Dragons vs Hull

[SET2JT]

Why doesn't Sims just put his head down and run over the fullback when he gets into the clear!

 

[Crush]

Without being a dick and grilling a player in a first hit out trial, I really think that we can do better than Lafai. He makes so many errors and he pushes that pass way too often. He does some good things but geez Id love a good solid centre that just hit the gaps hard and knew when to run and when to pass.
What options do we have to replace him?

 

[st.phil]

Solid , scrappy but they look good and depth best since Bennett era and my god... we have a set of halves! Nighty much better on right wing. Mann deserves right centre, Aitken looks like he has shrunk. Vaughn and kerr the pick of the big boys.

 

[Old Timer]

Without being a dick and grilling a player in a first hit out trial, I really think that we can do better than Lafai. He makes so many errors and he pushes that pass way too often. He does some good things but geez Id love a good solid centre that just hit the gaps hard and knew when to run and when to pass.
What options do we have to replace him?

Mann went well tonight IMO but is a far better LHS player and would go to another level so the issue comes down to Aitken, Mc Donald, Lomax to fill the RHS if you don't want Lafai.

 

[Red V for life]

I know people want to fall in love with big Luc but in all honesty nothing exciting to see tonight.
Defence needs serious work as he is an upper body arm grabber and whilst he may have shed a few kg's his fitness is still a concern and he was well and truly blowing late in the game during his 2nd stint.
My concern here is that he only wants to be the ball playing type of footballer but we need much more than that from him.
We certainly don't want him going down the Bryce Cartwright road.

No we certainly don’t want him going down that road and I agree his defence is a work in progress.

Still, I think he’s developed a fair bit since last time I saw him in first grade. More composed and the attitude is clearly right. Whether he makes the jump, who knows? I hope so.

Liked getting a look at the rest of the young ones though. Looks like we have a few keepers there.

 

[Mark D]

I know people want to fall in love with big Luc but in all honesty nothing exciting to see tonight.
Defence needs serious work as he is an upper body arm grabber and whilst he may have shed a few kg's his fitness is still a concern and he was well and truly blowing late in the game during his 2nd stint.
My concern here is that he only wants to be the ball playing type of footballer but we need much more than that from him.
We certainly don't want him going down the Bryce Cartwright road.

Agree mate... some good things on show such as improved fitness but his defensive game is poor... lots of jumper grabbing ... I was very impressed with Kerr .. he hit the line hard and has a quick play the ball...

 

[Crush]

Dufty has left more high kicks bounce more often than what Dugan did during his entire SGI career.

It's a major worry.

Dugan is also much less likely to be manhandled in attack.

Dufty had a very good game. If you can't see that your biased is blinding you. Just listen to the commentary, they were full of praise for him. Only thing he did wrong was get carried into touch once. His positional play was good. He didn't miss any one on one tackles. Obviously little guys don't make try saving one on one tackles on their own line like dugan did.
If you are critical of that performance Id hate to see what you would say if he had a bad game.

 

[qld redvee]

Mann went well tonight IMO but is a far better LHS player and would go to another level so the issue comes down to Aitken, Mc Donald, Lomax to fill the RHS if you don't want Lafai.

All comes down to Mr Mgregor gentlemen. I think lafai would have to lose his spot through injury. Fox mentioned during the game how our coaching staff "told" Lafai just how good he was and important to the squad ( obviously pre boot camp last year ) Id leave Mann on the left and maybe roll the dice with Lomax as he has the size

 

[Brutalitops]

Dufty actually showed plenty of promise. I've been critical of his size and hit ups but he has so much speed and improved positional awareness that it really becomes a secondary issue

 

[BrissyRedV]

OK it was only a trial , we won we changed our team around good to get it out of the way . So what a difference between us and the Storm . I known the were playing for a world championship but the just do it easy ....

Bellamy

 

[Dragonslayer]

Rusty as the gate at my Grandma's old house.
There were positives and I thought we improved as the game went on.
Observations:
- Sims is not a 2nd rower on tonight's performance
- McInnes running the ball more
- Combo between Hunt and Widdop looked good most of the time
- Dufty did enough attacking wise to get the nod, does need to improve his front on defense
- Garrick is not ready for 1st grade
- Lawrie needs more time in reserve grade
- Nene looked more positive and ran with some purpose
- Lomax didn't do anything wrong and had some nice runs
- Kerr ran hard, would like to see him develop a sidestep, that would make him a serious weapon
- Field took on the line and really had a go instead of trying to go around them, I as impressed with his cameo
- Robson is going to be a very good player for us, I hope Millward is inking an extension soon er rather than later
- Mann needs to be at centre good in defense and attack
- Aitken, although short of training, still didn't do anything, needs to lift if he's to hold his spot
- Sele did some nice things when hitting the line, defense needs some work

overall we worked into the game as it went along, next week will be interesting now to see who gets the starting 13

 

[RufusRex]

Without being a dick and grilling a player in a first hit out trial, I really think that we can do better than Lafai. He makes so many errors and he pushes that pass way too often. He does some good things but geez Id love a good solid centre that just hit the gaps hard and knew when to run and when to pass.
What options do we have to replace him?

yep .. absolutely makes errors ... Just have to decide if the good outweighs the bad.
A bloke who sets up as many tries as he does with one handed offloads is going to drop the ball .. it is simply a factor of the way he plays ... Last season his positives in the tries he scored and laid on for people inside and out more than made up for the errors.

Tonight he scored one, set up one .. Threw a shitty ball to Garrick and dropped a ball changing it from one hand to another. Typical mixed bag from him .. But defensively he was good .. so two tries up for none against is pretty good ...

Mind you .. if someone else demanded selection then you would have to consider it .. but from last night it was obvious that lafai on the left and mann on the right were the best two centres of those we tried.

AItken was completely ineffective. Lomax did look good though.

 

[SaintElroy]

Dufty has left more high kicks bounce more often than what Dugan did during his entire SGI career.

It's a major worry.

Dugan is also much less likely to be manhandled in attack.

Dugan is also much less likely to make a break, set up a try, kick, pass, catch the bus. It’s early days and for all dugans strengths, his weaknesses were glaring obvious. I think the club made the right call. Get behind the kid mate

 

[Dragon Revival]

Garrick had a shocker and Lawrie and Sele were underwhelming.
Host played well apart from letting in a try. Leilua looker fitter. Apart from Dufty and Widdop the backs were fairly unimpressive.
Hunt will improve and is classy. Compared to Souths our backs look like snails apart from Dufty and Widdop.

 

[giboz71]

No one really put their hand up to replace Thommo?

Host was average and I still think Sims is a prop.

 

[TomRedVRiver]

I won't comment on each player but I will point out a few things I observed:
- Fullback is Dufty's spot now without a doubt. Best on ground. 200m and was taken off with 20 to go. Could have made it 300m.
- Field looks great and is showing no fear taking on the line. He's definitely worked himself into his new frame too and looks very fit. If Mann gets a starting centre spot, i'd think about Field as our bench utility to expose tired defence.
- Luciano was solid, definitely the pick of the second rowers.
- Lomax looked really good, definitely no issues with the physicality of the men's game. He's great under the high ball.
- Lafai still needs to pick his moments. If the offload isn't on, just hold the f**king ball mate.
- Hunt and Widdop combined well, although I think Hull were putting a lot of extra pressure on Hunt. You could tell he wanted to run the ball but wasn't getting any opportunities.
- Graham competes with everything, he is just everywhere. Quality signing for us.
- I liked Kerr's impact, even though it may have been late in the game when Hull's forwards were gassed.
- Sims had a quiet game, wasn't really in much.
- Nene looks better on the left, but he still needs to cut his weight. He played well but he's still looking top-heavy.

There we go, got carried away and decided to comment on everything anyway haha.

 

[Dragons22]

It was only a trial at the end of the day. I think Garrick, Lawrie and Aitken were a bit disappointing. Mann and Dufty were great, the two standouts. Nene was pretty impressive today too, I must add.

 

[tumbidragon]

Bellamy

Granted. But they also didn't rotate their squad nearly as much as they could of, plus they already had a trial under their belt. Obviously Melb. are a different animal to what we have coach and roster. But pretty unfair to compare our trial to their WCC.

 

[Dragsters]

Anyone else notice Kerr's impact when he came on? Thought he hit the line really hard.

Yep. The standout amongst the forwards given his limited stint.

He looks fitter than the last time I saw him play where he seemed to lumber around a bit, particularly laterally in defence.

Good signs for him but by the look of Mary's approach tonight he may be behind Latimore (understandably) and Allgood in the pecking order...

 

[tumbidragon]

No one really put their hand up to replace Thommo?

Host was average and I still think Sims is a prop.

Depending on the CS, Sims takes the 12 just on his late season form last year. A shame that we didn't see anyone really put their hand up in the back row though.