Round 1 v Cowboys

[Saint_JimmyG]

What are you doing about it?

Isn’t it obvious?

I’m venting my frustrations on this forum.

Extremely cathartic.

 

[possm]

Let's hope the team is better prepared for round 2 against Souths. With Frizell, De Belin and K Sims out, we need to begin blooding Kerr, Timm and Robson.

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

Let's hope the team is better preferred for round 2 against Souths. With Frizell, De Belin and K Sims out, we need to begin blooding Kerr, Timm and Robson.

Not much first grade experience against a ferocious forward pack.

Saints are rooted.

 

[kit66]

Sterlo just stated on the footy Show that he doesn't think Widdop will remain at Fullback for the entire season... stated that he was better suited to 5/8 and that we are missing his short kicking game because Norman and hunt cannot produce as good as Widdop. Thaiday said that we look better when dufty comes on....

Over to you McGregor...I bet nothing changes because he is too stubborn.

P.S Fittler confirmed Frizz out for up to 6 weeks.

Yeah I just read NRL.com saying 4 weeks for Frizz, ruptured testicle, I don't even want to think about it, poor bloke.
Well it's a tough few weeks coming up, I have no idea what Mary's going to do, play Kerr or Timm or possibly shift McInnes to second row and bring Robson into hooker.
Quite a few on here, including me, have said how great our depth is this year, well we're about to find out the value of that. I'd bring in a prop, maybe Timm and have Host, Sims and Leilua the 2nd rowers or even as I said move McInnes, a known defender to the right edge.

 

[SaintPauli]

Interesting. I'll have some of what you're having if it erases memory of that Dogs game.

Granted I had forgotten.
Thanks for reminder !

 

[SaintPauli]

Really?????? Last year dogs at Kogarah Rd 24 I think and vs Parrs come to mind. Ball control let them down tonight....the effort was there.

Granted dogs were to good with likely their years best game.

We played worst against cowgirls than we did against dogs that day.

Cowboys will not make the 8 this year and that is saying something about our performance.

 

[SEAT 1A]

I can understand Widdop dropping the ball in the first half. Cows first try was lucky ( just watched the Penrith no try, was the same with the Cows) anyway, after Nene's still happy with the score.

Was Mary watching the game? Nothing happen after we had all the ball early in the second half, Dufty on and move Widdop to five eight and aleast we had a chance.

Next week, move Norman to full back and keep Dufty on the bench.

 

[Lovemedragons]

Let's hope the team is better prepared for round 2 against Souths. With Frizell, De Belin and K Sims out, we need to begin blooding Kerr, Timm and Robson.

nah, Mcregor has already sent Millward out on a mission this week to find a tired and slow journeyman without a club and offer him JDB's salary so they can rush him in the team for the big Souths match - can't risk a game like that on promising juniors....god forbid!

 

[Dragon for life]

Sterlo just stated on the footy Show that he doesn't think Widdop will remain at Fullback for the entire season... stated that he was better suited to 5/8 and that we are missing his short kicking game because Norman and hunt cannot produce as good as Widdop. Thaiday said that we look better when dufty comes on....

Over to you McGregor...I bet nothing changes because he is too stubborn.

P.S Fittler confirmed Frizz out for up to 6 weeks.

What happened to Frizz?? I saw him cop one in the crown jewels...did he rupture one of them. I didn’t see him lmip off or anything else

 

[True_Believer]

Isn’t it obvious?

I’m venting my frustrations on this forum.

Extremely cathartic.

Ah OK. The way you call people apologists and accuse people of accepting mediocrity, I thought you must have been actively seeking to change the situation.

 

[Carlton]

I can understand Widdop dropping the ball in the first half. Cows first try was lucky ( just watched the Penrith no try, was the same with the Cows) anyway, after Nene's still happy with the score.

Was Mary watching the game? Nothing happen after we had all the ball early in the second half, Dufty on and move Widdop to five eight and aleast we had a chance.

Next week, move Norman to full back and keep Dufty on the bench.

So what was so special when Dufty came on? Ran sideways against a tiring oppostion and ????

 

[getsmarty]

What happened to Frizz?? I saw him cop one in the crown jewels...did he rupture one of them. I didn’t see him lmip off or anything else

Correct..out for up to 6 weeks

 

[Dragon for life]

Correct..out for up to 6 weeks

F**k. McGregor will play him next week!!!

 

[Objective View]

Cowboys will not make the 8 this year and that is saying something about our performance.

Not sure about that, I think they have one of the best packs in the game.

Straight Shooter

 

[Old Timer]

The only way out of the dilemma facing us is for coach to make a hard call so probably all is lost.
If up to me in the premis that Widdop is FB and Norman the 6 as that is the mindset
Drop Dufty
Sims to 13
Leilua & Host start as edges
Kerr & Robson to the bench
or if Sims doesn’t like 13 then
Graham to 13
Sims & Host start as edges

 

[Redhoopz]

Couple of things need work:

• Mary's use of the bench (seems to be a reoccurring theme) - it seems as if he has already planned who's going off and when before the kick-off. There was a period in the first half where the Cowboys were struggling and he could've injected Dufty to run a muck. In the second half with around 25 mins to go, Dufty should've been sent on, instead of only reacting after the Cowboys scored again
• Ravalawa's positional play needs a bit of work
• Aitken had a strong first half but fell back into bad habits in the second half

I thought they showed some good signs....The Cowboys were the better side and took advantage of the mistakes we made. It would have been interesting if the Dragons could've scored some more points in the first half.

 

[avocado]

Of the other games I’ve watched, Storm, Broncos, Rabbits, Chooks, Sharks, Knights and Cows looked well drilled. Why did we look like a rabble?
Did we actually work on anything this pre season?

Jesus. Add Raiders to this list. Watching the replay now. Look like well oiled machine and it’s pissing down.

No excuse for the trash we dished up. Anyone saying hey it’s only round 1 are delusional.

 

[Dragonsdiehard]

For my two cents, I thought we played good footy for the first 20-30 minutes. We played with energy (as you would hope and expect round 1) and dominated NQ. Also saw glimpses of better things to come (hopefully).
After that, whether it was fatigue from heat/humidity and/or lack of match fitness, the NQ crowd, conditions, pouring rain, poor interchange timing and/or team selections, I can't say but once it started trickling, we couldn't seem to stem the flow of bad decisions, errors, poor discipline/penalities and predictable plays. They all knew about JDB well in advance so that wasn't a factor although we missed his defence.
I'm not a coach but why totally disrupt the Widdop/Hunt/Dufty combination who have a whole year of playing together under the belts? One pre-season is not enough to get combinations with Norman down pat and we I thought Dufty's speed would have helped had he had more game time.
Anyway, I only hope it can get better because it needs to.
It was never going to be easy up inTownsville for game 1 but I have to say that while it was a hard game, it didn't appear to have the vicious intensity of some the other round 1 games. If Souths play on Thursday like they did on Friday last, we will need to lift intensity substantially right across the park or we might be looking at 0 and 2.

 

[Willow]

Ah OK. The way you call people apologists and accuse people of accepting mediocrity, I thought you must have been actively seeking to change the situation.

Unlike some folks actively trying to dictate the direction of discussion.

Sometimes you just have to allow people to vent their feelings.

By the way... in the Saints forums I believe the term 'acceptance of mediocrity' was first coined by a poster called the saint - an early days fellow forummer and one the greats. It was about 17 or 18 years ago and was pretty much a one-off.

The term dropped away only to rear up again about five years later, that was after the excuses given in 2007 (arguably our worst season in history). The joke of the time was that we were (apparently) only two wins outside of making the top eight! What people neglected to say was that were also just one loss away from getting the spoon.

It was frustrating for old Saints fans because afterwards it seemed that making the top eight was seen as a 'successful' season. Of course, such an attitude was unheard of in the previous decade, hence the now oft-used term acceptance of mediocrity.

Ask me anything...

 

[True_Believer]

Unlike some folks actively trying to dictate the direction of discussion.

Sometimes you just have to allow people to vent their feelings.

By the way... in the Saints forums I believe the term 'acceptance of mediocrity' was first coined by a poster called the saint - an early days fellow forummer and one the greats. It was about 17 or 18 years ago and was pretty much a one-off.

The term dropped away only to rear up again about five years later, that was after the excuses given in 2007 (arguably our worst season in history). The joke of the time was that we were (apparently) only two wins outside of making the top eight! What people neglected to say was that were also just one loss away from getting the spoon.

It was frustrating for old Saints fans because afterwards it seemed that making the top eight was seen as a 'successful' season. Of course, such an attitude was unheard of in the previous decade, hence the now oft-used term acceptance of mediocrity.

Ask me anything...

I'm OK with venting feelings, but I get frustrated when said venting involves labelling other posters. The terms 'apologist' and 'accepting mediocrity' come with negative overtones and are mostly expressed that way in posts.

As I said elsewhere, suggesting that someone 'accepts mediocrity' is, at least to me, somewhat hypocritical. The reality is that if you continue to follow the club and make no real effort to change the situation (other than venting on a forum) you are also accepting mediocrity. As I qualified it in a previous post, it's more like having mediocrity forced upon you rather than willingly accepting it. As you are well aware Willow (based on your past posts), the chances of influencing the club in any way is quite limited.