Round 9 vs Storm

[Blood Shot Eyes]

Here is a positive spin.

Over the last few weeks we have shown nothing in attack, so the storm won't know what to prepare for. If we can actually execute some plays with cohesion, they will be stunned and never recover .

Neither will I

 

[possm]

A good start would be for Amone and Hunt to run straight and feed their outside backs with quick quality passes in an effort to give them plenty of room and time to do their thing.

How about instructing Lawrie to only take the ball up in the first or second tackle of a set. Saints seriously need to begin their forwards to off-load in tackles 3 and 4 of most sets.

 

[jeffdragon]

There's really nothing to lose here but when the whistle blows and we see 13 v 13 men you start to think "why not, why can't we beat the best team going around" and that's when the nerves come.

Unfortunately Storm don't ever get complacent. All the media coverage is already about their upcoming Penrith clash, and I get it. I'm never really overly convinced with us even when we string wins together, but they are simply too good all over the park. If we play physical maybe we can keep it to a few tries the difference and give them a scare.

I'm not seeing them shaking in their boots coming up the likes of McCullough and Mbye who are first picked each week, rightly or wrongly. That's for certain. They will try and toy with us and it will be a matter of pride for our blokes.

Then again I suppose stranger things have happened...

First paragraph spot on.
They might have their mind on Penrith.

 

[blacksafake]

The storm struggle when playing sides who move them around with quick ball, Which is why sides like the eels, panthers, sharks & manly( when Tom plays) have some success against them.

They relish sides who play structured footy suffocating them with defence.
Do we have the game to unsettle them, probably not but imo it’s our only option.

 

[Dragons4me]

A good start would be for Amone and Hunt to run straight and feed their outside backs with quick quality passes in an effort to give them plenty of room and time to do their thing.

How about instructing Lawrie to only take the ball up in the first or second tackle of a set. Saints seriously need to begin their forwards to off-load in tackles 3 and 4 of most sets.

Still too much turning the ball back for an inside runner for mine. The runner gets lined up and smashed in defence. We need to be bold. We need a second kicker to support Hunt, kick early and do our defending in the Storms half not ours as much as possible. Our continual game plan of constantly defending our line means the score could get ugly. Unfortunately I think they're just that good across the park and I hate them.

 

[Lindsay Moss]

A good start would be for Amone and Hunt to run straight and feed their outside backs with quick quality passes in an effort to give them plenty of room and time to do their thing.

How about instructing Lawrie to only take the ball up in the first or second tackle of a set. Saints seriously need to begin their forwards to off-load in tackles 3 and 4 of most sets.

I think a better start would be Bud to halfback hunt to 5/8 bird to edge and Mcguire back to the middle in place of burgess and also to pray.

 

[gitano]

Two options fellas.

Pick the kids and try win 72-70, or throw it and move on to next week.

 

[possm]

At this point in time, my preferred halves pairing is Bird and Hunt. Once Sullivan becomes match fit, I'd go for Bird and Sullivan with Hunt at 9. Hunt is a game-changer at 9 and Sullivan is very nimble, a good organizer, and has a good kicking game.

With the above in place our focus should return to our middle forwards who have shown a lot of improvement over the last few games however, there is still room for improvement. I'd stick with McGuire with Sims on the edge and a prop rotation of Molo, Burgess, Woods, and Lawrie. I see Lawrie needing a game plan of taking the ball up in tackle one or two and then saving his energy for defense in the middle. The other 3 props know their role and are doing a fairly good job at the moment.

Mbye has surprised me at fullback and is very solid under the high ball. Although he lacks the spark that Sloan provides, overall I think he holds his position at the moment.

Getting our two centers some good early ball with instructions to round hard and straight would improve our attack out wide. Both should be encouraged to set up their wingers rather than turn into the middle where their energy is sapped by crushing defense.

In Lomax and Ravalowa we have tall players who are good at leaping high for the ball. For me, a plan of targeted high kicks to the right side when within 30m of the line would be a great variation to what is happening now. On our left side, barging straight runs by Suli with a mind to put his winger over the line would be a more dangerous attacking plan.

 

[Saints Forever]

I think a better start would be Bud to halfback hunt to 5/8 bird to edge and Mcguire back to the middle in place of burgess and also to pray.

I like your changes

Bud the organiser
Hunt to run the ball
McGuire’s work rate much higher than Burgess
Bird as edge forward

Lindsay Moss to team selection panel!

 

[denis preston]

Very positive post kit. Let's all be positive this week guys. It might just give us the ammunition to wipe the floor of the Storm. We put up the barriers to stop the invasion so that nothing can get through us.

o...k..... . We really have nothing to lose do we ?

 

[denis preston]

At this point in time, my preferred halves pairing is Bird and Hunt. Once Sullivan becomes match fit, I'd go for Bird and Sullivan with Hunt at 9. Hunt is a game-changer at 9 and Sullivan is very nimble, a good organizer, and has a good kicking game.

With the above in place our focus should return to our middle forwards who have shown a lot of improvement over the last few games however, there is still room for improvement. I'd stick with McGuire with Sims on the edge and a prop rotation of Molo, Burgess, Woods, and Lawrie. I see Lawrie needing a game plan of taking the ball up in tackle one or two and then saving his energy for defense in the middle. The other 3 props know their role and are doing a fairly good job at the moment.

Mbye has surprised me at fullback and is very solid under the high ball. Although he lacks the spark that Sloan provides, overall I think he holds his position at the moment.

Getting our two centers some good early ball with instructions to round hard and straight would improve our attack out wide. Both should be encouraged to set up their wingers rather than turn into the middle where their energy is sapped by crushing defense.

In Lomax and Ravalowa we have tall players who are good at leaping high for the ball. For me, a plan of targeted high kicks to the right side when within 30m of the line would be a great variation to what is happening now. On our left side, barging straight runs by Suli with a mind to put his winger over the line would be a more dangerous attacking plan.

Just got a feeling Poss that Hook just wont change Hunt from 7 and McCulloch from 9 no matter what happens in the rest of the year. Look Hunt has had a great year , his defence and running is great but his kicking is predictable and he does crowd the outside backs. Our offence is just about the worst in the comp. It sticks out like dogs goolies to me that for the sides benefit move Hunt to 9, Sullivan to 7 , Mbye to 6 ( he has been one of our best players ) & Sloan to 1 with Amone on the bench. Wont happen though. Hope the coach doesn't think if he makes no changes then he cant be proven wrong on selections !

 

[Overseas dragon]

Seems to be hook is McGregor 2in the selection department

 

[randomdragon]

Seems to be hook is McGregor 2in the selection department

You’re joking aren’t you? For so long people hated mcgregor for picking a team even when it’s not winning and now that hook changed it up and we’ve won 3 on the trot you want to change a winning formula? Some people will never be happy.

 

[R&WTILLIDIE]

Seems to be hook is McGregor 2in the selection department

What changes to the current team would you like to see mate?

 

[be55]

I doubt Hook will make any changes as all coaches are probably reluctant to change a winning team, but if i was coach, i'd seriously consider bringing Sloan back into the side at fullback. By all reports he killed it in KOE on the weekend and hopefully the defensive side of his game has improved. I think Mbye has been good there but Sloan for mine brings more attacking options. His speed and ball playing out the back of shape could seriously help our attack and that is something we really need. Also i'd probably move Mbye to dummy half. Playing Mbye there is far from ideal but i think he'd be a better option than our current hooker. McCullough is an absolute passenger at this point. He's not "over the hill", he's at the bottom of the hill on the other side.

The Tamou break in the early minutes was directly because he couldn't cover from the inside. And this was 3 minutes into the game. He and Burgess were involved in the Brooks break a couple of minutes later. People like to point to his defence but he really only fills a hole in the line. He has no line speed and gives up massive post contact meters after the initial hit all the time. And his service is average at best. Mbye would also provide more speed and creativity around the ruck.

Burgess is another one. I don't know if he was injured on the weekend but he only had one 13 minute stint to start the game and then wasn't sighted again. He missed 3 tackles in that time and looked a shadow of his former self. I encourage everyone to go back and watch the replay of the last set of 6 he was on the field. He could barely pick his feet up. He looked like he'd played 80 mins not 13. He's nowhere near fit enough for 1st grade, not even close. Seriously Grant and Munster would be having wet dreams about targeting McCullough and Burgess in the defensive line.

We defended our line very well on the weekend but we are still giving up way too much ground in the middle. We need more line speed in defence and we need to try and slow the ruck down as much as we can with numbers in our tackles. Because if Melbourne get a role on , like the Tigers did at times on the weekend, the Melbourne spine will rip us to shreds.

A massive task but i think we all know that. Hoping for an admirable performance...

 

[st.phil]

Rava and Lomax have not seen clean ball since Sloan dropped - I think if the attitude is right (which by all reports it is) you play him otherwise what the exit strategy w Mbye? Sure he's good in D but he does not provide enough overall upside to the team to leave Sloan out IMO. We are not a top 4 side so just scratching wins to finish somewhere between say 7 and 10th - whats the point? It's been 5 weeks - what does Sloan learn against weaker opposition in KOE?

 

[justadragon]

I have said this in previous posts, if sloan had these defensive issues why werent they picked up in the last few games last year, pre-season, trial matches etc, not round 3 of the current comp. So here we are playing the storm, no one expects us to win by any stretch of the imagination, so for me this is a perfect time to throw the young fella's in and see how they go against one of the top sides in the NRL, if you want them to learn or show us something this is it. I would much rather have them exposed to this environment and learn something and maybe show us some performance than change nothing and get walloped anyway. I certainly wouldnt bag them out even if we get done by 70, I would say there you go boys thats the standard we need to achieve to be competitive, we either reach it or we sink.

 

[denis preston]

I have said this in previous posts, if sloan had these defensive issues why werent they picked up in the last few games last year, pre-season, trial matches etc, not round 3 of the current comp. So here we are playing the storm, no one expects us to win by any stretch of the imagination, so for me this is a perfect time to throw the young fella's in and see how they go against one of the top sides in the NRL, if you want them to learn or show us something this is it. I would much rather have them exposed to this environment and learn something and maybe show us some performance than change nothing and get walloped anyway. I certainly wouldnt bag them out even if we get done by 70, I would say there you go boys thats the standard we need to achieve to be competitive, we either reach it or we sink.

A Part of me JD wonders what standard of coaching is in the Illawarra & St George districts. They don't appear to value defence until they get to seniors. By value i mean do very good defensive players make the rep teams or because they don't show out get ignored ?

 

[justadragon]

A Part of me JD wonders what standard of coaching is in the Illawarra & St George districts. They don't appear to value defence until they get to seniors. By value i mean do very good defensive players make the rep teams or because they don't show out get ignored ?

Agree 100% DP, with what I saw of Sloan last Sunday he really didnt have to do too much defence, and he seemed to be organising players quite well. You would have to wonder that in the early stages of his football career as a FB this would still be a required process for him to progress to the seniors, but yeah maybe the focus is on excitement and scoring try's without the defensive requirements.

 

[getsmarty]

NRL late mail: Round 9 v Storm

St George Illawarra coach Anthony Griffin has finalised his 17 ahead of the Dragons' Round 9 clash against the Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park on Sunday, May 8 (2pm).

www.dragons.com.au