Round 10 v Souths

[Dragon the chain]

St George Illawarra was left out of round 1 last year and now Magic Round. We are the skid-marked stained undies of the competition in the eyes of its admin.
The game forced us to merge and allowed sharks, roosters and souths to stand alone. 11 in a row was not enough to save St George and so it's only a matter of time til you get your wish. We can't string a few wins together, ever. What do we have to bring to the comp?
Now the NRL are bringing in more teams. Not enough players to go around and we, the dysfunctional merged entity, cannot even get the off cuts of the lowly ranked teams. All our good youth is playing elsewhere or simply not nurtured at all (at least pre-flanno).

We are on our way out. Who will stop it happening?

Who cares about Magic Round? We've got a great draw this year. Last year, missing round 1, we had a wasted bye. Our first bye comes at a perfect time for us. Magic Round would have been extra interstate travel, and possibly the loss of a home game. It's better this way. The goal is not to be in the spotlight. The goal is to win games and, ultimately, win the comp.

 

[since77]

Also forecast to be pouring rain tomorrow. That makes it an even bigger worry.

Yeah but hold on a moment. Our marquee halfback Hunt will have learnt from the two previous wet weather disasters where his kicking game was utter shite and he'll kick us to victory with a wet weather kicking masterclass.
Bird will play a perfect game free of brain farts and errors while Blake "all heart" Lawrie will storm all over the Souffs reserve graders.....The Dar-gons will also put a lot of effort into mental preparation and realise that this is not the sort of game you go into complacently because the opposition is down on troops and will play at high intensity for 80 minutes.

Hmmmm, well now that I've read all of that back I have just realised how out of character all of that would be.........

On second thought you're right. I'm worried too.

 

[Dragon the chain]

I don't think their bench will hold up defensively in the middle. We will go straight through them today. Just need to complete sets, kick to corners, tackle with discipline.

 

[Gold_Coast Dragon]

I am confident everyone will do their job with the exception of captain Hunt who still doesn't understand his job description.

 

[Dragon the chain]

Watch for Kyle to make their 7 uncomfortable with some classic pest behaviour. Kyle is actually elite at kick pressure, kick chase, small detail effort areas. Plus he's got a bit of grub in him.

 

[Old Timer]

I'm starting to get the impression Flanno has a different methodology to what a lot of us would expect.

I have worked in communications my whole adult life and when fault finding issues or problems, which happens a lot, only changing 1 thing at a time is very important to identifying the root cause.

Over the first 10 rounds, consistency has been our biggest issue.

Some games, our defence is really cohesive and aggressive. Others it is disjointed and passive.

Some games, our attack looks fluid and connected and threatening. Other games, it looks clunky, misdirected and limp.

As a team, some players have looked really good at times, and at other times, really poor. Lomax and Su'A have been up there as our best for example. But both had shockers against the roosters and dolphins respectively.

From the outside looking in, it seems to me to be an attitude problem, not a systems problem because both our attack and defence have looked really good at different stages. Players not getting up for every single game is the issue as I see it.

If I were a betting man. I am looking at the first ten rounds and am under the impression Flanno has given his top 20 players these rounds to sort things out. See how the team responds. If he kept chopping and changing players every week, he wouldn't know if it was the players, systems or attitudes that were the problem.

This has also given Toby and Ryan the chance to stand out and stake their claim. If they were in and out of the team, they wouldn't be posting the numbers they are because they wouldn't be THE guys. But by giving them time in NSW cup, Flanno has a real idea that they are too good for that level and can start to filter them through and trust them to play a role, not just blood them because he is desperate.

Come round 12, I could be proven well wrong. But if you keep chopping and changing the team after every win or lose, you never know what team you have.

The issue for me is we all already well and truly know what team we have.

We have a team that has "senior" players with long standing inherent faults that previous coaches and fans believe could be coached out of them and in the end the fans deciding that the previous coaches were the problem and that the inherent problems still remain.

Flanno has 4 wins up thus far and fans start to believe that perhaps these inherent faults are starting to disappear albeit slowly.

But on closer analysis is that correct for our most senior of players who I believe have had these faults for years some even at other clubs long before they arrived at St GI.

These faults apply to many and varied of our “senior” players and they all contribute to us losing games.

Unfit & fatigue easily
Poor lateral movements
Arm Grabs
Missed tackles
Ruck penalties & 6 agains often in repeat sequences
Dumb as dog shit penalties
Inability to win the wrestle either in defence or attack resulting in slow play the balls and penalties.
Can’t make the add line nor make a 100m regularly
Incapable of scoring long range tries due to total lack of speed
Piss poor kicking game let alone game management
Useless in clutch moments
Incapable of catching a short kick off or LDO either from them or us.

Even if some of the kids have some of these faults at least they are not yet ingrained as is the case with many of our senior players so there is some hope to eliminate some of those things that cost us so dearly so often.

There are a few senior / established players that fall into multiple fault categories and will always fall into them so when will it be time to move on and invest in potential rather than trying to retrain habitual failure

 

[KogarahWarrior]

His career stats says has made 29(?) FG appearances in 7 years for multiple clubs and been rejected. He is apparently playing for Townsville Blackhawks(?) now and Hornby has called him for this game. Maybe should have called him "some sort of temporary filler" rather than a rookie. I standby my evaluation that on paper Lomax is much better than him

Oh of course mate I don't disagree with you. I think the worst starting winger in the NRL probably trumps Shibasaki

 

[Parko1310]

We should easily win this with the team they've got running out. I think we will win, but not easily, though. We will let souths into the game. It will probably be 10-6 or something similar for a long period of time.

 

[Draginzaaar]

Not su

Just Dissolve the supermerge, come on Mr Twiggy Fluffy and Cute, Souffs to embarrAss wipes St Dargon Steelers.
Souffs by 32.
What an Insult to that Good Jersey, God bless the St George Dragons, the greatest of all time rugby league.

Not sure what you're on about. Go back to 1950.

 

[Draginzaaar]

S

St George Illawarra was left out of round 1 last year and now Magic Round. We are the skid-marked stained undies of the competition in the eyes of its admin.
The game forced us to merge and allowed sharks, roosters and souths to stand alone. 11 in a row was not enough to save St George and so it's only a matter of time til you get your wish. We can't string a few wins together, ever. What do we have to bring to the comp?
Now the NRL are bringing in more teams. Not enough players to go around and we, the dysfunctional merged entity, cannot even get the off cuts of the lowly ranked teams. All our good youth is playing elsewhere or simply not nurtured at all (at least pre-flanno).

We are on our way out. Who will stop it happening?

A team has to have the bye in Round 1. A team has to miss out on Magic Round.

 

[<StGeorgeDragons>]

S

A team has to have the bye in Round 1. A team has to miss out on Magic Round.

Yeah but not necessarily the same team in consecutive years. When do Souths or Roosters get thier turn? Not happening. Send them to Las Vegas for the grand opening instead.

Are you even for real?

 

[<StGeorgeDragons>]

Who cares about Magic Round? We've got a great draw this year. Last year, missing round 1, we had a wasted bye. Our first bye comes at a perfect time for us. Magic Round would have been extra interstate travel, and possibly the loss of a home game. It's better this way. The goal is not to be in the spotlight. The goal is to win games and, ultimately, win the comp.

That's not the point. Magic Round is another money raker for the league, nothing more than a gimmick, but that doesn't change the fact that clubs want to be part of it. Remember Newcastle crying about it last year? It's an insult and you can guarantee it won't be shared around.



If we weren't an embarrassment to the NRL we'd be part of it. And you know it.

 

[Draginzaaar]

Yeah but not necessarily the same team in consecutive years. When do Souths or Roosters get thier turn? Not happening. Send them to Las Vegas for the grand opening instead.

Are you even for real?

What? Whatever. We won't know if those teams miss out for a few years, will we?

 

[<StGeorgeDragons>]

What? Whatever. We won't know if those teams miss out for a few years, will we?

Hehe the denial is incredible. The last magic round that was memorable to me is when the comp used Dragons to enforce their new policies on head high contact and Fuimaono was sent off for weeks and McGuire binned. Now these incidents would be play on or a penalty at worst.

The comp treats us with disdain. Newcastle last year, us this year and my money is on the Tigers next year or some other club that doesn't serve their interests.

 

[since77]

That's not the point. Magic Round is another money raker for the league, nothing more than a gimmick, but that doesn't change the fact that clubs want to be part of it. Remember Newcastle crying about it last year? It's an insult and you can guarantee it won't be shared around.



If we weren't an embarrassment to the NRL we'd be part of it. And you know it.

Considering we have lost every magic round game we've played I'm 100% happy for the Dar-gons not to be a part of it this year.
Personally I hate the Magic Round idea. Novelty gimmick brought to you by the same clowns who thought the six again concept, the short dropout and the "disruptor" were good ideas.

 

[Old Timer]

What? Whatever. We won't know if those teams miss out for a few years, will we?

The point being made is that we are a famous brand with a huge following and not just in our local area so how does the NRL come up with our club as missing out especially in magic round as we have an massive following in Qld?

I also believe they are suggesting that if the NRL are trying to do something innovative then what better brand to do it with than the Big Red V.

 

[since77]

What? Whatever. We won't know if those teams miss out for a few years, will we?

Hey man don't disagree with that clown - apparently he's a self confessed important NRL player manager who is "in the know".
Shhhhhhhh - don't tell anyone!!!!

 

[<StGeorgeDragons>]

Hey man don't disagree with that clown - apparently he's a self confessed important NRL player manager who is "in the know".
Shhhhhhhh - don't tell anyone!!!!

For someone who has such a poor read on sarcasm, you are very sarcastic yourself LOL.

 

[Dragon the chain]

That's not the point. Magic Round is another money raker for the league, nothing more than a gimmick, but that doesn't change the fact that clubs want to be part of it. Remember Newcastle crying about it last year? It's an insult and you can guarantee it won't be shared around.



If we weren't an embarrassment to the NRL we'd be part of it. And you know it.

I'm a weirdo, but I only care about the football games. I care about winning games, playing well, winning comps, etc. I don't give a f**k about money, Vegas, Magic Round, or the NRL insulting the Dragons.

 

[Sage63]

Hey man don't disagree with that clown - apparently he's a self confessed important NRL player manager who is "in the know".
Shhhhhhhh - don't tell anyone!!!!

And apparently I'mHornby, is a master of sarcasm!!
who would have guessed it?!
Sounding more like a masterdebater.