Round 13 - Dolphins

[Crush]

Unfortunately removing Hunt, Lawrie and Su’a was a bit too much experience tonight. Discipline cost us in the end with six agains, penalties, sin bins, makes it near impossible to win for this side.
They had a real dig though and at least shifted the ball and looked to attack.
Bounce back next week vs the penrith cubs hopefully.

 

[Kolum Kid]

Gee some harsh critics in here. If anyone thought a new coach and we would instantly become a first class side is dreaming. Even though we lost tonight I saw play that I enjoyed more than the shit I've had to watch for the last 21/2 years. Sure the kids made mistakes, defence needs refining and some changes in game plan are needed but this is the big league and very few come in make it straight away. Being in a better system helps, we don't have a great system at the moment. That's what I want from a new coach and his support team plus a couple of top class marquee forwards.

 

[bathtime]

We literally have no direction without hunt… Surely after this season sloan is gone.. too many chances for him he’s worse than Dufty and any other fullback at this point

I hope you are wrong. Sloan was ok I think all season, if he was behind a forward pack like the Dolphins he would be great. One of our very few x factor players,

 

[Parko1310]

Our much spoken about and overhyped rookies had 80 minutes like they've had before and showed not much. Sullivan and Amone got schooled by Milford on how a half needs to organise, communicate and look to build pressure through repeat sets. Not every play has to be a flashy play that belongs on a highlight reel, will either of them learn is the big question.

Sloan got schooled by Nikorima on picking the right moments to involve himself.

The kids have a lot to learn it seems.

Yes the kids had every opportunity to stand up tonight and they didn't, simple. Many will come in here and say it isn't all their fault, that's true, but they contributed very little and came up with some awful plays. Sloan was horrific tonight. Amone started well and then threw some shit passes and came up with a really poor defensive error. Sullivan was the best of the three but showed no organisational skills at all.

Bird though, oh my god, worst on field by a mile today. When the arm wrestle was going on at the start of the second half I thought we'd lost because we always crack first in the arm wrestle. I saw Bird take a run and thought we've just got too many dumb players like this guy, we will crack very soon. Low and behold Sullivan puts in an alright clearing kick, the chase comes down and Birdy comes up with an arm grab on Nikorima, who makes a break down field. They score a couple plays later. Not to mention that shocking goal line defence from him where he just came up past the ball and got no one. Some of the worst defence I've ever seen, but sadly not a rarity for Jack Bird. When Carr took Bird off, I'm pretty sure he hooked him.

 

[justadragon]

Well that game is basically is how our whole season has been, actually the score flattered us because I didnt think the Dolphins played that well, we were just worse, looked gassed early, no go forward very poor in defence and of course no attacking plays. Its too late for Carr to change anything, and that can be seen. Why we cant get early ball to our outside backs has always been a mystery to me, we are just hopeless at it. I think its best that we accept the fact the spoon is coming our way, we just suck it up and enjoy the embarrassment, like I hope the players do. As for our new coach , well there needs to be an axe taken to this side in the off season and who ever gets punted including the juniors then so be it. I just didnt see enough out of any of them to suggest they may be our future, just my view but hey they have the rest of the season to prove me wrong and I hope they do. Special mention to Liddle, just about the only one that can hold his head high.

 

[RedVDave]

We absolutely suck that "performance" was pathetic we had no go forward whatsoever yes the Refereeing was abysmal but like usual we prove to be the dumbest team in existence with atrocious 5th tackle options, easy turnovers, the amount of times I saw the ball fall to ground was laughable our wingers are for some reason obsessed with leaving their wing and chasing a player in the middle of the field we looked lost the whole game without Ben Hunt we have nothing only shing lights were De Belin who kept on having a dig, Liddle who always looked dangerous (but never had support (what a surprise)) and Suli who needs more ball cause he looks like he's always ready to break the line.

Back to reality if we play like that against Penrith (even with their stars out) they will put a cricket score on us.

 

[Crush]

Yes the kids had every opportunity to stand up tonight and they didn't, simple. Many will come in here and say it isn't all their fault, that's true, but they contributed very little and came up with some awful plays. Sloan was horrific tonight. Amone started well and then threw some shit passes and came up with a really poor defensive error. Sullivan was the best of the three but showed no organisational skills at all.

Bird though, oh my god, worst on field by a mile today. When the arm wrestle was going on at the start of the second half I thought we'd lost because we always crack first in the arm wrestle. I saw Bird take a run and thought we've just got too many dumb players like this guy, we will crack very soon. Lo and behold Sullivan puts in an alright clearing kick, the chase comes down and Birdy comes up with an arm grab on Isaako, who makes a break down field. They score a couple plays later. Not to mention that shocking goal line defence from him where he just came up past the ball and got no one. Some of the worst defence I've ever seen, but sadly not a rarity for Jack Bird. When Carr took Bird off, I'm pretty sure he hooked him.

I’d say Bird needs to go, he’s a liability now.

 

[OneEyedDragon]

Unfortunately removing Hunt, Lawrie and Su’a was a bit too much experience tonight. Discipline cost us in the end with six agains, penalties, sin bins, makes it near impossible to win for this side.
They had a real dig though and at least shifted the ball and looked to attack.
Bounce back next week vs the penrith cubs hopefully.

Correct @Crush . Our full strength top 17 can be competitive with most other teams. Unfortunately, if a few are missing for whatever reason, the team is not able to match it with the other teams.

 

[RedVee_8]

I guess it’s a bit late in the season to get us fit

 

[Saints Forever]

Dolphins are smart, solid, well coached side.

We lack grunt in the forwards and lost the battle of field possession.

Blaming Sullivan and Sloan for the loss is unreasonable.

The side rarely had field possession and were effectively penalised out of the game.

They managed to wear us down which contributed to our error count in the second half.

It’s hard to predict when we will win another game this season.

Buckle up guys it’s going to be a turbulent ride from here.

 

[justadragon]

Unfortunately removing Hunt, Lawrie and Su’a was a bit too much experience tonight. Discipline cost us in the end with six agains, penalties, sin bins, makes it near impossible to win for this side.
They had a real dig though and at least shifted the ball and looked to attack.
Bounce back next week vs the penrith cubs hopefully.

If Penrith dont put 50 on us next game I'll be very surprised.

 

[I'm Hornby]

They had a real dig though and at least shifted the ball and looked to attack.

Looked to attack? Seems like a very mediocre standard to hold the team to, mate.

They might’ve looked to attack in your eyes but it only led to two tries which won't win your games in the NRL.

The way these juniors have been sold to everyone on here and the high esteem everyone seems to hold them in, forgive me for expecting a bit more than 'looked to attack'.

That second half in particular was just error ridden rubbish from us.

 

[redVbull]

Ref's decide more results than players or coaches do.
One ten minute spell of dubious penalties, restarts and the odd BS sin-binning will cook any team that's on the receiving end.
Having said that... our defence around the ruck is as soft as Sorbent, we run sideways a lot and we're too slow. And dumb.
Sooooo dumb.

Refs sure are trigger-happy when it comes to Dragons sin-bins. Something definitely suspect going on imo. Just like the Cowboys ... the game is in the balance some dragons indiscretion gets binned while worst offences get overlooked rest of the game.

I thought the positive way we started we might have had the measure of the Dolphins tonight ... but the Dolphins home-ground script demanded some intervention to derail the dragons cue the ridiculous sin-bin and about 7 consecutive 6 agains in the same period.

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

New super coach whoever it might be had better demand a lot of new blood into our roster.....and I mean a LOT .....we currently need an influx of about half a dozen new players and I'm being conservative.......besides the fact that we have had 3 dud coaches n approximately the last 12 years and at times apparent biased refereeing towards us in many of our games, we simply are piss poor right across the park .....yes occassionly we will show some grit and determination and win one but they are few and far between Im afraid..... .as a matter of fact I would be prepared to say our current roster is right up there with the worse Ive seen and I've been around for a long long time

 

[qld redvee]

would love to hear carr mention 1) why no penalty or sin bin re nikorimas shot on bird
2 ) jdb sin bin
3) molos laughable crusher tackle

we cant keep silent all the time

 

[Dragon Blood]

Really most on here have been DEMANDING "bud" to be our no 7 permanently in place of our best player , skipper , Origin and Test player BH.
Has a long way to go........

Well DH, he does and I blame that purely on Hook and B (C)#unt.

Bud was the best of the 3 Amigos tonight in my opinion, Hook and B (C)#unt have sabotaged his game time and minutes in 1st grade for the last 2 seasons over the preference to support a player that could be doing some serious jail time.

Also, 2IC coach Carr-loss picked a tiny pack against the Phins one which didn't help Sullivan, plus a shitty game plan (stolen from Hooks notes) which seemed too much control for said jailbird.

Sullivan did a lot of great tackling in the middle and was gassed from it despite nearly scoring a solo towards the end.

This game should have started with Bird @ 6, Musgrove in the pack, and Hammer left right out or at best 14 and given 15 mins towards the end, as Sullivan has been for the last couple of seasons.

 

[Cupper]

Summary:
The sin binning was a joke- he did 5-6 almost identical tackles in the game, they single out 1 and send it to the bin? Dolphins played a smart game kicked to the corners and we didn’t have the energy or skills to get out.

Sloan was horrible as per normal
Our wingers are reserve graders, Feagai defensive read was horrible, Ravas play to try and get his foot to the sideline and forget about catching the ball was laughable.
Bird isn’t agile enough for 2nd row, it’s lock or nothing. In fact probably the same can be said for BMM, the back rowers need some speed & agility.
I feel for Suli, can’t be that hard to get him quick and early ball, we can then play off the back of his go forward.
Liddle was our best and has probably changed my opinion on the hunt to hooker debate.

priority signings for me would be a quality outside back & a marquee forward.

 

[sammymills]

So you cannot tackle around the legs anymore? Is that the ruling? Or is it because they said ‘with force’ I’d love to know exactly how many KN of force the velocity must be to deem it a sin bin offence?
Milford fking ripped off amones head, he should’ve been sent off and yet not even a penalty.

 

[Illusion]

Refs sure are trigger-happy when it comes to Dragons sin-bins. Something definitely suspect going on imo. Just like the Cowboys ... the game is in the balance some dragons indiscretion gets binned while worst offences get overlooked rest of the game.

I thought the positive way we started we might have had the measure of the Dolphins tonight ... but the Dolphins home-ground script demanded some intervention to derail the dragons cue the ridiculous sin-bin and about 7 consecutive 6 agains in the same period.

We always look ok for the first 30 min or so and then , its over ........

 

[ruthless dragon]

Aaaaargh christ I will start by being positive.
This team has the potential to be great, however.
Training this week should have a huge banner showing the table, yes Dragons you are last!!! So what to do
Train the forwards days on end to OFFLOAD then train the runners to be there for the offloads.
While the forwards are learning to offload....
Train the backs to make space to give the ball to the strikes the Suli, lomax, amone, sloans of the team ffs.