Old Timer, you know I have almost always respected your views. I have certainly missed your wisdom from this Forum. Can I request you ignore the would be hecklers and produce one of your first rate analyses of where you think the Dragons are at. Why considerable improvement in some games and totally smashed in others. I would ask you if you are willing to do so, try to leave your anti-Flano perspective at a distance. Certainly point out any errors he has made but leave out that he should never have got the appt.
I know I posted a reply to you talking about the root causes (as I see them) of our issues and the downside of those issues and also made a suggestion for Flanagan as to how to go forward but I didn’t actually answer the question you politely asked of me.
So out of respect for you and your request I offer the following thoughts
The good results especially against top 8 type sides more often than not come from those sides having a game akin to a spoon contender rather than us totally dominating them and forcing them to play poorly.
I say this because in almost every win we have we have instances where we should put a cricket score on them but we very rarely ever put an opponent to the sword with an emphatic defeat.
The only one I can think of is against the Broncos in the reign of Mc Fookknuckle. We sort of limp to reasonable victories against a team where nothing clicked for them on the day.
Our worst defeats come from things that we should do instinctively being abandoned early in the game whether that be line speed, discipline, structure or perhaps even heart / belief if we get a bad injury early in the game because we have so few options to fall back on like the Suli fiasco on Anzac Day.
If we lose Rava, Suli or Lomax in the back 5 we become impotent in yardage from our end and the forwards quickly fatigue if they have to take up that workload very evident on Anzac Day. So those 3 are a must keep in the back line but they are all on the slow side so we have no pace other than Sloan so that keeps him in the side despite his obvious shortcomings.
Bird should be gone (bench at best) for Lomax and our fastest outside back in Koe or Flegg should be on the other wing. For sure Sloan needs another back that can come close to backing him up when he makes a break.
I reckon that Liddle is probably our 2nd fastest over a standing 50m start and that can’t possibly be good.
Our halves are way too slow as a pairing so that must be changed with either Kyle to 14 or Hunt to 9 and Liddle to 14 if none of that is doable then Hunt to 6 and Kyle to 7 as a last option.
JDB is going great (game changing) off the bench so that is a must keep situation so we need another prop on the bench (to avoid JDB entering the game too soon) with Lawrie making way. We need to create an alpha prop with footwork and/or offload. I think 6' 4”and 110kg is the minimum requirement and I believe we have a few of them in lower grades that if not quite there yet must be fast tracked for that role. You need to have 2 in fact so they can rotate as they get accustomed to the role.
As I said Flanagan needs to grow some balls re selections (including Hunt, Bird and his son) he also has to say that if we have another couple of score blowouts then Dean Young is the culprit as he is the defence coach and the buck stops there.
We must stop compromising and start marching one foot after the other always moving forward albeit at times very slowly.
We did for 11 years in a row and Penrith very nearly 4 and most likely will achieve that this year so it can be done and is testimony to those that are willing to make tough decisions.
Edit: Add Lawrie to the list re selctions.
