Round 8 Vs Roosters ANZAC DAY GAME

[twinkletoes]

We can talk about effort and being proud all day long, the reality is we are 2-5 and 16th on the ladder. I am happy for Sloan, defence needs work, Moga I take my hat off to him. Give Suli space and watch him go. We desperately need some power forwards. There were some really weird comments from Hook in the PC. Hunt has never been and never will be a game manager. Our use of Liddle was diabolical. Its over to the board now, there is nothing left to see and nothing left to consider. Either sign hook for god knows how long or piss him off now and get someone in to start sorting the mess out. We won 12 games last year in my opinion we will go nowhere near that this year, our complete reckoning will come in the next 2 weeks.

Agree with all your comments… all these weaknesses were evident during the off-season when our recruitment was almost non existent

 

[justadragon]

I can tell you why no forwards get over 100 meters and that is they either take the ball from dummy half standing still or have to stop to catch a poor pass. I don’t think I saw a forward in the first half before I left in disgust run onto the ball from depth with pace.

No truer words written Hewi !!! We have the absolute worst attacking plays of any team, all we do is persist with these one out power plays, only problem is we have no power and usually cock things up in the process. We dont have a half that can bring the forwards running at the line, Hunt wants to continue running laterally across the field trying to throw a flat pass. A classic example was when the forwards made some ground and the backs were a little deeper Suli got the ball in space and busted the line, passed to Sloan, Try !!! Even though we could do with a couple of power forwards I dont believe our forwards are that bad, they are just not managed right on the field by the halves. If we have a dead set game managing Half we win all 3 of the last games. And dont get me started that with 10 min to go and against 12 we couldnt even put ourselves in a position to take a field goal. Imagine Sullivan getting that experience yesterday, it would have been priceless, instead he played all over the ex NRL Roosters half in reserve grade.

 

[Dorothy the Winowhore]

Zac misses 2 conversions from an inch inside the sideline, and gets blamed for the loss? What about the low metres gained by all forwards, and the 50+ missed tackles? If Sloan dives onto that loose ball from Amone kick through instead of putting his boot to it....we win. If Lomax isn't penalised for the not late not high hit on the Rooster kicker....we win.

Have a look at how many sideline conversions are missed by Cleary, Mitchell, Hynes, etc.....

 

[jeffdragon]

Zac misses 2 conversions from an inch inside the sideline, and gets blamed for the loss? What about the low metres gained by all forwards, and the 50+ missed tackles? If Sloan dives onto that loose ball from Amone kick through instead of putting his boot to it....we win. If Lomax isn't penalised for the not late not high hit on the Rooster kicker....we win.

Have a look at how many sideline conversions are missed by Cleary, Mitchell, Hynes, etc.....

3 kickers you mentioned, their teams score and play well consistently so they miss a few they still don't cost them.that many games like it does us..

 

[Slippery Morris]

Saints put is a good effort second half but let in some soft tries in the 1s half which cost them not Lomax missing hard kicks out wide. Sloan was the star, the player Hook uses relentlessly. If Ramsey was fit, Sloan would still be languishing in reserves and Saints would not be watching this future superstar. Sullivan now going through the same crap with our ineffective halves when it comes to the close games. I like how Griffin is giving Sloan wraps now seeing Sloan might save his career. If the board are that dumb to re-sign him it is because Sloan is making them look somewhat interesting to watch in attack.

What is with Liddle not getting much game time?

Whoever comes in won't have to do too much to make Saints better watching this game just make the correct team selections and have them running some good lines in attack for the players to run through as currently they have nothing just one out runs with a kick from Hunt and hoping for the best.

 

[Dorothy the Winowhore]

3 kickers you mentioned, their teams score and play well consistently so they miss a few they still don't cost them.that many games like it does us..

Yes, that is what I was alluding to....it is the teams fault, not Zac's

 

[Dragonssupporter]

I watched the game yesterday and thought yes were going to get there- but we didnt.
Bird costs us position and then points every game. He may be a good player but hes a liability.
How M’bye plays is beyond me. As soon as Liddle comes on were a different team. The only person who doesnt see this is our bloody coach. It’s McGregor all over again with Norman. I thought we’d past that stage.
Why is Lomax kicking when his percentage is one of the lowest in the NRL. You need a kicker for close games and were losing because of that. I know a lot of people say dont blame him but thats his job.
First half appalling, second half so much better and shows what were really capable of. We can win this if the effort wad there for 80 mins every week. To me this is coaching and using interchange properly Hook cant do either and needs to go now. If the board dont act then were gone.
I notice emails to the club are going unanswered Is this because of volume of complaints or xause they couldnt care less either

 

[Dorothy the Winowhore]

Why is Lomax kicking when his percentage is one of the lowest in the NRL

Because he is the best kicker we have. His percentage before this year was high 80's. You think anyone else in our team yesterday would've kicked 5 from 5?

 

[Old Timer]

Yes, that is what I was alluding to....it is the teams fault, not Zac's

Evidently to some people if we miss a goal it is a bigger misdemeanour than letting in a try.

We could be leading 22-20 with a missed conversion and a missed penalty then let a soft try in in the last second of the game and lose 24-22 and it would still be Zac’s fault.

Letting in soft tries, dumb arse penalties & inability to close out with a field goal have cost us far more games than missing a goal or 2.

 

[blacksafake]

I notice everyone is talking up Sloan & rightly so because he’s a talent & getting better but one piece of play yesterday shows he’s really got to work on the defensive side.
If you look at the Manu try which by the way should have been stopped earlier Sloan ran past the tackle instead of helping out by wrapping up the ball which may have averted the try.
BTW this is by no means a bagging of him as I want him out there & he’s not on his own but instead of blaming Lomax for missing a goal etc look at our soft middle & plays like this.

 

[Dragon David]

Dont be surprised if they lose the next two.
The pack should be running off the back fence ie Kerr so much size but no nous.

Kerr going north to the Dolphins next year. Will only go through the motions now until the end of the year.

 

[Yow]

3 kickers you mentioned, their teams score and play well consistently so they miss a few they still don't cost them.that many games like it does us..

Bit harsh to blame Zac for yesterdays loss both kicks were from the sideline plenty of kickers have missed them from there

Kerr going north to the Dolphins next year. Will only go through the motions now until the end of the year.

 

[hewi]

Kerr says he wants to stay.

 

[Willow]

Blaming goal kickers is like blaming wingers. If you want to blame players, look a little closer to the ruck.

 

[twinkletoes]

I notice everyone is talking up Sloan & rightly so because he’s a talent & getting better but one piece of play yesterday shows he’s really got to work on the defensive side.
If you look at the Manu try which by the way should have been stopped earlier Sloan ran past the tackle instead of helping out by wrapping up the ball which may have averted the try.
BTW this is by no means a bagging of him as I want him out there & he’s not on his own but instead of blaming Lomax for missing a goal etc look at our soft middle & plays like this.

First 2 tries to Roosters there were gaps as wide as Sydney Harbour 1 player off the ruck...very poor defensive structures

 

[Dragonslayer]

Can't believe people are literally putting the boot into Lomax and blaming him for the loss yesterday.

Zac did not lose us the game our paper-thin defense did.

Just look at the missed tackle count at 50
Lets look at the worst offenders from yesterday:
Hunt (ben) missed 6 for a 61% efficiency.
Mbye missed 6 (our starting hooker....right!) for a 76% efficiency.
Bird missed 6 for an 83% efficiency.
And a few at 4 misses as well

i'm not interested that the Roosters missed the same number, that's not the point. The point is if our defense was even 20% better yesterday, we win that game.

You just need to go back and look at the missed tackles against the Raiders and Titans and seek a common denominator and the answer becomes quite obvious. One player is consistently missing tackles and I believe opposition coaches are noticing that also.

So, this angst against Lomax is just unwarranted. Yes, he's missed some conversions but that hasn't solely lost us those games the games. Again, if our defense was 20 % better we wouldn't have to rely on side-line conversions for a win.

 

[Rocket Rod]

Goal kickers WIN games!!!!!

 

[Rocket Rod]

The dragons outplayed them in the second half yet they won by kicking more goals than tries

 

[Walpole]

You can't blame Lomax alone for the loss but his goal kicking is definitely down on previous years. He usually sits at about a 78% success rate but this year it's 60%.

 

[Old Timer]

The dragons outplayed them in the second half yet they won by kicking more goals than tries

FFS we miss 2 goals we lose 4 points.

We let in 3 very soft tries and gift them a minimum of 12 points but due to them scoring closer to the posts we magnify that to 18 points.

In your logic if we are 4 behind with a penalty in their red zone and the whistle has blown you'd want to kick a goal because you value a goal more than a try.

You try to rationalise the final score as being only a points differential without giving any thought to what happened during the game.

If we kicked 9 penalties out of 10 shots for 18 points and the opposition scored 5 tries and no conversions for 20 points you would still be bagging our goal kicker.

EDIT: You'd even bag him if the one we missed was 50 out, into the breeze from the sideline and hit the cross bar and upright and bounced back.