Round 8 v Roosters Anzac Day

[Lovemedragons]

So is his kicking game , and his game management .......... Claytons 7 ........ never was and never will be ......... Good individual player that can play what's Infront of him like he does at 9 but can't turn the tide of a game .........

He simply has no clue when the forwards are getting dominated, to be fair not many halves do. the forwards got owned, Hunt had little hope. Move on, losing Suli was a blow we could not overcome.

 

[TruSaint]

I’ve been a Lawrie fan for quite a while but I’m starting to come round to what’s being said. I’ll be disappointed when Luc is back if BMM loses his spot ahead of Lawrie. Not sure what the go is but maybe a stint in Reggie’s for a month will light the fire for blocker. I’ll admit his standards in 2024 have been very poor

I love the bloke mate. That's just me being a sucker for a good story.

The game has gone past him. Best he can provide is depth during injury and or suspension. The gaffa has to make some big calls in the weeks ahead. Our win/loss ratio for an average squad is fine. Our differential is abysmal. When we lose control of a game, we cant regain it.

Im also concerned with Bird. Again, he like blocka , is a real hard worker but his days at centre are gone.

I didnt expect much from this year, and at times have been pleased, but our losses have been blowouts and that's a concern. Flanno, me thinks, knows that there is a soft underbelly to our team. Our captain is part of the problem. As posted by @Dragonslayer , his effort stats were horrible.

Yesterday hurt not because we lost, but rather that we capitulated and had no leadership. Lucky for us another famous club got trounced and took some of the attention away from us.

 

[steerlerbab]

I reckon Flanno may try the axe but apart from Leilua and Toby Couchman we have nobody of note and frankly our backrow is our best and the games we have won is at the back of our backwow.

Anyway these are changes I reckon needs to be made

1. Feagai for Bird (Dird needs to recover - seemed to be running on one leg)
2. Leilua for Lawry if he is fit (Leilua may have to go Middle forward, think he can handle it)
3. Marshke for Brown (maybe start with Marshke at half, move Hunt to dummy and bring in Liddle after 25 minutes
. Then Hunt goes to half and Liddle comes to dummy (this way we are utilising our attacking players better)
4. Drop BMM for Toby Couchman (Toby has been ready for a year now he needs more game time)

Anybody knows how Fifita going. He got a very limited game time earlier but gone missing

 

[Illusion]

He simply has no clue when the forwards are getting dominated, to be fair not many halves do. the forwards got owned, Hunt had little hope. Move on, losing Suli was a blow we could not overcome.

Even when they are playing well he still can't pin a team down with repeated sets ....... I hope he doesn't get an extension hopefully by then there will be a proper 7 available ........

 

[Gareth67]

Hey Gareth, good to see you posting on the forum again. I hope all is well with you (and the Mrs).

Thank you Dragon Slayer , all is well , but why did you have to mention the missus ? The little lady gave me bake beans on toast for my dinner - why , because I didn’t chop the firewood up for the wood heater !

Go and figure that out , but alas not as bad as Flanno’s problems. I wonder if his missus feeds him the same after a loss ?

 

[TheRev]

o Different articles have our Turuva offer between 400 to 450k minimum.. up to 600k if he ended up at fullback.. Tigers is around 433k.. I still dont know why we are tight-arseing with so few left on the market for 2025... what are we going to do with all this unspent cash and a team full of reserve graders?

o We didnt get to use BMM properly on the weekend, obviously that happens from time to time.. but losing our hardest working forward out of our rotation in the first minute.. I mean whos going to make up that 56tackles? BMM couldnt come on and just be an impact player.. and you could see how tired we were when we finally had the ball.. 1 off forward hitups.. we had nothing left.

o I thought Liddle was going to go off HIA at the start also.. we had 3 or 4 blokes put on their asses early.. it could have been much much worse...

o Not sure what we have with Brown yet.. he doesnt look as exciting as I might have imagined, hes still better than Mulheissen, but hes barely off the plane.. still a step up from Mulheissen I think.. though tbf im not sure about that just yet. We could use Marshke there but i would prefer him focus on getting in form as a half. Did brown get concussed btw?

 

[jeffdragon]

I love the bloke mate. That's just me being a sucker for a good story.

The game has gone past him. Best he can provide is depth during injury and or suspension. The gaffa has to make some big calls in the weeks ahead. Our win/loss ratio for an average squad is fine. Our differential is abysmal. When we lose control of a game, we cant regain it.

Im also concerned with Bird. Again, he like blocka , is a real hard worker but his days at centre are gone.

I didnt expect much from this year, and at times have been pleased, but our losses have been blowouts and that's a concern. Flanno, me thinks, knows that there is a soft underbelly to our team. Our captain is part of the problem. As posted by @Dragonslayer , his effort stats were horrible.

Yesterday hurt not because we lost, but rather that we capitulated and had no leadership. Lucky for us another famous club got trounced and took some of the attention away from us.

Eels playing well.after last week.
I don't think we can.

 

[DeathBlooms]

I'd like to see Brown and Kyle do a swap as I feel Brown might have the balls to actually call the ball over Hunt getting it all the time. We're doomed if we just constantly rely on Hunt as when he has a bad day he really has a bad one and just constantly give him the ball over and over to make more mistakes.

I've also been watching Liddell and he never looks to see what half is in the better position to kick. Just always straight to Hunt on play 5.

 

[Parko1310]

For me, hopefully Luc back, straight to starting second row. RFM whilst reasonably reliable hasn't been all that great. His contact in defence simply isn't dominant enough in my opinion. He's not been bad, but I don't think he should have a place at this current time especially considering how well BMM is playing as that impact off the bench. One of our only dangerous players yesterday. So RFM off to reserves. Toby Couchman in for Lawrie, please just do it oh my god. One thing is for sure, Toby's line speed will be 3-4 x that of Lawrie, not to mention he can actually poke his nose through the line, has a solid frame, and a quick play the ball. Hang on, we've been playing Lawrie over someone with these attributes?? Being realistic, Bird will probably go to left centre, Lomax right centre, CT and Rav wings. These are the only changes I would (and can realistically see) being made

 

[Carlton]

I would like Flannagan to bite the bullet and seriously forget results and put a team on the park with an eye to the future. Get rid of Lawrie, Bird and "our best player" Hunt, try some experimenting and give players a chance to show whether they can be first graders.

Buy the best young talent available on overs for two years, we've got the money and two years doesn't kill the cap long term. A young footballer getting overs with the chance to play regular first grade would probably accept a two year contract.

We are going nowhere with Hunt who has been the biggest drag on the club for a number of years. Sloan's defence gets criticised but Hunt's is never talked about (it is atrocious). He is not the future, make the call now and start trying to find the answer as it may take a while.

 

[Illusion]

I would like Flannagan to bite the bullet and seriously forget results and put a team on the park with an eye to the future. Get rid of Lawrie, Bird and "our best player" Hunt, try some experimenting and give players a chance to show whether they can be first graders.

Buy the best young talent available on overs for two years, we've got the money and two years doesn't kill the cap long term. A young footballer getting overs with the chance to play regular first grade would probably accept a two year contract.

We are going nowhere with Hunt who has been the biggest drag on the club for a number of years. Sloan's defence gets criticised but Hunt's is never talked about (it is atrocious). He is not the future, make the call now and start trying to find the answer as it may take a while.

X2 .......... Have to start with a Genuine 7 ......... If Hunt stays play him at 9 ........

 

[st.phil]

CT is terrible… he’s as quick as Laurie … Fainu or Tamale pls w Rava back hopefully

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

My simple take on yesterday's game.

Robbo's game plan worked to perfection. He targeted our halves and hooker in attack, which eventually opened up huge gaps. Yes, it didn't help with Suli out in the first minute, but that's football, it could happen to any team at any time. We unfortunately didn't have the players to fill Suli's position seamlessly.

Disturbing stats:

HUNT - 6 tackles made 5 missed 5 ineffective.
KFLAN - 15 tackles made 7 missed 2 ineffective.
LIDS - 25 tackles made 7 missed 4 ineffective.

We missed 50 tackles, "50"!!! with these 3 contributing to 19 (38%) of them. So, much for our Super Senior Defensive Coach.

Adversity can strike any team, but it's how they respond that is the true indicator of their resolve. Once we capitulated, there was no way back, and full-time couldn't come soon enough.

It will be imperative that we mentally address this game rather than physically. It's a Dragon's thing since Bennett to wallow in pity for some weeks. Let's see how Flanno gets them up for his Waterloo.

Yes we do wallow in pity to a certain degree since the Bennett years but also we don't have the cattle that he had to be honest.....on Anzac Day there was no Smith, Young, Costigan, Scott,Creigh Weyman ,Saffy and the like......that's the forwards.....and then Nighty, Coops, Gaz, Morris etc....not one of those mentioned would have capitulated like our present personnel........chalk and cheese sadly

 

[Kiwi Dragon supporter]

For me, hopefully Luc back, straight to starting second row. RFM whilst reasonably reliable hasn't been all that great. His contact in defence simply isn't dominant enough in my opinion. He's not been bad, but I don't think he should have a place at this current time especially considering how well BMM is playing as that impact off the bench. One of our only dangerous players yesterday. So RFM off to reserves. Toby Couchman in for Lawrie, please just do it oh my god. One thing is for sure, Toby's line speed will be 3-4 x that of Lawrie, not to mention he can actually poke his nose through the line, has a solid frame, and a quick play the ball. Hang on, we've been playing Lawrie over someone with these attributes?? Being realistic, Bird will probably go to left centre, Lomax right centre, CT and Rav wings. These are the only changes I would (and can realistically see) being made

Lawrie is a plodder as slow as a beat cop. Offers little on the field in either defence or attack. It says a lot about team structure if there is no one better than him available

 

[justadragon]

Its taken me time to post about this game, yes I was at the game. A disgusting horrible effort, all the motivation for playing on Anzac Day just was not evident. No team has the right to capitulate the way we did, even losing Suli was no excuse for that performance. Bird and Lawrie need to be gone, bring in Luc, Tamale and T Couchman. There were so many disappointed fans after the build up we were given, what a false dawn. There better be a response next week, because this team lost a lot of Sydney fans on Thursday or should I say whatever fans they had left.

 

[Dragon David]

Its taken me time to post about this game, yes I was at the game. A disgusting horrible effort, all the motivation for playing on Anzac Day just was not evident. No team has the right to capitulate the way we did, even losing Suli was no excuse for that performance. Bird and Lawrie need to be gone, bring in Luc, Tamale and T Couchman. There were so many disappointed fans after the build up we were given, what a false dawn. There better be a response next week, because this team lost a lot of Sydney fans on Thursday or should I say whatever fans they had left.

I hate to be a negative bastard justa but this massive high score loss will happen again several times with the other top teams inflicting us untold pain. Flanno can say that it won't happen again but he said that after the earlier games against the Dolphins and maybe the Cowboys and maybe the Knights. We really don't have the players who can stand up to the might of the top teams and until we do, which we still are having trouble achieving getting any decent players to overcome this, expect many big losses.

 

[justadragon]

I hate to be a negative bastard justa but this massive high score loss will happen again several times with the other top teams inflicting us untold pain. Flanno can say that it won't happen again but he said that after the earlier games against the Dolphins and maybe the Cowboys and maybe the Knights. We really don't have the players who can stand up to the might of the top teams and until we do, which we still are having trouble achieving getting any decent players to overcome this, expect many big losses.

I hear you Dave, but Thursday was just not about the lack of quality players, it was about throwing up the white flag 10-15 minutes into the game, totally unacceptable on Anzac Day, actually it was embarrassing.

 

[Dragon David]

I hear you Dave, but Thursday was just not about the lack of quality players, it was about throwing up the white flag 10-15 minutes into the game, totally unacceptable on Anzac Day, actually it was embarrassing.

As far as my ageing senses tell me justa when a team is beaten 60 points to 18, the players themselves have that scoreline embedded in their brain cells for a long time. That scoreline spells "big troubles" for the Dragons.

No matter what Flanno and the others might be saying to the guys, they know that they were utterly thrashed irrespective of any circumstances involving Suli or the ref or some niggley things done by JWH etc. They know themselves that they weren't worth 2 bob on the night.

Getting done say 30-18 by the Roosters wouldn't be such a bad thing but actally getting done 60-18, that is a completely different story.

The next round they come up against Flanno's former club and Flanno has been giving it to the Sharks which in turn will fire up the Sharks even more. The Sharks thrashed the Raiders tonight 40-0 and to keep that club scoreless shows how good their defence is - Fitzy is a defence coach and a good one at that.

If it is an all day of rain down at the Shire, Sloan will be targeted and we know how that ends up.

Frustrating times ahead is what my senses tell me.

 

[BLM01]

As far as my ageing senses tell me justa when a team is beaten 60 points to 18, the players themselves have that scoreline embedded in their brain cells for a long time. That scoreline spells "big troubles" for the Dragons.

No matter what Flanno and the others might be saying to the guys, they know that they were utterly thrashed irrespective of any circumstances involving Suli or the ref or some niggley things done by JWH etc. They know themselves that they weren't worth 2 bob on the night.

Getting done say 30-18 by the Roosters wouldn't be such a bad thing but actally getting done 60-18, that is a completely different story.

The next round they come up against Flanno's former club and Flanno has been giving it to the Sharks which in turn will fire up the Sharks even more. The Sharks thrashed the Raiders tonight 40-0 and to keep that club scoreless shows how good their defence is - Fitzy is a defence coach and a good one at that.

If it is an all day of rain down at the Shire, Sloan will be targeted and we know how that ends up.

Frustrating times ahead is what my senses tell me.

Well if it is of any solace, Raiders got beaten by 40-0 at their spiritual home on Anzac weekend
Imagine what this forum will be like if that happens to us albeit after last Thursday I have a good idea

 

[Kolum Kid]

60 - 18 is bad but for me 38-0 in a grand final was worse and life scaring