Eight Games Under 6 points

[jasperdragon07]

If we look at the stats we lost eight games by 6 and under, which could of gone our way with a little luck which would of put us in the top eight. I think next year will be more promising if we can win those close games with players such as Dugan & Widdop etc. TOP EIGHT FOR SURE

 

[64 Dragon]

We were beaten by the bottom 2 teams. Top Eight? We were absolutely no chance.

 

[TruSaint]

Sorry... wrong entry

 

[bottle]

Yeah, nah.

 

[jasperdragon07]

you will all be wrong and buying me a beer

 

[Mr Red]

the fact we lost sooo many games by a small margin indicates to me a coach who kept attempting the same thing on field, somehow hoping the result would be different.. and guess what it never was..
player roster has gotten better but does the coaching staff have the ability to get the best out of them?

 

[jezmond]

I'm pretty confident that the new and improved roster will make the 8!

 

[jenninga]

If we look at the stats we lost eight games by 6 and under, which could of gone our way with a little luck which would of put us in the top eight. I think next year will be more promising if we can win those close games with players such as Dugan & Widdop etc. TOP EIGHT FOR SURE

Parra had a similar stat last season I think and still came last.
Problem is we have redeveloped that soft underbelly we used to have and couldn't score points.We need a new coaching setup ,simple.
Price is too nice a bloke,Mcgregor not up to it and never was,Young is too old school and should be in the stands rather than on the bench,this is a Coles down down PRICES are down coaching setup.

 

[jasperdragon07]

I'm pretty confident that the new and improved roster will make the 8!

Thats the spirit I also think we have a great chance of winning majority of our games before the SOO

 

[BrissyRedV]

Its a very optimistic way to look at it. But we were simply not good enough. At no stage did we truly look like a top 8 team. On paper the team was very poor with our roster lacking depth in the halves and size in the forwards.

But next year we all start from zero and our roster has dramatically improved. We will definately score more points with the halves recruited and with the Dugan having a preseason at the back. I am looking forward to seeing the new team in action in Feb.

 

[getsmarty]

Its a very optimistic way to look at it. But we were simply not good enough. At no stage did we truly look like a top 8 team. On paper the team was very poor with our roster lacking depth in the halves and size in the forwards.

But next year we all start from zero and our roster has dramatically improved. We will definately score more points with the halves recruited and with the Dugan having a preseason at the back. I am looking forward to seeing the new team in action in Feb.

Agreed. Still big question marks over Price I.M.H.O

 

[BrissyRedV]

Agreed. Still big question marks over Price I.M.H.O

There is a huge question mark hanging over him. He has his shot with the roster next year. Hopefully he actually shows why the great man Wayne Bennett recommended him. It would have been a massive shame if he was dumped by the board seeing as IMO the fault of our past 2 seasons has been our poor player recruitment and retention which he basically had no part in or very limited.

 

[The Mighty Atom]

I still can't make up my mind about Price. He did win a Premiership as coach of the likes of Morris, Nighty, Prior etc and I once spoke to a guy went to a Coaching Clinic at Kogarah and said that Price was an absolute genius. So there is that, and then there is the evidence of the last 2 years. Hardly a genius on that evidence. However, given that half the roster was either unhappy (Soward), clapped out (Fein, Coops, Weyman), busted (Beale, K Stanley) or just plain useless (Vidot, Ah Mau, Green, Harrison) it's hard to definitively say one way or the other. I guess we just have to give him another season, with the "new, improved" roster to prove his worth. After all, if we bring in another coach it's not a guarantee of finishing top 4 or winning the comp now, is it?

 

[TruSaint]

Decent post Atom, but i dont accept the injuries toll as an excuse.

Every club has them, and yes we had a few more than normal. There was still enough talent on the field to at least challenge for top 8, not the spoon. Creagh, Nighty, Moz, Rein, Frizell, Weyman, JDB, and our young talents like Cook, King, Garvey etc. Not saying we had it in us to make the 8, butmaking the top 16 doesnt cut it.

PS i disagree that Ah Mau was useless. Came into his own late in season and played good minutes.

 

[Gomarchin]

Price is not the answer. Blaming injuries and bad luck is a cop out. If you want to see why Price should not be our coach in 2014 - watch him interviewed by John Stanley on the dragons website. He gives me no hope for next year and adding MacGregor and Young as "assistant coaches" is a recipe for the MEDIOCRITY to continue in 2014.

 

[saint.nick]

"if we had more luck". losing 8 games by 6 points or less has nothing to do with luck. It's ineptitude.

 

[The Mighty Atom]

TruSaint - I do concede that Ah Mau played very well at the back end of the season. It took him a while to warm up, though, and can we afford that again in 2014?

 

[Mr Red]

PS i disagree that Ah Mau was useless. Came into his own late in season and played good minutes.

most useless players come into their own just long enough to secure a new contract..

 

[Black Forest Dragon]

Jasper, I applaud your efforts at staying positive.

so you are saying that one third of our 17 losses were by six pts or less, yet four of our 7 wins (more than half) were by 6 or less. So if the other Team uses the same logic to put a positive spin on their losses against us, then they all pretty much cancel each other out.

In games we won we won by an average of 8pts.

In games we lost we lost by an average of 13pts.

If the game-wide average goal-kicking / conversion success rate is 72% then we won by an average of 1.5 tries in the games we won, yet the games we lost we lost by an average of 2.4 tries (no allowance for Penalty and field Goals)

Stats aside - 2x qualitative observations of our games this year.

1 - like BrissyRedv correctly identifies - we NEVER ONCE looked like a top 8 side, in any game.

2 - Unlike 2010 when we were well challenged and it seemed opposition Teams consistently brought their best game to us, in 2013 I think the opposite was true.

I think most Teams by their own standards played poorly against us; won ugly, but still won.

Sorry, I think the six pt margin thing actually flattered us.

 

[Black Forest Dragon]

...I'll go a step further and criticise the over-use of positive spin. Give me any day a man (say a first grade NRL Coach) who plays down injuries, getting "pipped at the post" or "bad luck" in general and focuses his responses to poor results on his own performance and that of his Team.

We got deep into the season, pretty much until making the 8 was only a mathematical possibility, when comments like "...there were alot of great individual performances to come out of that (lost) game" and, "...we're not going to hit the Panic button" before the Team was left Scratching it's head and left playing for pride only.

Fans just wanted them to hit the "do something different button".

Posítive Spin can lead people to dellusional beliefs that it's all ok and we don't have try harder or do anything different.

That's was the tale of our season 2013.

At least the recent interviews on Dragons TV are more truthful.