Matthew Ellis
Juniors
- Messages
- 482
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cmon..every one is fair game on the field..winners grinners stuff,, being going on since 1908
Sorry but I’m swearing loudly on this side of the keyboard. Laughable
This place seems pretty down. I know you didn't win the game but it's all I've got at the moment so maybe seeing some tries will cheer you up legitimately not taking the piss:
His first move is to blame the younger players first.
MATCH REPORT
Just saw the press conference.
McGregor starting to throw his players under the bus.
Talking about players attitude being a player's choice and so on.
Just his analysis of the game highlights his lack of knowledge as a professional coach.
Isolating and pointing to segments of the game where we did well.
"leading at the 35 minute mark''' but no mention of the 6-30 score line during the last 45 minutes.
Making statements like he still believes we can win the comp just puts even more pressure on this players.
Even if he believed it, it is sure not something that he should be touting at a press conference after getting badly beaten.
They players don't believe in him any more, not matter what slack the pundits cut McGregor.
I'm sorry but he has lost all credibility and has done for years.
Talk about performance:
Conceding an average of 24 points a game when the front runners concede half that.
What ever happened to our much vaunted 'D'?
Our defence is shot and like a sieve.
I can't remember a St. George side copping so many hidings in one season as we have this year.
Opposition coaches have worked us out and we are helping them by backing up and doing the same thing every week.
Our compressed defence is obviously not working and Clearly had a game plan that exposed us big time.
Resting Ben Hunt...
I really don't know the circumstances and it really doesn't matter but for a coach that believes we can still make the finals and go on to win the comp, it defies logic to rest your most valuable player.
Especially when you consider that we were playing against a Maloney/Cleary halves pairing.
Of course they schooled our pair with Nicholls innocuous and under instructions to catch and pass all night and Norman totally outclassed by Maloney.
It is any wonder Maloney has won 2 premierships?
Smart, skillful, uncompromising player who just knows how to win.
So what was the excuse for the blow out and second have fade tonight?
Graham was back.
Both Sims brothers were playing. Lucky looked the goods at times tonight.
What I'm saying is that we have a full strength forward pack sans De Belin and still got flogged.
What is hard to fathom is why the coach has not used/created and promoted a siege mentality like Hasler is so good at doing.
STI against the world if you know what I mean.
Instead we keep hoisting the white flag almost every week now.
And it started sliding dramatically ever since McGregor's extension.
I wonder how Johnston is feeling now after extending McGregor - 2 wins from the last 12 games with Souths next week.
And one last observation that is a general annoyance to me but particularly this evening was the strip we wore tonight.
No resemblance to our traditional strip with chevrons cascading down the front of our jersey and red the prominent color.
We don't even look like St. George any more.
We certainly don't play like St.George any more.
Dragons go down to Panthers in Penrith
Author
Dan Walsh NRL.com Reporter
Timestamp
Fri 19 Jul 2019, 10:01 PM
The Dragons are dead in the water after a 40-18 pummelling from Penrith led by a double from pint-sized flyer Brian To'o on Friday night.
The Panthers' seven-tries-to-three drubbing buried a Red V roster worthy of a top-four finish in lowly 14th place with seven games left in the regular season.
Only twice in 11 attempts have the Dragons won since Anzac Day.
And despite working to a surprise 12-10 lead before halftime, St George Illawarra's second-half capitulation will have the dogs at Paul McGregor's door once more, particularly after million-dollar half Ben Hunt was kept on ice due to his Origin workload.
Match: Panthers v Dragons
Round 18 - Friday 19th July
Full Time
Home Team
Panthers
Scored 40 points
Away Team
Dragons
Scored 18 points
Venue: Panthers Stadium
Match broadcasters:
Ivan Cleary's outfit meanwhile are now one win outside the top four themselves, just two months after sitting equal last.
- Nine Network
- Foxtel
- LIVE PASS
- KAYO
To'o was the story and the smiling assassin for the victors, having been told repeatedly as a junior that he was too small to survive in the league's land of giants.
Measuring all of 174 centimetres on the right wing, To'o stood tallest in a see-sawing first half with two scintillating tries that the Panthers then turned into a seventh win on the trot.
To'o makes it two
Aerial acrobatics produced his first after seven minutes, the 20-year-old flying on to a deft James Maloney chip, continuing the veteran half's Midas touch which would produce three try assists for the evening.
Maloney was on the money again when Nathan Cleary threaded a grubber through, only to be checked off the ball by Tyson Frizell as he pursued another four-pointer.
Soon enough though Penrith were putting the boot in again.
Three sets on without having left the Dragons' 20-metre zone, rookie rake Mitch Kenny dinked a grubber through from dummy-half with Brent Naden capitalising in the 19th minute.
Just as the Red V looked to be on the rack, Luciano Leilua loomed as an unlikely 116-kilo halfback hero.
Ravalawa gets the Dragons on the board
As replacement for ring-in No.7 Darren Nicholls while he underwent a HIA, Leilua drifted down the Dragons' right edge and created an overlap to have Mikaele Ravalawa over in the corner.
The visitors continued to press, but handling errors and obstruction penalties had all the hallmarks of a down-and-out side trying to turn the tide.
When they finally did, Leilua was again in the thick of it.
Cameron McInnes found space around a tired Panthers' ruck and Leilua in support, with Dufty then taking the Dragons well down field.
A surprise two-point lead came with Josh Kerr's maiden NRL try off the next play.
It lasted all of three minutes until To'o struck again.
Shooting through the Dragons' middle and making Corey Norman look all sorts of average, To'o strode away for his second try of the night and another four-point advantage.
When Jonus Pearson coughed up possession two minutes into the second half, with Moses Leota dotting down a couple of tackles later, the Dragons were done.
Maloney and Cleary made sure of it in the 53rd minute, the latter scoring from the former's grubber for 28-12.
Kikau sin-binned for shot on Nicholls
A second try to Naden, followed by Reagan Campbell-Gillard strolling through, blew out the scoreline further making Paul Vaughan's 68th minute return of serve too little too late.
In between Viliame Kikau was sin-binned and put on report for a late shot on Matt Dufty.
With the Rabbitohs and Eels looming in the next two weeks, the hits could well keep coming for the beleaguered Dragons.
https://www.dragons.com.au/news/2019/07/19/dragons-go-down-to-panthers-in-penrith/
So release Host, Dufty, Lafai, Ravalawa, Aitken, and Pearson and that will fix things.
