Round 17 - v Dolphins

[be55]

Sloan should be sniffing around the breaks from dummy half. Liddle, RFM, Luch and Couchman were looking for runners when they made breaks/runs through the middle. Sloan would have bagged two or three off these blokes

I agree. The point I'm making is when we're attacking inside the twenty. I'm saying his speed should be used to greater effect, and we should be looking to get him more involved when setting up shape to attack the line.

 

[TheRev]

I do wonder if we could play SFinau and Sloan and have 2 guys supporting our power runners.. seems more chance one would be there.. tbh our backline movements are non-existant.. even if we they werent, we don thave the outside speed to execute them.. so if were gonna keep sending guys thru the middle and poking their heads thru.. lets make a gameplan out of it.

Matt seems like he will be out a while anyway. Lomax maybe back maybe not before origin.. CTui is a mixed bag.. did some good things but I felt like maybe he was making some dud calls in defence, but tbf I havent watched him all that closely.. he seems to just have the leg up on Finau for now... but the queue is shorter now with Matt gone.

 

[Veteran Dragon]

Good win by the team. I thought Su'a was outstanding. Great to see him bounce back from a poor game on Wednesday night. There is still plenty to work on, especially with attack in good ball areas. I'd love to see them set up with Sloan out the back of shape more, and take advantage of that speed across the ground that he has, to get to the edges quicker. Hunt is far too dominant and is always looking to play flat at the line, even if it means hitting runners that have nowhere to go.

All that aside, far and away the best thing for me at the moment is the obvious high spirit within the team. The constant celebration of each other's individual efforts during the game and the geeing up when a try is scored is great to see. They are really playing for each other, and that is half the battle.

Like him or not, you have to give big credit to the coach for this aspect of the team environment at the moment.

Great to see the team win. Up the Dragons...

How could any true Dragon fan not like Flanno after a relatively short time he has turned this team from betting agencies wooden spoon favourites to semi final hopefuls. The long term future is looking much brighter then the gloomy past number of years.
GO THE DRAGONS!

 

[Old Timer]

I agree. The point I'm making is when we're attacking inside the twenty. I'm saying his speed should be used to greater effect, and we should be looking to get him more involved when setting up shape to attack the line.

WTF and not give the ball at least twice to Mud Guts Blocker

You can’t be serious

 

[Auntie.Gerald]

I reckon we would all need to see that left side on replay. There was a lot going on and not defending Tui but twice it appeared he had no choice but to launch in at the centre to cut off the last pass……as Suli, Luc and Flano got caught out of shape and the Fins got outside our second last man.

Tui is not a first choice for the wing, but with Rava and Lomax both out it was lucky we had him today to take this early hit ups against a Good pack

Tui did:

15 runs
174m
60 PCM ie one average he is making 4m PCM every hitup !
8 tackle breaks (equal highest today)

pretty good actaully !

when the song was sung today JDB turned to Christian to sing the third line. They seem to love Tui jumping all over him and Tui went nuts.

good competitor who may improve but at least good depth for 2024 and 2025

 

[Happy Old Dragon]

Thanks for "saving my life" today Dragons.
In that scoring all those tries in the second half gave me an excuse ro jump up and down like some idiot.
Kept me warm.

Otherwise I would have surely frozen.
Brass Monkey weather today in the North Stand.

Great enthusiasm boys.
Look out Roosters, here we come.

 

[Parko1310]

Couchman can't be dropped after his performance today surely. Sele supposed to be back next week, it has to be Lawrie who makes way.

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

Yep,

We are miles off being contenders, however we also miles ahead of the last few years. To me, the best thing about today's game was keeping them to 6 points.

I must have said it 10 times, during the game, but Im a massive fan of Liddle. He is a fricken gutsy, hard working and smart hooker.

I agree Bud...will be interesting when one Damien Cook arrives wont it.....Flanno must have something in mind for Cook and Lids.....how many mins each gets will be an interesting equation

 

[redv13]

Couchman can't be dropped after his performance today surely. Sele supposed to be back next week, it has to be Lawrie who makes way.

My gut says Lawrie survives and BMM gets the bullet which I don’t agree with

 

[Parko1310]

My gut says Lawrie survives and BMM gets the bullet which I don’t agree with

What I find interesting is Flano put Toby back on, not Lawrie. Usually it's the other way around. I'm hoping that is an indication of who will be in the team next week. Lawrie simply cannot be there surely, and BMM has been great for us off the bench with his impact

 

[redv13]

What I find interesting is Flano put Toby back on, not Lawrie. Usually it's the other way around. I'm hoping that is an indication of who will be in the team next week. Lawrie simply cannot be there surely, and BMM has been great for us off the bench with his impact

Agree with you 100%, just a feeling that I have that I hope to god is wrong

 

[This Year?]

At half time I was filthy and expecting another collapse, but instead it was the other team that did it.
It's fitting that today's win was done by a bunch who nobody rates for a bloke who nobody rates.
Enjoy your 200th Shane.

 

[Qapm]

Idk if you've seen but everyone is commenting on socials saying refs v Dolphins.

As far as I'm concerned, I know where they can stick it.

I hope other teams believe that and they think the power displayed today by the forwards was just a one off. If the boys can keep that level of energy we may finally be in the 8 at the end of season.

 

[TheRev]

I think the image of Lawrie being pushed back into the ingoal will stay with the coach... compounded by again dropping the ball after finally making a big charge.. followed by blowing the captains challenge.

But if we really are looking at offloading him to the tigers, I can understand keeping him there.. but I find it hard to believe an NRL club would pay much for him... the other option is he can be 18th man.

I think RyanC is getting close to his promotion too, but if Sele is also fit, possibly he has to wait for another injury.

 

[since77]

Frustrating first half to watch. That try on half time was just typical. Watching on my iPad holidaying up on NSW north coast I got up after they dropped that ball and said you watch they will concede a try right on half time now. I hate sports betting but if there was an exotic bet that Dragons concede a dumb try within minutes of half time I would be rich.
Second half. What an enigmatic team we currently support. Capable of rubbish and then very good football in 40 minute patches.
Sua was fantastic. Huge man crush on him. Should be captain.
The fans whipping boy, young Sloan was good yesterday. Not brilliant but solid and some nice touches on both sides of the ball. Keep improving young man.
RFM very good. Leilua is much better used off the bench.
Suli makes a big difference with yardage.
We defended pretty well.
Hunt was close to terrible.
Lawrie again bloody woeful, I really don’t understand how he gets a spot in the top 17. He‘s just so poor at this level.
Feel sorry for Matt F, I thought he’d been making a decent fist of his chance this year.
Congrats to Flanno on the slow turnaround in progress. I still think we’ll fall short of finals this year but we are heading in the right direction. Just a matter of time and 1 or 2 good recruits.

 

[Victoire]

Really enjoyable afternoon yesterday at the frozen tundra of Kogarah. Where the wind was so bitterly cold that Queen Elsa herself would've stayed indoors, but my frostbitten face was smiling.

Folks, I'm going to make a very odd statement: we are a fun team to watch in attack. Not something anyone has said in a long long time about a Dargons team, and possibly Flanno's finest achievement of all. But we are indeed entertaining. The giants Sua, RFM, Luc and Suli skittling blokes on the edge, props doing runaround plays and scoring tries, Couchman high stepping and bumping through the ruck, Liddle spotting chances and taking them, and then to top it all off one of the slickest scrum set plays we've seen by this club in eons executed so perfectly that even the slowest winger in the club could score off it (kudos to Tui though he worked hard all day). And they did it against a Bennett coached team who've been in the top 5 ish all year. Good times. Good win

 

[Dragon David]

Frustrating first half to watch. That try on half time was just typical. Watching on my iPad holidaying up on NSW north coast I got up after they dropped that ball and said you watch they will concede a try right on half time now. I hate sports betting but if there was an exotic bet that Dragons concede a dumb try within minutes of half time I would be rich.
Second half. What an enigmatic team we currently support. Capable of rubbish and then very good football in 40 minute patches.
Sua was fantastic. Huge man crush on him. Should be captain.
The fans whipping boy, young Sloan was good yesterday. Not brilliant but solid and some nice touches on both sides of the ball. Keep improving young man.
RFM very good. Leilua is much better used off the bench.
Suli makes a big difference with yardage.
We defended pretty well.
Hunt was close to terrible.
Lawrie again bloody woeful, I really don’t understand how he gets a spot in the top 17. He‘s just so poor at this level.
Feel sorry for Matt F, I thought he’d been making a decent fist of his chance this year.
Congrats to Flanno on the slow turnaround in progress. I still think we’ll fall short of finals this year but we are heading in the right direction. Just a matter of time and 1 or 2 good recruits.

Enjoy your north coast holiday since77.

I'd love for us to be able to play great footy in both halves, not just the one half. If we can do this, we might win the games we need to play finals. But in saying this, I'd also be happy if we play blinders in a half and put on enough points to win like yesterday.

Our coaches are doing well and I expect we will improve more this year. The players know what they can do. Flanno knows as well and he has to keep goading them to be consistently playing to their best in each game.

 

[RedVee]

I noticed something new yesterday, possibly because I was at the ground (freezing) rather than watching on TV.

After every try, instead of going back and waiting for the kickoff while the kick was being taken. The whole team was in a tight little huddle. Did you notice?

They seem to have built some team spirit now.

 

[Draginzaaar]

Really enjoyable afternoon yesterday at the frozen tundra of Kogarah. Where the wind was so bitterly cold that Queen Elsa herself would've stayed indoors, but my frostbitten face was smiling.

Folks, I'm going to make a very odd statement: we are a fun team to watch in attack. Not something anyone has said in a long long time about a Dargons team, and possibly Flanno's finest achievement of all. But we are indeed entertaining. The giants Sua, RFM, Luc and Suli skittling blokes on the edge, props doing runaround plays and scoring tries, Couchman high stepping and bumping through the ruck, Liddle spotting chances and taking them, and then to top it all off one of the slickest scrum set plays we've seen by this club in eons executed so perfectly that even the slowest winger in the club could score off it (kudos to Tui though he worked hard all day). And they did it against a Bennett coached team who've been in the top 5 ish all year. Good times. Good win

Usually our scrum move is to give to Lawrie at 5/8 and he gets pushed back 10 metres. Love a scrum move.

 

[Draginzaaar]

I noticed something new yesterday, possibly because I was at the ground (freezing) rather than watching on TV.

After every try, instead of going back and waiting for the kickoff while the kick was being taken. The whole team was in a tight little huddle. Did you notice?

They seem to have built some team spirit now.

Most teams do that. It's deep breathing or something.