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Well it was their home game. Their second game at Alliance this year vs Dragons, go figure....
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Well it was their home game. Their second game at Alliance this year vs Dragons, go figure....
Not sure about that. I was there. And there were thousands of Dragons fans filing out of the ground at the 65th minute mark, I was one of them.
Great stuff Gareth...I feel better already .....now just need to get this 30 hr transit journey done and Im homeWe will come back into form on Saturday , the real Dragons shall turn up and renew our spirits . Expecting our forward pack to totally dominate the Warriors and for our backs to turn their skill levels up a few notches. Dragons by 24 .
Fatigue a 'cop out' for faltering St George Illawarra Dragons according to coach Paul McGregor
- Dragon's Den
Dominant: Blake Ferguson and the Sydney Roosters were far too good for St George Illawarra at Allianz Stadium on Sunday. Picture: AAP
- Paul McGregor has refused to use fatigue as an excuse for St George Illawarra’s flat recent performances, describing it as a cop out.
The Sydney Roosters dominated the Dragons to run out 36-18 winners at Allianz Stadium on Sunday.
The game was a continuation of St George Illawarra’s insipid recent form. The Dragons did what they had to do to beat a poor North Queensland side last week after they were badly out enthused by the Wests Tigers at Kogarah.
No side in the NRL was as badly hit by the representative period as St George Illawarra, with five of their stars also involved in a grueling State of Origin series.
The Dragons need to get back to winning ways immediately, starting with the New Zealand Warriors in Wollongong on Saturday.
St George Illawarra have lost three of their last four matches and sit in fourth place on the NRL table. While they are still only two points from the lead, they are also only two points clear of Penrith, Cronulla and Brisbane who are hungrily chasing down a top four finish.
Dragons coach McGregor said he understood questions about his side’s recent form. St George Illawarra have failed to replicate their physical dominance over sides as they did as they marched to the competition lead during the first half of the season.
But McGregor refused to allow tiredness to become an excuse for the Dragons’ recent blip and said he expected his side to return to their early season form – and standards.
“I’m sure we can. We can’t use fatigue as an excuse here because the guys we’ve had rested we’ve been through the minutes of their Origin [period and] given them time off where we can. I think that’s just a bit of a cop out,” he said.
“I think we’ve all just got to move on from the Origins. It’s way gone and we’ve got five games of footy before the most important time of the year so we’re just going to work towards that.
Paul McGregor
“We’ve got to manage what we know which is from within. We’ve got good performance staff, we’ve got an honest playing group and our calendar on our scheduling of time off is quite large.
“We played well I thought against North Queensland. The game before that against the Wests Tigers was after an Origin. [Against the Roosters] the opposition was good, we weren’t at our best [and] we paid the price for it.”
McGregor said the club would continue to manage player workload at training ahead of the Warriors clash.
Meanwhile, St George Illawarra will host Canterbury in the Jersey Flegg competition at Jubilee Oval, Kogarah on Friday night.
Ploeeeeeease - don’t get me started ! That is one aspect that really pusses me off , how the Dragons play their home game at the rooters chook pen - it is simply beyond this old berstard’s capacity of understanding .
Scott Davis/NRL Photos
DRAGONS
Dragons prop James Graham insists panic button has not been pushed
Author
Brad Walter Senior Reporter
Timestamp
Tue 31 Jul 2018, 05:49 PM
Keep calm and carry on!
It was originally a motivational poster created by the British in World War II. Now it's English prop James Graham delivering the message to his St George Illawarra teammates as they desperately try to hang onto the top-four berth they have held all season.
After three defeats in their last four matches, the Dragons have a group of teams – Penrith, Cronulla and Brisbane – just two points behind them after Sunday’s 36-18 loss to Sydney Roosters.
However, as they prepare for Saturday’s match against the eighth-placed Warriors at WIN Stadium, Graham and fullback Matt Dufty insisted there was no panic within the camp.
"We are still five weeks away from finals, it looks like we will be there – that’s not guaranteed yet – so probably the big thing I would say is don’t stress about it too much,” Graham said.
"I know we have got a good team here and I know what we are capable of so I don’t think there is any need to panic. Naturally, we are disappointed the result went against us on the weekend and the performance probably wasn’t at the standards of where we are at.
"But are we looking at it thinking we have got no hope? Absolutely not. Is the coach looking at it and thinking he needs a roster overhaul? Definitely not."
Dufty wasn’t even sure exactly where the Dragons were now placed on the Telstra Premiership ladder after being near the top all season but he was confident the side would get their 2018 campaign quickly back on track.
"Everyone seems to forget we are still equal first or second on the ladder," he said. "I haven’t really looked at it but there is not too much to worry about.
"People have their own opinions and they are going to say things but we don’t really read too much into it. We are a pretty tight group and we only care what each other think."
Graham rejected suggestions the Dragons were tired after supplying four forwards to the triumphant NSW State of Origin team and said outsiders were looking for reasons the team had lost to Melbourne, Wests Tigers and the Roosters in the past month.
Dragons fullback Matt Dufty.
Until the round 18 defeat by the Wests Tigers at Kogarah, they had not lost back-to-back matches or a home game this season and after bouncing back against North Queensland they were blown off the park by the Roosters.
"I have been around long enough to know that things aren’t going to go perfectly, ever," Graham said.
"No matter what, the football season is full of ups and downs, and just like earlier in the year when we weren’t get carried away with ourselves and maybe people externally were, we know it is not as bad as those people are saying.
"We want to tweak things here and there, and we want to keep improving … but to be honest it is about sticking to our plan."
Dufty said the Dragons had identified areas they needed to improve from last weekend’s defeat but the players were now focused on the remaining five rounds.
"If you worry about last week’s performance it is not the right sport for you," he said.
"We know where we can improve and, obviously, we all could have had a better game against the Roosters but it’s all up from here."
https://www.dragons.com.au/news/201...ham-insists-panic-button-has-not-been-pushed/
