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Round 13 - v Panthers

Messages
59
Buchanan and Williams are better than Tamale, Sav is a talent but he's shown literally zero improvement from what is a horrendous base to start with defensively. Buchanan and Williams don't have these glaring deficiencies. Perfect, no, but a stronger base and at the very least we know Hayden has an outstanding attitude. Who knows about Jesse, but he doesn't look like he would necessarily have a "bad" attitude. Given that, they will improve, and are already defensively stronger than Sav
Would been nice to keep Tamale, Buchanan and Williams. Tamale could play wing like he did in u19 NSW team to help with his defensive problems and overtime hopefully develop his defensive game. We can't lose Williams, we have to lock him down.
 

Slippery Morris

First Grade
Messages
7,762
I like the changes. Wow. He really is giving these youngsters a crack which is good. He has to start planning for next year and so on so persisting with guys that have proven to fold after a few bad calls is not the way to go. Good on Flanno. Who knows, the Fagai's may blow us away with stand out performances and keep Rava and others in reggies. Couchman's will finally put a stake in FG this week and hopefully stay long term. Is this the first time we see Feagai's in FG under Flanno. They may have improved in the off season under better coaching.
 

Spazer

Juniors
Messages
452
The comments on Instagram surrounding the team list are just plain dumb.

They're asking for Eisenhuth to get dropped.

And then the outcry asking for Tamale is ridiculous as well - he CANNOT DEFEND AT NSW CUP LEVEL - what makes anyone think he can defend in first grade against the Panthers backline???

It seems that Rava has been dropped for reasons I'm assuming are related to what Drew said on JA.

They're also asking for Kyle to be dropped. Based on what? Oh yeah, and also, and replace him with f**ken who?

I would prefer Tuitavake for Lawrie though.
Instagram and Facebook have some stupid takes, basically the average poster will riot if we aren't blooding the young guns asap and any player who has a bad game will get heavily criticised and demand to be dropped without mentioning a replacement.

There's no logical thinking in those posts so best to ignore them.

As for the team list im pretty happy with it based on form, lawrie the only one I'd swap out. Can't wait to see the couchmans and Sione given another crack.
 

Parko1310

Juniors
Messages
1,389
For those complaining about the 4 forwards on the bench: yes, its a risk, but you'll notice its becoming a trend much like the outside back on the bench was a trend around 2016, and now the modern 14 who plays hooker/lock. The trend is being seen in teams who have weaker forward packs.. less minutes per forward = higher output per minute for each forward. The Dolphins do it week in week out because their forward pack is not overly strong, so they compensate with an extra forward on the bench. This week, minus Sele in our pack, we go up against JFH and Leota. Our weakness in the forwards means that in order to compete with these guys, our selected forwards will need to play less minutes each so that we have a constantly high output in the middle. (Selecting Lawrie is a little counter intuitive to the idea though.. however, the side is pretty inexperienced)
 

redandwhite4evr

Juniors
Messages
1,905
No Tamale means we are basically letting him go which is a shame. He has the talent and can play centre/wing which is useful. Good to see Sione Finau, Ryan and Toby Couchman back. They deserve to be picked.
Yep- the shopped around Max Feagai (who has major defensive issues) is preferred to Tamale (who may have defensive issues as well but is 10 ten times more threatening in attack). Can only mean Tamale is already gone in the Dragons eyes. They better sign Talagi now or even more egg will be on their collective faces and in 2025 we'll have an even slower backline than we have this year (assuming Bird re-signs and Suli is his partner)
 

KogarahWarrior

Juniors
Messages
2,095
Instagram and Facebook have some stupid takes, basically the average poster will riot if we aren't blooding the young guns asap and any player who has a bad game will get heavily criticised and demand to be dropped without mentioning a replacement.

There's no logical thinking in those posts so best to ignore them.

As for the team list im pretty happy with it based on form, lawrie the only one I'd swap out. Can't wait to see the couchmans and Sione given another crack.
Agree mate, my biggest concern is just that sort of uproar eventually being reached by the players. Destroys the confidence of certain players selected while massively boosting the ego of other players who aren't being selected.
 

Parko1310

Juniors
Messages
1,389
Discipline off-field regarding drinking and apparently a very lazy trainer
If that is the case, set a standard and piss him off. I've long thought he was unbelievably overrated due to how one dimensional his game is. He will not be a big loss if we get rid of him, he's not actually very good at all. The clean out needs to be thorough and swift. Flano has this year to see who he needs to put the broom through. Who doesn't train well, who doesn't prepare well, who puts themselves before the team and the club constantly. Its these issues that on the footballing squad level have destroyed the club. A toxic culture in the board room and from the top certainly, but some of these players have long been given a free ride as well. There's a lot better than Ravalawa around, so if these issues are true, get out. He can wallow at another NRL club dumb enough to have him (there will be one or two) or he can pack his bags to england
 

since77

Juniors
Messages
2,328
The comments on Instagram surrounding the team list are just plain dumb.

Instagram and Facebook have some stupid takes, basically the average poster will riot if we aren't blooding the young guns asap and any player who has a bad game will get heavily criticised and demand to be dropped without mentioning a replacement.

There's no logical thinking in those posts so best to ignore them.
Yeah the Dragons Facebook & Instagram groups are hilariously bad. Two thirds of those groups are made up of morons who can't spell, form a sentence or seem to have never watched an NRL game. The other third are the "gotta mindlessly support the team even if they're crap" brigade.
I seriously don't think I've ever seen an intelligent post on Facebook or Instagram in any of the Dragons groups. Ever.
 

Lennyb

Juniors
Messages
399
Personally, I think our bench will dominate theres.

Starting pack needs to match or hold for the first 20 and who knows, could be an upset.

Dont want to hear from the nellys about if a back goes down. Our only chance is to win the ruck.

Then the refs may be kind. MAY, the riff fans can get vocal.
 

justadragon

Bench
Messages
3,721
Personally, I think our bench will dominate theres.

Starting pack needs to match or hold for the first 20 and who knows, could be an upset.

Dont want to hear from the nellys about if a back goes down. Our only chance is to win the ruck.

Then the refs may be kind. MAY, the riff fans can get vocal.
Nothing Nelly about wanting a true utility on the interchange bench Lennyb, we have been burnt in a serious fashion before.
 
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