Question about Matt Dufty

[Michaeldragonslife25]

Go through this forum you’ll find a load of people saying dufty s always getting out muscled by opposition defenders and gets pushed back too far due to his light frame it’s curren thinking by a lot of people
Tedesco 95kg
Tuivasa sheck 95kg
Tom Trbojevic 103kg
Matt Dufty. 83kg
Dufty played reggies last week the others were in first grade I rest my case

I think dufty at 87 now no? And I think 90 would be perfect playing weight for dufty
Also billy slayer was 1 cm shorter than dufty and played at 87-89 so I don’t think size is everything but yes dufty has to put on a bit of muscle for some reasons our lower grade don’t...Lawrie for a prop is too small field dufty quite small Ford a bit on the lighter side

 

[Wittenberg]

It's surprising someone with so many deficiencies has managed to play as much first grade as he has... He is just Quinlan 2.0, maybe the English game will suit him, Adam seems to be doing OK over there.

We have a habit of writing off players as no good who come back to bite us with other clubs. Remember Prior and Beale were written off as rubbish on this forum and only reserve grade material. Both went on to win premiership rings atCronulla. Barba was viewed as too small and a defensive liability when he first hit the NRL at Canterbury and it took two seasons for him to hit his straps, and for his coach to work out how to use him.....another premiership winner. Garrick was viewed by most on this forum as weak defensively and was seen as probably no loss. We have changed our tune now. Dufty has deficiencies, more than Norman? More than Hunt? More than Laurie? More than Rava? More than Lafai or Aitken? If we are convinced yes, well off he goes, but I am not convinced yet. Especially seeing the only replacement for him would be the only decent centre we have. And for those who feel Rava should be moved to the centres, remember Mary is our coach, enough said. Quinlan was no where near the attacking weapon Dufty could be under a different coach. Yes Dufty has been disappointing in games but I think he is worth one more year. Personally I’d prefer to see him not make the with grade us than see him succeed against us with another team. And I hear many on this forum chanting ‘Sailor, Sailor “, but he could end up a Dufty 2.0. I certainly remember two years ago the chant was “Dufty “ because he was going to be our saviour.....maybe the simple answer is that we put incredible pressure on those we believe to be our saviours, we don’t seem to put it on Host, Lawrie, Kerr or Norman etc

 

[Forbes Creek Dragons]

We have a habit of writing off players as no good who come back to bite us with other clubs. Remember Prior and Beale were written off as rubbish on this forum and only reserve grade material. Both went on to win premiership rings atCronulla. Barba was viewed as too small and a defensive liability when he first hit the NRL at Canterbury and it took two seasons for him to hit his straps, and for his coach to work out how to use him.....another premiership winner. Garrick was viewed by most on this forum as weak defensively and was seen as probably no loss. We have changed our tune now. Dufty has deficiencies, more than Norman? More than Hunt? More than Laurie? More than Rava? More than Lafai or Aitken? If we are convinced yes, well off he goes, but I am not convinced yet. Especially seeing the only replacement for him would be the only decent centre we have. And for those who feel Rava should be moved to the centres, remember Mary is our coach, enough said. Quinlan was no where near the attacking weapon Dufty could be under a different coach. Yes Dufty has been disappointing in games but I think he is worth one more year. Personally I’d prefer to see him not make the with grade us than see him succeed against us with another team. And I hear many on this forum chanting ‘Sailor, Sailor “, but he could end up a Dufty 2.0. I certainly remember two years ago the chant was “Dufty “ because he was going to be our saviour.....maybe the simple answer is that we put incredible pressure on those we believe to be our saviours, we don’t seem to put it on Host, Lawrie, Kerr or Norman etc

The problem with Dragons supporters is we are always looking for the great white hope. Maybe because we are a development club I guess, where we are waiting to see who will fill our ranks, where the Roosters just buy all the best juniors from all the other clubs, ready to go just needing a touch of polish.
Problem is no one is good straight away other than maybe Andrew Johns. Cooper Cronk, Jonathan Thurston, even Darius Boyd took years to reach their level literally years. JT was considered too small and was a bit part bench player at the Dogs and look where he ended up.

 

[boardlumps62]

We have a habit of writing off players as no good who come back to bite us with other clubs. Remember Prior and Beale were written off as rubbish on this forum and only reserve grade material. Both went on to win premiership rings atCronulla. Barba was viewed as too small and a defensive liability when he first hit the NRL at Canterbury and it took two seasons for him to hit his straps, and for his coach to work out how to use him.....another premiership winner. Garrick was viewed by most on this forum as weak defensively and was seen as probably no loss. We have changed our tune now. Dufty has deficiencies, more than Norman? More than Hunt? More than Laurie? More than Rava? More than Lafai or Aitken? If we are convinced yes, well off he goes, but I am not convinced yet. Especially seeing the only replacement for him would be the only decent centre we have. And for those who feel Rava should be moved to the centres, remember Mary is our coach, enough said. Quinlan was no where near the attacking weapon Dufty could be under a different coach. Yes Dufty has been disappointing in games but I think he is worth one more year. Personally I’d prefer to see him not make the with grade us than see him succeed against us with another team. And I hear many on this forum chanting ‘Sailor, Sailor “, but he could end up a Dufty 2.0. I certainly remember two years ago the chant was “Dufty “ because he was going to be our saviour.....maybe the simple answer is that we put incredible pressure on those we believe to be our saviours, we don’t seem to put it on Host, Lawrie, Kerr or Norman etc

Only because your Wittenberg do I agree we keep Duft (short for Dufty like the Hoff). If you watched him burn the opposition down the sideline with a little gear shift last week in Reggie's you gotta love him. Same size as Billy Slater should be able to handle fullback he just needs a coach to teach him the art of position at the back. Then we need a coach to teach the other 12 in front of him how to get him into gaps.

 

[j0nesy]

I’d say the rumours are true. It’s a shame because I reckon he’d be great under the right leadership and coaching.

 

[Number of the Beath]

Hmmm... Dufty told to look elsewhere and Host and Leilua also rumoured to be told to look elsewhere.
All three are St George juniors.
Has the purge begun...?!

 

[Wittenberg]

Hmmm... Dufty told to look elsewhere and Host and Leilua also rumoured to be told to look elsewhere.
All three are St George juniors.
Has the purge begun...?!

Host I can accept, not good losing a junior, but I can accept him going IF they are going to do better than him with the replacement or if they decide to develop another junior forward prospect. To me Host was a solid bench player, no more really, but he never did, or for that matter, never would let us down. Leilua is a totally different matter. Yes he can be inconsistent, yes at times he does not get involved enough, but boy he has talent. Can ball play, has speed and, when he uses it, power. He may just be something special, perhaps only one week out of three, but special none the less. If you watched the game closely against the Titans, he hit the line and was looking for support so often but no one was there.....Dufty follow Luc all game and he will make you look better. Losing Luc would be a huge mistake. If he has been told to look elsewhere ....FMD

 

[nontime111]

it would be the biggest disgrace in modern Dragons history losing Luch

He is still SO young, he is an excitement machine who has more talent than ANY other forward ive seen here in 20 years

Kids like Luch take years to become CONSISTENT and theres nothing you an do its a fine art, ball playing forward.... I saw an Artie Beetson Documentary last night and Luch has a LOT Of his skills!

Yes ANY of the old coaches in our golden era, Im talking right up to Bennet, specially Brownie the way hed beautifully superbly use our juniors and nurture them fully into grade...we were ALWAYS strongest as a club when we used and respected and had FAITH ( thats whats missing, always wanting instant results) IN our juniours for they ARE our soul!! nothing short....weve actually NEVER got rid of, unloaded SO many kids with great potential....its a disgrace alright and looks like actual political sabotage....as if Mary and the whole board are paid off stooges who hate our club being paid by some other club or organisation to destroy our club so slow and ugly it looks like an accident.....I want them all sacked if they let LUCH go!!!!!

We need the opposite approach, this is what Brownie, Waity, Masters, Bathy, Benny, ANY of our actual great coaches would do... keep Luch, Ford etc, the ball playing forwards specially Luch...and keep his little man with him for as long as possible and youll see the results, just need to consistently pick them, they will find their feet , and with the right coach our game would be based around the telepathic chemistry of ball playing forwards with little men like DUff Sailor Lomax etc backing them up..imagine our team if we had one of our normal old coaches like Brownie say.... wed have little blokes like Duff scoring willy nilly off big Luch and I so cant wait to see it!! please dont let Luch go hes one of my very very few players I enjoy watching at all now hes SO boring Mcyawn....why dont we learn from the past, what WORKED for us as a club>?>? It was our juniors weve always had stacks of them... I wont pay up as a member again until idiots gone.....but if Luch is shown the door I wont be back....hell STAR for another team against us, POSSIBLY with DUFTY there in that team also!!! in a few years theyll both be superstars I god hope iots still with us im SO SO SICK OF LOSING!!!!!! i
t is like wiping sh()*^ on my Dragons soul and it is like pi(&( on our great club and its history and all whove come before to make this club GREAT! Its an attempt to destroy us by the NRL ID say for some political reason....they fear us.....we need to take to the streets now like in 95 SOS campaign Mary MUST go as soon as the last games over this season but the psycho wrecker better not let Luch go!!

 

[denis preston]

Hmmm... Dufty told to look elsewhere and Host and Leilua also rumoured to be told to look elsewhere.
All three are St George juniors.
Has the purge begun...?!

Again, these are just rumors and would you be telling Lulia to go after his past couple of weeks and Host when 2 forwards are leaving us ?

 

[Dragon Blood]

Red V mad to shop around Matt Dufty
Reports that the Dragons are willing to shop around Matt Dufty caught me off guard. Surely they cannot be true.

DAN NICHOLLS
CONTRIBUTOR
NOVEMBER 7, 2018 - 10:34 AM

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TOWNSVILLE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 21: Matt Dufty of the Dragons makes a break which lead to him scoring a try during the round 19 NRL match between the North Queensland Cowboys and the St George Illawarra Dragons at 1300SMILES Stadium on July 21, 2018 in Townsville, Australia. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
When recent reports mentioned that the St George Illawarra Dragons were looking to possibly shop around their fullback Matt Dufty, I was shocked.

The fact that the club have not come out and immediately rubbished such reports have me literally scratching my head in disbelief.

How in the world could the Dragons, having moved on international and Origin regular Josh Dugan to accommodate the development of Dufty, be looking to move on their first-choice fullback?

Yes, towards the end of the season there were times that Dufty had off games. The kid is 22 years of age and in his first full year of NRL action.

The Dragons’ brass must have short memories, having already forgotten the blistering start to the 2018 season produced by their new number one.

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Dufty, much like the entire club, suffered during the Origin period and never totally re-found his form after, but there was a genuine three-week period where Dufty was the literal only route of attach for a struggling and out of ideas Red V.

Ben Hunt had lost confidence and Gareth Widdop had lost the early season polish. The Dragons’ pack were not chewing up and spitting out opposition forwards like in the early rounds. The outside backs, try as they might, just weren’t bending the defensive line so often.

The Dragons’ game-plan legitimately looked a case of ruck it up for four, throw it out back to see if Dufty can create something out of nothing, then kick deep. Aaaaaand … Repeat!

The supposed reason for the shopping around of the 5ft10 whippet is his supposed laziness off the ball.

The 22 year-old, in his first full season at top grade, who is still learning the game.

Tough call if true!

Imagine if the Sharks had walked Valentine Holmes after his first stint at fullback?

Holmes, for all his try-scoring heroics on the wing in the 2016 Premiership winning campaign, struggled to adapt to the role of fullback. He stared in the role in the lower grades and the Sharks took steps to improve his confidence.

Fast forward and Holmes is one of the top three of four number one fullbacks in the game.

Dufty has the speed of Holmes and is probably a little more advanced in terms of ball-playing skills at the same point of their careers.

The only difference between the two is that Holmes has an easy 10 kilos on the much slighter Dufty. Otherwise, they’re not exactly a world apart in terms of skills set.

For the Dragons to even be considering shopping this kid around is pure madness.

Talk is they’re looking to switch Dufty out to bring in Jarryd Hayne. The thinking is that Hayne can fill the number one role under Jai Field is ready to take the reigns.

I’m a big fan of Field. If the Dragons want speed, they have it in spades with young Field. He is a slightly larger build than Dufty but hasn’t yet developed the skill set of Dufty.

He might. You probably could go so far as to say he will, but Dufty is hardly a player I’d be looking to move on.

If Holmes, as expected, signs for the Cowboys, I’d happily drive and pick Dufty up and bring him into the Shire.

If the Dragons’ long-term view is to move Field to fullback, fair enough, but Dufty is a player, who by that stage, would be well suited for a shift to the centres.

There’s even a chance, given his footwork and ability to move the ball quickly, that he’ll end up in the halves one day.

Whether or not he shifts or stays at fullback, I really don’t see being ‘lazy off the ball’ as being a deal breaker considering his talents.

Another off-season working with international halves will surely help remedy that.

If I were a Dragons fan I’d certainly be hanging onto hope that reports are untrue and that Dufty is given another season, at least, to prove his worth.

For mine, given his talent, I simply can’t believe the Dragons would even entertain the idea of shopping him around.

If it’s true though, let me know when I can pick him up and bring him back to the Shire.

What a talent.

 

[muzby]

it would be the biggest disgrace in modern Dragons history losing Luch

I see your Luch and raise you this:
https://www.dragons.com.au/news/2019/04/18/mcgregor-coaching-contract-extended/

 

[Wittenberg]

I see your Luch and raise you this:
https://www.dragons.com.au/news/2019/04/18/mcgregor-coaching-contract-extended/

Why did you post that link? Why? Why? Reading that article announcing Mary’s resigning made me laugh maniacally, I started twitching and .........Damn you!

 

[St Hope]

Duffy was told he could look around at the beginning of the season but when the experiment with spine and Gareths injury it was promptly taken back.
So given the confidence shown by stupor coach earlier in the season and he and the wingers being blamed for most loses this season it is a credit that they have any self belief at all.
He has two things Duggan doesn't great pace and a passing game and if he was put in a team where there off loads by the forwards I am sure his involvement would go through the roof but at the moment he could follow our forwards around and only catch a cold.
No Sack Mary and we will have a better team

 

[41yearsaint]

Duff was our leading try scorer last year.

Periera was this year, until he got mysteriously dropped.

Mann and Nightingale where leading try scorers and then changed positions or moved to the bench as impact players/forwards.

THOSE BLOODY RUSSIANS HAVE HACKED MARY'S COMPUTER!!!!!

 

[nontime111]

I love Dufty and I think hell come good!!
Id love to see this line up next season

Dufty
Saab
Lomax
Ravalawa ( cant stand Aitken , as a player even though he tries and seems a pretty nice fella, I cant stand Laughais total LACK of consistency also, One crack game every 6 or 7 not good enough Ravi and Lomax will go far better, silky ball skills and raw boned wild Mungrel at least SOMETHING will happen!!)
Sailor ( MUST be in the team start him here hes a natural and true footballer like his Dad amazing pedigree and deserves a shot to impress)
Norman
Hunt

 

[FlameThrower]

If Luc, Host and Dufty rumours are true then what’s the point of junior development if we will just bring them thru grade then off load them.
Might as well go down Roosters, Souths and Storm path - buy the best you can and forget about juniors.

 

[Dragon Revival]

I would not be letting Host and Leilua go as Sims, Frizell and Vaughan are nearing 30 and Graham is near the end. De Belin is gone.
We will soon have a geriatric pack with the only youth being Ford, Lawrie, Mc Innes and Korbin Sims. I doubt that Kerr and Timm will be resigned and Allgood and Kafusi are useless and Latimore is retiring. The forward stocks similar to the backs are very bare!

 

[TruSaint]

If Luc, Host and Dufty rumours are true then what’s the point of junior development if we will just bring them thru grade then off load them.
Might as well go down Roosters, Souths and Storm path - buy the best you can and forget about juniors.

Storm and Chooks have shown talent scouts are more important nowadays than local junior pathways.
Im not advocating dismissing our junior base, but would suggest the clubs mentioned probably spend more time and money in identifying talent, no matter where they come from.

 

[qld redvee]

Host I can accept, not good losing a junior, but I can accept him going IF they are going to do better than him with the replacement or if they decide to develop another junior forward prospect. To me Host was a solid bench player, no more really, but he never did, or for that matter, never would let us down. Leilua is a totally different matter. Yes he can be inconsistent, yes at times he does not get involved enough, but boy he has talent. Can ball play, has speed and, when he uses it, power. He may just be something special, perhaps only one week out of three, but special none the less. If you watched the game closely against the Titans, he hit the line and was looking for support so often but no one was there.....Dufty follow Luc all game and he will make you look better. Losing Luc would be a huge mistake. If he has been told to look elsewhere ....FMD

wittenberg agree totally with you re leilua kid has massive potential and we should at least keep him on the books . Im fairly sure i heard supercoach ?? ( not sure) say that he needs to lose a couple of kilos to become a better player so if thats the case train him get him a dietician and work on him !!! at worst if he is overweight he must be better than Latimore !!!! seems like everyone but our 2 centres are getting moved on ... so how do we perform better in 2020 with these 2 out wide !

 

[SBD82]

If Luc, Host and Dufty rumours are true then what’s the point of junior development if we will just bring them thru grade then off load them.
Might as well go down Roosters, Souths and Storm path - buy the best you can and forget about juniors.

Storm and Chooks have shown talent scouts are more important nowadays than local junior pathways.
Im not advocating dismissing our junior base, but would suggest the clubs mentioned probably spend more time and money in identifying talent, no matter where they come from.

I don’t think that’s the full story.

What the roosters and Melbourne do incredibly well is transition their junior talent to first grade. They rarely recruit players who have debuted at other clubs, and when they do, they buy players who are proven, with a strategy to fill a weakness in their first grade team. They can afford to do this because of the value that they get from the juniors who they promote at the end of their low $ junior contracts.

If we were to improve the systems that we have in place for the promotion of juniors, we could recruit in a similar fashion. Unfortunately, the club isn’t as capable in this regard as the top clubs.

Dufty, Leilua and Host’s trajectories wouldn’t have been acceptable to the roosters or Storm. They would have been developed better, and if they hadn’t made the transition to first grade they would have been treated much more ruthlessly. Shit or get off the toilet.