Cowboys Game

[hazzbeen]

This came from the press conference ( McGregor said their attacking structure wasn’t the problem, the fault lies with players who failed to execute the structure.

“We have been tinkering with it (attack) for a while,” McGregor said.) They have been tinkering with the attack for the last 4 years..Surely the coaching structures have to be changed we are in a time warp .....

 

[Saints Forever]

Easier for the board to sack the coaching staff rather than terminate 25 player contracts.

Mary is living on borrowed time if he really believes he has the correct attacking structures in place.

He cannot blame recruitment of the cattle as he was part of it.

Its time for Mary to do some soul searching.

 

[Dragsters]

We need a screamer!

That is a half that talks.

The glaring thing I noticed last week watching the game live at the gong was the lack of someone taking charge of the team.

Very little talk.

It's even worse when Benji and Gaz play together as neither takes charge.

The result is there is not much playing whats on or what's in front of them and as predictable for us to watch it must be blatantly obvious to the opposing team.

Short of chucking in the best true half we have in the club and chucking out the predictable first four hit ups to every set gameplan, I can't see much changing soon.

That said we definitely need a specialist winger on the left and Flo back on the right.

Just give them a crack!

Can't see much changing for the Broncs game but if the result is similar then we need to try something...

1 Duges
2 Carr
3 Aitken
4 Milne
5 Flo
6 Widdop
7 Wallace

8 Ah Mau
9 Rein
10 Packer
11 Friz
12 Thommo
13 JDB

14 Marshall
15 Cooper
16 Mathews
17 Lui

We have seen at least half a dozen rookies start this season across the other NRL clubs and go well so why can't ours?

Nothing ventured....

 

[Twenty10]

When all of our 'best players' are playing terribly, then that's where your issue is.

 

[Old Timer]

This came from the press conference ( McGregor said their attacking structure wasn?t the problem, the fault lies with players who failed to execute the structure.

?We have been tinkering with it (attack) for a while,? McGregor said.) They have been tinkering with the attack for the last 4 years..Surely the coaching structures have to be changed we are in a time warp .....

Tinkering is not enough brain and heart transplants required.

 

[hazzbeen]

:lol::lol::lol:

Tinkering is not enough brain and heart transplants required.

 

[dragonreddy]

This came from the press conference ( McGregor said their attacking structure wasn?t the problem, the fault lies with players who failed to execute the structure.

?We have been tinkering with it (attack) for a while,? McGregor said.) They have been tinkering with the attack for the last 4 years..Surely the coaching structures have to be changed we are in a time warp .....

You are right Hazz its been a long time that they have been raving on about "structures" stemming back to Prices era, yet all we see is disarray on the field.

Mary needs to take ownership of the situation that he is in charge of and admit that a side that has scored 40 points in 5 games is neither well coached or structured. We are playing with an under 12's game plan .

 

[Old Timer]

You are right Hazz its been a long time that they have been raving on about "structures" stemming back to Prices era, yet all we see is disarray on the field.

Mary needs to take ownership of the situation that he is in charge of and admit that a side that has scored 40 points in 5 games is neither well coached or structured. We are playing with an under 12's game plan .

The under 12's would take exception to that.

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

Tinkering is not enough brain and heart transplants required.

You got it mate...nothing else to do but the above.. at times there does not appear to be any soul left in the team.....looking at the faces on the boys 5 minutes into the second half they looked buggered and clueless.....classic example would be rowing upstream against the tide with a broken rudder and the anchor out....real shame

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

Having reviewed the game again I think the following factors lead to our poor performance:

1) Less turnaround time than Cowboys
2) Heat and humidity of Far North QLD
3) Team realisation that we do not have the capacity to score more than 12-18 points per game, so that when we fell 12 points behind the team was gone
4) Neither half played well. Benji realises he is not going to be offered a better contract and has switched off
5) We were playing the Premiers, and are several classes below them when it comes to creativity and speed
6) We have no clear game plan and no cohesion. As has been mentioned earlier the players seem to have just met one another

You raise some valid points...most importantly you were brave enough to watch the replay...have to give you credit for that.

 

[Maximus]

You are right Hazz its been a long time that they have been raving on about "structures" stemming back to Prices era, yet all we see is disarray on the field.

Mary needs to take ownership of the situation that he is in charge of and admit that a side that has scored 40 points in 5 games is neither well coached or structured. We are playing with an under 12's game plan .

Has he ever taken any blame? It always seems to be the players' fault with him.

 

[loose arm]

In my humble opinion the aspect of attack thats missing is 2nd phase play.The really effective fullbacks are constantly sniffing about the middle of the ruck looking for 2nd phase opportinities.Its not like some of the forwards aren't capable of offloading,I repeatedly see arms free to offload but no one to give it to.
The lack of a dominant half also hurts in this area.Teams like Cowboys with Thurston free up the other half (Morgan) to be primarily a support player,providing players a body to offload to.
The reality is that tries rarely come from your structured play,more often from 2nd phase and opportunism which comes from being in the the right place at the right time,which comes from having the confidence and energy to be there.
At present there doesnt seem to be the confidence to offload,nor the the confidence to support.

 

[redVinme]

All this crabbing across field I think comes from lack of players in motion. They aren't creating opportunities if they are one out and flat footed. As much as I hate it the halves move across field hoping someone will aim at a hole but it's only ever a single runner with no space. They could play straighter of the players allowed different options. Unfortunately the play it safe high percentage attend is what we get and we even fail at that.

 

[Maximus]

In my humble opinion the aspect of attack thats missing is 2nd phase play.The really effective fullbacks are constantly sniffing about the middle of the ruck looking for 2nd phase opportinities.Its not like some of the forwards aren't capable of offloading,I repeatedly see arms free to offload but no one to give it to.
The lack of a dominant half also hurts in this area.Teams like Cowboys with Thurston free up the other half (Morgan) to be primarily a support player,providing players a body to offload to.
The reality is that tries rarely come from your structured play,more often from 2nd phase and opportunism which comes from being in the the right place at the right time,which comes from having the confidence and energy to be there.
At present there doesnt seem to be the confidence to offload,nor the the confidence to support.

Mary's obviously instructed them not to offload. When players who used to offload a lot before he was coach, no longer offload, it's obviously coaches orders.

 

[Simon Templar]

The Dragons are a physically small team. Biggest player is probably Packer. This allows them to be mobile in defense but not intimidate in the tackle and they are generally tired by the second half. None of the forwards physically buckle of bust the line in the way other teams do with a Burgess, Tamou, Fifita type runs. The defense is generally well set because our forwards can't damage the line.

To be a good half you have to have th run in your game. Not running across field but taking on the line. The defender needs to worry that you will run. Even JT as tired and battered as he is still has the run and dummy. Once you have the run you can choose whether to kick, pass or dummy. Everyone knows the Dragons halves will slide. It's the easiest thing to defend against. Milford is proving very effective behind a competitive pack because everyone fears the run first.

Dragons have been a badly run club since well before the Premiership and Bennett bandaged over the cracks and made the most of the end of a roster that was great under Brown.

The club is struggling financially and has made many poor choices in terms of requirement and coaching.

The blame for this would be with the board and CEO and their choice of the players and coach. For a commercial business the poor results and poor planning have been going on for a long time.

 

[Mr Red]

The Dragons are a physically small team. Biggest player is probably Packer. This allows them to be mobile in defense but not intimidate in the tackle and they are generally tired by the second half. None of the forwards physically buckle of bust the line in the way other teams do with a Burgess, Tamou, Fifita type runs. The defense is generally well set because our forwards can't damage the line.

To be a good half you have to have th run in your game. Not running across field but taking on the line. The defender needs to worry that you will run. Even JT as tired and battered as he is still has the run and dummy. Once you have the run you can choose whether to kick, pass or dummy. Everyone knows the Dragons halves will slide. It's the easiest thing to defend against. Milford is proving very effective behind a competitive pack because everyone fears the run first.

Dragons have been a badly run club since well before the Premiership and Bennett bandaged over the cracks and made the most of the end of a roster that was great under Brown.

The club is struggling financially and has made many poor choices in terms of requirement and coaching.

The blame for this would be with the board and CEO and their choice of the players and coach. For a commercial business the poor results and poor planning have been going on for a long time.

Agree with most of this except the part about as being a small team. We have some big boys in the forwards and the backs, however dare I say it..... NO MONGREL!!! Aggression and intensity is missing, not size.

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

All this crabbing across field I think comes from lack of players in motion. They aren't creating opportunities if they are one out and flat footed. As much as I hate it the halves move across field hoping someone will aim at a hole but it's only ever a single runner with no space. They could play straighter of the players allowed different options. Unfortunately the play it safe high percentage attend is what we get and we even fail at that.

Especially Benji..how many times do you see him crab sideways and pass a cross over ball to a forward that runs straight back to where he just ran from and get tackled ...absolutely useless.....and I may as well throw this in, when we receive a penalty most times it takes us ages to kick the damn ball into touch...well long enough for the opposition to have a breather and organise their defence ...absolutely useless as well...now these 2 things represent bad vision by our halves and lack of instructions from our coach

 

[Old Timer]

The Dragons are a physically small team. Biggest player is probably Packer. This allows them to be mobile in defense but not intimidate in the tackle and they are generally tired by the second half. None of the forwards physically buckle of bust the line in the way other teams do with a Burgess, Tamou, Fifita type runs. The defense is generally well set because our forwards can't damage the line.

To be a good half you have to have th run in your game. Not running across field but taking on the line. The defender needs to worry that you will run. Even JT as tired and battered as he is still has the run and dummy. Once you have the run you can choose whether to kick, pass or dummy. Everyone knows the Dragons halves will slide. It's the easiest thing to defend against. Milford is proving very effective behind a competitive pack because everyone fears the run first.

Dragons have been a badly run club since well before the Premiership and Bennett bandaged over the cracks and made the most of the end of a roster that was great under Brown.

The club is struggling financially and has made many poor choices in terms of requirement and coaching.

The blame for this would be with the board and CEO and their choice of the players and coach. For a commercial business the poor results and poor planning have been going on for a long time.

Excellent assessment

 

[Lovemedragons]

Especially Benji..how many times do you see him crab sideways and pass a cross over ball to a forward that runs straight back to where he just ran from and get tackled ...absolutely useless.....and I may as well throw this in, when we receive a penalty most times it takes us ages to kick the damn ball into touch...well long enough for the opposition to have a breather and organise their defence ...absolutely useless as well...now these 2 things represent bad vision by our halves and lack of instructions from our coach

Hear hear re the standing about clueless whenever we get a penalty. Simple thing really to know what your doing and just do it....doesn't cost a cent to tap the ball quickly just need direction and confidence from the coach to make decisions on the field quickly and decisively.

 

[Wittenberg]

Benji is not the sole problem at all but he is certainly not the answer. He can threaten every now and again but usually when he is forced to run. We have had that situation in our halves since 2012 but there is no Gasnier, Cooper or Morris around today. New half please.