Dragons v Titans Round 2, 2023

[Blood Shot Eyes]

Best game I've seen Kerr play - looks completely different to last year.

I agree lets hope he keeps it going for all our sakes.....hes big and mobile enough and more than capable if he started believing in himself......he attracted 2 or 3 defenders everytime he ran the ball yesterday

 

[BLM01]

I have not seen earlier posts, but what do you all think about how Bird runs a lot side ways. The concern is that it seems to crowd our attack at times. We seemed to run a lot straighter when he was rested.

Yes depending what position. I thought he was good yesterday when on in attack
Playing 13 he added an extra dimension in attack and set up Lawrie's try

 

[BLM01]

6/8 plus there was a decent breeze last night. He’ll be fine

Maybe but i noticed last year with the dance follow through he missed some reasonably simple kicks
I am not as relaxed with him kicking as I was 2 years ago or how I was with Widdop.
Best option we have though

 

[BLM01]

Agree, you could see that their playmaker was playing busted. Forwards went actually forwards and Hunt had a picnic

So was their captain even though he scored a soft try, he was a shadow of his normal self in the hit up department. I dont care though we were the better side over 3/4's of the game.

 

[redandwhite4evr]

Just on a sidenote and a change to the output on this thread.
Has anyone got concerns about the way Lomax is striking the ball in his goal kicks
I do
He may have changed his style a little bit and following on from last year appears to not follow-through enough and not as fluent
Just all looks so dicey and not as solid as 2 years ago

Agree- used to kick straight through the ball and got a lot of height and distance. Someoné's got to him and he's now trying to draw his kicks but it's not natural. One of his kicks didn't even make it to the posts and this guy is a prodigious kicker of the ball.

 

[jodragon40]

Did anyone else notice that the assistant coach Woolf was howling instructions from the coaching box. That is the first time I have seen that since Griffin took charge. Perhaps someone tapped him on the shoulder and advised him to actually listen to his new assistant's. Time will tell

 

[Crush]

They played well. It was refreshing. Really hope they build from this and develop an us vs them mentality. Half the battle is the attitude and turning up for each other.
Looking forward to next game, not because we won yesterday but because of the way we played, it was fun.

 

[Dragons4me]

Well the stat's tell the tale. For the first time in living memory 6 forwards ran for 100m plus the best being the bench forward Musgrove. Our bench was outstanding. Completion rate was 82% we had 55% of the ball. We missed 38 tackles. All in all a satisfactory performance and a morale boosting win. Now next week we play 1st grade

Where do you get the game stats from jodragon40??

 

[Smurf]

Great win by the boys yesterday. The ref really tried hard to give the GC as many penalties as possible and the boys still maintained their composure. As soon as I saw him I new Saints would have it tough with the officials. Saints record with him is pretty poor.

What a difference Liddle made. He was brilliant. All the boys played well. A few errors were made but it was the Saints 1st NRL game of the season so you expect a bit of rust. The attack has improved in leaps and bounds due to having some speed around the ruck and to see back up runners was awesome. Most forwards made over 100 mtrs. When was the last time we saw that? Great effort. Only sad note was Couchman getting HIA. Hope he is ok. Great debut from the young man. BMM was pretty impressive as well.

So glad to see Rava have a cracker. I thought he was on the down since he got all those suspensions but started exceptional yesterday. The backline is set now no changes needed. The halves are fine as they are as well. Amone will just need to bide his time like Bud had to. Make him realise what he had was special and he screwed it up with a really dumb action. Having Liddle and Mbye share the duties was also good to. The spine is 100% set.

It was also good to see Josh Kerr have a good game. We could all see this guy was capable and hopefully he proves us right.

I often heard the players say it was good hearing a new voice in training so it looks like the Assistants are doing a fine job. They really need to work on goal line defence which I am sure they will.

I am not fussed how they finish as long as the coaching staff stick with this group throughout the season and we see them come out each week as they will only get better. Next week will be a huge test as I think the Bronco's have been the most impressive so far in the 2 rounds.

Well said
Nice

 

[Smurf]

What was also great was the team spirit !!!
The post try “ hugs “ were amazing
It’s been a long time

Please keep it up

Oh when the Saints

 

[jodragon40]

Where do you get the game stats from jodragon40??

Just go to the NRL website at the bottom of the page you will see icons. Click on the draw it will open up the round. Scroll down to the Dragons game and click on the match centre that will take you to the summary page. At the top slide across to the player stat's click on the Dragons and all the stat's are there for the individual player. Hope this helps

 

[Gareth67]

Watched the post game celebrations in the locker room , so good to see the genuine comradeship among the players - both original and new !

There was a clip of Griffo having a good laugh in the coaches box when Blocka Lawrie burst through the Titans defence to score under the post .

 

[Dragon David]

Watched the post game celebrations in the locker room , so good to see the genuine comradeship among the players - both original and new !

There was a clip of Griffo has a good laugh in the coaches box when Blocka Laurie burst through the Titans defence to score under the post .

All us supporters/fans of the Dragons and the club itself are cock-a-hoop at the moment and this is awesome for a change. I know it is only one win out of so many more to play but this feeling for us all is what we have waited for since the end of last season.

The players themselves look so much more at ease and really look like they want to prove something and make a big statement for this year.

We may not have the big marquee players of those so called "top" clubs but we do have players who will believe in themselves and play for each other. I can just see it.

Hearing and seeing big Lawrie say "f..k" after the Titans scored the try at the end says it all. He felt he let the team down by not stopping the try. He didn't look at the other players not making the tackle - he most probably thought it was on him to do it and not blame anyone else. Moments like these you know that they give a damn.

 

[Como Connection]

Watched the post game celebrations in the locker room , so good to see the genuine comradeship among the players - both original and new !

There was a clip of Griffo has a good laugh in the coaches box when Blocka Laurie burst through the Titans defence to score under the post .

How do I find the post game celebrations please.
CC

 

[kit66]

Just got to watch the game and noticed a few things that weren't obvious from the (rather poor) ABC Grandstand call of the game - the presenter sounded almost bored.

First up, that's the most promising start to a season since that round 1 game where we smashed the Panthers. Great game of footy. We played a power game without playing a "power" game, it just came naturally and we forged our way up the field, Ravalawa was huge for us, getting us on a roll every time, he should'a got some Dally M points.
Special mention too to Liddle - I'm sorry I said bad things about you - wow, pretty bloody awesome game little fella. All the new guys played really well and our bench was a pleasant surprise, great effort from those guys, Kerr especially.

Secondly, the Titans played a lot better than I thought, making the win even more impressive and the way we fought back after being behind and under the pump early is a great sign of the boys commitment and determination. Great work.

Other points -
Buds kicking game was pretty good, more so his deep clearing kicks, he actually made better metres than Hunt and it also takes pressure off Hunt and gives us more options. He can work on his short kicks but it was a great start for him.

I was wrong about the second Titans try, from the highlights I thought we failed to hold Liu down but it was all down to Bird mucking around, which he does a lot, trying to slow down the play the ball or milk penalties, just do your job sport, you're not Munster or a Panther.

Chris Sutton doesn't like us, he seems to enjoy penalizing us. We could have challenged at least 4 of his calls and won, fk knows why we didn't. The Bunker also made two dodgy calls at the end - there should have been a Titans line drop out with a couple of minutes to go - we could have laid on one more try.

Hook should have thrown Kerr back on instead of Mbye near the end.

All up a very pleasing win and something for the boys to build confidence from. The Broncs better not take us lightly, I'm looking forward to us reclaiming our Broncos bogey team mantle.

 

[jodragon40]

All us supporters/fans of the Dragons and the club itself are cock-a-hoop at the moment and this is awesome for a change. I know it is only one win out of so many more to play but this feeling for us all is what we have waited for since the end of last season.

The players themselves look so much more at ease and really look like they want to prove something and make a big statement for this year.

We may not have the big marquee players of those so called "top" clubs but we do have players who will believe in themselves and play for each other. I can just see it.

Hearing and seeing big Lawrie say "f..k" after the Titans scored the try at the end says it all. He felt he let the team down by not stopping the try. He didn't look at the other players not making the tackle - he most probably thought it was on him to do it and not blame anyone else. Moments like these you know that they give a damn.

I have said from day 1 Lawrie has punched well above his weight, early on he was getting smashed but learnt his trade changed his running style. As a coach you need players like him, the old workhorses who most probably won't be picked to play for the Blues or Kangaroos but they are an invaluable team player and his team mates know, just have a look how they mobbed him after his try. Nothing else needs to be said.

 

[Gareth67]

How do I find the post game celebrations please.
CC

Don’t go telling anyone else C.C. but I snuck onto the Mole website and watched it there . It also showed all the tries itself , plus some footage of the Tim Tsyzu fight .

 

[Gareth67]

All us supporters/fans of the Dragons and the club itself are cock-a-hoop at the moment and this is awesome for a change. I know it is only one win out of so many more to play but this feeling for us all is what we have waited for since the end of last season.

The players themselves look so much more at ease and really look like they want to prove something and make a big statement for this year.

We may not have the big marquee players of those so called "top" clubs but we do have players who will believe in themselves and play for each other. I can just see it.

Hearing and seeing big Lawrie say "f..k" after the Titans scored the try at the end says it all. He felt he let the team down by not stopping the try. He didn't look at the other players not making the tackle - he most probably thought it was on him to do it and not blame anyone else. Moments like these you know that they give a damn.

Great to see the effort that the boys put into the win , plus the enthusiasm showed through . They wanted to shut the critics up and done just that in the best way possible - well done again lads !

 

[I'm Hornby]

That was the best start to a season we've had in recent memory.

Our much lamented Wooden Spooner rejects all played well and showed that sometimes players with a bit of potential need a change of scenery to thrive.

The soft tries are still plaguing us, let's hope the defence gets better with time and games amongst the playing group this season.

The attack was the best we've looked in some time, hard direct running over the advantage line and players supporting with offloads. I said a few weeks back that a try Liddle scored in the charity shield was reminiscent of Damian Cook, I think the reduced game time and using Liddle in bursts will be the key.

BMM looked great, I hope he can keep playing the long minutes with that sort of impact for the rest of the season but let's wait and see there.

Couchman had a great debut and looked like he belonged at this level, look forward to seeing him more.

Looking forward to the game against the Broncos now, the next three weeks will be a big test.

 

[DfL]

All us supporters/fans of the Dragons and the club itself are cock-a-hoop at the moment and this is awesome for a change. I know it is only one win out of so many more to play but this feeling for us all is what we have waited for since the end of last season.

The players themselves look so much more at ease and really look like they want to prove something and make a big statement for this year.

We may not have the big marquee players of those so called "top" clubs but we do have players who will believe in themselves and play for each other. I can just see it.

Hearing and seeing big Lawrie say "f..k" after the Titans scored the try at the end says it all. He felt he let the team down by not stopping the try. He didn't look at the other players not making the tackle - he most probably thought it was on him to do it and not blame anyone else. Moments like these you know that they give a damn.

I 100% agree with you @Dragon David