Round 3 vs Sharks

[kit66]

Hunt is not firing and we will not fire until he does and there is considerable doubt if he will ever be a consistent enough player to get us firing week in week out.

Too much ball in to the hands of too few players, so very little variety compared to what we showed in the trials and the 1st 30 minutes of round 1.

Amone & Sloan have become gun shy and Suli and Ramsay are dying from frost bite.

No kicking game to speak of and very little thought applied to that we do have.

Service from dummy half is far too slow and allows the opposition to gain 1.5 metres in their defensive line which shuts down our time and space and leads to 1 out running.

In each game thus far a forward from the opposition has had a tear away run of 50 odd metres skittling our defence along the way and that is totally unacceptable and extremely hard to recover from.

Did the JDB interview (FMD what was that really about?) and the Burgess issue have some impact on us as negative headlines never help?

On a positive note Molo is improving quickly, Sua is excellent and being shit on by the refs but I believe he has to stay true to his style.

Mybe offers something but not quite sure it is anything more than utility.

Hunt is our best every week. It's others that are letting us down, the rest of our spine for example.
He's doing it all on his own, leading, directing, kicking, cover tackling and stopping tries.
If it wasn't for Hunt last night, Cronulla would have had 2 possibly 3 more tries almost certainly.

 

[JubileeJeffro]

Observations:
Sloan will take time, 19 and first year in
Ramsey the same but too slight to make yards. Possible flip with Moga
Centres need more ball and some depth
Rava good runner loose under the high ball.
Amone as above for Sloan.
Hunt tries hard, needs to let the 6 get more ball. Maybe more effective at 9
Sims ok in patches better in back row I think. Swap with bird
SuA needs to go lower in defence
Bird swap with Sims
Molo going well
Mbye a lot of defence at nullifies his attack
Lawrie went ok
JDB seems a lot slower since his return
Kerr was ok last night
Ford. Didn’t make much of an impact
Gosiewski as above

sharks looked very well drilled and played high quality in rubbish weather

 

[Crush]

So after a win and a close loss to the premiers we're back to where we started. No enthusiasm, determination or fight amongst the players and we've re-signed a coach who no-one else was chasing and is 9-18 in his Dragons career. At least we won the Charity Shield I guess.

I don't know why I bother.

Is he really 9-18? Wow, that’s terrible.

 

[getsmarty]

Ranking the current 16 NRL head coaches based on win percentage - Serious About Rugby League

The current NRL head coaches all have had a varying level of success throughout their time in the league. Some have coached over 400 games and have won numerous NRL Premierships, and some have coached less than 50 games. I will be looking at each of the current head coaches and ranking them...

www.seriousaboutrl.com

Stat Attack: Griffin exits with one of NRL era's best records

Anthony Griffin leaves Penrith with one of the best win percentages of a departing coach in the NRL era, with his side en route to a third straight finals appearance.

www.nrl.com

3 games into the season...lets see where we are at the end of the year.

 

[slippery5]

I'd like to comment but I don't know where to start.....

 

[Como Connection]

We were beaten by a better side, at least on the night. I still see lots of good signs, but the sharks had a great night. No point getting too concerned in round 3. So much happier than last years

I didn't see any bar Bird at 5/8 late in the game. He must stay there.
CC

 

[Como Connection]

That is where an orchestrator of play comes in. We dont have one. All the good teams have creative halves. We have not had one since Widdop.

Bird is word.
CC

 

[RedVee_8]

Was Sloan pulled from the field near the end?

 

[Old Timer]

Hunt is our best every week. It's others that are letting us down, the rest of our spine for example.
He's doing it all on his own, leading, directing, kicking, cover tackling and stopping tries.
If it wasn't for Hunt last night, Cronulla would have had 2 possibly 3 more tries almost certainly.

There in lies the problem when people say Hunt is our best every week

That may well be but his best is well short of marquis

Yes without him the score might have been worse but with him we lose anyway.

There is no doubt he is not the entire problem but there is no doubt he is part of it.

 

[carltonsouth79]

Was Sloan pulled from the field near the end?

Don’t think so, they moved him to the wing

 

[Inisai Toga]

Hunt is our best every week. It's others that are letting us down, the rest of our spine for example.
He's doing it all on his own, leading, directing, kicking, cover tackling and stopping tries.
If it wasn't for Hunt last night, Cronulla would have had 2 possibly 3 more tries almost certainly.

… and set up both of our tries beautifully!

 

[BLM01]

My take. Our more experienced players let us down last night, not the young kids who will be fine
Whilst Hunt did try hard his kicking and passing game was not where it needed to be
However it is 1 below par game we lost. Its Round 3.
Remember the March premiers slurs we get
Our how some people forget and are fickle, change their tune based on one week performance after the same people were singing our praises the week before.
Sharks deserved it and were better but the bounce of the ball at crucial times went their way but you make your own luck.
I was there it was tragically wet but all their backline movement passes stuck including the speculators, it was their day, not ours. On to W4 and see what we dish up against the Eels.
No Sua for next week?
Certainly not throwing in the towel like some are suggesting.

 

[Dragonsteve2]

Dead panned as usual - same with Hunt. Show some animation you guys and don't beat around the bush as if you are dumb clucks.

Hook basically said that Cronulla played really well and we played poorly - that was obvious. Said he would look at the tackle made by Su'a and agreed after being asked by one of the journalists if he will go over tackling techniques at training with Su'a which he replied he would. Why wasn't that done from last week's sin binning offence?

If this is the way Hook speaks to the players during training and half time he is joking. He should be yelling and screaming like Bellamy would and put them on notice - do you guys want to play footy or what?

The good thing though that Hook raised is that the team did play very poorly - so much more improvement is needed for the team to be consistently good in attack and defence - moreso defence.

DD, the one thing that I would add was that Hook was very quick into the dressing room after the game. I add this because the players remained on the field for the presentation of the Monty Porter Cup. Hard to tell if his face was red with rage after the game but I suspect he has learnt to remain unemotional in the Press Conference. He actually appeared sullen, not wanting to be drawn on anything other than the difference in quality between the two teams.

 

[Gareth67]

I have heart palpitations every time Ravawala or Ramsey is under the high ball . Big Rava we need for his battering-ram ability , however I am now just wondering about young Ramsey .

The bloke seems to try too hard and just cannot seem to get a clean break to run . That is another problem that our coach needs to work out quickly . Hopefully a fix can be found ASAP .

 

[Dragonsteve2]

I mentioned above that Hook was quick back in the dressing room. Oddly so was JDB who did not stay on the field for the after game pleasantries. An injury? Pride dented? Or a bad week with criticism of his interview and the Burgess issue dragging up his own story all over again? A few other comments. Hynes' kicking game plus their chasing was far superior to Hunt's and ours. Our back 3 were great under the high ball but only Rava had a chance to make a few metres with the Sharks' chasers on top of the catcher. The Sharks' back 3 were given much more latitude. Lots of comments in here about the young boys. NRL stats recorded Tyrell making 12 tackles. Almost a season's worth for Matt Dufty! If Hunt had not been held up and if the Zac/Rava half chances had produced tries we might not be so down in the dumps today. We have better depth this season but last night's 17 was picked from only 21 available players. 8 unavailable including McGuire, Woods and Burgess. That's huge! Burns and Sullivan are yet to play a game. One final comment: a long life has taught me one lesson that's relevant- nothing is rarely as bad as it first seems just as when you're on top of the world nothing is quite as good as it seems.

 

[Crush]

My take. Our more experienced players let us down last night, not the young kids who will be fine
Whilst Hunt did try hard his kicking and passing game was not where it needed to be
However it is 1 below par game we lost. Its Round 3.
Remember the March premiers slurs we get
Our how some people forget and are fickle, change their tune based on one week performance after the same people were singing our praises the week before.
Sharks deserved it and were better but the bounce of the ball at crucial times went their way but you make your own luck.
I was there it was tragically wet but all their backline movement passes stuck including the speculators, it was their day, not ours. On to W4 and see what we dish up against the Eels.
No Sua for next week?
Certainly not throwing in the towel like some are suggesting.

Those Sharkies are a good team this year aren’t they?

 

[Number of the Beath]

Tackle by Taane Milne on Toupunuia in about the 57th minute was worse than Su'a's tackle on Finucane last night or the tackles Rava has been pinged for - no arm, all shoulder contact but not even a penalty ensued.

 

[Dragsters]

Im not judging Ramsey or Sloane on yesterday.

You have a point.

However, its obvious that in the current game, the back 3 need to do more than just offer threats in attack.

They must pile up metres coming out from their tryline.

I agree mate but if they are going to persist with picking Ramsey, at least play to his strengths, otherwise pick Moga if they only want a kick returner.

Personally I like having one quick, skillful winger and I reckon Suli needs to do more of the heavy lifting in kick returns...

 

[thebigredv]

I have heart palpitations every time Ravawala or Ramsey is under the high ball . Big Rava we need for his battering-ram ability , however I am now just wondering about young Ramsey .

The bloke seems to try too hard and just cannot seem to get a clean break to run . That is another problem that our coach needs to work out quickly . Hopefully a fix can be found ASAP .

There's a fine line between giving someone adequate time to own their spot and wasting time with something that isn't working. With Norman it was about 2 seasons too long, the Rava experiment paid off (credit to Mary) but Ramsey needs to be demoted and work his way back. We have other options at wing. He tries but it's just not happening for him in first grade. Will probably go to sign with Manly and score 25 tries a year.

 

[Dragsters]

There's a fine line between giving someone adequate time to own their spot and wasting time with something that isn't working. With Norman it was about 2 seasons too long, the Rava experiment paid off (credit to Mary) but Ramsey needs to be demoted and work his way back. We have other options at wing. He tries but it's just not happening for him in first grade. Will probably go to sign with Manly and score 25 tries a year.

If we keep playing him incorrectly then that's highly probable...