R1 v Titans.

[R&WTILLIDIE]

2 things.

Flanagan pointing to the Emblem - instant fave.

Second - Slogan - "Liddle Liddle, straight down the middle!"

I’m a simple man…this sort of thing makes me happy

 

[st.phil]

A lot of strong performers (hunt , lids, rfm, sloany) but my MoM was Lomax - man on a mission shit

 

[56to66]

For those who said St George would get the wooden spoon have no Idea about a Roster or just want to be f**kwits, last year saints lost 10 games by 2 points, let's say they had won 1/2 of those games, it would have been a completely different outlook amongst the so called fox experts heading into this season.
Flanno said a bit of spit and polish will help St George do a lot better.
They will be fighting for Top 8 finish, it will be a close comp with 28 points getting you a 8th with a strong points differential.

 

[SAP58]

Lomax was a beast. I thought he was out best.

Did anybody notice that the move of AJ Brimson to centre was not blown up into a player being unhappy story by the journos.

He was pulled out of the spine into a non-spine position, but it wasn't referred to as being dropped. Lomax's move to the wing has been referred to as a demotion since Flanno moved him and it has been incessant.

The other thing they haven't banged on about with AJ Brimson is how much he is on. He would be on good coin, but there has been absolutely no mention of his worth. Every article about Lomax ( and there has been heaps of them) quotes the 800k and nauseum.

Exactly !

 

[st.phil]

That was me. Did not say he was fast but he is one of our quickest in 40m shuttles. No dream. You need to go watch them train sometime. And I also said Lomax was happy and all this media and forum speculation was BS and stand by that.
Our Caveat.
We had 3 decent forwards missing, no ball in the 1st half..
Bird to ditch the soft hit up settlers.. they always go pear shaped.
Attack needs work as expected but the score should have been higher, we left 3 certain tries out there tonight if not more.

Lomax def looked quicker than last year , Smokey for a origin spot on the pick n swing, Madge is a fan

 

[mickeylane]

RFM looked like Scott Gourlay at his best - busting them up wide open at will offloading to supports.. big weapon!!
Gus would have his head in his hands this morning going “what have I done”

 

[Phantom V]

I

Who goes out for Lawrie, Sele and Luc?

M Molo, BMM? Hope Fifita gets another go next week?

How good was Fifita on debut? He’s a must in the starting 17. He’s a handful when he comes on and he actually ragdolled big Tino at one point.

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

Im not getting to carried away just yet but isn't it a nice change waking up and looking forward to next weeks game

 

[Gourley's Socks]

Credit to Dean Young also. There was a real tenacity to that defensive performance that we haven't seen for years and which was a hallmark of Dean's playing career.

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

There were a lot of positives from last night but the 2 that stood out for me were :
1. we finally learned that supporting the ball carrier pays dividends
2. And we never put the cue in the rack untill after the 80th minute

 

[Lovemedragons]

Lomax def looked quicker than last year , Smokey for a origin spot on the pick n swing, Madge is a fan

If he plays like last night every week then yeah SOO is a chance, what a revelation, had his best game Ive seen him play and now all I want to see is him as a winger, Flanagan is a genius, no one on earth predicted it was the right move for Lomax, but him.

 

[Number of the Beath]

I've noticed a change in Hunt too. I reckon the old Hunt would have dropped his head after that knock-on from the kickoff, especially with that showpony grub Tino getting in his face about it.
Last night, though, he got stuck in and steered us around the park, albeit aided by a stellar performance from Flanagan.
Watching the repeat on F*X now. I could do this sh*t all day.
Can't wait to see more.

 

[Mojo]

Its such a big deal to get that first win.. kflan to kiss the emblem.. the boys gel all that work they did over the off-season and get some confidence.. new blokes sing the song (I know we did in the trial too, but this is much sweeter), Hunt actually crack a smile... and went to a winning press conference... I havent seen the boys walking around the field after a game in so long.. chatting away to eachother... compare that to how deflating a first up loss could have been to overcome. Wonder what Hook is thinking to himself from his living room?

Doesnt mean we win next week, but its a bluddy good start... we do need that spine to stay fit though.. Liddle is always moving forward it makes such a difference when he goes off, and this is exactly what i was saying about Sloan all last week, is that if he cant bust tackles himself, he has to work on supporting non-stop, because he has a tonne of blokes who will happily make the holes for him.. we just need him to be there when they do...

Hopefully this will put some of the Lomax chatter to bed.. hes a good centre, but there is no way he can provide that level of impact from that position.. he never has before.. and its not like he was running the length.. half of that ~250m work was post contact metres, put on with his footwork.. just getting us an extra 5 or 10m at a time and rolling forward.... but even more than that..... he must have been there for 5 or 6 short dropouts? I mean can you imagine if that had resulted in 5-6 handovers to the Titans instead? Like it did last year every time.... Maybe we wouldnt be singing the song tonight... tbh I wonder if we should be tapping back more than trying to catch a contested bomb though, but it came off most times tonight... surely teams will kick to Ravas side in the future?

With Bird I dunno.. tbh I love his physicality in defence, im not sure if we bring anyone else in we will have our defensive wall.. but his errors were quite unforced.. and he almost needs his passing licence revoked, just hold it with 2 hands and run. Tbh if Bird was to be dropped at some stage, I reckon its for Tamale.. and Lomax stays put.

Not sure what the best way to fit Eisenhuth, RFM, Leilua, Lawrie, Sele into the team.. But thats Flanagans problem, and its a good problem for once.. not sure we want to lose RFM from that side,, but Leilua and Su'a need to be there also.. I think Flanno will have some ideas obviously.. now that we won, it was great that Leilua got that extra week of training

Edit: Just to mention, I bet Shane Flanagan sleeps well tonight.. what a ride he has been on, some of that load he has been carrying for all this time finally let go... and I think it will do his confidence a world of good.. he seems bullet-proof to all the criticism and media stories... but he's human too.

 

[mickeylane]

Who goes out for Lawrie, Sele and Luc?

M Molo, BMM? Hope Fifita gets another go next week?

2 changes next week
IN
Lawrie
Leilua

OUT
M Molo
BMM

 

[mickeylane]

Lomax def looked quicker than last year , Smokey for a origin spot on the pick n swing, Madge is a fan

Madge loves big bodies in backline .. Lomax definitely a big origin chance if he plays like this for the first 10 rounds - plus Lomax a great target man for Clearys pin point kicks in the air..

 

[kit66]

I was watching the match on my phone whilst at local Japanese restaurant and couldn’t take my eyes off it. My missus (bronco supporter.) was sympathetic and didn’t interfere as she said it was great to see me watch a dragons match with a smile on my face!
Well done to all the players and coaches

Me too, a ridiculously expensive Japanese restaurant in the City (Bris) for our anniversary. I thought I won't look at my phone or check the score and just watch the replay later. We got in the car and I cracked after about a minute and put the ABC on and heard "the ref is looking at that, I think they'll be a man down for the rest of the game" and I'm thinking oh no DeBelin or Su'a or someone's done something but it was some Union game. I found an FM station calling our game and heard the last 20 minutes, high fiving my wife and carrying on all the way home. Good night out.

 

[hewi]

I

How good was Fifita on debut? He’s a must in the starting 17. He’s a handful when he comes on and he actually ragdolled big Tino at one point.

I know he didn’t get a lot of game time but I was very impressed in his urgency to get back in the defensive line after a tackle. Big future and to think we got him for Woods FFS.

 

[VodkaSaint]

Wake up
Shut up
Go Dragons
We got Liddle that makes me very API
Mariner and Kyle from the bulldogs crying for them to go back
We had Hame seleh out, also Luciano and Lawrie
We have a monster pack
Sloane proving me right but had my doubts
Lomax best game yet
Jaden Sua and Suli
Bloody (c) Hunt is happy
Eisenhuth is a must re sign 34 tackle only one miss
Bird is still mistake riddled but massive improvement, and there is our reserves bloody Tamale , Sione , Eagan and at least six others on the rise
Couchman twins
But wait there more!
Will get a couple more sightings

 

[2218]

On top of all the other positives I thought flannos use of the interchange was clever

 

[Dragsters]

Liddle was mine. He was huge in attack and defence

Mine too. He has developed exponentially during the off season as far as I can see...