I missed the first half on the weekend.
I finally decided to watch it last night...mainly to see the "on report" incidents.
What I saw made me quite angry as the Dragons were never given a chance.
Dragons up against a strong team and Penrith were heavily assisted by the ref's decisions the whole first half.
With 70% possession and most if it in attacking field position with favourable wind, we did well to not get 50 points on us in the first half.
The 3rd try (Cleary's 1st) came off a huge forward pass...at least 3 or 4m. Not a word from the commentators.
There was another not long after around our 30m line that was a couple of metres forward, again not called.
The hip drop barely made any contact with JFH's legs/ankles. He injured his groin but lets stop play and award a penalty.
Even the tackled in the air decision, there was contact but the tackle didn't start until the feet were down.
Any time a Panther was slightly uncomfortable, it was a penalty or a 6 again.
On the other hand, Hunt was terrible with his kicks and did little else .
I don't think Eisenhuth is good for the team. Tries hard but is slow and lumbering. A lock needs to be dynamic and powerful.
Luciano tried hard but looks immediately gassed...needs to lose some weight.
Noticed Lomax is mostly getting stopped dead in his tracks now with barely any PCM. Long time since he made a line break.
Some of the tries were very soft and if not under constant pressure I like to think we would have held them out.
On the positives, BMM did well off the bench. We will miss him this week.
Couchman had a good game and will also be missed.
If given a fair shake by fate and the refs, I think the storm game will be closer than most think.
Everyone is going on about the great Bulldogs game against Broncos.
In our game against the Broncos, if the refereeing hadn't changed and we were able to dominate possession again in the 2nd half, we would have also won by a big margin. As it was the Broncos had majority possession and position and were able to recover and make it close.
In the following match, I noticed the commentary was so complementary and positive of the Dolphins who were on only 2 points more than the Dragons, you would think they weren't only just above us on the ladder.
I still have hope we can surprise a few teams in the rest of this season.
