Round 17 - v Dolphins

[Kolum Kid]

?????

No idea either. I didn't even have a drink yesterday. Pocket post???

 

[st.phil]

Yes it is getting a bit scary that we are just that many wins in front of the Eels, Tigers and Titans and the Bunnies are even closer (2 wins away). We lose against the Dolphins on Sunday and with the Titans and Bunnies having their 3rd byes in Round 17, they will be even closer like we will remain on 18 points and the Titans move up to 14 points and Bunnies up to 16 points. I know we have the 3rd bye in Round 20 but as of this weekend a loss to the Dolphins would mean that we would be only 2 wins from the Titans and 1 win from the Bunnies. The Sea Eagles have their 2nd bye this weekend and they will leap frog us to be on 19 points if we lose.

So it is a must win for us on Sunday to keep us at bay from those "spoon" teams.

true - 4 wins between 5th and 17th... v tight season

 

[Slippery Morris]

Saints are 3 wins from the spoon but so is the team coming 6th. Saints are also 1 win from 5th place. That Manly game was the one that they needed to win. I am hoping they make that one up against a depleted Broncos.

As we saw last weekend the results are not as predictable as we think they will be and there will be a lot of teams in the middle taking wins off each other.

Last years wooden spoon team finished on 14pts. Looks like that won't be the case this year. I hope it is though but I highly doubt it. For that to happen we would want Titans, Tigers and Eels to lose every game.

 

[jeffdragon]

Adam Gee ref.
Sutton in bunker.

 

[FlickFlano]

If we had a halfback who was actually as good as the press/facebooktards think he is then we beat the sharks and we beat the sea eagles and we sit in equal 3rd ... That is how stupid this competition actually is.

 

[jeffdragon]

Suli back.
RFM in 2nd row.
All 3 origin players named.
Bird,Brown, Marschke on extended bench.
4 forwards on bench.
Sele not named.


Sloan
Lomax
Suli
Faegai
Faegai
Flano Jr
Hunt
Molo
Liddle
JDB
Fatala -Mariner
Sua
Eisenhuth

Lawrie
BMM
Couchman
Leilua

 

[Dragon David]

SUNDAY

St George Illawarra Dragons vs The Dolphins, 2pm AEST at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium

Dragons team: 1. Tyrell Sloan 2. Zac Lomax 3. Moses Suli 4. Max Feagai 5. Mathew Feagai 6. Kyle Flanagan 7. Ben Hunt 8. Francis Molo 9. Jacob Liddle 10. Jack de Belin 11. Raymond Faitala-Mariner 12. Jaydn Su’A 13. Tom Eisenhuth 14. Blake Lawrie 15. Ben Murdoch-Masila 16. Toby Couchman 17. Luciano Leilua 18. Michael Molo 19. Christian Tuipulotu 20. Ryan Couchman 21. Jesse Marschke 22. Jack Bird 23. Fa’amanu Brown

Analysis:Moses Suli returns to the centres at the expense of Christian Tuipulotu, while Jack Bird has been named on an extended bench and could return following a knee injury. Queensland duo Ben Hunt and Jaydn Su’A as well as New South Wales winger Zac Lomax will all back up.

Dolphins team: 1. Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow 2. Jamayne Isaako 3. Jake Averillo 4. Herbie Farnworth 5. Tesi Niu 6. Kodi Nikorima 7. Isaiya Katoa 8. Jesse Bromwich 9. Jeremy Marshall-King 10. Kenny Bromwich 11. Connelly Lemuelu 12. Euan Aitken 13. Max Plath 14. Felise Kaufusi 15. Mark Nicholls 16. Ray Stone 17. Tevita Pangai Junior 18. Josh Kerr 19. Sean O’Sullivan 20. Kurt Donoghoe 21. Trai Fuller 22. Oryn Keeley

Analysis: Tevita Pangai Junior will again feature off the bench following his impressive return to the NRL last week. Superstar fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow will back up from Origin, while his Maroons teammate Felise Kaufusi will also play. Tesi Niu replaced winger Jack Bostock (concussion).

 

[kit66]

The Dolphins won the forward battle by a country mile last meeting, not one of our forwards ran for more than 100 mts, in fact only one made over 90 (Lawrie 91mts). How can your halves fire when your pack is getting rolled. We also helped the Dolphins cause with 13 errors to their 5.
The team is playing with more cohesion than they did in round two and have also had some success with their attack of late but will need to be at their best to outclass the Dolphins. Our backline is a worry with no speed apart from Sloan vs the Hammer, Isaako and Nui, things could get real ugly, real fast. Our pack have to put in a better showing than last time, and a lot better than they did against Manly. I'd prefer Luc to start, him and Suli can get us rolling downfield really well and have Kyle and Hunty play off that. I'm not confident but hopeful the boys can at least be competitive this time. We need to throw the ball around but finish our sets and make every advantage count. What I really want is for someone in our pack to stand up the way Nathan Brown did against us, make a statement, maybe RFM or Luc but it's what we're lacking atm.

Saints by 4

 

[TheRev]

Despite being named, Suli is still touch and go... and we will have to wait and see with our origin boys.

As Gus has spoken about us this year, we can bully teams when were switched on and all the big bodies r running hard (that requires Suli).. thats really our only gameplan, esp at home which will give us some more energy.. but if we end up in an arm wrestle, kicking for corners etc.. I doubt we would come out on top... and im very nervous about the speed of hammer, averillo, fuller etc etc.

 

[redandwhite4evr]

The Phins are a well-disciplined and coached side. If they make minimal errors they will flog us just like they did in the first game. Dragons just cant compete with a team that makes no errors. This is the start of a very tough run and it will be a real eye opener to where we sit compared to other teams. We will need a lot of luck to win this one.

Yes- we've had some wins this season (eg Manly and the Tiges at W'gong) where the opposition simply imploded, made ridiculous errors and virtually handed us victory. You have to beat a Bennett coached side-they won't beat themselves.
Unfortunately, we have three tough matches coming up and may have to endure three losses in a row before the bye saves us again.

 

[Crush]

Anyone else feeling a bit flat at this stage of the season?
I look at this game and think meh, I’ll watch it but not really excited.
Dunno, we are just fumbling our way through the season, win a couple, lose a few.
It just feels like 12th or there abouts is inevitable. And next year? Again, feeling a bit flat about it. Lomax leaves, Cooky comes. Meh.
A spine of Sloan, Flano, Hunt, Cook is decent I guess. But not really. Sloan is hot and cold, mostly room temperature. Flano goes alright. Hunt is great 50% of the time and crap the other, poor to mediocre kicking game. And he kicks a lot. Cook is a good signing, he’ll be fine.
Then there is Allan, Suli, Bird, Fegai which is a below average backline, I mean Suli is excellent but who else we got? Need to sign 2 backs that start NRL.
Forwards are solid enough, we can work with them.
Anyway, not feeling it this week, dunno.

 

[BLM01]

Anyone else feeling a bit flat at this stage of the season?
I look at this game and think meh, I’ll watch it but not really excited.
Dunno, we are just fumbling our way through the season, win a couple, lose a few.
It just feels like 12th or there abouts is inevitable. And next year? Again, feeling a bit flat about it. Lomax leaves, Cooky comes. Meh.
A spine of Sloan, Flano, Hunt, Cook is decent I guess. But not really. Sloan is hot and cold, mostly room temperature. Flano goes alright. Hunt is great 50% of the time and crap the other, poor to mediocre kicking game. And he kicks a lot. Cook is a good signing, he’ll be fine.
Then there is Allan, Suli, Bird, Fegai which is a below average backline, I mean Suli is excellent but who else we got? Need to sign 2 backs that start NRL.
Forwards are solid enough, we can work with them.
Anyway, not feeling it this week, dunno.

Losing a bit of faith I see..you were so buoyant a few weeks back
I am always excited and nervous and will always have expectations we can jag it against the better teams
I am flat when we lose they way we did against Manly cause should of nailed them with a foot on their gut..or
like this time last year we were already just about out of semi final race
Few self contradictions in your rant..

Its like you see a bit of light and know there is
Is just like many of us you dont want to get your hopes up too much as you get knocked down week to week
They just might surprise this week as real under dogs

 

[BLM01]

true - 4 wins between 5th and 17th... v tight season

just the way the NRL like it

 

[Crush]

Losing a bit of faith I see..you were so buoyant a few weeks back
I am always excited and nervous and will always have expectations we can jag it against the better teams
I am flat when we lose they way we did against Manly cause should of nailed them with a foot on their gut..or
like this time last year we were already just about out of semi final race
Few self contradictions in your rant..

Its like you see a bit of light and know there is
Is just like many of us you dont want to get your hopes up too much as you get knocked down week to week
They just might surprise this week as real under dogs

I guess I can see the improvement but it’s just not as rapid as I would like, being unrealistic probably.
Not sure we are underdogs vs dolphins at home, slight perhaps, odds are pretty even.

 

[since77]

I guess I can see the improvement but it’s just not as rapid as I would like, being unrealistic probably.
Not sure we are underdogs vs dolphins at home, slight perhaps, odds are pretty even.

Chin up! This was never going to be a stellar season, just the first step back up from the cellar our moronic board dragged us down to. At the beginning of the season I hoped that we'd maybe still be in the mix of teams competing for 8th in the final few rounds, expecting us to fall short.
Still hoping Flanno will pull a rabbit out of his hat in regards to recruitment for '25. We've improved this year. It's terrible but that's all I expected. To be honest they're actually in front of where I expected them to be. But still expecting them to crush me in those final few rounds when they pull out a shocker against a team we should beat.
Year one on a new journey. I'm way more optimistic for the short term future than I was this time last year.

 

[Dragon David]

We have got to ride this up and down season right out to the end for Flannos first year at the helm. We can all put in our 2 cents worth for our review of the season which will be very interesting indeed.

This game against the Dolphins at home will have a big bearing for the rest of the season I reckon. We win this and it will give us a massive boost to win the next few. We lose and confidence drops and so too our position on the ladder and the struggle to keep afloat will be tough.

Crush is feeling a bit flat so am I because of the uncertainty of what attitude will our players bring into the game this weekend. We know that the Dolphins were only just beaten by the Storm last week and if they had an extra 5 minutes or so could have jagged the win so Bennett believes. The Dolphins have players with plenty of mobility in both the forwards and backs and are hard to contain. Our defence has to be spot on and our attack the same.

It is hard to imagine the Dolphins losing consecutive games but where there is hope you never know and the flat feeling will disappear if we win.

 

[Mojo]

Being average inspires ambivalence.

We’re right in the middle of the table at the half way point of the season.

We‘re average. Average performance over the full season will put us just outside the 8 - because there’s 17 sides in the comp. However, our second half season draw is tougher than the first half, so we’ll have to improve in the short term just to remain average overall.

The upside is that we were well below average last year.

We can only hope that we continue to improve, which I expect we will.

 

[jeffdragon]

Losing a bit of faith I see..you were so buoyant a few weeks back
I am always excited and nervous and will always have expectations we can jag it against the better teams
I am flat when we lose they way we did against Manly cause should of nailed them with a foot on their gut..or
like this time last year we were already just about out of semi final race
Few self contradictions in your rant..

Its like you see a bit of light and know there is
Is just like many of us you dont want to get your hopes up too much as you get knocked down week to week
They just might surprise this week as real under dogs

At least it's the end of June and we are still a rough hope of making the 8.
Had we bt Manly which was a big miss we would of been up there.
Just when we have hope the team underperformes..
Expecting a tough encounter 1 point win enough..

 

[Victoire]

Anyone else feeling a bit flat at this stage of the season?
I look at this game and think meh, I’ll watch it but not really excited.
Dunno, we are just fumbling our way through the season, win a couple, lose a few.
It just feels like 12th or there abouts is inevitable. And next year? Again, feeling a bit flat about it. Lomax leaves, Cooky comes. Meh.
A spine of Sloan, Flano, Hunt, Cook is decent I guess. But not really. Sloan is hot and cold, mostly room temperature. Flano goes alright. Hunt is great 50% of the time and crap the other, poor to mediocre kicking game. And he kicks a lot. Cook is a good signing, he’ll be fine.
Then there is Allan, Suli, Bird, Fegai which is a below average backline, I mean Suli is excellent but who else we got? Need to sign 2 backs that start NRL.
Forwards are solid enough, we can work with them.
Anyway, not feeling it this week, dunno.

Mate. *passes you a beer*

Think back to around January-February-ish. We're an almost unanimous tip for the spoon. Ben Hunt maybe still wants out. We'd missed out on landing AFB and Dearden, then our new signing Cory Allan did a season ending injury at training and our other new signing Ronny Volkman did a season ending injury before even signing. Bleak times.

Since then we've picked up Luc Leilua and big RFM, and we've not only won a game or two, but 7. Seven! And in one of them we scored 50 points! Still half a season to go but we've already beaten last year's mark. In fact, we've only had more than 8 wins in a season ONCE in the last 5 years. And we're nearly there now at the halfway mark. Monumental achievement by the team and coach at this point, and I don't believe anyone is resting on those laurels yet.

The new coaching regime have turned Lomax from a gifted enigma into an Origin player, and returned Jaydn Su'a to that arena as well by reigniting his best form. That same regime will soon take charge of some of the stars of the St George SG Ball team who won that comp for the first time in 32 years; stars including NSW U19 guns Jacob Halangahu and the giant Loko Pasifiki Tonga.

They'll be joined in this Dragons cultural revolution by another new arrival. A true leadership figure who spent years in the neglected doldrums of part-time reserve grade footy in the empty parks of the NSW Cup, before rising to star in the NRL, in a grand final, for NSW, for Australia and barely missing a single game in the process.

Enjoy the ride this year buddy. The fact we are even considered a mild chance of winning against the Dolphins is phenomenal. We're on the upswing

 

[Mojo]

Some stats, for what they're worth: (negatives in red)

We are not in the top quartile (top 4 teams) in any statistic - good or bad.

Second quartile (4th to 8th) : attacking kicks, forced drop outs, offloads, dummy half runs, line engagements, conversions, penalties received, errors, tries conceded

Third quartile (outside the 8): runs, line breaks, tackle busts, time in opposition 20, completion rate, 1 pass hitups, general play passes, try assists, kicks, long kicks, kick returns, run meters conceded, line breaks conceded

Fourth quartile (toward the bottom of the table): run metres, line breaks, kick meters, weighted kicks, kick return metres, penalties conceded, tackles, missed tackles, offloads conceded

Others can analyse but my superficial summary is:

Attack: the effort is there but the effectiveness has to improve. There's a lack of support play. We're not tactically dominant, our kicking game is poor, we're easily defended against, we don't bend the line or break it, and were error ridden.

Defence: we're forced to tackle our butts off - because of our poor tactical game management (lack of field position), largely due to our poor kicking game.

I think this all suggests that our forwards are putting in the work but we really need more grunt both in attack and defence. Sorry Ben but I think the ineffectiveness of our halfback is a major factor in the areas in which our performance is below par. Our back line obviously is too lightweight also but, if we could improve our support play we could make substantial improvements.