Rnd 6 vs Tigers

[thebigredv]

Regardless on where you stand on our recent showings, our players and our coach, this rugby league team needs to pull itself together and get a win against the Tigers. That much is for sure.

It's their rebuild against ours, and they are already quite some distance ahead both on paper and the competition ladder. Nevertheless, here is our chance to prove otherwise.

If we find more excuses to lose,
If we put in anything less than a strong showing,
If the lead players go AWOL again, the daggers will be out in their usual fashion and surely mourning bells will ring out all along the south coast.

I'm expecting one hell of an effort from the 17 that run out there. Nothing else will suffice. Find a way to get it done.

 

[redv13]

They’ll bounce back big time next week, you watch. Sullivan will have nightmares all week of Leilua, Suli and Ravalawa coming down his side all game if he defends against them. Good luck Sully, better eat your weet bix all week. Dry Sunday track, I’m expecting a huge bounce back

 

[This Year?]

The cracks are widening already. May as well have one last hurrah on ANZAC Day and start looking at next season.
Win this game and "it's only the Tigers".
Lose this game and it's torches and pitchforks out.

 

[Dragon David]

Okay as an excuse, the atrocious weather yesterday shows us that our team is bloody hopeless in the wet so if the conditions next Sunday are better, we might have a chance of winning.

My gut feeling is that a lot of soul searching will be done and needs to be done this week leading up to the game. Flanno has to find the answers to why we just aren't doing the things that we are capable of. Dig deeper and get that fitness level back up because I can see that we have lost a lot of intensity and endurance leading to mistakes and handling errors.

The Tigers are going from strength to strength and their confidence is building with every game. Benji has the players playing a good brand of footy and a win by them is extremely likely in my view.

 

[RedVDave]

I dunno I can't help but feel our 12 year rebuild is going to happen for another few years yet.

 

[Dragon David]

We have been extremely patient and have been waiting and waiting for some one to get this club somewhere in a much better position for such a long time. Five games under Flanno isn't long I know, but the signs are there that we will again be struggling to get several wins on the trot to make any rebuild to become solid.

The overall quality of our players seems to be the same for each year as far back to 2019 and maybe some years before that. They are not top of the shelf range and the coach won't be able to make them greater overnight if at all and many I feel should just be let go and we go for the "best" that good money can buy.

We play the Tigers in Round 6 and they have changed their roster to cover many of their positions and they have become a lot better for it. They will also be getting Luai next year who will add more talent to their team and they do have a good nursery as well to help their rebuild after being wooden spooners the past two years. They won't be wooden spooners this year and they will be playing finals footy I have no doubt.

We need a miracle to win next Sunday. Our boys don't offer much in my opinion and Flanno has a massive job for the rest of this year. He and Des Hasler will have problems to sort out and the wait and see and patience will continue for infinitum for us Dragons fans.

 

[steerlerbab]

For us to win next week, Flanno has to bite the bullet

1. Lawrie - he is out of shape. Stats versus knights (34 minutes, 9 runs, 61m) compared to F Molo (62 minutes, 18 runs, 174m). Let's get Sele instead. Hopefully Sele has recovered. Lawrie needs to start cutting the carb and turn the flab to fab.

2. M Molo - In pre season, I thought his time has arrived and in trials he seemed ok. A smaller size forward well suited for end game scenarios where bigger forwards tire . However, I was wrong. Let's get Couchman instead.

3. Bird - Again stats tell the story. All our backs ran over 100m. Bird ran 77m compared to Suli who run 160m. Time to bring in Tuipulotu and move Lomax to centres and see how that goes.

 

[jeffdragon]

Okay as an excuse, the atrocious weather yesterday shows us that our team is bloody hopeless in the wet so if the conditions next Sunday are better, we might have a chance of winning.

My gut feeling is that a lot of soul searching will be done and needs to be done this week leading up to the game. Flanno has to find the answers to why we just aren't doing the things that we are capable of. Dig deeper and get that fitness level back up because I can see that we have lost a lot of intensity and endurance leading to mistakes and handling errors.

The Tigers are going from strength to strength and their confidence is building with every game. Benji has the players playing a good brand of footy and a win by them is extremely likely in my

We knew it was going to be bad conditions and we still tried to play side to side.
After 5 games we have the worst defence in the comp.
We bt the Titans who are winless bt Manly who were below average.
Got smashed by the Dolphins who are hardly a great team.
Led the Cowboys and then conceded 42 pints in a row they got smashed by
Broncs and last night the opposition didn't do anything special and aren't a top team by any stretch.
Our draw has been favourable early.
So in my book it's same shit as in previous years.

 

[thebigredv]

We knew it was going to be bad conditions and we still tried to play side to side.
After 5 games we have the worst defence in the comp.
We bt the Titans who are winless bt Msnly who were below average.
Got smashed by the Dolphins who are hardly a great team.
Led the Cowboys and then conceded 42 pints in a row they got smashed by
Broncs and last night the opposition didn't do anything special and aren't a top team by any stretch.
Our draw has been favourable early.
So in my book it's same shit as in previous years.

Yeah I have to agree Jeff. In fact it is hardly a contestable notion. The club and the media like to keep us fans at bay by referring to a rebuild “patience, patience”. That’s fine but it shouldn’t necessitate we go backwards or move sideways as a team and at the moment there’s overall not enough improvement. There should be more cohesion and heightened team spirit from week to week and it seems to wax and wane. That’s what you look for whether we are undermanned or not. We have a very experienced NRL side that bring poor game plans and keep lamenting the same post game concepts - lack resilience, poor execution, no discipline… once we get one of these things right, another two weaknesses seem to arise.

The longer this continues, the more our collective confidence will evaporate as we are experts on unhealthy teams and losing by now.

A season is what I’ve set aside here to see if we can be a team on the rise. The coach has said we can play finals this year. While I don’t expect that, he will still be held accountable now responding to what was dished out in the first half. Players need to be dropped for starters and we will take it from there. Otherwise stagnation sets in.

 

[jeffdragon]

Yeah I have to agree Jeff. In fact it is hardly a contestable notion. The club and the media like to keep us fans at bay by referring to a rebuild “patience, patience”. That’s fine but it shouldn’t necessitate we go backwards or move sideways as a team and at the moment there’s overall not enough improvement. There should be more cohesion and heightened team spirit from week to week and it seems to wax and wane. That’s what you look for whether we are undermanned or not. We have a very experienced NRL side that bring poor game plans and keep lamenting the same post game concepts - lack resilience, poor execution, no discipline… once we get one of these things right, another two weaknesses seem to arise.

The longer this continues, the more our collective confidence will evaporate as we are experts on unhealthy teams and losing by now.

A season is what I’ve set aside here to see if we can be a team on the rise. The coach has said we can play finals this year. While I don’t expect that, he will still be held accountable now responding to what was dished out in the first half. Players need to be dropped for starters and we will take it from there. Otherwise stagnation sets in.

Read many fb supporter posts as soon as you are critical not in a abusive sense after a loss they say you are being negative.
As I said when we win there's praise when we lose there is criticism
But the losses we've had snd it's only R5 are unacceptable.
Total 80 pointsdiff in 3 games.
I guess on fb some fans look through rose coloured glasses and are happy with being in the bottom of the pile year in year out.
Not me.
I find on this site there you can usually say what you feel without getting your head bitten off.

 

[thebigredv]

Read many fb supporter posts as soon as you are critical not in a abusive sense after a loss they say you are being negative.
As I said when we win there's praise when we lose there is criticism
But the losses we've had snd it's only R5 are unacceptable.
I guess on fb some fans look through rose coloured glasses and are happy with being in the bottom of the pile year in year out.
Not me.
I find on this site there you can usually say what you feel without getting your head bitten off.

Let's be honest. There's the present moment and the future facing us. We've ceased to be a team that competes for a trophy year in, year out. Those days were brilliant but they are not us anymore.

You, me, the coach, all Dragons fans are all just hanging in there until we can bring in some match winner type players to the club. Unfortunately, we could work hard, grab 12th spot in 2024 and call it an improvement to build from but if we haven't made the crucial recruitment deals, we are just strung along for another season in effect. That's the ultimate fear for us, and putting in better performances gives us a much better chance of attracting the attention of these players and their managers. Just how it is in the current climate.

It's irrational to expect the Dragons to be matching it with the big guns in the comp each and every week right now. It's fully realistic, however, to be expecting us to do much better than we have brought in the last 4 matches. It has been mostly dismal, with a few glimmers of hope.

As for the win against Manly, i'd almost say we played better footy last night for most of it. Manly just found a way to be really poor which sometimes happens at this end of the season. It happened, we got the points but it's pretty much the only thing between us being in 'disarray' and looking half competitive.

It brings us to the Tigers match. All you can do is go out in these moments and win. My goodness, do we need a good win.

 

[hewi]

I think Sloan might get dropped and I’d like to see Tuiavake get a go for either Lawrie or M Molo

 

[Number of the Beath]

Flanno has to get ruthless with his team selections and let these backsliding numpties know that they have to earn their spot, cos so far his selections are looking very Hook-like - right down to having his own Corey Norman in the (bulbous) shape of Jack Bird.
Who cares how fast Sloan is if he can't do anything without the ball in his hand? Rex Terp was a freak and knew where the tryline was but otherwise he was a turnstile and that's why he didn't play first grade so much.
My pick for Wests is
1 Sloan (last chance) 2 Tuipoloto 3 Lomax 4 Suli 5 Rava 6 Flanagan 7 Marschke 8 F Molo 9 Hunt 10 BMM 11 Su'a 12 Luce 13 JdB
14 Liddel 15 Fifita 16 Tuitavake 17 Sele 18 RFM
If not Sloan, the Lomax to FB and bring in a Feagai to the centres.
Get some big and mobile bodies in the forwards and rip and tear.

 

[Bin Chicken]

I think Sloan might get dropped and I’d like to see Tuiavake get a go for either Lawrie or M Molo

Tuiavake is ready ! Sloan I think will get dropped this week. Not doing anyone any favours especially him playing NRL

 

[jeffdragon]

Let's be honest. There's the present moment and the future facing us. We've ceased to be a team that competes for a trophy year in, year out. Those days were brilliant but they are not us anymore.

You, me, the coach, all Dragons fans are all just hanging in there until we can bring in some match winner type players to the club. Unfortunately, we could work hard, grab 12th spot in 2024 and call it an improvement to build from but if we haven't made the crucial recruitment deals, we are just strung along for another season in effect. That's the ultimate fear for us, and putting in better performances gives us a much better chance of attracting the attention of these players and their managers. Just how it is in the current climate.

It's irrational to expect the Dragons to be matching it with the big guns in the comp each and every week right now. It's fully realistic, however, to be expecting us to do much better than we have brought in the last 4 matches. It has been mostly dismal, with a few glimmers of hope.

As for the win against Manly, i'd almost say we played better footy last night for most of it. Manly just found a way to be really poor which sometimes happens at this end of the season. It happened, we got the points but it's pretty much the only thing between us being in 'disarray' and looking half competitive.

It brings us to the Tigers match. All you can do is go out in these moments and win. My goodness, do we need a good win.

It's a sad state of things when you can't match it with the big teams.
Can't believe we've been run into the ground by the nuffies in charge.
How not to run a club.

 

[St Tangles]

To be 2 from 5 potentially 2 from 6 before we play any of top sides shows me we are not competing for the top 12 let alone top 8 this year.

Team id select for this week with a small view to the future

1 Sloan 2 Tamale 3 Lomax 4 Suli 5 Rava 6 Marschke 7 Hunt 8 F Molo 9 Flanno 10 Tuitavake 11 Su'a 12 Luce 13 JDB
14 Liddel 15 Fifita 16 T Couchman 17 Sele 18 Eisenhuth

 

[Illusion]

I think Sloan might get dropped and I’d like to see Tuiavake get a go for either Lawrie or M Molo

I don't think he will drop him ...... But let's hope there are changes ......

 

[Number of the Beath]

To be 2 from 5 potentially 2 from 6 before we play any of top sides shows me we are not competing for the top 12 let alone top 8 this year.

Team id select for this week with a small view to the future

1 Sloan 2 Tamale 3 Lomax 4 Suli 5 Rava 6 Marschke 7 Hunt 8 F Molo 9 Flanno 10 Tuitavake 11 Su'a 12 Luce 13 JDB
14 Liddel 15 Fifita 16 T Couchman 17 Sele 18 Eisenhuth

Don't forget that "the Couchmans played too much last year" (FMS!!) So I don't think you'll be seeing either of them.

 

[Lennyb]

Going off Flanno last night, the gloves are off.
Hell week inbound for the team.
Lawrie is gone. Sloan on thin ice. But the mood Flanno is in he may bring up Matt for a week or two, to give him a scare.

 

[Dragon the chain]

It will be interesting to watch Bud Sullivan play against us next week.