R3 v Cowboys

[Blood Shot Eyes]

Looking forward to Saturday are we !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Negatives:
The Cows flogged the Phins 43 to 18
The Phins flogged us 38 to 0
The Cows have a 7 day turn around we have 6
The Cows are 2 from 2
We have played the Cows 38 times they have won 21 and we have 17
Belinda Sharpe the referee comes from Nth Queensland
And Liddell is out for us (big loss)

The Positives:
We only play them once this year

Now on that positive note I do feel better so I will sleep like a baby.............good night all

 

[TheRev]

Looking forward to Saturday are we !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Negatives:
The Cows flogged the Phins 43 to 18
The Phins flogged us 38 to 0
The Cows have a 7 day turn around we have 6
The Cows are 2 from 2
We have played the Cows 38 times they have won 21 and we have 17
Belinda Sharpe the referee comes from Nth Queensland
And Liddell is out for us (big loss)

The Positives:
We only play them once this year

Now on that positive note I do feel better so I will sleep like a baby.............good night all

No doubt by now you will be sound asleep, but you have forgotten our ace in the hole, Big Deano.. who unlike you.. will not be sleeping... he will instead be crafting the perfect blueprint for Flanno to systematically destroy the NQLD defensive line.

 

[hewi]

The positive is, could we play any worse?

 

[sammymills]

I'm pretty sure from what I remember he copped a whack in the head that went unnoticed early in the first half.

Maybe that was the reason?

And I'm never rewatching that game to confirm the above.

From my memory of the first half I just remember seeing liddle make tackle after tackle. It seemed all their fowards ran right at him.

 

[st.phil]

Is Belinda Sharpe actually officiating or is that a piss take?

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

No doubt by now you will be sound asleep, but you have forgotten our ace in the hole, Big Deano.. who unlike you.. will not be sleeping... he will instead be crafting the perfect blueprint for Flanno to systematically destroy the NQLD defensive line.

Ha ha hope your right Rev

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

Is Belinda Sharpe actually officiating or is that a piss take?

No Its fact I looked up the Team list and there she is

 

[Illusion]

The positive is, could we play any worse?

Probably , not but can they play good enough to win , probably not so either way we are F**KED ........

 

[Dragon David]

My heart will always say we win but I just cannot see us doing that against a formidable team such as the Cowboys. My only hope is that our guys play a more disciplined, strong and tough game and take it to the end and not get pummelled.

I don't mind losing provided it is not another thrashing.

 

[thebigredv]

My heart will always say we win but I just cannot see us doing that against a formidable team such as the Cowboys. My only hope is that our guys play a more disciplined, strong and tough game and take it to the end and not get pummelled.

I don't mind losing provided it is not another thrashing.

David, I am sure you will appreciate my doom and gloom here.
Reading your post made me think...
In the time we have been down since the premiership and particularly the cellar dweller years since 2018, the Cowboys started off as a club somehow even worse off than us. Now they have built themselves back to a place of dominance with a rookie coach. Meanwhile all our club could muster was to tell us to put faith in Hook and Mary and then re-sign and sack them both within months on both occasions. How do you spell 'rabble'?

Flanagan feels different at least. He will be out for the win but I too will take a competitive loss.

 

[st.phil]

just wanna see aggression back in defence and line speed - build the game from there

 

[steerlerbab]

Under Abdo and Vlandys, NRL has become a copy of Premier league. If you look at Premier league, it is very hard for a team outside of Man United, City, Arsenal and Chelsea to win. It is a 2 tier competition. Liverpool won it once in the last decade and that is that. Contrast that to the old first division (ended in 1990s) when every team had a chance. Anyway, Premier League is huge business and NRL is following in its footsteps. NRL, already awash with money is talking of buying Super League, extending to US, etc. My prediction, 20 years from now and premierships will belong to Penrith, Brisbane Melbourne, Roosters and maybe south. The rest of us will be there to make the numbers. For us Dragons. Raiders, knights, dogs, Eels, etc making to top 4 would feel like winning the comp.

Paul Kent nailed it yesterday, when he said we have become like WWE. That 2 tier competition has also extended to NRL handling players too. Suspensions, everything. 2 players used wrong words. The jobber got 8 weeks. On the other hand, Abdo will sit down with the pin-up and they will chat about it. This is way past WWE and the world of Sports Entertainment. At least, they let Hulk cool down for few months before bringing him back. Yes, in the era of Abdo and Vlandys, money talks. Advertisement dollars decide verdicts.

 

[Parko1310]

I love this post. Well said. You're the first person in this thread to actually seem to get that this new era will be a bit of a journey with both highs and lows.
We were never going to be a perfect football team this year. There will be some great wins and some bad losses. Round 1 showed how good they can be. Round 2 showed how bad they can be. There's going to be a bit of that this season.

I think most understand at the end of the day this is going to be a journey. I think the massive disappointment is in the extent of the loss and how quickly it turned around from the week before. That really shouldn't happen. The performance was shocking, but I haven't seen much suggesting fans are ready to get the knives out on Flano for example. I will be backing him for sure.

The fact is this is his first year in charge, and there are so many of the same mentally weak players in the squad. Flano's test will be getting rid of these guys and bringing the right ones in over a period of time. Obviously the market right now means this could be painfully slow. We've put a lot of faith in these young guys coming through to counteract this by promoting them to the 30 next year.

As you say, and as Flano says, there will be some dark days. I reckon he's got the faith and trust of the fanbase at the moment. I just hope it lasts for a while. For now,I think its just venting about how poor the performance was rather than not understanding it'll be a journey. That sort of display cannot happen again. Fans don't trust a lot of these players, the higher ups in the club, and those meddling in the background which is where this angst comes from. A lot of them have been able to hide behind the arrival of Flano.

 

[Lovemedragons]

I think most understand at the end of the day this is going to be a journey. I think the massive disappointment is in the extent of the loss and how quickly it turned around from the week before. That really shouldn't happen. The performance was shocking, but I haven't seen much suggesting fans are ready to get the knives out on Flano for example. I will be backing him for sure.

The fact is this is his first year in charge, and there are so many of the same mentally weak players in the squad. Flano's test will be getting rid of these guys and bringing the right ones in over a period of time. Obviously the market right now means this could be painfully slow. We've put a lot of faith in these young guys coming through to counteract this by promoting them to the 30 next year.

As you say, and as Flano says, there will be some dark days. I reckon he's got the faith and trust of the fanbase at the moment. I just hope it lasts for a while. For now,I think its just venting about how poor the performance was rather than not understanding it'll be a journey. That sort of display cannot happen again. Fans don't trust a lot of these players, the higher ups in the club, and those meddling in the background which is where this angst comes from. A lot of them have been able to hide behind the arrival of Flano.

I agree with the mentally weak observation, you just know these guys are going to play the way they did on Sunday almost before the match starts. Then once something goes wrong against them in the actual game it soon becomes a matter of how far they lose by. This is Flanagan's big challenge - can he turn this mentality around with the people he has to work with, some of whom have established a long career of failure in club football....

 

[baggygreen man]

I think Alec has to knock the bluddy barn-doors down if he wants a new contract for 2025....

He aint gonna get one sitting in Reggies. Is obvious Flanagan does not rate him. Did make a couple of basic mistakes in his last game but his positives far outdo his negatives imho.

 

[baggygreen man]

Flanagan has left the team in tact, the same players that humiliated us last week. Bennett took the axe to his team before last weeks game and look how the replacements played. He has also moved JDB back to prop but at least he has Vili Fifita back on the wood. Give the bloke more than 8 mins this time Flanagan. Eisenhuth, Rava, RFM, Suli needs big games. If our halves stink it up again, Cowboys by 20.

 

[baggygreen man]

I agree with the mentally weak observation

Insist this mentally fragile mob watch some of the best Dragons grand final victories during their golden run. If this does not give them a mental boost nothing will.

 

[baggygreen man]

That pathetic showing has taken us from the penthouse to the cellar in a very short time. Already the scribes are circling like vultures on a rotting corpse. We have to prove that the trial match and round one were not make believe. Show some character, prove to our detractors that we are a far better side than we showed last week.

 

[TheRev]

Under Abdo and Vlandys, NRL has become a copy of Premier league. If you look at Premier league, it is very hard for a team outside of Man United, City, Arsenal and Chelsea to win. It is a 2 tier competition. Liverpool won it once in the last decade and that is that. Contrast that to the old first division (ended in 1990s) when every team had a chance. Anyway, Premier League is huge business and NRL is following in its footsteps. NRL, already awash with money is talking of buying Super League, extending to US, etc. My prediction, 20 years from now and premierships will belong to Penrith, Brisbane Melbourne, Roosters and maybe south. The rest of us will be there to make the numbers. For us Dragons. Raiders, knights, dogs, Eels, etc making to top 4 would feel like winning the comp.

Paul Kent nailed it yesterday, when he said we have become like WWE. That 2 tier competition has also extended to NRL handling players too. Suspensions, everything. 2 players used wrong words. The jobber got 8 weeks. On the other hand, Abdo will sit down with the pin-up and they will chat about it. This is way past WWE and the world of Sports Entertainment. At least, they let Hulk cool down for few months before bringing him back. Yes, in the era of Abdo and Vlandys, money talks. Advertisement dollars decide verdicts.

Kenty on the money for once.. this is exactly my view on the NRL and the cap system.. I wish it was spoken about every week as the #1 issue in the game.... and its frustrating because its a better model if the player talent is shared equally.. a much bigger fan base to draw from, and better games each week for every fan.

The Dragons are well and truly on the bottom end of the dish-lickers though, the judiciary treatment is spot on.. and we basically cant recruit a player that any other club genuinely wants (and has a position for)... most other teams are Top 8 chances and on their day can properly beat anyone.. ur knights, ur parra, ur storm, ur cows etc... so perhaps a 3-tier competition may be more accurate! But I think more teams are climbing into the mid-tier now.. its just a couple of us left who were really poorly run... hopefully that 3rd tier doesnt exist in a few years time.

 

[Slippery Morris]

It will be good to get a big crowd for Saturday. The boys may step up if they see all the support. I am interested to see how they bounce back. If they lose it's not doom and gloom, as long as the effort is there. The Cows will be a top 6 side don't you worry. They will alot of sides this year. They were poor against the Knights and still won which shows the quality of their players. Knights were the better team and should have won. The Chad, steered the ship and got the field goal in the end. Something we would love to see from Hunt. Hunt should learn form the Chad when it comes to managing a team when they are being outplayed and how to stay in beaten.

Flanno showed some emotion after the loss. He looked gutted. More than what Hook did last few years. He expressed his disappointment in the players and did not deflect or blame other factors like Mary did. That to me is a huge positive. How the players react will be a different story which we will find out. If they react positively we are in for a good season and hope that the Dolphins game is just a one off diabolical performance of the season.