Round 5 v Souths

[coastiedragon]

Eeyore said "when his form is right in those areas, like any other player he will get his chance."
LIKE ANY PLAYER
Woods ran for 70m
McCullough is just shit
lawrie stupid penalties
this blokes a Muppet picks players out of position and just gives the under performing players a jersey f@#k off back to QLD

 

[Dragon David]

By the way, who are our fitness and condition and training staff? They might need booting out as well, Bring back Nathan Pickworth and his gang.

 

[Dragon David]

Winners are grinners and losers can please themselves.

Must be a great feeling winning. The fans of the teams like Penrith, Storm, Parra, Roosters, Sharks must be grinning from ear to ear. What a feeling that would be.

 

[slippery5]

I'm going to "pay out" early on a $50 bet with my mate on the Dragons making the 8.
Hopefully it will only cost me $40......

 

[Daptodragon]

WOW...Where to start...IMO...

We were disgraceful last night. Plain and simple. The fact that Souths weren't much better was the only thing that stopped the score from being a complete blowout. Make no mistake, if we had played a red hot team last night, like a Melbourne at their best, we would have been completely blown off the park. It would have been a cricket score.

When you look closely at the stats coming out of the game, we lost the middle again. Simply put we are struggling to make metres and opposition teams are finding it way too easy to roll through our middle and get quick play the balls off the back of that. The Souths forwards (bench included) ran for a total of 1012m compared to our forwards 780m. And you look at the average play the ball speed, theirs was much quicker than ours. We can't seem to stop the opposition roll on when it starts. And you'd think this would develop as the game went on but last night it was evident in our first 20 minutes. We gifted them many quick play the balls which allowed Cook to make some big runs straight through our middle. It's very worrying to me that even with our coach's words still ringing in their ears in the early minutes of the game, we still can't seem to slow the opposing teams play the ball speed down with aggression and numbers in defence. If we can't start to win the ruck or even be competitive it's going to be a very long year for us all.

I was never one that fell into the talk that we were going to turn into world beaters this season but i did think we'd improve. It's round 5 and honestly it's hard to see where we have improved at all. And i'm not even talking about results, i'm talking about the style of football we are playing.

When Mary left i thought we would see an end to the unstructured, rudderless rabble that we were during his tenure. When we ran one out. When we seemed to have no attacking structure. When we seem to have no game plan. When we just spread the ball from side to side with no depth or decoy runners to pull apart defences.

Hook said in the pre-season that they had worked significantly on our attack. We are 5 games into this years comp and i can't see it. I thought there were some promising signs in the Charity Shield but the last few weeks have reminded me a lot of the crap we dished up on the field during McGregor's time in charge. Really hoping things change, and fast, because if they don't this could end up being one of the worst years in our club's history.

Hoping for all our sakes that they can turn this around...AND QUICK

 

[Daptodragon]

Great post be55 and you are spot on with everything you say.

 

[Daptodragon]

Many problems with this team. In attack. Hook seems to have transferred the road toll message (speed kills) into his coaching methodology and tried to move to a power game instead. The new mantra seems to be age trumps youth and power trumps speed. Reid Mahoney last week and then Cook last night gave both their teams zip and threat out of dummy half while our attack was pedestrian and lumbering. If there was a NRL team spine 4x100m relay tomorrow, the four Dragons representatives who started against the Rabbitohs, ie Mbye, Bird, Hunt and McCullough would finish stone motherless last- and by some distance.

Hook- old son- your power game ain't working. By the numbers, predictable, supportless, one out, ineffectual running, and then slow, clunky side to side attack with block plays you can see coming a mile away aren't fooling anyone. Lomax, no doubt inspired by Rava's fearless charges and try scoring feats, seems to have developed into a mistake- ridden, one trick, battering ram with a flick pass to Rava out wide and ball hog hit up man in the centre. So much for Funky Fittler's assessment of him as the "special one". He should be the last person to be having a sledge of Dufty.

We have been found out from our early season success which had many (including me ) predicting a top 8 finish. This has always been a limited team with many average players (Josh Kerr leads the mediocrity and gets a gig in rep teams only because he's indigenous) and the players some have coming to our rescue ( Fui and Moose) have abysmal disciplinary records and are hardly world beaters when they do manage to stay on the field. But now, (and it pains me to say this because I was a supporter of Hooks) I have to say, we also have a limited coach whose attitude in relation to youth seems little different from his pathetic predecessor. As some have already observed, Norman was retained last season despite reaching new lows in performance level, but after a game in a Wollongong gale and swamp, Sloan, a match winner is dumped for reported communication issues in defence.!! The first test Mbye had in one on one defence at FB yesterday- he failed.

Time to admit that your spine is quadraplegic Hook- forget your obsession with power and age/experience and think speed and skill. Restore Tyrell to FB, Amone (or Sullivan once he's had a few more KOE games under his belt) to 5/8 and Muhleison with Amone/Sullivan to dummy half. Macca, a good defender, could play no 13 (like McInnes). If Bird wants to play 5/8 and doesn't like being retained as an edge forward and (slow) back up centre- tough. He's a good player- but not one we can build a team around.

 

[Daptodragon]

Great post.

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

Sorry mate , you said key players , where ...... ?

Yeah that's why i said then again do we have any.........just being sarcastic

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

One has to ponder at times the logic and vision in our clubs thinking.....so they let Norman go (which was long overdue imo) and Dufty.....and like many on here we believe their thinking is Sloan in the fullback role and Amone in the 5/8 position.....so thats what 2022 was shaping up to be......then after a few games think 2 maybe 3 they realise in their wisdom that these 2 kids are not going to cut the mustard so to speak in these positions so we have a major shake up to 2 major positions in our spine.....on top of this McCullough gets injured ......so now the plot thickens....oh we must get our star Hooker back asap and when that happens lets now move Mbye back to the custodian role, lets leave Amone to pull splinters out of his arse on the bench, Bird can now cement his position at 5/8 (when he was going well on the edge in the forwards) and Sloan (remember him) can get so much more valuable experience in the reserves ..........and lets not forget our mate George Burgess, well George did not receive some good press lately so lets leave him out of focus for a while shall we.....now that just leaves young Sullivan !!!!!!! Mmmmmm

 

[the garage]

Watching the Sharks go around yesterday, Cam Mcinnes had good 2nd half.
Team mate gets tackled, CM approaches dummy half scanning & concentrating on immediate surrounding defense softness, gets ball in hand 3 or 4 metres gained before passing to an attack moving forward not flat footed, did it again & again. Need someone like him at dummy ...... oh wait.

 

[denis preston]

Radical yes. But desperate times need desperate measures. We need to reinvent our backline. Lomax at the back where he can best utilise his step and blinding acceleration. Plus he is safe under the bomb. I can see him doing some damage chiming into the backline and splitting defenses. God forbid not having to use his brilliant (at times) but risky passing game. Sloan has playmaking skills too so find room for him in the middle while Amone would be better served in the centres where he has more room to move and showcase his individual skills. One thing is a dead cert.. this backline will be given better service than it has been having to date.

Lomax
Rava
Amone
Suli
Ramsay/Moga
Sloan
Mbye/Sullivan

Sorry , you lost me at blinding acceleration !

 

[denis preston]

soward has already said he wont do it, he is now the AC of the sky blues and wants to focus on next nrlw comp

And going by yesterday he wont help our attack at all.

 

[justadragon]

And going by yesterday he wont help our attack at all.

I still think he will end up a good coach, even at the presser he admitted his failings and wants to improve and be a better coach, he even said he is always open to criticism, which is more than I can say for our NRL coach.

 

[Illusion]

And going by yesterday he wont help our attack at all.

The attack by the half was too much across field ....... Bit like the men .....

 

[St_Bondi]

One has to ponder at times the logic and vision in our clubs thinking.....so they let Norman go (which was long overdue imo) and Dufty.....and like many on here we believe their thinking is Sloan in the fullback role and Amone in the 5/8 position.....so thats what 2022 was shaping up to be......then after a few games think 2 maybe 3 they realise in their wisdom that these 2 kids are not going to cut the mustard so to speak in these positions so we have a major shake up to 2 major positions in our spine.....on top of this McCullough gets injured ......so now the plot thickens....oh we must get our star Hooker back asap and when that happens lets now move Mbye back to the custodian role, lets leave Amone to pull splinters out of his arse on the bench, Bird can now cement his position at 5/8 (when he was going well on the edge in the forwards) and Sloan (remember him) can get so much more valuable experience in the reserves ..........and lets not forget our mate George Burgess, well George did not receive some good press lately so lets leave him out of focus for a while shall we.....now that just leaves young Sullivan !!!!!!! Mmmmmm

Star hooker! Is that an oxymoron ‍

 

[slippery5]

The attack by the half was too much across field ....... Bit like the men .....

Bird's career [even in SOO] has only been running across field & never attacks the line straight, so how could that get our attack going forward.
The most over-rated player to be be considered a marque player in my eyes.

 

[SGMax]

Finally got to watch this game and can't believe the over reaction.
We have many new additions to our roster this season and it may take time....I defiinitely wasn't expecting to beat Penrith, Parra or Souths in the opening rounds.
The team will get better in the coming rounds....they have to.

I do have some concerns though....
Woods was very slow getting to the defence.
Sims also looked far slower than all the other 2nd rowers in the game.
Lawrie is not very effectual with his runs.
DeBelin also looked very average against the Souths pack.
Moses is only a short term option at FB...a little slow.
I am starting to give up on Kerr....very disappointing.

On the positive side,
* The team worked hard and was in within reach most of the game. Btw, why was Latrell's try allowed...he planted it short of the line and rolled it forward, The last Souths try was also off a forward pass.
* Sua is far better than I realised.
* Feargai showed how good he can be..Just wish he was a touch faster.
* Bird is doing OK at 5/8 but I think he was better at 2nd row....definitely more effective than Amone was so far this year.
* Molo is doing well although not as good in his 2nd stint.

I thought Lawrie's penalties were over the top....the first was no worse than many others not penalised. The later one, I couldn't see anything wrong, especially a leg pull as indicated by the ref??
I am willing to tolerate the poor handling on Saturday as it was a damp steamy night and both tems were guilty of errors in the last 20 mins.

 

[Trifili13]

Not sure if mentioned previously and would not have made a difference to the outcome, but we lost our refs challenge when the bunker said the Dragon's player didn't put the ball down straight when the South's player flicked it with the outside of his foot. Can you imagine if the situation was reversed and the Dragon's player interfered in the ruck? Penalty all day long. Holbrook and Payten and even Gould were right that the bottom teams don't get the rub of the green when it comes to decisions.

 

[Hard Yards]

The loss of Cam Mcinnes is proving to be a critical miss by the club, his middle defence, go forward and general leadership especially as captain was so important. This is the biggest single roster blunder in recent years. NEVER should of been allowed to walk.