Round 18 vs Sea Eagles

[Kiwi Dragon supporter]

At times for short periods we look the goods, but most of the time we look like a rabble, disjointed without much playing nous and lousy defense. Sloan is still learning but he is not a big body at this stage though his commitment can not be doubted.

 

[Ghostface Killah]

Oh no! We suck again!

 

[Como Connection]

Norman must go. His defence is terrible and he is so SLOW.
Surely its time to bring in Among or Sullivan

I reckon Hook has made that decision now that the goal kicking has been given to Bird.
CC

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

BBQGATE aside its obvious we are not within a bulls roar of the top sides in this comp...as passionate supporters we live in hope and get some small satisfaction that we are still in the 8 and keep looking ahead at the remaining games and doing our sums with if buts and maybe's....but the cold hard facts are we are nowhere near where we should be as a serious competitive unit each week....we have put some temporary patches over the leaks with fill in journeyman recruits but its going to take a lot more and a lot longer with whats on the immediate horizon for us to be a force each and every week moving forward

 

[blacksafake]

We’re not a team sprinkled with superstars or big talented mobile Polynesians. We’re extremely small in comparison to plenty of other sides.
We do have players who are willing & imo are genuinely trying, however at times are let down by others with such things as not pushing up or rushing out of the line in defence next to them. Pushed passes when they’ve got the defence in their face etc.
Our 6 & 9 are possibly the two slowest of all the spines in the nrl with McCullough offering more than Norman, so Norman goes.

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

I reckon Hook has made that decision now that the goal kicking has been given to Bird.
CC

Thats probably correct at least till Lomax arrives back on the seen....and who knows when that will be

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

We’re not a team sprinkled with superstars or big talented mobile Polynesians. We’re extremely small in comparison to plenty of other sides.
We do have players who are willing & imo are genuinely trying, however at times are let down by others with such things as not pushing up or rushing out of the line in defence next to them. Pushed passes when they’ve got the defence in their face etc.
Our 6 & 9 are possibly the two slowest of all the spines in the nrl with McCullough offering more than Norman, so Norman goes.

Yes you make some good observations mate....as much as McCullough contributes with his defence he is very slow and offers very little in the go forward dept...tbh Im hoping Hook has someone else earmarked in that position sooner rather that later....I just dont see him being an 80 minute hooker like McInnes was

 

[Number of the Beath]

We don’t have a truly classy player, like Schuster or Turbo maybe Lomax, Sullivan and Sloan in a couple can be that guy but right now we just have a bunch of workhorses.

Lomax. Is. Rubbish.

 

[ozbuck]

Sloan is 3-4 years away from PHYSICALLY being a really good first grade fullback - fullbacks need a good bulk physique these days -- the kid is too small (not his fault) and it's going to be a massive liability...ppl just need to expect it.

Like last night when that manly player reached out one handed to score... Sloan looked like a lost uncommitted defensive fullback...no awareness of wrapping up the ball - if you look at the replay he actually pulled back out Lawrie's arm which allows the manly player to stretch out -- that's how unaware he was. It was hard to watch. Like a under 7s player playing in the under 10s.

We're in for a tough next 2 years at least in my opinion

 

[BLM01]

this is not an excuse but we really looked like a side including the coach that showed the effects of the last 2 weeks took its toll

Self inflicted Yes
Effort from most Yes
obviously their focus wasn’t on a week off relaxing and then preparation for this game
Let’s hope a better gelled team effort in attack and defence next week whoever runs out

 

[BLM01]

JDB was our best forward tonight by a long way. Did way more than his fair share and took it to em up front. I liked him at prop, some good strong runs

Bends the line too
He was stuffed at the end and the forward pass to Kerr was both players faults from fatigue and poor timing

 

[BLM01]

Sloan is 3-4 years away from PHYSICALLY being a really good first grade fullback - fullbacks need a good bulk physique these days -- the kid is too small (not his fault) and it's going to be a massive liability...ppl just need to expect it.

Like last night when that manly player reached out one handed to score... Sloan looked like a lost uncommitted defensive fullback...no awareness of wrapping up the ball - if you look at the replay he actually pulled back out Lawrie's arm which allows the manly player to stretch out -- that's how unaware he was. It was hard to watch. Like a under 7s player playing in the under 10s.

We're in for a tough next 2 years at least in my opinion

Yes defensively In that situation you are right he will learn that for 1st grade
but you’re wrong about his size
he’s not 3-4 years away he has quite a good build for fullback
he’ll build up bit more in the off-season
I think he will be almost ready next year and be and improved defensive player
Dufty, Pap, Laurie, Ponga were not large when supposedly ready either
And those bagging Ramsay he too is doing fine and will be a better player next year after another off season and getting through his 1st NRL season
His future is also wing / fullback

 

[kit66]

You want to kill a play, give it to Norman. You want to score a try, run at Norman. Myself and others were bewildered by Norman's signing by our club, incredulous and asking why did we sign this loser and here he is nearly 3 years later basically sabotaging our team on the field and possibly off it. Makes me wonder how much influence he had on the decision to have a barbie. Missed tackles, not passing out to our left edge once and a kicking game well below what we know he's capable of ( our worst this season ). Our season's gone so it's really time to move Norman on and give someone else a chance. His ineptness last night was bordering on deliberate or if not then he's playing with no effort or desire at all to win even for his team mates sake.

Last night was like men against boys ( also looked very Mary-esque ). The huge Manly forwards rolled us with ease. Another thing myself and others have been very vocal about on here is that we need some big fellas up front, been saying it for years now and we keep signing lightweights and here's the result.

This club just keeps slapping us fans down at every opportunity with issues like those above and sausage-gate I believe we're calling it. It's so depressing to think we could have fielded our best team in months last night with the exclusion of only Rava but instead we had to field a bunch of misfits. Our opportunity to make a great tilt at a finals berth lost and now highly unlikely to happen. So disappointing.

I have to give a wrap to Kerr who played a great game last night. 40 tackles, 100 mtrs, 4 offloads - 2 of which lead to tries. He would have done even better too if Hunt didn't throw him 100 mile an hour bullet passes aimed at his shoulder or head. And Sims did his best but should have been interchanged for a period. In fact the use of the bench was very 2019. I like the look of Sloan, hope he bulks up for next year.

 

[FlameThrower]

They changed that rule at some point. You used to need to have control of it but these days as long as there is some contact as ball hits ground they give it.

Guaranteed NO TRY - if had be the Dragon’s...

 

[FlameThrower]

Cowboys is our best chance of a win

On tonight's performance we don't win another one

If that’s the case then the BOD and Coaching staff better get on the phone to the fans to apologise as well ...

 

[kit66]

Yes you make some good observations mate....as much as McCullough contributes with his defence he is very slow and offers very little in the go forward dept...tbh Im hoping Hook has someone else earmarked in that position sooner rather that later....I just dont see him being an 80 minute hooker like McInnes was

McCullough has no vision it seems. His choices of when to run are terrible, he gets it wrong all the time, makes 2 metres if he's lucky and misses some great opportunities to run when the markers are down or lazy. He should also play for the penalty against markers not square but never does, ever. I appreciate his defence and his service isn't bad but geez, you'd expect better form a veteran like him. The fact that we have no back up hookers and none on the horizon is scary. I'd like to see Amone and Bud get a run this year so they're ready to take over in the halves and let Hunt go to 9 next year.

 

[St Tangles]

If that’s the case then the BOD and Coaching staff better get on the phone to the fans to apologise as well ...

Agreed

 

[thebigredv]

You want to kill a play, give it to Norman. You want to score a try, run at Norman. Myself and others were bewildered by Norman's signing by our club, incredulous and asking why did we sign this loser and here he is nearly 3 years later basically sabotaging our team on the field and possibly off it. Makes me wonder how much influence he had on the decision to have a barbie. Missed tackles, not passing out to our left edge once and a kicking game well below what we know he's capable of ( our worst this season ). Our season's gone so it's really time to move Norman on and give someone else a chance. His ineptness last night was bordering on deliberate or if not then he's playing with no effort or desire at all to win even for his team mates sake.

Last night was like men against boys ( also looked very Mary-esque ). The huge Manly forwards rolled us with ease. Another thing myself and others have been very vocal about on here is that we need some big fellas up front, been saying it for years now and we keep signing lightweights and here's the result.

This club just keeps slapping us fans down at every opportunity with issues like those above and sausage-gate I believe we're calling it. It's so depressing to think we could have fielded our best team in months last night with the exclusion of only Rava but instead we had to field a bunch of misfits. Our opportunity to make a great tilt at a finals berth lost and now highly unlikely to happen. So disappointing.

I have to give a wrap to Kerr who played a great game last night. 40 tackles, 100 mtrs, 4 offloads - 2 of which lead to tries. He would have done even better too if Hunt didn't throw him 100 mile an hour bullet passes aimed at his shoulder or head. And Sims did his best but should have been interchanged for a period. In fact the use of the bench was very 2019. I like the look of Sloan, hope he bulks up for next year.

Brilliant post. Summed it up well. I'm losing respect for Griffin now with the incessant Norman selection. Honestly Anthony if you don't believe in Amone/Sullivan then where is our gun new signing??

Thought our forwards maybe deserve a little more credit as their effort was not the issue, just size and ability. A lot of them do need to be moved on asap. That NZ guy is just going through motions as expected, Faamasili came on with another shot at first grade and does the most stupid crusher as if he had no idea of the state of the game. Lawrie has been a major let down this year. With Vaughan gone it is so unfair to put the whole load on Sims and JDB but that's essentially what we are left with, why it's good to see Kerr lift his game and so sad to see Ford struggle with the big boys.

 

[FlameThrower]

For us he hasn't. For the Blues he's been better than anyone.

I do take it to heart, not going to lie.

To be fair it does help to have the best players in the NRL playing alongside you at Origin time. Versus the rabble and organised confusion of the the Dragons.

 

[FlameThrower]

I’ve seen that given no try pretty much 9 times out of 10 over the last few years. Terrible decision.

That’s Dragons Footy...we can’t borrow or steal a win.