R5 Knights.

[Dragon the chain]

I cam forgive Sloan for his handling of the grubbers. The conditions were diabolical. What I find baffling though are the tries scored where he was literally not even in the frame. His positional play is terrible at times.

Handling errors are unavoidable, especially in the wet. Lack of committment is avoidable.

 

[R&WTILLIDIE]

At very least, he should never be played on a wet track ever again. No leg speed which is accentuated when he has to run in a swamp.

lawrie also has the ball handling skills of a lesbian

 

[R&WTILLIDIE]

I cam forgive Sloan for his handling of the grubbers. The conditions were diabolical. What I find baffling though are the tries scored where he was literally not even in the frame. His positional play is terrible at times.

I can’t forgive him. If you look at the tries. You see him sliding in whilst looking away from the ball. The kid is scared of physical contact. This is a trend that has continued throughout his career.

 

[I'm faster than Lawrie]

lawrie also has the ball handling skills of a lesbian

Back in the day, I played rugby up in Newcastle and the best half in the club was a lesbian. Her skills with the footy were next level. Can't vouch for how she handled other balls but suspect she didn't have much experience............

 

[maestro1]

Lomax should have been kept & play centre or fully
Hunt will not lead us up the ladder
Lawrie offers nothing
Where is the much talked about new levels of fitness & defence
Why didn’t the coach get a message to Hunt to kick along the ground like Newcastle

They have halftime to review the expert kicking game of Cogger and Hastings and then give them some of their own medicine back. Hunt (300+ games) was schooled by a relative novice (Cogger) and journeyman.

I love how Hunt competes at every play and that is what keeps him in the elite class and I love him in our team, however, he is definitely not a clever, scheming game manager.

The DCE types are forever scheming and watching for weaknesses in the opposition. Why is our kicking game not identifying the weaker members of the other teams back 3/5. Against the Dolphins we kept kicking it to the Hammer. Against the Cows we kicked it straight to Drinkwater. Against Manly we kept finding Turbo of all people. And last night.....straight to Ponga. Are we morons???

Last night the puddles in the in goal area would have been a godsend for us as it was for the Knights. So what do we do, we find an aerial kick which makes the puddles null and void. At the very least the puddles help you get a repeat set as it stops the ball rolling dead and offering up a 20 metre 7 tackle restart. So what do we do.....put it in the the air so they can catch it on the full in goals.....and you guessed it gave them 20 metre restarts and 7 tackles. I haven't checked the stats but I'd be guessing pretty confidently that in the 5 rounds in 2024, we have given away the most 20metre, 7 tackle restarts. Add that to dumb penalties gifting the opposition a great restart off the goal line and this is why we are regularly defending our tryline. I know the Belinda Sharpe gives us nothing and gives our opposition plenty, but we need to realise this and be smarter (Lawrie and FMolo being the worst offenders in giving away dumb penalties). Our dull, dense, moronic, dumb choices on the field keep us under pressure for the whole 80 minutes of every game. And even when we have momentum, we do something dumb to give it back to the opposition. Lomax was a beast last night, but when he caught that short dropout, he should never have risked flirting with the sideline the second time. So many other examples of extremely low footy IQ moments from seasoned first graders. And this is the norm not the exception. Three times we didn't kick on the last and on two of those occasions, the Knights scored within minutes. That is 12 points gifted by dumb game management. If we had rolled the ball along the ground or put up a Matt Burton type of swirling bomb, we might have tested the Knights in the conditions and found that they too have problems handling a wet slippery ball in atrocious conditions. As it stood we pretty much made it easy for the Knights by not having them scrambling in the mud to clean up the awkward oval shaped ball that has a mind of it's own , especially in the wet.

We were like the novice camper who treks off for a camping holiday, knowing it is going to piss down, but not preparing and bringing extra tarps, spreader bars, shovel, etc.

Once again ......... As dumb as a plover who lays their eggs in an open field and their little ones are picked off one by one by predators.

Question for you.......Does Brisbane have the same success in 2023/2024 without game manager Adam Reynolds. Now I know that it came unstuck in the GF, but the Reynolds types are about smarts, and whilst this won't win you 100% of your games, it will win you most and it is especially important in close games or games played in atrocious/different conditions.

We don't have a Reynolds type. I'm hoping KFlann can be given more control as Hunt just isn't that player. I see a bit of that in Marske, but I don't think he will get the opportunity.

 

[since77]

My thoughts on the game last night.
I'm so sick of "dumb" being EMBEDDED in the Dragons DNA. The sides packed with talent in the 2000's never won a comp because they were just brain dead, Barrett especially. That stopped for 3 years under Bennett. Won a comp because they were coached smarter and key players (i.e the halves) were smarter. Then normal "dumb" transmission resumes from 2012 onwards..... For the life of me I can't understand how our "marquee" half back can't play wet weather football.
Blake Lawrie - geez he's a turd of a player. Not a front rowers arsehole. I'll scream if I see him in first grade again. Useless plodder, always has been.
Which leads me on to front rowers. Oh how we need some quality in the front row. We now have a pretty good second row, but it's pointless if the props are pop gun pitiful.
Hate to heap blame on the ref - she didn't lose us the game - but she's not NRL standard. Lost count of Newcastle doing exactly same things in the ruck as we were but not getting penalised.
I do think a few of Newcastle's tries were very "lucky" but again, why the hell were we not playing with the same game plan?!?!?!
Flanno, I trust you, but you've got some tough decisions ahead of you in the coming weeks.

 

[Parko1310]

My thoughts on the game last night.
I'm so sick of "dumb" being EMBEDDED in the Dragons DNA. The sides packed with talent in the 2000's never won a comp because they were just brain dead, Barrett especially. That stopped for 3 years under Bennett. Won a comp because they were coached smarter and key players (i.e the halves) were smarter. Then normal "dumb" transmission resumes from 2012 onwards..... For the life of me I can't understand how our "marquee" half back can't play wet weather football.
Blake Lawrie - geez he's a turd of a player. Not a front rowers arsehole. I'll scream if I see him in first grade again. Useless plodder, always has been.
Which leads me on to front rowers. Oh how we need some quality in the front row. We now have a pretty good second row, but it's pointless if the props are pop gun pitiful.
Hate to heap blame on the ref - she didn't lose us the game - but she's not NRL standard. Lost count of Newcastle doing exactly same things in the ruck as we were but not getting penalised.
I do think a few of Newcastle's tries were very "lucky" but again, why the hell were we not playing with the same game plan?!?!?!
Flanno, I trust you, but you've got some tough decisions ahead of you in the coming weeks.

I'd definitely be dropping Lawrie as well, I don't understand how he has as many NRL games as he does. The issue then becomes who comes in. Obviously Sele, but I don't like Michael Molo as a player at all either, so that means that two props need to drop out in my ideal scenario. I doubt it happens unfortunately, but I guess I'd bring in Sele and then maybe Toby Couchman in place of Lawrie and M Molo. Fifita doesn't seem capable of playing big minutes at the moment, so he probably isn't a realistic option in a prop rotation with only two props on the bench.

 

[jeffdragon]

My thoughts on the game last night.
I'm so sick of "dumb" being EMBEDDED in the Dragons DNA. The sides packed with talent in the 2000's never won a comp because they were just brain dead, Barrett especially. That stopped for 3 years under Bennett. Won a comp because they were coached smarter and key players (i.e the halves) were smarter. Then normal "dumb" transmission resumes from 2012 onwards..... For the life of me I can't understand how our "marquee" half back can't play wet weather football.
Blake Lawrie - geez he's a turd of a player. Not a front rowers arsehole. I'll scream if I see him in first grade again. Useless plodder, always has been.
Which leads me on to front rowers. Oh how we need some quality in the front row. We now have a pretty good second row, but it's pointless if the props are pop gun pitiful.
Hate to heap blame on the ref - she didn't lose us the game - but she's not NRL standard. Lost count of Newcastle doing exactly same things in the ruck as we were but not getting penalised.
I do think a few of Newcastle's tries were very "lucky" but again, why the hell were we not playing with the same game plan?!?!?!
Flanno, I trust you, but you've got some tough decisions ahead of you in the coming weeks.

Yet we've had her 2/5 of our games.

 

[redandwhite4evr]

I can’t forgive him. If you look at the tries. You see him sliding in whilst looking away from the ball. The kid is scared of physical contact. This is a trend that has continued throughout his career.

James Graham alluded to that in the Fox studios- if you're playing in the back three and fielding a ball on the ground or in the air, you can't be worried about getting kicked, your nose broken or teeth damaged. It goes with the territory.
Sloan needs a Psychologist- not a coach

 

[maestro1]

Footy IQ indicator (FIQ). Factor in the position the player plays. Eg, a lot more expected of a half.

1. Sloan...... Instinctive ... not much FIQ - 5 out 10

2. Lomax .....athlete gives all ... not much FIQ - 5 out of 10.

3. Suli ...... Dumb .... FIQ ... 2 out of 10

4. Bird .... Quite Dumb ..... 4 out of 10.

5. Ravalawa .... Dumb ..... 2 out of 10

6. KFlann ..... Reasonable .. 7 out of 10

7. Hunt .... Ok but not for a half ... 6 out of 10.

8. FMolo ... Dumb .... 3 out of 10

9. Liddle .... Reasonable ... 7 out of 10

10. JDB .... OK .... 6 out of 10.

11. Luciano .... Reasonable .... 7 out of 10

12. Sua . ... Reasonable .... 7 out of 10

13. Lawrie ...... Plover .... 2 out of 10

14. Eisunhuth ... Clever ..... 9 out of 10

15. M. Molo .... ok ...... 6 out of 10

16. Marshke .... Good .... 7 out of 10

17. RFM .... Good .... 7 out of 10.

 

[TruSaint]

Yeh cut the kid some slack as they were atrocious conditions. Missed the game but heard that Sloan and Lomax swapped at various times. Was that the case.

Yes it was mate.

Flanno did you a go at Lomax saying he needs to put his body of the line, which is why after conceding 3 tries he switched Lomax to fb. His words to be fair.

 

[maestro1]

I'd definitely be dropping Lawrie as well, I don't understand how he has as many NRL games as he does. The issue then becomes who comes in. Obviously Sele, but I don't like Michael Molo as a player at all either, so that means that two props need to drop out in my ideal scenario. I doubt it happens unfortunately, but I guess I'd bring in Sele and then maybe Toby Couchman in place of Lawrie and M Molo. Fifita doesn't seem capable of playing big minutes at the moment, so he probably isn't a realistic option in a prop rotation with only two props on the bench.

Lawrie hails from the Dapto canaries. One of the favoured clubs from the Steelers point of view. Better front rowers were let go to keep Lawrie. Sele was let go, Saints should not have listened to the NRL and kept AFB on as well when he breached his contract. Remember the Roosters didn't cut Jake Friend. They sent him for a little hiatus to Cairns and then brought him back. Smart. The Illawarra has consistently produced enough excellent footballers over the last 12 years for us to have a consistently great side without having to buy too much in. However, due to allegiances, cronyism, friends, family, nepotism, the better ones are usually let go and that is why we find ourselves in our current predicament. Lawrie was definitely NOT the one we should have kept.

 

[Draginzaaar]

I cam forgive Sloan for his handling of the grubbers. The conditions were diabolical. What I find baffling though are the tries scored where he was literally not even in the frame. His positional play is terrible at times.

However Ponga had no issues.

 

[R&WTILLIDIE]

James Graham alluded to that in the Fox studios- if you're playing in the back three and fielding a ball on the ground or in the air, you can't be worried about getting kicked, your nose broken or teeth damaged. It goes with the territory.
Sloan needs a Psychologist- not a coach

Yeah. It’s part of the job of being a footy player. If you don’t want to do that sort of stuff, then don’t play footy.

 

[R&WTILLIDIE]

However Ponga had no issues.

Ponga had no issues because the brain dead dragons didn’t put him under the same pressure

 

[Ruby Roundhouse]

sloan went missing.

but another game that brings me all the way down. Looks like another spoon battle

 

[I'm faster than Lawrie]

However Ponga had no issues.

He's a gun. If we could get him, that would be a good start to fixing the team.

 

[Phantom V]

Ben Hunt is the problem and has been for a long time now. He has really only had one season 2015 where he has demonstrated that he is a quality, week in, week out half. Otherwise, he is more of a number 9 than a number 7 as he lacks the kicking and passing game of a good 7. He only really has one attacking kick - the bomb which is usually too deep and end over end, thus easy to catch. When passing, he crabs slowly across field such that by the time he throws the pass, the defensive line is on top if our outside runners. His one point of difference is his show and go but very rarely uses it now. He's just so predictable. While Hunt is pulling the strings, we're going no where.

I agree mate. I’d be playing him as a running 5/8 and prioritising going to market for a half with a good kicking game. Move young Flanno or Marshke to 14.

 

[I'm faster than Lawrie]

I agree mate. I’d be playing him as a running 5/8 and prioritising going to market for a half with a good kicking game. Move young Flanno or Marshke to 14.

Sean O'Sullivan not getting a game with the Dolphins. He's a good organiser and would be a decent half while we sorted our sh*t out.

 

[maestro1]

I agree mate. I’d be playing him as a running 5/8 and prioritising going to market for a half with a good kicking game. Move young Flanno or Marshke to 14.

The Knights employed a clever tactic where they used Bradman Best shooting out of the line and swamping Hunt and forced a number of errors and/or killed our attack. We should have realised this tactic and had Sloan hitting the whole left by Best and used Hunt as a decoy. Sloan would have scored and Best stops shooting and Ben Hunt has more space. That would show footy IQ. What do we do.... Keep going to Hunt so he gets swamped again and again. Surely, Flanno has enough assistant coaches to identify these tactics and put counter measures in.

It is a bit like when you play a defensive team that tries to cut your attack by an up and in defense. If the half pops a little kick in behind the quick moving defence and your centres and wingers nearly scored, the defence will start thinking about the risk of moving up and in so quickly and will hang a little. This then helps your halves and backline with more room. I guarantee that if Best shot out and KFlann or Liddle cutout Hunt and had a sweeping Sloan screaming through the gap created by Best shooting, Best would not do it again.

Other teams do it to us when Rava shoots in. They hold the pass, suck Rava in and then let the ball fly to the now unmarked winger.