Dragons v Broncos Rd 3 2023

[Saints Forever]

First 30-35 minutes of the game we played with energy and made limited mistakes.

Too many mistakes, wrong options, poor refereeing calls in the second half eventually brought us undone.

very happy overall with the performance of Sloan and Sullivan.

Agree with other forum members that 2 of the Broncos tries were not tries.

We ran out of gas because we had very little ball in the second half.

JDB will tighten up the middle. Young Coachman’s energy and tackling efficiency were missed.

Plenty of potential.

Let’s see how the boys react next week.

 

[blacksafake]

Happy with the effort overall barring the last 10 which was probably going to happen because of the circumstances in the previous 30 minutes.

In the context of the game the Sullivan kick for the Lomax no try wasn’t the right play but I’m sort of ok with it because that’s what the good players do.
If they play safe & go for a repeat set the likelihood of getting the ball back from a short dropout are slim anyway as we are not real good at contesting them.

 

[An Old Westie Dragon]

I havmt been watching your games closely but wondering what your thoughts so far are in regards to Mbye and Liddle ?
I've always rated rated Liddle , as long as he is running behind dominate pack . WestsTigers couldn't provide anywhere near one so hoping Saints can provide a little bit more for him.

Nice to see another long suffering supporter, albeit from another team, on our forum macnaz. My mrs is a Tigers tragic, so she shares your pain. Her and I certainly support underwhelming teams. Never much to cheer about in this household.

In answer to your question, I like Liddle. I always thought he was one of your better players. He gives a bit spark from dummy half. Thanks for passing him on to us.

Mbye, well he’s another story. I’d have him on the bench and leave him there unless there is an injury. He can cover a few positions. Not sure why Hook starts him in front of Liddle and as someone else mentioned on here why when we were chasing points did Hook bring him on?

Maybe your mob and us should merge. What a super club that would be.

 

[Gourley's Socks]

Happy with the effort overall barring the last 10 which was probably going to happen because of the circumstances in the previous 30 minutes.

In the context of the game the Sullivan kick for the Lomax no try wasn’t the right play but I’m sort of ok with it because that’s what the good players do.
If they play safe & go for a repeat set the likelihood of getting the ball back from a short dropout are slim anyway as we are not real good at contesting them.

Agree it wasn't the high-percentage play but we played high-percentage footy all last year with nothing to show for it. So I wasn't unhappy with it either.

Was a bit annoyed with the way Hook reacted to it in the presser though. To be fair, it was off a very leading question from some journo but he was quite damning before seemingly catching himself and adding that some older players made mistakes too.

All up I thought Sullivan had a pretty good game - not perfect of course but for this stage of his career, pretty good. Two kicks - the one above and another deep into the corner - on another night with a bit more luck are match-winning plays.

 

[BLM01]

No we were completely outplayed and outclassed Brisbane came out in the second half & lifted Reynolds in particular stood up and kept us guessing with his kicking game while our boys dropped their heads and conceded defeat before the final siren when his team needed him he stood up and steered the ship as a halfback should do while Ben Hunt did his absolute best invisible man impersonation nothing has changed with us dumb plays, incredibly dumb penalties, super soft tries again we conceded 32 points in the second half our attack may have improved slightly but our defence is even worse what I saw tonight gave me no encouragement.

18 all 10 to play. Yes they played better than us the 2nd half. I said we hung in there well. Yes they ended up scoring 32-2 in the 2nd half
You summarise it as negative as you like

 

[Rocket Rod]

The 10min after half time killed us we never touched the ball watched the try their hooker scored a few times i know i am 1 eyed but i cant see where it touched the ground.some basic errors cost us dearly hopefully we can learn from that. A lot on here wont agree with me but i thought our boys gave it a fair crack no matter who it is when you have to do that much defending in that humidity you will get tired. We played better than the score book shows.

I agree the ball didn’t touch the ground and the the stupid hometown video ref blatantly saw it and hurriedly confirmed the try. Rubbish , ought to be an investigation!

 

[BLM01]

Spot on and I would move bird to bench and bring him on after a bit of sting left the game.

I agree Bird did not do enough in attack last night apart from hitting it up.
I wanted to see more of him in attacking plays like against the Titans as can set up people in a hole or two with a good offload in the line.

 

[BLM01]

I agree the ball didn’t touch the ground and the the stupid hometown video ref blatantly saw it and hurriedly confirmed the try. Rubbish , ought to be an investigation!

TBH it was close enough / good enough when you saw the 1st shot as he got over the line
I am happy to spend less time with the bunker

 

[Dragon David]

It was a tough game to watch. A game of two halves so to speak. We looked like we were going to win this match going by the way we played with good commitment in the first half. Our intensity was greater than the Broncos. At halftime Hook probably didn't say the right things to ensure that the guys played with the same first half intensity - joking about in a way. On the other hand, I could see Walters really giving his team instructions and from the body language you could see that he wanted the big guys just to take it hard up the middle and increase their intensity and defend.

I agree with several posters that Paix 's try should not have been awarded and the pass to Staggs was definitely forward.

Reynolds was the guy who dictated field position and as the captain was able to get his men to maintain their running game. The biggest thing to Walters' credit was keeping Hass off until the last 7 or so minutes. He was so much fresher than our exhausted forwards that he was able to take the ball up hard and off load to enable the Broncs to score 2 converted tries.

Our guys had no answer in the last 10 minutes. The Broncs had nearly all of the possession in the last 10 and they just had the momentum that made the score a blowout.

I know we blew it badly, but I can see that we can improve immensely during the year. Toby Couchman and JDB should be available next week. Watch Sloan play a blinder against the Sharks net weekend same too Sullivan.

 

[BLM01]

Tyrell showed plenty of gusto in defence and attack. if the last 10 had gone differently he should have got MOM but Reynolds too good tonight.
This is a much better team than I thought we'd have a couple of weeks ago

He needs to improve when cleaning up out the back near the ball. He has to want to get to it first and so far he has been a bit passive throwing his body towrads the ground.
Just a minor criticism, happy to see what he has done in attack, and stopping some tries and even was Ok under the high ball.
I just want a all round classy fullback which he has the potential to be as still young
I am patient and he is worth it.

 

[Gourley's Socks]

The biggest thing to Walters' credit was keeping Hass off until the last 7 or so minutes.

Absolutely. Their fresh legs belonged to Payne Haas. Our fresh legs belonged to Moses Mbye. It was never going to end well.

 

[jodragon40]

I was there last night. Well I can tell you now who should be playing NSW Cup until further notice and that is Murdoch - Masila. He is unfit. Missed tackles, now that can be a stat misconstrued, so if you look at Sloan he missed 3 tackles but each miss led directly to a try. The 2nd half was always my concern the Ponies got far more of the ball and we hung in there but we were spent by the 65th minutes mark. I said to my wife were gone they have run out of steam and the Ponies are holding the ball. They ended up having 9 more sets than us in attack and their completion rate was 82%, ours was great as well 80% 4 forwards ran for my 100m plus led by Molo 15 runs 176m. Hass ran for 240m he was the difference in their go forward in the 2nd half, Carrigan, Flegler not far behind him. At half time we had 53% of possession. At the end of the match 43% so the 2nd half especially the last 15 finished us off. Missed tackles same as last week 36 which is respectable Ponies 18 which is outstanding. As I said earlier Reynolds overshadowed Hunt better game management and his short kicking game inside our 20m was outstanding 8 grubbers to 0 by Hunt or Sullivan. We just didn't have the ball in the 2nd half and ran out of condition, it was still 26C last night. But the score doesn't reflect the true nature of the game. Next week Sharks

 

[st.phil]

Is Suli our BJ Leilua ? Some bad reads in D and brain explosions … can’t train what’s between the ears I’m afraid

 

[jodragon40]

Is Suli our BJ Leilua ? Some bad reads in D and brain explosions … can’t train what’s between the ears I’m afraid

I was at the ground and when he went up for that drop out I pinched myself. Ponies get the penalty and shortly after score. Incredible

 

[jodragon40]

Absolutely. Their fresh legs belonged to Payne Haas. Our fresh legs belonged to Moses Mbye. It was never going to end well.

Spot on we ran out of condition about the 65th minute Hass was outstanding.

 

[Spazer]

JDB should come in for M Molo but I'm not sure where couchman fits in, Kerr has been one of our best performers so I wouldn't drop him, same with Zane. We need a utility on the bench so perhaps bird to 14 mbye out and couchman to bench with jdb lock?

 

[jodragon40]

He needs to improve when cleaning up out the back near the ball. He has to want to get to it first and so far he has been a bit passive throwing his body towrads the ground.
Just a minor criticism, happy to see what he has done in attack, and stopping some tries and even was Ok under the high ball.
I just want a all round classy fullback which he has the potential to be as still young
I am patient and he is worth it.

He needs to learn to make those 1 on 1 tackles he missed 3 they scored 3 tries. His defence still has a long way to go

 

[jodragon40]

JDB should come in for M Molo but I'm not sure where couchman fits in, Kerr has been one of our best performers so I wouldn't drop him, same with Zane. We need a utility on the bench so perhaps bird to 14 mbye out and couchman to bench with jdb lock?

What I saw at the ground Murdoch - Masila dropped he's unfit needs time in NSW Cup

 

[dungay dragon]

Absolutely. Their fresh legs belonged to Payne Haas. Our fresh legs belonged to Moses Mbye. It was never going to end well.

Some observations ,
the young guys went ok,,sloan sullivan etc
Sloan did admirably esp under the high ball
Mbye should be on the bench as Liddle offers so much more
The inclusion of JDB and Couchman will tighten up or defence significantly.
Bird struggling..Would be best starting from the bench and coming on after 20 mins
BMM and Musgrove better served in short bursts , esp after the opening exchanges
Bench to consist of Mbye Bird BMM Musgrove Amone 18th
Kerr going so much better this season and pressing for a starting spot
Sullivans kicking game , esp long range, is so much better than Hunts and should be used more
Coaching staff need to address the teams "flat spot" which occurred again yesterday early in the 2nd half for 15 mins , when the intensity levels dropped alarmingly. This happens every match and we appear rudderless .
The team appears much sharper when Sullivan runs the attack , appears to have more options and has the opposition on the back foot.
Hopefully we can snare the two Eagles boys for this season to assist Lawrie esp with the opening exchanges.
Overall the score flattered the Broncs and our overall performance gives us some hope to be competitive with most sides given Even luck and or Refs Calls.
And Finally , the chatter for an 18th team to join the NRL in 2025 is getting louder by the day. If this Club is seriously considering changing Coaches , they better get moving , as Coaching contenders for the new franchise are already being tossed about

 

[Spazer]

What I saw at the ground Murdoch - Masila dropped he's unfit needs time in NSW Cup

agreed he looks either unfit or injured. He doesn't seem to have a high workrate.