter shit

and tbh our entire 27 man ‘ first grade’ roster is reserve grade at best and most of those players would struggle to play first grade at the other 15 clubs

How much time did Fa'amusili have on field before KO? I might watch replay at the end.

 

[boardlumps62]

I think the Charity Shield is more than a trial game. It is a chance to put a piece of silverware in the Trophy Cabinet and that is always a good thing.

Definitely good to win i look forward to the match each year. But for me it tells me how we will go for the year. Especially when Souths are being touted as Premiers 2021.

 

[redandwhite4evr]

Dufty doesn’t have the defence to play in the halves let alone FB...

As with most things in life, it's a risk/reward decision. IMO, Dufty is a bigger risk to us in defence at full-back because he's isolated but when he comes into the second receiver position and uses his vision and long ball skills to release our outside backs, our attack threat goes up exponentially. Also, in the front line, he has others to help him with his defensive responsibilities.

 

[Forbes Creek Dragons]

As with most things in life, it's a risk/reward decision. IMO, Dufty is a bigger risk to us in defence at full-back because he's isolated but when he comes into the second receiver position and uses his vision and long ball skills to release our outside backs, our attack threat goes up exponentially. Also, in the front line, he has others to help him with his defensive responsibilities.

I think defending in tighter he’d be fine. His issue is stopping blokes 1 on 1 at speed in the open. It’s just physics, anyway regardless we need him this season he’s almost a veteran now in our backline.

 

[Dragonslayer]

One thing i just noticed with regards to the CS.
We spend alot of time whilst in Mudgee visiting schools etc

https://www.dragons.com.au/news/2021/03/01/mudgee-region-school-blitz/

Surely this takes the focus away from training and getting ready for the game.
And after gaving a look at the Rabbits page, they had nothing about community involvement or visiting schools. This doesn't mean they didn't (which I doubt they were) but obviously not a focus.

We haven't won a CS game for a while and in particular being at Mudgee. Maybe, we are just not switched on due to the 'committments' prior to the actual game.

 

[FlameThrower]

One thing i just noticed with regards to the CS.
We spend alot of time whilst in Mudgee visiting schools etc

https://www.dragons.com.au/news/2021/03/01/mudgee-region-school-blitz/

Surely this takes the focus away from training and getting ready for the game.
And after gaving a look at the Rabbits page, they had nothing about community involvement or visiting schools. This doesn't mean they didn't (which I doubt they were) but obviously not a focus.

We haven't won a CS game for a while and in particular being at Mudgee. Maybe, we are just not switched on due to the 'committments' prior to the actual game.

...I think the team sees it as a weekend away and muck around. The attitude of the team is very poor, too laid back... and I’ve lost count over the years of ‘must win’ games we threw away, because of poor preparation and attitude....

 

[to_ddeath]

As with most things in life, it's a risk/reward decision. IMO, Dufty is a bigger risk to us in defence at full-back because he's isolated but when he comes into the second receiver position and uses his vision and long ball skills to release our outside backs, our attack threat goes up exponentially. Also, in the front line, he has others to help him with his defensive responsibilities.

Who exactly are the others to help him in the defensive front line?
Lawrie for one is another terrible goal line defender.
It doesn’t matter where you put Dufty, his lack of effort to tackle or even attempt to is always a liability in any given situation.
He spends more time pointing to the attacking ball carrier & receiver than anything else.

 

[Gold_Coast Dragon]

Even though the scoreline was depressing, there seemed to be more coordination/shape in attack than in the last 7 years.

 

[Dragon David]

Even though the scoreline was depressing, there seemed to be more coordination/shape in attack than in the last 7 years.

Hook was happy with our attack (Dragons website). It is our defence that was poor and they will have to work very hard to be better.

If our defence becomes much better, I think our attack will be much better as well. So we will have to wait and see in round 1 against the Sharks if they have improved.

 

[Willow]

Yes, the coach says attack was a pass, defence terrible. Get a good defence structure in place first, then talk about attack later.

Cart before the horse stuff.

 

[LINESPEED]

...I think the team sees it as a weekend away and muck around. The attitude of the team is very poor, too laid back... and I’ve lost count over the years of ‘must win’ games we threw away, because of poor preparation and attitude....

Forward pack culture now rests essentially in Vaughan’s hands - and probably has for some time.

Unfortunately IMO.

He wanted out with Tyson

- but hey what an easy gig at the Dragons for thems on the bludge

.... Journeymen topping up their super

Even James couldn’t crack the torpor & instill the simple virtues of linespeed
& passion
- try as he might.

It’s a play for pay (not the badge) mercenary latte ethos.

I’d put a rocket up Vaughan’s arse pronto (& Sims on notice to begin leading).

Otherwise it’s CC

& the kids with a modicum of pride & passion get a crack instead.

And it’s why Bird must be in this floundering pack
- to lead/inspire/shame the lazy fuc/kers out of the mire

...kangaroos in the headlight all

It’s why I’d’ve gone for McGuire’s mongrel
.... & commitment to bleed & fight for the paymaster at least.

And Bennett had Costigan & Smith

- who’d’ve put the goading Mason on his arse FFS

PS.
If Pereira plays (or Norman ever again)
then the smell & ordinariness of the Waterboy catastrophe
continues

... and Hook’s judgment issues begin

 

[blacksafake]

Yes, the coach says attack was a pass, defence terrible. Get a good defence structure in place first, then talk about attack later.

Cart before the horse stuff.

The Bennett philosophy.