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It would be great if Mr Bruce Gordon turned up at our games like Russell Crowe does at the Bunnies games when the Gladiator isn't filming other blockbusters. I don't think that Mr Gordon Snr has any interest in how his Joint Venture Steelers/Dragons Club is really doing as it is Mr Gordon Jnr's little baby to take care of and as children tend to be, they get bored of their little "toys" after a while and focus on something else.He could be there scouting big strong , fast , smart players .......
i would just like to see a system where members get to vote and have a say
I think either that or members of the board to do a massive backflip and just start doing something more positive to get us where we were 12 years ago and maintain that effectiveness rather than lose it like we did from 2012 to today. The Bennett departure syndrome more or less killed us just like all the other clubs he coached and then left in the doldrums.
agree dave, a lot hinges on the next 3-4 games, i do hope it gets done with all our juniors and i hope we get to see more proactive communication to the supporters from our management across all facets of the club
i agree next 3 plus bye well puts us well entrenched in the 8 and hoping the youngsters also well entrenched in the 17..
yep I'm feeling your pain, but that will be the case and has been the case for quite a number of years when we are one of the worst defensive sides in the comp.
Our players don't seem to want to put in extra yardage to chase down players to stop their momentum and ball movement.
Its been happening for years Dave, even under different coaches, when Bennett left our mantra in defence changed and we went soft and have remained that way, how many missed tackles have we had in our past few games, when we allow other packs to dominate us consistently you are going to do way more defending hence you will have more defensive errors.
That in a nutshell justa.
I'm not sure if it's being soft or just tentative and undecided. The defence for some years has looked to me like they're unsure of what to do - either not knowing or more likely, not trusting that it'll work. So they hang back with zero line-speed and then anything other than the most tepid of hit-ups creates a hole.
Maybe no real self belief. That is why we need tougher, more durable and stronger forwards who believe very much in themselves to be able to do the hard yakka.
the coach has also got a lot to do with self belief and confidence dave
No, you can't keep them all. But the ones we do keep - with the exception of Lomax - are playing KoE or getting chilblains on the bench each week until they get their regulation 15 minutes (or less).
Is this what you got out of my post?
No, but I think your response to my original post missed the point somewhat. In recent years we've treated youth players like yo-yos, backwards and forwards from first grade to KoE on a whim or sat on the bench for 75 minutes and then thrown on in the last 5 to "make a difference". There doesn't seem to be any long term plan other than "Well, if these kids gets the hump and go elsewhere we can always buy a 33 year old journeyman". If we had applied the same logic in the 2000s we'd never have had Nighty, BMoz, Creagh, Hornby, Prior etc and never won in 2010. But it doesn't stop there cos the guys we do keep ie Lomax, Ramsey, Lawrie, Ford are going backwards at a rate of knots because clearly they're not getting the right guidance.
This is the point I was making. It doesn't matter if they stay or not, we don't seem to be able to get the best out of them. You can't compare what they are doing now to what they would have been doing with us. Other than Luch, the rest of the players you have listed have moved into teams that are performing well or who have continued to perform well over time. That's always going to make players improve or perform better on the field.
