observation

[eels4lyf]

Before you guys think i am trolling, I'm not, i just wanted to make a point. It seems to me you guys are missing a guy who can turn it on at the flick of a switch. A gamebreaker.

Now before you get me wrong, yes i am an eels fan, but a league supporter the dragons have given us all great entertainment all year, and were deserved minor premiers equal with the bulldogs. The one thing i have noticed is that the boys are a well oiled machine, which goes about it's business week by week, putting teams to the sword with their grind em down, wear them out attitude. And it works and worked pretty well all year. For the majority of the season their completion rates, have been fantastic, which makes it hard for any team to compete against.

But on the flipside, when this style doesn't work, i think you guys are missing the Inglis, Marshall or thurston, or at the momment the way he is playing Hayne. A guy that can break the game open by doing something sporadic and spontaneous.

Now to a degree you may think this post is stupid, because lets face it any team is better of with any one of those players in it, But i feel that if the dragons had that 'x-factor' The season is over, and you might as well give them the trophy now. There were countless occasions last sunday where i was on the hill thinking to myself, you guys were gonna run all over us, but as the game went on i thought hang on, who is gonna do it for them? Who is gonna break the game open? Unfortunately for you guys noone did.

Anyways Your thoughts?

Ohhh and with regard to the redneck supporters thread, i sat on the hill both weeks the 37-0 drubbing and our victory, got bagged, abused, but i gave as good as i got, i love a bit of niggle, and niggle is what i got, i had a great time, and you guys are passionate league supporters. Shame the minority ruin it for all.

 

[Acka]

My observation on Sunday's game was that Parramatta did a St George to St George. We dominated the first 20 but we couldn't crack the Eels defence which was like a brick wall. Although the turning point IMO was Eric Grothe's intercept if he misses that Brett Morris scores in the corner and it is 12 all. Just a question for eels4lyf what was your opinion of Kogarah Oval. The grand old ground has being getting an absolute royal pasting in the press over the last week or two.

 

[eels4lyf]

My favourite apart from parra

 

[Acka]

My favourite apart from parra

I've got to admit Parramatta Stadium has a great atmosphere but IMO they should have kept the hills at both ends of the ground.

 

[TheRev]

yes its true we are missing the x-factor, but you dont always need it... it just increases your % chance for a win by taking some luck out of the game.

Right now if we get behind (whether its our fault or not), its very hard for us to come back.

 

[Dragon Dave]

Soward, Morris have been 2 of the most consistent game-breakers this year. How many tries have we scored from inside our own half involving those 2.

Sunday was just one of those days, nothing came off.

That's footy.

 

[muzby]

we may not have an x factor, but we have an s factor and an m factor

soward & morris... some of the stuff these guys have done during the year has turned games on their heads...



note.. i was going to say that we had an s & m factor, but that may have attracted the wrong type of fan...

 

[Slippery Morris]

The game was decided by one error. The intercept. If the pass got through to Morris the Saints win, if not the Eels win. Saints did not get smashed. It was a tight contest.

Parra would of beaten anyone in front of them imo. Maybe Melbourne would have been a threat.

The Saints on the other hand would have beaten the other teams with maybe Melb the exception there as well.

The Bronc's and Titans had no defence. Saints would have carved them up. Knights had injury concerns, Dogs played a weakened Knights team and just won and Manly well, Roosters would have beaten them.

It's not all doom and gloom and Soward has won his fair share of games for the Saints with some freakish efforts. Just because Hayne did it later in the season it stands out more. Cut out passes, Chip and chase, 90mtr tries, 40-20. Soward has done all that. That chip over the top against the Knights and pass to Dell to score was one of the best footy tries I have seen this season.

 

[Cagey Mac]

We lost IMO because Parra had too good a look at our attacking patterns and developed answers. It would have been a great time to try something new but hindsight is infinitely wise
Off topic but related heavily to Kogarah is the fact that we couldn't change venues for last week's game.
The decision would have been made by Doust who's credibility as a CEO is, in the mind of many Dragons' supporters, in repair mode.
If he switches to the SFS and we win, he get's pilloried for taking a risk by some and received accolades for collecting the $250k by none. If we lose, it's all that greedy bastard's fault; risking our season to feather the clubs coffers.
We may well have won at the SFS, who knows?
The victory will be all the sweeter if we go all the way through adversity. The challenge, though daunting is not beyond us.
Go the Dragons!

 

[ME SO HORNBY!]

Ive said it in a million threads since Sunday and ill say it again. Mark Gasnier was our game breaker and our x-factor and could make something from nothing even when we were CRAP.

 

[Firey_Dragon]

Before you guys think i am trolling, I'm not, i just wanted to make a point. It seems to me you guys are missing a guy who can turn it on at the flick of a switch. A gamebreaker.

Now before you get me wrong, yes i am an eels fan, but a league supporter the dragons have given us all great entertainment all year, and were deserved minor premiers equal with the bulldogs. The one thing i have noticed is that the boys are a well oiled machine, which goes about it's business week by week, putting teams to the sword with their grind em down, wear them out attitude. And it works and worked pretty well all year. For the majority of the season their completion rates, have been fantastic, which makes it hard for any team to compete against.

But on the flipside, when this style doesn't work, i think you guys are missing the Inglis, Marshall or thurston, or at the momment the way he is playing Hayne. A guy that can break the game open by doing something sporadic and spontaneous.

Now to a degree you may think this post is stupid, because lets face it any team is better of with any one of those players in it, But i feel that if the dragons had that 'x-factor' The season is over, and you might as well give them the trophy now. There were countless occasions last sunday where i was on the hill thinking to myself, you guys were gonna run all over us, but as the game went on i thought hang on, who is gonna do it for them? Who is gonna break the game open? Unfortunately for you guys noone did.

Anyways Your thoughts?

Ohhh and with regard to the redneck supporters thread, i sat on the hill both weeks the 37-0 drubbing and our victory, got bagged, abused, but i gave as good as i got, i love a bit of niggle, and niggle is what i got, i had a great time, and you guys are passionate league supporters. Shame the minority ruin it for all.

We have the gamebreaker in Soward, our gameplan however doesn't really facilitate that. We play tight and minimise errors, and whilst he has turned it on in the past, we play very conservative in most areas of the field and keep offloads to a minimum. It doesn't really allow players like Soward that space they need to just turn it on, whereas the eels are the opposite and give Hayne plenty of room.

 

[Cagey Mac]

Ive said it in a million threads since Sunday and ill say it again. Mark Gasnier was our game breaker and our x-factor and could make something from nothing even when we were CRAP.

Gaz did make our right side attack slippery and unpredictable; the trouble is that he did the same thing for our right side defence. If we had an offence team and a defence team like the septics Gaz would be our man. Benny may have been able to structure a defence incorporating Gaz but it was beyond Browny and maybe beyond anyone else

 

[j0nesy]

Yeah I agree we don't have the likes of an Inglis, Slater, Thurston, Marshall or Hayne. However, as they say a champion team will always beat a team of champions. Personally I don't think we played like a champion team on Sunday. We will against Brisbane, of that I'm confident.

 

[STG-Dragon]

We miss a player out wide like Morris If we had Josh the Dogs would be f**ked and we would be awesome, he is the extra game breaker we need along with Soward. F@CKING GAZ!!

 

[Cagey Mac]

I'd take Cam Smith in a blink. A great hooker both in defence and attack would be a real fillip

 

[drake]

LOL @ Gaz.
Shimy shimmy crunch!

If we still had Gasnier, we'd have 3 players less. And be on holidays now.

 

[TheRev]

Yes the intercept was the difference last weekend, but thats my point.. in tight games we are very exposed if the opposition gets a little luck.

Soward/Morris/Creagh is not enough threat, you saw last week what happens when we just throw the same plays at the opposition, its predictable. You may criticize Gasnier, but those shimmies scored us a lot of points, and imagine if we had options on the left AND right sides of the field!

 

[Firey_Dragon]

Yes the intercept was the difference last weekend, but thats my point.. in tight games we are very exposed if the opposition gets a little luck.

Soward/Morris/Creagh is not enough threat, you saw last week what happens when we just throw the same plays at the opposition, its predictable. You may criticize Gasnier, but those shimmies scored us a lot of points, and imagine if we had options on the left AND right sides of the field!

bullsh*t, Gaz was brilliant on his day, but he went missing probably more than the guys you just listed. He wasn't a gamebreaker every game like you'd suggest. Gasnier went brilliantly when our team was going well, he quite often went missing when we needed him though.

Don't get me wrong, we'd have a much better attack with him. But he wouldn't be the difference between a win or a loss at the moment, irrespective of whether we ignore his defence or not.

 

[AJH]

Hi all,

This has probably all been said elsewhere, but I'll put my 2 cents in anyway.

Sunday seemed like a carbon-copy of the loss to the Broncos a few weeks back. We were so focused on not making errors and playing to the gameplan that we seemed to forget that you actually need to score points to win. Parra defended well but we really didn't put many questions to them.

Also agree with 'eels4lyf' in that we are a team that is consistent over a full season, but consistency doesn't necessarily win you the grand final (or even get you there). The finals need a step up across the board, and I'm not sure if we've got that step in us at the moment. We only seem to have a few plays that we bring out continually - Hornby to Creagh, or behind Creagh to Boyd (who is still learning when and where he needs to be), or a long pass or kick from Soward. Hopefully this will develop in time but at the moment it's not a real lot for the opposition to counter.

As Dragons supporters we've been through worse seasons, so look on the bright side. We are going through a rebuilding phase under WB, and exceeded expectations throughout the year. Hopefully they can beat the Broncos but if not, well it's only football!

Cheers
AJ

 

[silverex]

Playing the season without a 'gamebreaker' was pretty damned hard.

Where did we finish? Who are the Minor Premiers? I must be missing something here.