If this game doesn't get you excited and pumped nothing will ever please most. A few points iv seen that I want to point out.
A. Not really any team has controlled rapana and leuloea. B. Our cover in defence when they make the breaks were incredible. The guts they showed is really going unnoticed. Seeing the lads go crazy when aitken scores. Enjoy it and stop being so god damn negative. Raiders are a class side and we have beaten them.
Love your enthusiasm mate, really I do, but negativity is also an integral component of self-betterment. The positives you have outlined are founded and I also was particularly pleased to see the lads go off when Aitken scored, it just shows that they want success as much as we all do. But if we only concentrate on the positives and bury our heads in the sand and allow the negatives to fester, then our full potential can never be realised.
I am one who has been critical with some of my comments and I stand by them. I am balanced however and also give credit where it is due, but the negative aspects of our sides performances are fixable, are not insurmountable and a lot of them are kindergarten stuff and that is what makes it even more frustrating and leads to continued negative sentiment.
For example, Why do we continue with adopting "set plays" as our attack strategy (which ostensibly is an attacking structure designed for ball playing fullbacks) rather than adopting a "second phase play" strategy? By persisting with set plays, all as we are doing is frustrating ourselves because we don't have a ball playing fullback, nor do our halves take the line on, so the end result is always going to be to crab across field and be bundled into touch or the play breaks down. What results then is play maker frustration, so we just revert to the good old bomb. (Or in a lot of cases, a very poor bomb because it was not part of the script and no one is ready for it)
There's not too many more lethal weapons in the NRL than Duges in broken play, so why not send our forwards up in numbers, create defence uncertainty and have Duges following looking for an offload? And have our backrowers stand wide and run at gaps with Duges trailing them looking for the offload instead of using our backrowers as battering rams? I love Duges, but he's not a ball playing full back, but no dramas, just play to his strengths for god sake. It's coaching 101.
And I am frustrated for Widdop. By giving him the captaincy and an ineffective game plan to administer, we have basically taken away any creative ability he possesses. He is now expected to deliver a game plan that is flawed, ensure his team follows the same flawed game plan, play what he sees but don't deviate from the flawed game plan or he will be castigated (confusing huh?), when the game plan is obviously failing he sees it as his responsibility to make something happen and at the same time has to stick within the same flawed game plan or be castigated (even more confusing for him) and the end result of this is frustration, poor decisions and a lack of attention to detail which leads to a poor pass or a mistimed bomb or kicking down the fullbacks throat.....the list goes on. I have seen what Widdop is capable of over the years and it is a lot more than he is showing currently and I believe the captaincy is having a huge impact on that. I suspect a skilled coach would also see that and make the necessary changes, but a rookie coach, maybe even a stubborn coach, would not make the same assessment.
There are many other examples of the Dragons current structure that are less than ideal, but to pretend they are not real so as we are not seen as ?negative? is actually an insult to people who think like me. I have the same passion for the Dragons as you do and I am as entitled as you to say my piece even if it offends some. I was extremely happy to get 2 points last night, saw some positive things that I hope we build on, I lol?d at Sticky?s face at the end of the game and as I have been for 10 rounds, I was encouraged that our team tried their guts out to the very end.
I see the positives, but I also see we have deficiencies and the biggest one is a rookie coach that needs massive amounts of help. If that is being negative, then guilty as charged and proud of it.
