Dragons rip into tackling their shortcomings

[Doug2234]

After being physically dominated in their past two outings, the Dragons got down and dirty yesterday in an effort to regain their defensive mojo.
Players squared off at training in a series of high-impact wrestling and tackling drills with game-like ferocity.
Since roaring to the top of the NRL ladder with their steel-wall defence, St George Illawarra's swagger and stinging tackles have been missing in back-to-back losses against the Raiders and Broncos.
After Canberra upset the premiership favourites with strong-arm tactics, Brisbane won the battle up front against the Dragons.
Broncos wrecking-ball David Taylor ran amok out wide in the 12-2 win, zeroing in on defensive weak link Jamie Soward, with the Dragons forwards well beaten.
Players ripped into each other in an intense training session at WIN Stadium yesterday, an indication the team is ready to make up for the recent performances.
Brett Morris and Darius Boyd did their best to wrestle man-mountain Wendell Sailor to ground and Mat Head looked thoroughly outmatched in a one-on-one drill with enforcer Jeremy Smith.
The trio of Ben Creagh, Dan Hunt and Dean Young appeared as though they were contesting the opening minutes of a semi-final, not a Monday morning training run.
"We make sure our training sessions are as intense as possible," said prop Justin Poore.
It was clear from the fierce session where improvements can be made.
"I think we weren't doing some little things right - but we practised them at training today and I thought we did them really well," he said.
"It's stuff we feel we've got away from, pushing up together, working as a team more and being more focused on playing as a group."
"Everyone has trained really well today and I think we're ready for this weekend."

Head Vs Smith - LOL

Linky here

 

[dragonszero9]

good to hear

but in the two loses our defence was still awesome

think of it like this,

bronco's have a bad game against the raiders and lose by 52 points
we have a poor game against the raiders and only lose by 12 points

we still have the best defence in the comp imo

it's attacking in the 20 and busts that need work
and wayne to get boyd and sailor to run straight on kick returns

 

[Dragon Dave]

I think we were out enthused on Friday night, as well as in Canberra. For all of our wins this year we have been so intense and eager (moving up in defense quickly, fast play-the-balls etc) but the last 2 weeks we have been a bit flat. It's to be expected when you are up for so long, no team can just keep winning.

I am confident we can find our game again this week and the losses were needed.

Wishful thinking?...probably!

 

[TheRev]

Makes me smile reading that stuff, I have a feeling we are going to give it to the bunnies on Saturday!

And dragonzero9, I agree with that too, we actually played very well against the Broncs, they were literally too good for us. Im more interested in 3 games time when it counts.. and there are no more excuses! in the mean time, we can just keep tweaking and be the best we can.

 

[Spartan - Dragon]

that's the stuff i wanna hear

 

[STG-Dragon]

I like how a lot of our fans and the team has come back down to earth after the losses, they could be just what they and some fans needed, hope fully we don't need anymore and go on to win it. Articles like this sound good.

 

[SilentAssassin]

Great read.

Smith Vs Head. Made me literally lol.

 

[_snafu_]

"Head was seen leaving training in an ambulance."

 

[TonyDragons1]

The simple answer is that we really peaked for the Storm game and then have let our guard down by being too complacent against Raiders and Broncos teams who basically had everything on the line. The players would no doubt have seen/heard something about the stats that we "needed a loss" and probably thought they could take a bit of a rest by easing off in intensity.
My prediction for this Saturday night is that the Bunnies are going to be in for a torrid affair as the forwards seek to right the wrongs of the past couple of weeks and bring the team back on the boil again. If we start to dominate in the forwards again like we were doing even a few weeks ago our attack will naturally come back to the fore - (especially in the last quarter of the game) and the points will flow.

 

[STG-Dragon]

The simple answer is that we really peaked for the Storm game and then have let our guard down by being too complacent against Raiders and Broncos teams who basically had everything on the line. The players would no doubt have seen/heard something about the stats that we "needed a loss" and probably thought they could take a bit of a rest by easing off in intensity.
My prediction for this Saturday night is that the Bunnies are going to be in for a torrid affair as the forwards seek to right the wrongs of the past couple of weeks and bring the team back on the boil again. If we start to dominate in the forwards again like we were doing even a few weeks ago our attack will naturally come back to the fore - (especially in the last quarter of the game) and the points will flow.

Yeah I'm with you on that! Hope we are right!!!!

 

[feral dragon]

dragonszero9

Juniors

Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 32

Re: Dragons rip into tackling their shortcomings
good to hear

but in the two loses our defence was still awesome

No, our defense was ordinary. The players got away from what they have been doing all season. I.E third man goes in low, around the hips and legs, making it easy to roll the opposition onto their backs and slowing down the play the ball.

Hopefully, it is one of the little things they worked on at training.

 

[Slippery Morris]

Attack needs work not defence. If a team conceded 5 tries in 2 games (average 2.5 a game) they would be rapt. Yet if a team scored 2 tries in 2 games (average of 1) then it would be a huge worry.

Hopefully Soward can get on roll this week. He has dropped to 2nd as the top point scorer. 5 or 9 behing Elmasri. Hope he can regain 1st spot this week.

 

[brendothejet]

Saints by 40 this weekend.

 

[dragonszero9]

dragonszero9

Juniors

Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 32

Re: Dragons rip into tackling their shortcomings
good to hear

but in the two loses our defence was still awesome

No, our defense was ordinary. The players got away from what they have been doing all season. I.E third man goes in low, around the hips and legs, making it easy to roll the opposition onto their backs and slowing down the play the ball.

Hopefully, it is one of the little things they worked on at training.

to keep a team with all the ball and field position to only 12 points is excellent in my eyes

with the strike power we have we should be scoring more then 2 tries a game.

 

[Coppo_ForeverYOUNG]

I have a feeling we will bounce back this week,
We need to, Parra next week who IMO at this point are the form side of the competition.
This week needs to be a tune up before the finals oficially start, next week v parra will be played at semi final intensity.
I think however, unless we can rack up some high quality performances in the next 2 weeks we could be in some trouble.

 

[Firey_Dragon]

Attack needs work not defence. If a team conceded 5 tries in 2 games (average 2.5 a game) they would be rapt. Yet if a team scored 2 tries in 2 games (average of 1) then it would be a huge worry.

Hopefully Soward can get on roll this week. He has dropped to 2nd as the top point scorer. 5 or 9 behing Elmasri. Hope he can regain 1st spot this week.

Wrong. Our line speed and getting numbers in the tackle has dropped off in the last two weeks. Goal line defense was still strong, but we were allowing much easier meters up the field than we have previously. This in turn also makes our job harder in attack, constantly working the ball out from deep in our own half, with a forward pack that was already struggling to make meters.

There are plenty of areas we need to work on...
1. Intensity and straightness in runs
2. Playing a bit wider than just one-off the ruck all the time to make easier meters.
3. Attack in general
4. Line speed and numbers in tackles
5. Tell Fien he is not allowed to make decisions on the 5th

Fix those issues, and we are back.

 

[STG-Dragon]

All of the above are achievable.

 

[Ricardo]

good to hear

but in the two loses our defence was still awesome

think of it like this,

bronco's have a bad game against the raiders and lose by 52 points
we have a poor game against the raiders and only lose by 12 points

we still have the best defence in the comp imo

it's attacking in the 20 and busts that need work
and wayne to get boyd and sailor to run straight on kick returns

Could not agree more, the games where Sailor ran hard and straight he was making great meters. Boyd's crab style running can be real frustrating to watch. He would be much better off attacking the line and then putting on the step, similar to the way Cooper attacks.

 

[Bring back choc]

Makes me smile reading that stuff, I have a feeling we are going to give it to the bunnies on Saturday!

And dragonzero9, I agree with that too, we actually played very well against the Broncs, they were literally too good for us. Im more interested in 3 games time when it counts.. and there are no more excuses! in the mean time, we can just keep tweaking and be the best we can.

We did not play well against brisbane, or the raiders at all. Our forwards went nowhere. Thats an attitude thing. They made the least metres all year. We completed the fewest sets all year. Thats why we lost. Solution really is simple. Run hard. Hold the ball. Kick to the corners. Do this and the Dragons win the comp. We've done it all year. We just need to get back to it.