R2 v Dolphins.

[baggygreen man]

Vili Fifita has to be given another chance. Flanagan only gave him a piddling 8 mins last week and in that short time he made four powerful carries and 9 tackles. How did that not impress our coach. A fresh big bopper like Vili coming off the bench late can do some damage against a tired defense, but for 20 mins not 8.

 

[baggygreen man]

You believe Blocka was fully recovered from his reported rib cartilage injury

No. Such is his passion for his jumper, fit or not he still managed more metres than any other forward and pulled off his usual tackle load. What happens if he aggravated that injury in Reserves, we'd lose one of our best for a longer period. Besides, he probably convinced Flanno that he was ready to go.

 

[baggygreen man]

In what world is Ravalawa ever going to out jump Jamayne Isaako?

At least make a bloody effort as he may have forced Isaako to spill the pill.

 

[Gareth67]

Have you been told today !!!!!!!!

Not for quite some time , however I will take the hint and never mention the maestro’s name again .

 

[jeffdragon]

Had we held the ball the score wouldn't of been nowhere as bad.
Even Sloan when he made a break kicked poorly twice.

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

Not for quite some time , however I will take the hint and never mention the maestro’s name again .

Haha...hope your well mate

 

[2010Dragons]

Doing the same thing over and over again and achieving the same result is the epidemy of lunacy...
Let me explain; I don't blame the players for the poor performance, the coaches have a lot to answer for. The game plan was all wrong. Running 4 up the middle then kicking a high ball over and over again only gave the dolphins better field position every set.

When Hunt kicked a 40/20 we gain good position. When Sloan did a chip and chase kick, he almost scored. They gain good field position.

We were down 16 -0 and the players are still playing the same WRONG game plan.

Flanno should have sent out the message to kick down field EARLY and turn their forwards around. Then gain field position then setup a try scoring play. Even on the second tackle...just get the ball down field and bash them in the tackle, force the error.

Bennett had the dolphins playing the EXACT same game plan, but they have faster backs and stronger forwards. They had more intensity to win.

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

I’m just so disappointed at the size of the loss. I’ve only seen short highlights package so relying on other forum members to provide some observations; but 38-0 good grief!

agree its not so much the loss but the magnitude....to leak 38 points and score blot is totally unacceptable.....as for relying on us for observations of the game bud theres unfortunately no highs just a load of miserable lows....to many to scribe on here

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

Doing the same thing over and over again and achieving the same result is the epidemy of lunacy...
Let me explain; I don't blame the players for the poor performance, the coaches have a lot to answer for. The game plan was all wrong. Running 4 up the middle then kicking a high ball over and over again only gave the dolphins better field position every set.

When Hunt kicked a 40/20 we gain good position. When Sloan did a chip and chase kick, he almost scored. They gain good field position.

We were down 16 -0 and the players are still playing the same WRONG game plan.

Flanno should have sent out the message to kick down field EARLY and turn their forwards around. Then gain field position then setup a try scoring play. Even on the second tackle...just get the ball down field and bash them in the tackle, force the error.

Bennett had the dolphins playing the EXACT same game plan, but they have faster backs and stronger forwards. They had more intensity to win.

Well observed post

 

[justadragon]

We do have to make changes this week, there will be no doubt that in most of our games we will be under pressure and we have to learn how to handle that and return with our own attack. It was evident that when we were getting run over by their forwards our halves are incapable of getting momentum back. Have we seen enough of Flanno jr at 6, I dont know, Have we seen enough of Bird at centre, I dont know, Lomax and Sloan ? Lawrie and Luc I suppose will be better for the run, but RFM was not as effective as last week in the middle. MMolo and Eisenhuth were nowhere to be seen. My gut feeling says play these guys again and lets see if they redeem themselves. At the Dolphins PC Bennett was asked why the Phins played the way they did this week and last week, His answer was "you'll have to ask them " . Our extremely piss poor performance has to be addressed by our players and possibly a good look in the mirror to question that you are worthy of putting on a Dragons jumper. How we respond next week will define us, and I certainly dont want to hear about players upset about not playing in their position, just for the record when you get pumped 38-0 you dont even deserve to be on the field.

 

[TheRev]

I’m just so disappointed at the size of the loss. I’ve only seen short highlights package so relying on other forum members to provide some observations; but 38-0 good grief!

I picked the 40-0 scoreline with about 25mins to go (my family thought I was mad), to me you can see these things coming, at no point did it look like we could out-muscle them.. our energy meter was just being depleted all match.

There was a couple of sets where we had the ball after a penalty and we simply had to score or it was over.. but we had nothing left to give in attack.. no power runners left... no energy for shape.. no nothing.... and therefore no way to win... it was almost like the same game loop for 80 minutes.. they caught the ball on the fly in good field position and belted us into our corner.. the stats that everyone is talking about that werent good.. I mean of course they are awful (even Lomaxes despite a herculean effort).. when you have to cart the ball off your tryline.. you are spending 2-3 tackles every set just fighting for a couple of scrappy PCM.. and if you arent careful you'll go backwards.. they can frontload their energy in defence also... versus last week where we had lots of field position, and our big fast boys could get a full head of steam and run off the back of eachother. The stats are a reflection of the overall team game we played, not the individuals.

 

[Dragon David]

We do have to make changes this week, there will be no doubt that in most of our games we will be under pressure and we have to learn how to handle that and return with our own attack. It was evident that when we were getting run over by their forwards our halves are incapable of getting momentum back. Have we seen enough of Flanno jr at 6, I dont know, Have we seen enough of Bird at centre, I dont know, Lomax and Sloan ? Lawrie and Luc I suppose will be better for the run, but RFM was not as effective as last week in the middle. MMolo and Eisenhuth were nowhere to be seen. My gut feeling says play these guys again and lets see if they redeem themselves. At the Dolphins PC Bennett was asked why the Phins played the way they did this week and last week, His answer was "you'll have to ask them " . Our extremely piss poor performance has to be addressed by our players and possibly a good look in the mirror to question that you are worthy of putting on a Dragons jumper. How we respond next week will define us, and I certainly dont want to hear about players upset about not playing in their position, just for the record when you get pumped 38-0 you dont even deserve to be on the field.

Our guys were simply outplayed and outmuscled and outrun by a better team of players who have a coach with loads of experience and ability to get his team to lift after their bad loss last week. Our players just didn't have the same intensity as the weeks before in their wins against the Tigers and Titans and Flanno and Young etc should have made sure that the players' attitudes were positive and wanted to play hard footy which was going to be the case.

I just think that our guys were not prepared properly for the game and once those initial tries were scored the Dolphins defended the points which is what we did against the Titans. Don't forget that the Titans were without Foran, Campbell and David Fifita and we did have Lawrie, LL and Sele out but I think the loss of Foran by the Titans was the key to us winning last week.

I hated that we got beat by many to NIL. That shows that we have so much improvement to achieve for the games ahead - we have only played the Titans and Dolphins not Penrith, Roosters etc. so the road ahead will be a massive task for us.

 

[st.phil]

Anyone else think if the Bird no try goes up as try it’s awarded? Turning point

 

[rasaint]

Thanks for some insights The Rev and BSE ( and everyone else).
I have long felt that Blocker Lawrie is the most courageous but one of the least effective props going around. No offloads just lumbering runs gaining a bit of ground. Before this match I posted that I wasn’t happy with Blocker and Luc being included; changing a winning team.

In brief highlights I saw Sloan accelerate through, chip over hammer, race side by side but the ball carved right for hammer on the line. Another was Sloan not driving low for try and hammer knocked ball from his grasp. Why we don’t recruit speed more, I will never know. We won the comp in 2010 with speed galore in the backs. Boyd, Morris, Gaznier, Cooper, Soward wow! Bennet and Bellamy recruit speed. Dolphins this year bought Farnsworth and Averillo. Apparently, Tamale and Finau left in reserve grade are no good for NRL?

 

[Gareth67]

Haha...hope your well mate

Yes thanks BSEyes , have just about fully recovered now and looking forward to this season .

 

[Wolfgang90]

Our kicking game was Park footy level. Deplorable. Kicked it down their throats 9 times our if 10 and the kick chase was non existent after The Hammer scored from our kick.

The Dolphins were allowed to wrestle and impede our attempts at a fast play the ball and they were moving early all game. Ref allowed it for them but policed it if we tried it.

We allowed their kickers too much time and we were too casual getting the ball to ground when we should have tucked the ball into our chest and fallen to score. 3 times the knocked the ball out of our hands as we were scoring. I think Flanno needs to do some drills around this

Hunt over played his hand imo. Flanno had like 50 kick meters compared to hunts 500...

 

[Wolfgang90]

I thought sua was very poor, he's meant to be one of our leaders & battling for rep jersey but he didn't make any impact with his runs or defence. They bullied him & our team. We need Sua & the like to step up a level when the other team challenges us.

TBH if he continues to have middling performances then I'm no fussed if we don't re-sign him. If he can't show he should be in the conversation for Rep honors then we shouldn't re-sign him.

 

[BLM01]

Agreed BLM. You just have to look at both of the teams first 2 weeks - Dolphins played the crap game last week and came out firing last night. We played really well the first week and then were flat last night. A week is definitely a long time in league.

I think the second half was indicative of what we were put through in the first. They were off the line super fast all night. And I mean ALL night - it was relentless until the final whistle. I was often wondering if they were ever on side. They must have been as they seemed to be able to consistently do it with little repercussion. Given we were pretty much trying to get out of our own half all night, it was no wonder that it opened up in the second half. They dominated our outside backs and seemed to be able to slow down our play the ball (although that could be deceptive as we were eventually just moving in slow motion). When we did get a run of quick play the balls we ended up making mistakes as we were just so gassed. The halves had no room and got caught out often. The backs were dominated as were the forwards. One thing I look for is domination in the tackles and the ability to have players up and at marker before the ball is played - we did it last week but this week it was abysmal. That's one area the Dolphins were able to capitalize on. I think we just did too much in the first half to be able to sustain it and the field position really didn't change the whole game. Very disappointing follow up to the first game.

Having said all that, I saw enough in the Titans game to think we've got something there to work with - we just need to work on getting it right and being more consistent. It's not going to turn around immediately after 1 pre-season.

As for the Bird argument, I don't know what to do there. I just don't think we have a winger that can come in to replace Lomax at the moment. Unfortunately, I think we are stuck with the current team until someone is willing to stand up in reggies or we are able to snag someone who can slot straight in.

Agree, with all, Flanigan indicated, there might be some changes, although not sure who to target here everyone had their moments
if I have to pick someone, it would be Rava, he may multiple poor errors

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

I picked the 40-0 scoreline with about 25mins to go (my family thought I was mad), to me you can see these things coming, at no point did it look like we could out-muscle them.. our energy meter was just being depleted all match.

There was a couple of sets where we had the ball after a penalty and we simply had to score or it was over.. but we had nothing left to give in attack.. no power runners left... no energy for shape.. no nothing.... and therefore no way to win... it was almost like the same game loop for 80 minutes.. they caught the ball on the fly in good field position and belted us into our corner.. the stats that everyone is talking about that werent good.. I mean of course they are awful (even Lomaxes despite a herculean effort).. when you have to cart the ball off your tryline.. you are spending 2-3 tackles every set just fighting for a couple of scrappy PCM.. and if you arent careful you'll go backwards.. they can frontload their energy in defence also... versus last week where we had lots of field position, and our big fast boys could get a full head of steam and run off the back of eachother. The stats are a reflection of the overall team game we played, not the individuals.

Unfortunately I called a loss within 10mins of kick off.....we are so predictable early when we havnt come to compete Im afraid....I guess it comes from watching all the crap since 2010

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

Agree, with all, Flanigan indicated, there might be some changes, although not sure who to target here everyone had their moments
if I have to pick someone, it would be Rava, he may multiple poor errors

He could mean positional changes tbh