Round 3 vs. Dragons

[elyod138]

Are you telling me you thought he was fantastic?
He had made errors in defence especially goal line and dropped a bomb, I still don't think he's the best option at fullback but it looks like someone else will have a crack anyway.

Watts and Thurston in the halves with Payne at hooker next week, that looked good.

No, I said he was fine, as in he wasn't poor as everyone was expecting him to be, he did a solid job. Not fine as you would describe a wine.

 

[Shorty]

I was very surprised that he caught Morris, that was a monumental effort and one I didn't think he was capable of.
If he played like that all the time he'd be back in representative contention, he's always had issues hitting full speed since the recon and it's frustrating to watch.
So perhaps it's psycological.

To be fair the Dragons were very good, I think they'll win the premiership.

 

[Big Pete]

He may look flashy Watts, but he comes up with some stupid plays and really isn't a five eigth, in fact, it was Payne playing there when Watts came on for Grant.

 

[beads6]

Time for the Cowboys to pick some youth. Surely you guys have a young winger and fullback somewhere to pick. Also why is James Tamou not in the team he is a real talent. Watts is a bit like Ennis he loves to go himself and kick for himself alot. Cowboys really need a fullback who can run onto the ball and put your centre or winger over.

 

[_Johnsy]

IMO watts was your best last night.

 

[Charlie124]

Yeah I thought Watts was exactly what we needed - another attacking option and i think he made a lot of good choices. In fact i didnt think we played all that badly (despite the blowout scoreline). We certainly didnt play well but i think a lot of that came out of frustration that everything we were trying was getting shut down by the Dragons.
I know that one thing i noticed about the dragons was that there just doesnt seem to be any weak links in their defence, they had something like 4 missed tackles at halftime and id be struggling to remember any one of them.
I thought Thurston had a pretty ordinary game, his kicking was shocking at times, either straight to the fullback/winger or just a nothing kick.

Congrats to the Dragons though, they're a well oiled machine and will prove to be very very hard to topple this season.

All in all, i dont think this game will be any indication on how our season will pan out, unless we're playing the premiership favourites at their home ground every week that is.

 

[Buckshot]

I thought Watts was the only Cowboys player who looked capable of breaking the line last night. Thurston looked as though he was out of ideas and his kicking game was atrocious .

 

[Ianc]

Gotta disagree with you Charlie.

I thought we were terrible. We caught the drags on an off night & they still smacked us.
at one point quite early on, nein showed our bench. They looked like the score was 50-0. They looked beat very early on & I feel the boys have no confidence. As soon as things look bleak the heads go down.

We came back in the last two games because the opposition let us. Its going to be a long hard year if the boys can't find that confidence.

 

[GC_Gladiator]

I thought Anthony Watts was creative when there was nothing else happening for the Cowboys. As one of the commentators said, Willie Tonga looked sharp but never busted the line. I thought Ash Graham had a decent game as well, made a heap of metres and was always trying. Rovelli was exposed big time. I hope the Cowboys have someone they can bring in.

 

[The Pain Game]

Williams - proved once and for all he is not a fullback. Some good saves, but is not the best reader. We need a fullback with support play too... what is the point of all our second phase, when nobody wanted to be the Bowen and follow the person who got the off-load? We would have been in the game if we did. Trust me!
J Williams - proved he is not fit enough to be in the NRL. How tough is our fitness test?
Graham - looked solid and not restricted by leg injuries. A shame he is surrounded by Williams and Rovelli, and he is not a great reader despite looking like an improved hitter.
Tonga - did not get quality ball last night... or at least early in the game. Why?
Bani - a poor read led to any easy try. Did not offer much else.
Rovelli - Thurston needed some pressure taken off him in attack, and he failed. Missed two tackles that created line-breaks leading to tries, which undone our good start (despite not looking too impressive on the board). Ray Thompson will be picked now.
Thurston - Some poor kicks and signs of frustration. When you have a backline like ours, it is a wonder JT isn't this poor more often.
Scott - Not fully fit but went okay.
Payne - Great when on the field, but cost us two interchanges again. What is really wrong with his ribs?
Kafusi - Poor. Bring in Tamou before he gets the sh*ts and signs with another club.
Bolton - homework was done on him and obviously tried to hurt Scott (maybe before we planned to give Tonga more ball).
Mason - never stopped trying.
Southern - a few mistakes but never stopped trying.
LOD - Played better in the second. Really good actually.
Rapira - Played well, but is too predictable. He always looks like off-loading and tries to throw it like a basketball allowing an intercept.
Watts - He could do nothing other than gamble coming on with the scoreline the way it was. Makes a few mistakes, but what else was working?
Webb - Just needed to keep his eyes on the ball at a critical moment of the game, but to be fair, the game was over. Give him more minutes.

 

[Talanexor]

Missed the game, just watched the replay online this morning.

I'm going out on a limb and say that JT was one of our worst players. His kicking game was awful - chips when it wasn't on, kicking straight down the throat of the winger/fullback, kicking it dead, kicking very early in the tackle count when the play wasn't on. The thing he did better than Rovelli was tackle.

Neither of our wingers got very involved. J Williams was caught out of position a couple of times (once when he'd come infield to take the next hitup, and we coughed up the ball for Morris second-half try.) He also failed to chase down a flying Brett Morris in the first half, but he wouldn't be the first winger to be outrun by Morris and was carrying an injury to boot.

Mason played really well, and I thought Bolton, LOD and Rapira were all very solid. Southern was rubbish. Kaufusi had a good couple of hitups early and then faded - he was in a position to make a covering tackle when the Dragons made a break a couple of times, and instead decided to jog over and watch them score. Webb just sucked.

I thought that was Watt's best game for a long while. I didn't think he made any poor decisions - he poked his head through the line a couple of times and had no support. He also got a few repeat sets, and wasn't too far off scoring himself. He was the only one to trouble the Dragons defence, and the only one to build any pressure through his kicking game.

Above all we need to work on communication and support play. Everybody just watched, nobody wanted to take the line on and give our ballplayers options. Offloads went to nobody. The kicks and kick-chase were very poor.

Need to make some changes, and Henry has a lot to work on. I don't think we were outplayed at all - if we could just hang onto the ball and complete our sets, we would have been right in this. We came very close late in the second half.