Round 3 vs Sharks

[blacksafake]

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...

Agree.
He only seems to get the ball from kick returns or trucking it out of our 20.
Would like to see him with some space in front of him.
At least he plays with a spring in his step, unlike others.

 

[rasaint]

Noted ‘Number of Beath’s post’ Does anyone on the forum not believe that opposition teams are being coached to ‘lay down’ ( preferably holding your head) when Sua tackles them? Didn’t the Penrith half simply lay on the ground last week with a sneaky look under his arm to see if he was being noticed? Didn’t Finucane charge into Sua‘s chest n armpit area head lowered and fall on the ground holding his head? Sure seems a bit contrived IMO. Yes I know Finucane is a man who values fair play and leadership so I might have assessed it inaccurately.
I saw some of the Easts versus South’s game and head highs were simply penalised or waved through and not sin binned.
Blame Hook all you like fair enough; but some very contradictory adjudications are made. I have long been suspicious of the ‘tackle citing and grading system‘ which can keep players on the park next week or leave other clubs with good players stuck on the sidelines for weeks when it all looks the same.Isn’t this a dodgy system ?

Does our club ever assertively push back against this or just roll over and make no public comment?

 

[BLM01]

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.

And it goes on. Zane Musgrove put on report for late hit on Sironen, no sin bin.
Annesley elaborated so well. Its the force that the ref and bunker decide to sin bin on.
Sua just tackles too hard. The others penalty and fine sufficient. us 10 min sin bin..Grade 2 min whatever.
This is not about losing as we deserved it, it is about the inconsistency and use of sin bin for similar offences which have gone no where except in Sua's case...s

 

[rasaint]

And the ‘gradings system’ remains open to come up with whatever. Nothing changes.

Ramien good head high but wait ;waved through grade one and free set of steak knifes, go Sharks the new golden children.

Sua of course grade 2 and no soup for you. Well well well our best back rower out for drum roll; the roosters game. Doesn’t the old adage hold true? The more things change the more it stays the same.

 

[Gareth67]

One of our members ( cannot recall whom ) made the comment that the Dragons are not playing the modern day game , but are still basically stuck back in the year 2000 and I must agree with that comment .

Our boys need to start playing the game the same way as the other teams - holding the man down in the tackle for as long as is permissible , getting the ball out to your speed men at every opportunity and get the negative aggression out of our game .

I looked at the Panthers forum during the week and found a couple of interesting comments whilst the game was in progress , mainly mentioning how the Dragons were trying to intimidate the Penrith players with too much aggro in their tackling .

I reread the post once again after last nights game not as a Dragon supporter , but being neutral and I could see why that point of view was made .

Hook must get our players minds on the job and the task at hand and that is to play their best footy ( without giving away penalties ) so as to collect the 2 competition points on offer .

Bring in some sort of fine system for stupid inexcusable behaviour , anything but get the Big Red V playing as a team .

 

[Willow]

get the Big Red V playing as a team .

That's it.
Oh sure, they all nod and agree. But imo we don't pay the f**kers until they start playing as a team.
Starts with the coach.

The forwards work... the halves step up... the backs follow. It's not a complicated game.

Sorry Gareth for highlighting the last words of your post. I'm still pissed off about last Thursday night

 

[Kiwi Dragon supporter]

The thing that stood out like dogs balls was that Cronulla
were very well coached , each player had a role to perform and they done just that .

The Dragons were a rabble after the first 15 minutes , they played as they had done for the last 7 seasons . We have players going one out and without much direction .

Su’a , what can one say , he hit what he aimed for - Dale Funicane’s big head . He must get that out of his game otherwise he will be fronting the judiciary on a regular basis.

And they certainly have no love for our boys . Speaking of which , late in the game one of the big Shark forwards done the same thing , yet play was allowed to continue on . Am I one eyed , no , but those refs are not giving our boys a fair shake .

Griffin has a big job in front of him and that also involves cracking the whip . Our players must communicate with one another and above all settle into a rhythm and our attack will blossom from there .

I feel the same as everyone else , so utterly disappointed with the result , but more so I am starting to see that this will be another year of so much to offer , yet so little to show .

Mcgregor was bad but the performance of Griffin so far has been no better than mary's. To me the players that populate the first grade team must come under scrutiny.

 

[St Tangles]

For what it's worth re Sloan and Ramsay I think we should be blooding 1 for now In the top grade.

You need 2 of the back 3 making meters from your own end.

As a team we lack a smart footballer, we have lots of effort players but no one with a real footy nouse.

 

[Illusion]

Just watched the presser boy , looked like 2 lost souls , how depressing are these two ......

 

[Dragon David]

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

For what it's worth re Sloan and Ramsay I think we should be blooding 1 for now In the top grade.

You need 2 of the back 3 making meters from your own end.

As a team we lack a smart footballer, we have lots of effort players but no one with a real footy nouse.

We just don't have a player or two to be "weekly" match winners who can change the course of the game in our favour and on top of consistently strong forward play. We need these in at least the next 8-10 games as they will be really tough ones for us to compete against given the situation we are placed in with Burgess and the suspensions and injuries and non performing reserve graders.

I don't want to sound too negative but unless Hook and his team know how to plan to win games weekly and the team plays the best they can to win and actually win, we could be seeing, during the next foreseeable weeks at least, us on the losing end of games like it was at the last 8 games last year meaning being at the bottom of the ladder.

Oops, have I made a howler statement here?

 

[TruSaint]

Oops, have I made a howler statement here?

Nope.

 

[Inisai Toga]

I like what Griffin says and doesn’t say at the press conferences. Some coaches use this platform as a platform to lecture what ‘should’ have happened in projecting their knowledge and wisdom to impress the press and public etc. He doesn’t, never has and hopefully never will! He seems confident enough in his own ability. The whole event is a sham anyway, and why you need the captain in there as well….

…... we have to adapt, rather than play victim and sook mentality,- agree; Sloan’s going ok- agree, and Cronulla was great and we weren't - agree!
Less is more; save it for the dressing room and players ears only imo.

 

[Crush]

Just watched the presser boy , looked like 2 lost souls , how depressing are these two ......

Totally, Hook just talking about how good Sharks are this year lol.
He’s defeated already.

 

[Dragon David]

Totally, Hook just talking about how good Sharks are this year lol.
He’s defeated already.

Is Hook told by our administration to hold it together at these post match interviews.
"Now, Anthony - says admin man - don't lose your cool. Just be calm and not say anything that would antagonise and jeopardise us with the NRL who by the way are treating us fairly. Just look dead panned and stupid as you have been doing for the past year and a half for us".

 

[twinkletoes]

The coach and the club generally cannot continue to just play the good guy role by not criticising the continual poor decisions that go against us. They need to start "intimidating" the NRL officials as Bennett, Cleary etc and others do by calling our bad decisions and not just sitting in a press conference and saying "well if they are the rules so be it". I might be wrong but I haven't heard a peep from our CEO Ryan Webb for months...is he still alive. The fans and players deserve to have their grievances and frustrations supported publicly.

It seems that the lowly teams like Dragons, Tigers etc do not get a fair go in on field decisions..ie Tigers last night. Until we show some backbone in standing up for ourselves, even risking the $10K fines, this continuing discimination will be a recurring issue

 

[randomdragon]

Everyone needs to chill??? Like seriously we said at the start of the season if we’re 2-3 from our first 5 we would accept that, so why is everyone going off? Give it time. Go look at hooks start to his last season with penrith and see how panthers were tracking then…

 

[Dragon David]

The coach and the club generally cannot continue to just play the good guy role by not criticising the continual poor decisions that go against us. They need to start "intimidating" the NRL officials as Bennett, Cleary etc and others do by calling our bad decisions and not just sitting in a press conference and saying "well if they are the rules so be it". I might be wrong but I haven't heard a peep from our CEO Ryan Webb for months...is he still alive. The fans and players deserve to have their grievances and frustrations supported publicly.

It seems that the lowly teams like Dragons, Tigers etc do not get a fair go in on field decisions..ie Tigers last night. Until we show some backbone in standing up for ourselves, even risking the $10K fines, this continuing discimination will be a recurring issue

The joint venture clubs for some reason seem to be discriminated against for several years now. I wouldn't want to see us and the Tigers fight it out for the wooden spoon ever, but to enable us to avoid this from happening, we need to be shown fairness in many areas of any rubs of the green and refereeing decisions.

We lost fairly and squarely against the Sharks that is for sure at the end of the day but again, if Su'a wasn't sin binned, we might have had a bit of a chance to have not lost by so many more points which would give us more heart for future games. Maybe this loss will help us in the next few games!!??

 

[Dragon David]

Everyone needs to chill??? Like seriously we said at the start of the season if we’re 2-3 from our first 5 we would accept that, so why is everyone going off? Give it time. Go look at hooks start to his last season with penrith and see how panthers were tracking then…

I'm trying to chill but .......

 

[Willow]

Everyone needs to chill??? Like seriously we said at the start of the season if we’re 2-3 from our first 5 we would accept that, so why is everyone going off? Give it time. Go look at hooks start to his last season with penrith and see how panthers were tracking then…

I don't recall saying that.

 

[JohnnoMcJohnno]

It disappoints me that Hook says Cronulla will be top four, like that's a reason for why we lost. Why can't we be top four? We've got just as many resources as Cronulla, more juniors, more home grounds and more fans.