R5 | Dragons 19-16 Knights @ WIN Jubilee | Sun 3.00pm

[Misanthrope]

You guys are asking the wrong questions.

The real question; did IanG go to Sizzler, & did he enjoy himself?

After checking the score and the scorers (for fantasy), that was my most burning question. Did they have prawn toast, Ian?

 

[Frederick]

You guys are asking the wrong questions.

The real question; did IanG go to Sizzler, & did he enjoy himself?

I'm expecting a four page exposé in the telegraph tomorrow.

 

[The Showstopper]

I think Wayne has some big decisions regarding Kurt. He is a deadset passenger in the current squad. Dare i say it but he is running on reputation. Knowing his family as i do he has been told to lift his game by Wayne. He wants the seven, has been told no, and frankly his game is deteriorating on the back of worrying about other things apart from his game. I would not be surprised if he decides to move on in 2014. Not the Kurt we are used to.

 

[Rolla]

I thought today a few things were obvious IMO.

1. Gidley isn't close to Bedsy's level in any aspect of the game at the moment. This includes Gidley's strengths of endurance, energy and leadership. I truly hope this is the fault of limited match fitness.

2. Rochow should start over Housten when Scott returns. Housten can't pass, offload, sidestep, punch through the line or beat a man in any way.... But what did it for me today was Soward showing that even the smallest, poorest defenders can comfortably stop him in his tracks consistently. Tackling a lot isn't enough for a fringe back rower these days IMO. Too many guys can tackle a lot, hit harder and offer something going forward these days.

3. We need centres playing in the centres! Tahu's try was exactly what we need to see on both sides, and he and Dane did it regularly last year. BJ should come in for McKinnon until Dane returns.

4. Nev.... enough is enough

5. There are too many adds on channel 9

6. Can somebody please explain to me why Reggies matches are played the day before firsts? It is ridiculous that in professional sport, when someone pulls out on game day morning, we have to bring in a bloke who played 80 minutes the day before!

That will do for now

 

[Love my Dragons]

Not trolling here guys just wanted to say thanks for a great game that went down to most of the 80 minutes, was an enthralling game which was a good tight contest. I enjoyed the win but mostly for me it was a nice tribute to our legend Ian Walsh, I don't know what's in store for the Dragons in the future but I know the effort wil be there. All the best for the rest of the season.

 

[Rolla]

I think Wayne has some big decisions regarding Kurt. He is a deadset passenger in the current squad. Dare i say it but he is running on reputation. Knowing his family as i do he has been told to lift his game by Wayne. He wants the seven, has been told no, and frankly his game is deteriorating on the back of worrying about other things apart from his game. I would not be surprised if he decides to move on in 2014. Not the Kurt we are used to.

As much as seeing him go would be sad..... We could do a hell of a lot better with the money it would free up.

 

[Seage]

Very frustrating that we lost to a team who manage to only ever turn up against us. However in reality Tahu's brainy at half time cost us deluxe.

But we need not be panicked. The Dragons cannot play any better than that. Whilst we didn't do much in attack we weren't allowed to. I thought we hung tough and didn't give much away (except penalties and errors from Kurt and Nev). We can play better, the Dragons can't.

F*ck me we're missing Dan Gagai though. McKinnon (and Quinn) are good defensively but offer nothing in attack. And Robbie Rochow worked his socks off. It was nice to Jeremy Smith try to kill that germ Nat Fien several times at the end.

I'm trying to be positive - because I am massively pissed off about losing.

 

[Rolla]

Very frustrating that we lost to a team who manage to only ever turn up against us. However in reality Tahu's brainy at half time cost us deluxe.

But we need not be panicked. The Dragons cannot play any better than that. Whilst we didn't do much in attack we weren't allowed to. I thought we hung tough and didn't give much away (except penalties and errors from Kurt and Nev). We can play better, the Dragons can't.

F*ck me we're missing Dan Gagai though. McKinnon (and Quinn) are good defensively but offer nothing in attack. And Robbie Rochow worked his socks off. It was nice to Jeremy Smith try to kill that germ Nat Fien several times at the end.

I'm trying to be positive - because I am massively pissed off about losing.

If you ask me the ref should of gone back for the forward pass when our advantage came to nothing.

 

[Yosh]

Agreed, the Costigan error from dummy half killed us, we had momentum after the Boyd try and we were making easy metres till Costigan decided to f**k it up.
On the subject of errors Houston needs to work on his ball carry, holds the ball way too low, almost against his abdomin, twice in 2 weeks now he's lost the thing cold as a result of being hit in a nice low tackle

That should be made into an educational video and shown at rugby league school. We scored, we were making 15m a hit up and had everything going for us and then he drops it... They score and we lose the game...

That's a classic momentum killer right there.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

We didn't play poorly. They out-enthused us in the first half and we made it hard to come back. They wanted the win more. maybe they needed it more. Soward up against Mullen stirred him on.
We let ourselves down at crucial times with bad mistakes. Costigan needs to go for sure.
While they had a pack in behind the ruck we were spread a bit too much and relied on single hit ups too much. They had options up the middle and then spread it.
On a positive I reckon we showed some spirit by hanging in there. We lost the plot a bit but not completely.

 

[Yosh]

Rochow was solid again. I don't think I've ever seen him play a bad game yet. He ain't SBW (yet) but he does his job well and always puts his hand up for a run. He has been playing 80 minutes right? As people said above, he needs to move into the middle though. He defends well on the fringes but doesn't really offer much in attack.

I think we need to give the captaincy to Jeremy Smith. This guy is amazing. He ain't even that big. Each hit up looks like he is going to punch through, he judo chops anything that moves and any lose ball, he's on it in a flash. Starting to get a hard on for the guy.

Korbin looked buggered even though he only played 10 minutes. Pity Bedsy got injured... Korbin looked so pumped for that first hit up, ran 100 miles and hour and Kidley gave him a late hospital pass. Look at Korbin's face, fully expecting the ball, then it comes about a second later... Classic Kids.

It's only 5 games in. We still have more than 20 rounds to go. The early signs are good and honestly the only problem with our team is Costigan. If he goes, we'll improve 10 fold.

 

[Rod]

Gidley's pass was fine, it was Korbin's responsibility to hold onto it IMO. They just got their wires crossed on what the play was.

 

[Spot On]

I think Wayne has some big decisions regarding Kurt. He is a deadset passenger in the current squad. Dare i say it but he is running on reputation. Knowing his family as i do he has been told to lift his game by Wayne. He wants the seven, has been told no, and frankly his game is deteriorating on the back of worrying about other things apart from his game. I would not be surprised if he decides to move on in 2014. Not the Kurt we are used to.

This is painfully obvious with him. The captaincy will be the next thing to go.

 

[Zoidberg]

Not trolling here guys just wanted to say thanks for a great game that went down to most of the 80 minutes, was an enthralling game which was a good tight contest. I enjoyed the win but mostly for me it was a nice tribute to our legend Ian Walsh, I don't know what's in store for the Dragons in the future but I know the effort wil be there. All the best for the rest of the season.

Thanks for being a gracious winner mate. Great game by your blokes.

Not happy with the same things previously pointed out in here. Take Tahu gifting Soward the field goal and we could've taken it to golden point. Still, need to win the away games against lower teams to get as high in the top 8 as possible.

A theory on why IanG has yet to show his face here...maybe he made it to Sizzler for lunch, went a bit overboard on the all-you-can-eat salad and dessert bars, and has been taken to hospital to get his stomach pumped (also missing out on going to the game).
My thoughts are with you big guy.

 

[CycloneSteve]

I was at the game today and the thing that disappointed me more than the loss and the performance by some of the players, was the lack of support there from our so-called fans. Out of the 14,266 that were there, I reckon we would be lucky to have 500 there from what I saw. We get criticized as a team that cant win away, yet we give them no support when they travel! I drove a 4 hour round trip from Goulburn to watch them with 3 kids in tow!! Surely it isn't that hard for people to travel and support our team especially to a game in Sydney!

 

[Nuffy]

I think Wayne has some big decisions regarding Kurt. He is a deadset passenger in the current squad. Dare i say it but he is running on reputation. Knowing his family as i do he has been told to lift his game by Wayne. He wants the seven, has been told no, and frankly his game is deteriorating on the back of worrying about other things apart from his game. I would not be surprised if he decides to move on in 2014. Not the Kurt we are used to.

Its a tough one because he's killed himself forever trying to make us competitive through any number of crap years.

He needs to make a decision on what he wants, whether it is to be a top dog in a team of whether he just wants to be part of a successful team, he can't be both in newcastle.

He has always seemed to be a level headed guy, so I do think he will ultimately fall in behind Bennett and fingers crossed, get the premiership his service deserves.

 

[Frederick]

Thanks for being a gracious winner mate. Great game by your blokes.

Not happy with the same things previously pointed out in here. Take Tahu gifting Soward the field goal and we could've taken it to golden point. Still, need to win the away games against lower teams to get as high in the top 8 as possible.

A theory on why IanG has yet to show his face here...maybe he made it to Sizzler for lunch, went a bit overboard on the all-you-can-eat salad and dessert bars, and has been taken to hospital to get his stomach pumped (also missing out on going to the game).
My thoughts are with you big guy.

Vale IanG. You were too beautiful for this world

 

[Nuffy]

You guys have it all wrong.

He hits Sizzler but pre match nerves limited his ability to really put some pain on the buffet.

After the game, he was so unhappy he decided to reek havoc in the Illawarra and hit them where it hurts, right in the sizzler buffet, he's still there now.

 

[Nuffy]

Back on the game, injuries haven't exactly helped us thus far, Scott, Bedsy and Gagai would all be first choice picks so that means blokes like Nev getting more games than his performance deserves.

It also means we lack positional experience and broader match experience.

We need to catch a break with injuries and we'll be in much better shape.

Souths have a good team no doubt, but they seem to have few injuries to their key players when Crocker can't crack FG.

 

[Apey]

Well I know it's only 5 rounds in but I'm still surprised we'll still be 4th after that loss. Thankfully some other teams are just as up and down as us.