Dragons Lowest Point

[Old Timer]

Surely it's obvious Widdop is way out of his depth. He more or less blamed Benji for not giving him early ball and running across the field.
So what the excuse for Sundays inept performance. MCCRONE gave him good ball, and he still made a complete F/up of nearly every touch.Kicked to early , run sideways,misted tackles and that was just in the first/half.
Please give Nona ago...& dump WIDDOP.

Widdop has lost me after yesterday it was shocking.
There is an inherent problem though in that we are so robotic and slow at everything we do.
Nothing flows, its clunky just like watching the movement of a cheap Malaysian night market watch.
Our defence is almost the same way and to be so clueless at all aspects of the game then who do you blame for that?

 

[Glenn01]

Regardless Benji was still shit anyway.

True. But I believe any at least semi competent coach would take Redcliff's 150k a year 5/8 over our 650k+ a year 5/8 in the blink of an eye.

 

[JohnnoMcJohnno]

Widdop has lost me after yesterday it was shocking.
There is an inherent problem though in that we are so robotic and slow at everything we do.
Nothing flows, its clunky just like watching the movement of a cheap Malaysian night market watch.
Our defence is almost the same way and to be so clueless at all aspects of the game then who do you blame for that?

You're right, both defence and attack are clunky. Surely that's not all the coach though. These are senior players, many of whom have come from other clubs, and successful clubs too. I would expect them to be able to see the problems and point them out to the team. Or is MacGregor such an autocratic dictator that everyone just goes along, regardless of results?

 

[Old Timer]

True. But I believe any at least semi competent coach would take Redcliff's 150k a year 5/8 over our 650k+ a year 5/8 in the blink of an eye.

So would Vasilevski for that matter don't you think?

 

[Old Timer]

You're right, both defence and attack are clunky. Surely that's not all the coach though. These are senior players, many of whom have come from other clubs, and successful clubs too. I would expect them to be able to see the problems and point them out to the team. Or is MacGregor such an autocratic dictator that everyone just goes along, regardless of results?

Johnno
Maybe some do come from other clubs and maybe they try to do it the better way but if everyone else is on the Mc Fookknuckle hymn sheet the issue becomes even worse.
I mean it is tragic watching our wingers run infield 15 metres for the ball to go back to where they originally were and a try scored unopposed.
That issue is caused by the original misalignment of the defensive line so who is the tactician working that out?
Obviously Mary is the guy that says we will use a compressed defensive pattern.
All of it is just gut wrenching.
Doust could easily play Nero in the Rise and Fall of the Dragons Empire whilst Mary played Richard 111.
A real tragedy.

 

[BankstownDragon]

No. The team now is actually quite good except for the worst halves in the competition by a mile.

 

[Glenn01]

So would Vasilevski for that matter don't you think?

I'm certain I have no idea what you are talking about. Maybe you have been smoking something again?

I could be wrong but I believe anyone not totally incompetent, as the STI coaching staff is, and with anything more than the most rudimentary understanding of the game and whose only motive is wanting STI to win, would take Redcliff's 150k per-year 5/8, Benji Marshall, over our 650k+ per-year 5/8, Gareth Widdop in the blink of an eye.

But I still agree with you that after watching Mitchell Moses shred us at the back end of last season, Marshall has either lost a lot or the modern game has moved on too much from when he was a star.

But then again, I'm interested in seeing how much every individual within the team goes without Widdop f**king everything and everyone up.

 

[FlameThrower]

I caught a few minutes of Talkin Sport on 2SM, even Tunks who is a great Dragons bashed stated, that Widdop is a good player, it's the coaching that is stifling him. Too much structure and same repeated plays...

But I'd say that surely if an opportunity opened up during the game, natural instinct would take over instead of hit up, pass, grubber kick...

 

[thebigredv]

Love this thread. I feel so far removed from this club it's uncanny.

 

[Crush]

The most alarming thing for me was the press conference after the charity shield. Mcgregor and Widdop seem to have accepted this rubbish, saying it was a good hit out. They should have been saying that the dragons have a lot of work to do and that what they produced in CS was just unacceptable and embarrassing.
I am usually quite positive but I have a very bad feeling about this year. I cannot see us beating any teams unless there is massive change.
A caretaker coach should improve things but it is looking like potentially our worst year in a long time.

 

[Coffs dragon]

We should hit rock bottom when our team run out in jerseys to resemble Ant Men and being coached by an Ant Brain.

 

[Crush]

We should hit rock bottom when our team run out in jerseys to resemble Ant Men and being coached by an Ant Brain.

Which round is that Coffs? Because if it is after round 8 it may not be Ant Brain in charge of coaching.

 

[West coast dragon]

I reckon hasler can't wait to get his hands on this lot,at least he'll have a full back who'll play Sunday's

 

[Old Timer]

We should hit rock bottom when our team run out in jerseys to resemble Ant Men and being coached by an Ant Brain.

Which round is that Coffs? Because if it is after round 8 it may not be Ant Brain in charge of coaching.

Dead ant, dead ant, dead ant,dead ant, dead ant, dead ant dead ant,
deaaaaaad aaaaaaant.

 

[Smurf]

I thought the Price years were the worst , how wrong was I ....
McWreaker has superseded Price .

I am absolutely positive that if we get a top line coach things will improve dramatically

 

[Coffs dragon]

Which round is that Coffs? Because if it is after round 8 it may not be Ant Brain in charge of coaching.

Crush I have no Idea and I have zero faith in the current board/management that they will sack Ant Brain coach. They made the ridiculous statement that they see Mary as a career coach!! WTF he cares more about his career than the team.

 

[Lethal25]

I don't believe we're at the lowest point yet.

For that to be true it would mean things would start looking up after being at that low point. Nothing on the horizon indicates potential for this to be happening.

 

[JohnnoMcJohnno]

The most alarming thing for me was the press conference after the charity shield. Mcgregor and Widdop seem to have accepted this rubbish, saying it was a good hit out. They should have been saying that the dragons have a lot of work to do and that what they produced in CS was just unacceptable and embarrassing.
I am usually quite positive but I have a very bad feeling about this year. I cannot see us beating any teams unless there is massive change.
A caretaker coach should improve things but it is looking like potentially our worst year in a long time.

Yes yes and yes! There was nothing good about that trial, it was an unmitigated disaster. Soft defence, same old claustrophobic attack, a player carted off with a dislocated hip - what the hell was good about that lot?????

 

[possm]

Widdop has been reduced to a below first grade player mainly due to his compliance with Mary's relentless sub-standard game plan - unchanged for the past two years. Widdop has to be moved out of the halves for season 2017 and moved on at end of season.

 

[Dragon for life]

No. The team now is actually quite good except for the worst halves in the competition by a mile.

It worries me that the coach was talking up the D when even in 2015, our defence was good at stopping tries but gave up meters and always gave the opposition attacking plays around our 20m line towards the end of their set.
All our efforts were spent trying to get back towards the half way.
We always make the opposition look good in attack because we take 2 steps forward then wait for the playmakers to do their thing and find runners or make a kick.
The "D" is very important but you need to defend territory not just the ingoal.
Watching games when Bennet was in charge you could see the opposition make not more than 40m each set.
It was like watching a chess game where we applied pressure with our defence and eventually we got to start our sets from around the half way.
Did none of the senior players (esp. Hornby) learn anything when Bennet arrived and had them dominating straight after the first off season?

Agree totally with the comments about Bennet. Field position is the key. How often in 2010 and earlier did Soward kick before the last tackle if we were in our half? We were impenetrable in defense. We had a simple game plan and look what we got out of it. We just strangled other teams into submission. This caused other teams to make mistakes coming out of their half because they were going nowhere and had to try something different. This allowed us plenty of opportunities to capitalise on their mistakes.

To this day Bennets teams still play similar styles. The Broncos don't have a team full of superstars and look at the performances. They are competitive week in week out.
Field position and solid defense is the key!! The rest will follow.