Round 8 vs Eels

[getsmarty]

Absolutely you're entitled to them. I respect others opinions.

Tbh, the dragons have been given way more credit this ueae than hey deserve. We were very lucky against Brisbane, sloppy against the Knights and luckily got out of it, good against the dogs, just beat manly in a scrappy one, and the roosters were off their standards last week.

We'll be lucky to win 2 of our next 4

Correct....

 

[True_Believer]

But that's the point.
Good teams can play 80 minutes, repel swings in game momentum and then claim the 2 competition points.
Second half was not just a momentum swing against us. It was a capitulation.
Embarrassing and not worthy of our club jumper and heritage as a football club.
It's one of the reasons I don't like McGregor.
I have seen too many games like today where we get overrun without a whimper.
Losing is not the end of the world if you go down fighting.
No one in our team is even in the slightest bit worried about being dropped next week.

My reply was to getsmarty who suggested we didn't change tactics. My point is that we didn't need to. We were winning the battle in the first half - there was no need to change the tactic. The players themselves would have known that they needed to do exactly the same thing they did in the first half. They came out and didn't.

 

[getsmarty]

My reply was to getsmarty who suggested we didn't change tactics. My point is that we didn't need to. We were winning the battle in the first half - there was no need to change the tactic. The players themselves would have known that they needed to do exactly the same thing they did in the first half. They came out and didn't.

With all due respect, we did...because we lost...the same thing happened against Souths..we were beaten something like 26 - 6 in the 2nd half...Bennett targeted our right side and they scored 4 tries from memory. A decant coach would address this ...By changing tactics...

anyway, let's agree to disagree.. have a good evening.

 

[jeffdragon]

Absolutely you're entitled to them. I respect others opinions.

Tbh, the dragons have been given way more credit this ueae than hey deserve. We were very lucky against Brisbane, sloppy against the Knights and luckily got out of it, good against the dogs, just beat manly in a scrappy one, and the roosters were off their standards last week.

We'll be lucky to win 2 of our next 4

And so have the almost all .
the other teams
.

 

[Dennis Papaioannou]

Around the 50% mark.

What wouldve probably happened if captain McInnes implements basic defence on his line instead of allowing the parra hooker to easily score. Perhaps we hope them out that set.

Go into half time at 14-0.

Have the possibility to go up 20-0 with a try after half time with out confidence up.

NO ONE was complaining about Mary's tactics or game plan at 14-0. He was not in anyone's minds. But the "players" start making BASIC errors and let parra get the ascendacy, throw in a couple of key injuries, and it's a completely different game.

If Mary is responsible for every mistake the players make, but is hardly responsible for any of the great things the players did then that's a witch hunt.

People here say that the players are making basic errors because Mary isn't drilling them at training.
I guarantee when we scored that 90m try today with great offloads and exciting NO ONE said 'wow, hats off to Marys coaching on that one'.

Whenever players are struggling and making mistakes all attention and blame goes to Mary.

People's minds are ALREADY made up and they have confirmation bias using everything that happens to take another dig

So let's accept your apportionment of 50% for a moment.
1. Games are not 35 minutes long - coach's are assessed on 80 minutes of football. Seasons are 26 games long for that matter and table position at the half way mark does not equate to premierships. Similarities are starting to appear with previous years.
2. The bench rotation killed us today.
We carried a centre on the bench which is just a nonsense.
We had Latimore come on before half time and kept him on after half time as well.
Leilua, Graham and Latimore on at the same time means a massive drop in intensity.
So Aitkin and Latimore were really useless in the context of the game today which meant, coupled with Frizzel's injury, our forwards got overrun.
It is no coincidence that the game swung Parramatta's way either side of half time.
3. Gutherson's try - terrible defence with the fullback out of position.
4. Dummy half tries conceded - should never happen.
5. No composure under pressure - we just collapsed in the second half.

So players making mistakes, especially under fatigue, are part of the game.
It's how teams defend those mistakes and bounce back that does reflect on the coach's ability.
No one is blaming McGregor for every mistake that the players make but it is obvious he is not good enough to coach a FG NRL side.
So even at 50% responsibility, he has a lot to answer for.

 

[Dragonsamy]

Could be a blessing in disguise.

If it weren’t for two field goals, Norman hasn’t offered a lot in my opinion.

Saints desperately need Widdop.

Not till August round about when he may be ready

 

[Dragonsamy]

Tell you what? What a great half time speech that must have been.
Truly inspirational

 

[True_Believer]

With all due respect, we did...because we lost...the same thing happened against Souths..we were beaten something like 26 - 6 in the 2nd half...Bennett targeted our right side and they scored 4 tries from memory. A decant coach would address this ...By changing tactics...

anyway, let's agree to disagree.. have a good evening.

We did what? Change tactics? I really don't understand what you are trying to say. Do you really think that Mary got them in at half time and then said "OK - now this half we are going to drop the ball, not execute, defensively fall apart. That'll fool them!!!" Come on, you're not that sort of person. The honest truth is that the boys in the middle lost their composure and didn't aim up.

We pay out on Mary when he's laughing in the box like he didn't expect to win, but today he was shaking his head and throwing his hands in the air - showing that the players weren't doing what he expected them to do.

 

[getsmarty]

We did what? Change tactics? I really don't understand what you are trying to say. Do you really think that Mary got them in at half time and then said "OK - now this half we are going to drop the ball, not execute, defensively fall apart. That'll fool them!!!" Come on, you're not that sort of person. The honest truth is that the boys in the middle lost their composure and didn't aim up.

We pay out on Mary when he's laughing in the box like he didn't expect to win, but today he was shaking his head and throwing his hands in the air - showing that the players weren't doing what he expected them to do.

O.K..I'll make it simple...when we were losing the wrestle..after the soft dummy half try ...the coach should have sent down instructions..eg line speed. tighten up around the ruck..etc etc...

Then if you take it a step further...we were light on in terms of the bench...anyway..I'm tired ..not interested in going back and forth over this...

let's agree to disagree and have a good evening.

 

[The Damo]

Then compare the halves and forwards..anyway it wouldn't matter ..........give Bennett our current side and they wouldn't be making basic mistakes because he drills them with the fundamentals at training...of course if your happy with McGregor then you are entitled to your opinion...

Yeah I don’t reckon our current halves and forwards are better than what Bennet had. Halves could argue roughly equal, but that pack was a cut above.
And Bennett’s team last year made plenty of basic mistakes.
But you’re both arguing different things anyways.

 

[sco22]

The players are also at fault...BUT..who trains them..who creates the structures...

Rewind back to 2009 - 2011...watch a few games...

....thank you and have a good evening.

I occasionally watch those years geez we played bloody good footy. It’s the coach that instills and creates. We had probably the best coach since Harry Bath in Wayne Bennett and look at us now we are pathetic with these coaches we have now.

 

[The Damo]

And who coaches our structures...who should be instilling ball security...doesn't happen with teams coached by bellamy or Bennett on a regular basis...let's just agree to disagree...

not here to argue with you...that 2nd half was rubbish..........McGregor has had 5 1/2 years to fix it....

Just in case your interested - dragons have made 16 less errors than the roosters, 3 less than Souths and 3 more than the storm.

 

[True_Believer]

O.K..I'll make it simple...when we were losing the wrestle..after the soft dummy half try ...the coach should have sent down instructions..eg line speed. tighten up around the ruck..etc etc...

Who's to say he didn't? They didn't score again before half time.

Then if you take it a step further...we were light on in terms of the bench...anyway..I'm tired ..not interested in going back and forth over this...

Light on because we didn't carry 4 forwards? We lost Frizz in the first half so we were a forward down anyway by half time. Not something you can foresee before the game starts. Irrespective, we had Aitken on the bench that many in here have been calling for for ages.

Mate I'm not arguing with you - I just don't understand the tactic comment. To me, none of what you are saying supports the need to change tactics. It's the players attitude after half time that grinds on me. When a player runs through the guts of the team, it shouldn't be up to the coach to have to tell them to tighten it up. They are first graders - they should see that defensively they need to tighten up and they didn't. Add to that they failed to complete their sets and they made errors and gave away stupid penalties. For me, it's the players attitude that needs rectifying.

let's agree to disagree and have a good evening.

Yes lets do.

 

[denis preston]

Lomax needs time in reserve grade playing against men.

He is way too green for FG.

Way too Green.

Troll.

 

[getsmarty]

Just in case your interested - dragons have made 16 less errors than the roosters, 3 less than Souths and 3 more than the storm.

Really.. then maybe our tactics aren't working....or their tactic's are superior to ours...

 

[The Damo]

McInnes played OK but his leadership is rubbish. He gives away too many penalties each game.

Frizell should never have been sent back on after he copped that hit in the eye.
Lawrie had his worst game this year. Hogged the ball with low metres and was not there in defence when required.
It is a big joke playing Latimore off the bench. He is not effective anymore.
Dufty was out of position for most of the game and very poor in defence.

The ref had a bad game. Two weeks in a row we have been on the wrong end of bad ref rulings.

McInnes averages 1 penalty every second game. He gave away two this game which is 4 games worth for him normally.
Lawrie was second only to Vaughan for metres today and made 39 tackles and missed 2.

 

[The Damo]

Just an observation: are Saints the no 1. side to concede offloads from the opposition?

Again today, the failure to simply wrap up the ball carrier was horrific.

Nope, 9th. Concede less than manly, roosters, rabbits and storm. Our ruck control is garbage though.

 

[denis preston]

It wasn’t the kick that went dead that was the issue it was the bomb down the fb’s throat when we had no pressure from defence and they scored.
If you keep kicking to fb’s on the full with no defence in his face you are asking for trouble and Hunt does it many times over
You say our forwards are good but the Eels rolled through them easily far too often and we are getting dominated and not making ground anywhere near as easily
You see my comments as sinking the boot in I see them as being insightful if you want the team to be more of a threat.
Hunt was purchased to be the defining difference in the halves and to resolve the issues of our attack and I don’t believe he has done that
I hunk the majority of the issues facing is in coaching but elite players IMO can’t be
totally absolved

Give yourself a wrap "insightful " Tell you what how about a bit of homework ? Watch all the games in a round of NRL and apply the same critical eye on each side ( as you do with the Dragons ) and perhaps you may be surprised to find out that most sides aren't perfect and perhaps perspective may hit you in the head .I'm on record as not being a fan of the coaching staff but the players f**ked themselves up today.

 

[ozbuck]

Tell you what? What a great half time speech that must have been.
Truly inspirational

Tell you what? What a great half time speech that must have been.
Truly inspirational

Oh here we go...must've been the coaches speech at halftime.

2009... Dragons beat eels 37-0. One week later in the first week of the finals they beat us 25-12. Bennett's coaching that week must've been absolutely pethatic right?

It's all about the coach. Coach. Coach. Coach. Haha

 

[ozbuck]

I occasionally watch those years geez we played bloody good footy. It’s the coach that instills and creates. We had probably the best coach since Harry Bath in Wayne Bennett and look at us now we are pathetic with these coaches we have now.

Look at how terrible super coach Bennett's Broncs went in the first final last year on their home turf. He must've royally stuffed up the coaching gameplan and instilled no belief and inspiration.

Or perhaps...the PLAYERS were greatly to blame and were genuinely outgunned by....wait for it......a team coached by.......Mary.