Round 8 vs Eels

[sco22]

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.

Do u know anything about being in a team whether it be in sports or the military. There is 1 individual that brings everyone together then leaders in the group feed off that to make the team one.

Harry Bath and Wayne Bennett did that with the Saints because they the team believed in what they were doing to achieve their goal. U brought 2009 the players themselves didn’t believe Bennett did it didn’t translate back to players in what they could achieve that’s why they lost I know I was there.

 

[to_ddeath]

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.

So after 2.5 more years of Mehry failures, you’ll be still dwelling on that game I’m sure...plonker.

 

[Redhoopz]

Dragons played well for the first 35 mins and then went to sleep. The eels had all the momentum in the second half and once we lost Norman that was pretty much it from an attacking standpoint. Couple of other things:

- howcome nobody dropped back to cover for Dufty when he was defending in the line early in the second half

- I think they were planning on giving Aitken some minutes in the middle today but the injury to Norman scrapped that

- Parra's try before halftime changed the game

- Host and Lawrie played well and have been two of the dragons most consistent this season

- Lomax didn't have his best game, but I wouldn't be dropping him based one bad performance. He should be given at least 4-6 weeks in FG

 

[2010]

I was confident we would win today and at the 30 minute mark I poured a long JD getting ready for the second half.
A lot of teams are going to put us to the sword if we keep playing like that.
My observations in my humble opnion
Father Time is knocking on Graham’s shoulder, I don’t think he should be in the starting side.
I would not be surprised that T Sims is playing with an injury, he has been below his best last few games.
The weakness in our forwards is obvious. Latimore needs to be dropped and not be on the bench.
Lomax had an OK game and we should stick by him.
Dufty is Dufty, rocks and diamonds but needs to improve his positional play. He is still a match winner and he keeps his position.
My man Lafai, should be first picked.
McIdiot should make Hunt and Norman watch a team like Souths to see how their halves kick their bombs, they are lethal
I think we will struggle to make the eight unless there is a major shift in our team ability to stop playing dumb football,
Did I mention that McIdiot is useless and he continues the crap he has our team playing like get ready for the same over the next few years

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

So disappointing to say the least , 14-4 at halftime and then we simply fell to pieces in the
2nd half . Of course the injuries to Fizzell and Norman certainly did not help matters but they must had known that they would be in for a hard game.

Great try to Duffy and also the lead up work involved to get it over the line , but someone must take him aside and show him how to take those bombs . In fact you can add both wingers to that list as well. Crikey how many tries has the Duff given opposition teams this year ?

The boys really need to get their act together quickly or they could very well be watching the semis on tele this year . As for Mary he can only do so much , but he needs to understand that all teams have “ those 50/50 calls and penalties , as well as handling errors “ go against them , excepting the good teams of which we are not at present .

I’d say the season was lost before the season began. Poor recruitment in addition to a “coach” clearly out of his depth are the main driving forces here.

 

[Brutalitops]

I don't know if anyone else bothers to watch coach press conferences, but I watch them for every game for all coaches

Mary has improved his breakdowns of games this year (maybe due to not having the captain next to him to pass to?) so that's good. He makes a lot less excuses than he used to. But one problem I have with Mary is he never seems angry over a performance.

We blame Mary for that second half, and sure he probably has some blame, but so much of it was just dumb, imploding stuff from the players. The sort of thing that would make a coach angry. Mary just seems too calm, and says they'll "work on it".

Compare this to who I believe is the best coach in the game, Craig Bellamy (rivalled only by Robinson imo). After the Storm narrowly lost to the Sharks, he came into the presser not whinging. He came in and issued a challenge to his team, called them crap, and threatened to find new players if they don't fix their play up in the next few weeks. That's based off just their second loss of the year, by a narrow margin. Bellamy is hated among league fans, but he very rarely makes excuses and I like that about him.

Grow a pair Mary, because those lapses in defence and discipline would not be tolerated by a coach like Bellyache

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

At the end of the day I do try to be a ‘sensible’ dragons supporter. That is not wearing rose coloured glasses nor going over the top in criticism.

Today I thought we lost a bit of confidence when Fritzz went off.

We regained a bit of composure and got back to 18 all but losing Cory Norman was truly huge with Fritz also gone for the game. If Cory was not injured I reckon if was anyone’s game.

I thought the Feugo try was absolute 50/50. Looked like it bobbled from Feugo hand to Jordan’s hand. If the ref said no try I think the bunker would have said no try.

Interesting that ref blew a ‘heritage’ penalty offside at kick off ( our guy was marginally offside but hey that happens regularly in all games). Will we be penalised for feeding second row at scrum penalty next week? Yes, at a quick play the ball with a good roll on McInnes penalised for rolling ball under legs. No one else does that all game did they? Jordan P sent to bin for diving over top of eels half, what a great defensive play. Even the bias commentary team death riding us all game were non pluses.

Basically, just not our day today.

As mentioned elsewhere, if the referee was going to be a stickler for the “offside at halfway” rule, surely, he needs to be equally attentive as to where the player kicking for the sideline actually does so?

The penalty is given in the middle of the halfway line, this is where the kick for the line SHOULD be taken.

It wasn’t.

After receiving the penalty, Parramatta’s Moses takes advantage of the errant whistle blower and kicks the ball a good five to 10 metres in Dragons’ territory.

Not good enough.

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

I was confident we would win today and at the 30 minute mark I poured a long JD getting ready for the second half.
A lot of teams are going to put us to the sword if we keep playing like that.
My observations in my humble opnion
Father Time is knocking on Graham’s shoulder, I don’t think he should be in the starting side.
I would not be surprised that T Sims is playing with an injury, he has been below his best last few games.
The weakness in our forwards is obvious. Latimore needs to be dropped and not be on the bench.
Lomax had an OK game and we should stick by him.
Dufty is Dufty, rocks and diamonds but needs to improve his positional play. He is still a match winner and he keeps his position.
My man Lafai, should be first picked.
McIdiot should make Hunt and Norman watch a team like Souths to see how their halves kick their bombs, they are lethal
I think we will struggle to make the eight unless there is a major shift in our team ability to stop playing dumb football,
Did I mention that McIdiot is useless and he continues the crap he has our team playing like get ready for the same over the next few years

Actually, I thought Saints’ drop in form yesterday coincided with Graham being off the field. By the time of his return, the horse had well and truly bolted. Once more, McIdiot demonstrated he cannot use the bench effectively to save himself,

In a side that’s beset by injury, poor form and indifferent refereeing, the Dragons need Graham more than ever because I fear the team is about to freefall into oblivion.

 

[Dennis Papaioannou]

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.

You have taken one game in isolation without looking at the real picture.
Brisbane got flogged by us for one simple reason.
Our backrow demolished theirs which was missing both Gillet and Glen.
T.Sims crossed for 3 rampaging tries in the first half and so on.
Now, do you really want to take Bennett to task over one game?
Do you seriously want to compare McGregor as a coach to Bennett?
Because if you do then apart from the Brisbane game you then have to assess the floggings we received at the hands of Melbourne, Parra and the ultimate indignation against Canterbury at Kogarah late last year.

 

[Dennis Papaioannou]

I don't know if anyone else bothers to watch coach press conferences, but I watch them for every game for all coaches

Mary has improved his breakdowns of games this year (maybe due to not having the captain next to him to pass to?) so that's good. He makes a lot less excuses than he used to. But one problem I have with Mary is he never seems angry over a performance.

We blame Mary for that second half, and sure he probably has some blame, but so much of it was just dumb, imploding stuff from the players. The sort of thing that would make a coach angry. Mary just seems too calm, and says they'll "work on it".

Compare this to who I believe is the best coach in the game, Craig Bellamy (rivalled only by Robinson imo). After the Storm narrowly lost to the Sharks, he came into the presser not whinging. He came in and issued a challenge to his team, called them crap, and threatened to find new players if they don't fix their play up in the next few weeks. That's based off just their second loss of the year, by a narrow margin. Bellamy is hated among league fans, but he very rarely makes excuses and I like that about him.

Grow a pair Mary, because those lapses in defence and discipline would not be tolerated by a coach like Bellyache

I think it's passed the point of blaming McGregor.
He picks the team and he can directly influence next week by dropping the IQ deficient players.
He never does of course which explains why it happens to us over and over again..
He also picks the bench and decides how to use it.
IMO we lost control of the game either side of half time when the bench players were thrown on.
Those 15-20 minutes buried us.
Latimore, Aitkin and to even Leilua (lazy line defence to concede a dh try) killed us.
We lost all momentum and eventually we got overrun.
McGregor looks good when our forwards are rampaging and dominating but God help us if things go a little pear shaped like they did on Sunday.
Hasn't got a clue how to compensate and doesn't seem to have any contingencies.
We have a few dumb players but we also have a dumb coach.

 

[Smack]

Vomit inducing 2nd half, but at least JP helped set up what would be try of the season with 3 tackle busts. That was great to watch.

 

[LINESPEED]

Actually, I thought Saints’ drop in form yesterday coincided with Graham being off the field. By the time of his return, the horse had well and truly bolted. Once more, McIdiot demonstrated he cannot use the bench effectively to save himself,

In a side that’s beset by injury, poor form and indifferent refereeing, the Dragons need Graham more than ever because I fear the team is about to freefall into oblivion.

For me Graham has been the difference in regards to linespeed in our team

I agree that he is the catalyst and has to be on the field in the danger periods to rev the forwards

Kerr too is very fast & has the requisite mongrel about him to crank up the linespeed in Graham’s absence - but again, Waterboy has done a number on his confidence by inconsistency in selection?

Sims’ linespeed has dropped off too because with his heavy strapping he’s probably playing half busted

Lachlan needs to be on the bench with 3 other forwards (include Reece for game time & CONTINGENCY planning for when Cam fatigues or goes down?)

If the power game is still Plan A?

Aitken to CC while Zac is given his crack

I’m stoked that our 3 speed amigos Duff, Zac & Jai will finally be on the field together for a few weeks, with plenty of game time to get some combos going

It’s called forced renewal (unfortunately)

& we’ll be better for it longterm

Most coaches do it systematically & strategically

We have to wait for injury FFS

 

[Morotti]

Normally I am not one to jump too easily and asked for people to be dropped. That said:

- for our captain to be caught offside at the kick off (I think it was mcinnes) is inexcusable.

- for our captain to play the ball incorrectly is horrendous.

What sort of message does these two errors send?

I agree with others Mary never seems to be upset. You have to wonder whether the players think their game was good or actually understand how poor some of the play was.

Some of their tries were from abysmal mistakes by us. Gutherson goes straight up the middle? Wtf?

Our right side was still extremely leaky. I don't expect miracles from Lomax but I do expect basic concepts to be followed. He was caught out doing stupid things several times which cost us.

Some people need to go.

Latimore is not worth carrying on the bench. No impact in any game this year. Be better off having a younger forward in there.

We cannot carry a centre on the bench. Understand we ended up needing him but personally you don't carry so k eone like that just in case there is an injury. Then you waste an interchange spot.

Mcinnes also needs a talking to because if he is the captain then he has to lead by example. And he didn't today. His second half was bad.

It was quite embarrassing to watch at times yesterday. Feel sorry for the fans that were there.

 

[denis preston]

Normally I am not one to jump too easily and asked for people to be dropped. That said:

- for our captain to be caught offside at the kick off (I think it was mcinnes) is inexcusable.

- for our captain to play the ball incorrectly is horrendous.

What sort of message does these two errors send?

I agree with others Mary never seems to be upset. You have to wonder whether the players think their game was good or actually understand how poor some of the play was.

Some of their tries were from abysmal mistakes by us. Gutherson goes straight up the middle? Wtf?

Our right side was still extremely leaky. I don't expect miracles from Lomax but I do expect basic concepts to be followed. He was caught out doing stupid things several times which cost us.

Some people need to go.

Latimore is not worth carrying on the bench. No impact in any game this year. Be better off having a younger forward in there.

We cannot carry a centre on the bench. Understand we ended up needing him but personally you don't carry so k eone like that just in case there is an injury. Then you waste an interchange spot.

Mcinnes also needs a talking to because if he is the captain then he has to lead by example. And he didn't today. His second half was bad.

It was quite embarrassing to watch at times yesterday. Feel sorry for the fans that were there.

Big fan of mcinnes but he made some crutial errors yesterday. You forgot that he also made the gap for Parra's first try. We didn't get the rub of the green sure but we should have raised a gear in the beginning of the second half and buried them but the thought processes were not workin g out there.

 

[denis preston]

At the end of the day I do try to be a ‘sensible’ dragons supporter. That is not wearing rose coloured glasses nor going over the top in criticism.

Today I thought we lost a bit of confidence when Fritzz went off.

We regained a bit of composure and got back to 18 all but losing Cory Norman was truly huge with Fritz also gone for the game. If Cory was not injured I reckon if was anyone’s game.

I thought the Feugo try was absolute 50/50. Looked like it bobbled from Feugo hand to Jordan’s hand. If the ref said no try I think the bunker would have said no try.

Interesting that ref blew a ‘heritage’ penalty offside at kick off ( our guy was marginally offside but hey that happens regularly in all games). Will we be penalised for feeding second row at scrum penalty next week? Yes, at a quick play the ball with a good roll on McInnes penalised for rolling ball under legs. No one else does that all game did they? Jordan P sent to bin for diving over top of eels half, what a great defensive play. Even the bias commentary team death riding us all game were non pluses.

Basically, just not our day today.

Heritage penalty , love it !

 

[rednwhites]

We waited 9 days to see the team turn up after a 40 minute minute display against the Roosters, only to see a 40 minute display again. Two losses. A win is a win but we are a couple of field goals and a lucky call away from being stone motherless last. This is life as a supporter under Paul McGregor.

 

[ozbuck]

You have taken one game in isolation without looking at the real picture.
Brisbane got flogged by us for one simple reason.
Our backrow demolished theirs which was missing both Gillet and Glen.
T.Sims crossed for 3 rampaging tries in the first half and so on.
Now, do you really want to take Bennett to task over one game?
Do you seriously want to compare McGregor as a coach to Bennett?
Because if you do then apart from the Brisbane game you then have to assess the floggings we received at the hands of Melbourne, Parra and the ultimate indignation against Canterbury at Kogarah late last year.
View attachment 29543

I guarantee if it was the other way around and the broncs hadve thrashed us with a couple of ourour backrow out people would be saying 'see Mary and the management have no idea about recruitment', Mary can't get the best out of fringe footballers like Bellamy can, Mary didn't get the boys up for the game, Mary didn't inspire them at half time, Mary didn't xyz.

Your thoughts about that game are rational. But when people think about the saints' current losses there is no stepping back, thinking about it objectively, etc. It's just "we lossed -> how did Mary contribute to this loss -> that is the #1 reason why we lossed"

It's predictable. It happens here after every loss. The thinking is too rigid.

The team we had in 2009-2011 was special.

Bennett didn't do anything special when he was at Newcastle. I think one year he helped them to get to a semi or prelim. Last year we were 8mins away from a prelim final. ...unfortunately players who should've stepped up to control that last period of the game didn't. That's right; PLAYERS.

 

[jeffdragon]

Heritage penalty , love it !

Inconsistency with refs how many times have we seen incorrect play the balls and offsides from kick off.
Call the hole friggin lot,not pick and choose.
And when Lawrie lost the ball wasn't alvaros hands there.
I think Klein once the crowd was into the game after a eel try lost his compass.
Moses took a dive not much from jp.

 

[Dragonsteve2]

I am no Mary supporter as many of my anti-Mary posts would show. However for this game I don't intend to lay all the blame at his feet. It hardly seems to be worth the effort given his 2 year extension. The players must take responsibility for simple errors and lack of awareness. Mary did bite the bullet in picking Zac at centre. Yes, he did stick with Lattimore when it's time to look for more impact from the bench and I was disappointed that he did not put Aitken on when Friz came off before halftime. We certainly needed some stronger and general impact at the beginning of the second half.

I too watched his Press Conference. Mary did not display anger as Bellamy did but he was very clearly upset with the soft tries. Anger is one way to get a message across but it is a matter of opinion if it is always the best way.

Clearly we have had a tough run with injuries while starting with the Manly game we seem to have been getting a rough deal from the refs. Perhaps not as pronounced yesterday but it certainly played a part in Parra's momentum. But what really hit me yesterday after I had calmed down 4-5 hours after the game was what a wasted opportunity last year was, leading the comp for so long with barely a scratch to any of our leading players. The poor use of the bench, the refusal to rest JDB and Hunt when injured, the unwillingness to test out promising players. Those actions were far more negligent on the part of the coach than anything he has done this year.

Right now we are in a tough spot. Mary needs to show leadership(is he capable of doing so?), we need stronger on-field leadership, we need more impact from the bench than Lattimore can provide, we must play 17 not 16 vs 17 which means Aitken must get time in the middle and we need a spark- can Jai Field provide it or could we get lucky with JDB's court case?

 

[getsmarty]

I am no Mary supporter as many of my anti-Mary posts would show. However for this game I don't intend to lay all the blame at his feet. It hardly seems to be worth the effort given his 2 year extension. The players must take responsibility for simple errors and lack of awareness. Mary did bite the bullet in picking Zac at centre. Yes, he did stick with Lattimore when it's time to look for more impact from the bench and I was disappointed that he did not put Aitken on when Friz came off before halftime. We certainly needed some stronger and general impact at the beginning of the second half.

I too watched his Press Conference. Mary did not display anger as Bellamy did but he was very clearly upset with the soft tries. Anger is one way to get a message across but it is a matter of opinion if it is always the best way.

Clearly we have had a tough run with injuries while starting with the Manly game we seem to have been getting a rough deal from the refs. Perhaps not as pronounced yesterday but it certainly played a part in Parra's momentum. But what really hit me yesterday after I had calmed down 4-5 hours after the game was what a wasted opportunity last year was, leading the comp for so long with barely a scratch to any of our leading players. The poor use of the bench, the refusal to rest JDB and Hunt when injured, the unwillingness to test out promising players. Those actions were far more negligent on the part of the coach than anything he has done this year.

Right now we are in a tough spot. Mary needs to show leadership(is he capable of doing so?), we need stronger on-field leadership, we need more impact from the bench than Lattimore can provide, we must play 17 not 16 vs 17 which means Aitken must get time in the middle and we need a spark- can Jai Field provide it or could we get lucky with JDB's court case?

With all due respect..he has been here since 2014..he has had long enough to address all the the above issues you talk about....In round 2 this year we also had a healthy lead @ half time against Souths and got whacked 26 - 6 or something close to that margin...

I am not a Mary "Hater "... in fact I used to admire him as a player...

the fact is he is so far out of his depth its not funny....How long do you want to give him ?...yes the club has given him til 2021...I will make a prediction now...we will not win a Premiership with Mary and in fact we have a window of opportunity in the next few years which makes his Re-signing all the more premature.