Souths r25.

[Victoire]

Yikes

 

[Anon]

That is the perfect example of the roller coaster we have chosen. Congratulations though, you must be pumped!

Thanks jay mac yes I am. I'm sure he/she will become a dragons fan too so he/she can ride the roller coaster Dragons fans live on.

 

[Illusion]

Just on last night's game , what I'm about to say is something I have observed while Flanno has become coach ......... Souths players Grey the fullback the baby faced 5/8 Ward if we had them would the coach have played them ...... I say no , not the sort of players that Flanno likes ....... He would rather big body plodders with no speed that cart the ball up ....... As for Buck playing in the centre at the moment because he has no choice ........ The young winger that we have lost to the Raiders another not so big player but had speed and was strong , but not a Flanno sort of player ........ For me it's a worry we need some fast elusive players that can turn a game ....... Not a team full of big plodders ....... He needs to realise the game has changed from when he won a Grand Final with the sharks ......... Anyway time will tell .........

 

[Parko1310]

Lots to say, but I'll keep it somewhat short. The last month has shown that there's something there that we're building.. last night we went away from that, and maybe that was a mix of fatigue, injuries, etc. I'm disappointed and frustrated at what they tossed up, I want to see effort every week at the very least. But the culprits I saw that weren't putting in are the ones who won't be here for much longer. I'm thinking (and hoping) this is a blip on the radar.

On the refereeing, we are getting blatant howlers going against us literally every single week. Name one other side this is happening to. Someone from our front office needs to go in all guns blazing because whether people want to admit it or not, little moments are huge in rugby league and can turn the tide of an entire game. For instance, Gray 'tackled without the ball' when he wasn't at all piggback's them up the field in a game that had been mostly set for set to that point. Johnston try just before half time gets them 16 up rather than 12, and that shifts the losing side's mentality and spirit significantly. There seriously does need to be something done about the NRL's referees. You'd like to think it's just incompetence.. I'm not so sure it is. They're an absolute disgrace and there needs to be major overhaul in that department

 

[Flinstone]

Very disappointing game, wasn't expecting that scoreline.
Looked similar to games earlier in the season, struggle to get out of our own half all game which leads to kicking from inside our half, so not much chance for kick pressure, very slow kick chase. The only time someone chased we get penalised.
We tried to go set for set but kept losing ground and cracked first through unforced errors.
Bunnies went 60-65min without making an error, they gave us nothing.
Again bulls#*t refereeing decisions, felt like ref helped the Bunnies where he could.
Really didn't have any good field position to attack, there was no attack, they never looked like scoring.

 

[Flinstone]

Lots to say, but I'll keep it somewhat short. The last month has shown that there's something there that we're building.. last night we went away from that, and maybe that was a mix of fatigue, injuries, etc. I'm disappointed and frustrated at what they tossed up, I want to see effort every week at the very least. But the culprits I saw that weren't putting in are the ones who won't be here for much longer. I'm thinking (and hoping) this is a blip on the radar.

On the refereeing, we are getting blatant howlers going against us literally every single week. Name one other side this is happening to. Someone from our front office needs to go in all guns blazing because whether people want to admit it or not, little moments are huge in rugby league and can turn the tide of an entire game. For instance, Gray 'tackled without the ball' when he wasn't at all piggback's them up the field in a game that had been mostly set for set to that point. Johnston try just before half time gets them 16 up rather than 12, and that shifts the losing side's mentality and spirit significantly. There seriously does need to be something done about the NRL's referees. You'd like to think it's just incompetence.. I'm not so sure it is. They're an absolute disgrace and there needs to be major overhaul in that department

They really can change the game.
It's truly unbelievable how watching live we see the pass is clearly forward, commentators see it, ref was in good position to see it yet awards the try, did he even take a second to check with the touch judge. It's ridiculous.
Professional foul everyday of the week, nah ref doesn't think so.
I also don't know why the bunker can't rule on a forward pass on reviewing a try, they review everything else, they have enough cameras and tech to check it.

 

[Anon]

On the refereeing, we are getting blatant howlers going against us literally every single week. Name one other side this is happening to.

Teams like the Storm you would have to go back years for them to have had the number of bullshit calls we've been on the end of just in the last 4-6 weeks.

 

[Anon]

They really can change the game.
It's truly unbelievable how watching live we see the pass is clearly forward, commentators see it, ref was in good position to see it yet awards the try, did he even take a second to check with the touch judge. It's ridiculous.

Sharpe was a good two metres behind the play and so not in position to do her job properly, but as we are not one of the favoured sides neither she or Sutton will be held accountable.

 

[hewi]

Guler, the new Hunt, 45 minutes 4 runs and 36 meters

 

[hewi]

Sharpe was a good two metres behind the play and so not in position to do her job properly, but as we are not one of the favoured sides neither she or Sutton will be held accountable.

I might get stones thrown at me but Sharpe is a diversity hire. Not up to it and the NRL are to scared to demote her.

 

[This Year?]

I'm more pissed off over the reffing than our insipid performance. How can so many calls be blatantly wrong so often? Why are we getting treated like this?

 

[Gourley's Socks]

I don't care whether the refs are male, female, left-handed, right-handed or whatever but I do think this raises an interesting point. As the athleticism of the game has sky-rocketed, the demands on the speed and stamina of the refs also needs to increase.

There's a particular bloke I've seen - don't know his name and no matter how hard Abdo and PVL try to convince me the refs are the real stars of "our" game I'm not going to bother learning - who's just a tad on the pudgy side and seems to be pouring sweat before the fullback's caught the kick-off. It would be ridiculous to expect the refs to be the same genetic freaks as the players but surely there must be some minimum standards otherwise it would be very difficult for them to do their job effectively.

By fielding the slowest team possible, Flanno's doing his part to help but there's only so much one man can do.

 

[since77]

I might get stones thrown at me but Sharpe is a diversity hire. Not up to it and the NRL are to scared to demote her.

I'd like to think she originally earned her spot but regardless of her gender (which shouldn't come in to it at all - if she's good enough she deserves the job) but she's always been dead set out of her depth at NRL level - both as a ref and as a touch judge.
Just like some players are always going to be NSW cup players, some referees are just a level or 2 below NRL quality.
As for the officiating in general - I only watched the first half but geez we get some unforgivably bad calls. And for a team that's struggling sometimes that's the straw that breaks the camel's back.
The KF "tackling without the ball" was f&*king disgusting. And piggybacked Souths down the field when we should have actually had the ball on South's try line.
The forward pass. F*&king terrible. Surely the bunker can adjudicate on the obvious ones. Most fans will grudgingly accept line ball calls but the howlers - which we cop a boat load of - the howlers are unacceptable.
There were also a few slowing down of the ruck incidents in that first twenty minute arm wrestle that a Dragons jersey is never going to be allowed to get a six again for.

 

[chowiesplatterpoo2]

Guler, the new Hunt, 45 minutes 4 runs and 36 meters

Ue

Guler, the new Hunt, 45 minutes 4 runs and 36 meters

Yep, he can get f**ked... He started the rot last night and kept feeding it throughout the game.

 

[St Tangles]

I don't know why posters get upset when people make comments when we get towled up

Most of us gain a bit of positivty as the days pass

We all ride the same roller-coaster

 

[JubileeJeffro]

Young LKT is going to get himself knocked out soon with this defensive technique.. bad miss on that Munro try..head behind the body not in front young man. I have seen him do this a few times recently.

 

[Inisai Toga]

This generation of players tacking technique is poor. Haven’t learnt it on the way up due to poor coaching and poor commentary beliefs that hip ticking is dangerous and that the defences is sole job is slowing down the player with the ball.

 

[Slippery Morris]

What a pathetic display but realistically it was one of the worst lineups Saints fielded all year due to injury. Quite a few of these players were only there due to injury and nothing else. It just proves that guys like Lawrie, BMM, Leulia, RFM and Guler are not up to it. BMM and RFM will not be around but Lawrie and Guler should only be in Cup next season and that is it until their contracts are up. Halangahu and LKT are in their first season so they should not get bagged as they should be given more time to improve.

Souths line up was just as weak but they have far better back up players as we saw than Saints.

What caught my eye is Ashton Ward was probably the best half on the field yet not good enough for Saints. He was outstanding and how the hell was he let go by the Saints? Flanno cleared out all the decent halves especially Bud and Ward, brought in Illias who was a 50/50 chance of succeeding after a terrible injury which made it an obvious choice for his son to play the position he wants to if Illias failed. KFlanno is simply not a halfback. Flanno was better off putting Illias at 7 and KFlanno at lock if he has to play him. I think KFlanno may be a good lock as his defense is quite good and may add more value there. LKT is in his first season and I feel will only get better, but this is KFlanno's 4th or 5th season. Saints were better of bringing in Chad Townsend than Illias so he can at least teach the halves how to game manage and kick. Or even bring in Johns or Cronk as consultants for a few weeks to help the halves learn their trade.

The referring is so bad especially against 1 NRL team that it is now becoming embarrassing for the NRL as we here the same things from commentators every game and that is "Saints were hard done by". I hear that every week. Souths had a wall of 3 players surrounding their fullback, no penalty. KFlanno tackles grey with perfect timing and is penalised, Johnson scores off a blatant forward pass and Ward holds onto a players leg for an obvious professional foul and it's only a penalty? Saints would not have won this game regardless, but they would not have lost 40-0 that is for sure. Because of the result and score, this will get swept under the carpet. Funny how Valandy's is quick to comment on any other small things he sees wrong with the game but the blatant bias against Saints from refs he is ok with. The game is becoming a joke.

2 more weeks of bad calls to look forward to. Hopefully in the offseason the Saints demand the NRL explain why they are so poorly officiated. They have a ton of examples with live commentary to back it.

 

[shiloh dc]

I might get stones thrown at me but Sharpe is a diversity hire. Not up to it and the NRL are to scared to demote her.

Blunt assessment on Sharpe - she doesn't cut the mustard.

 

[Dragonslayer]

Not going to paper over the extent of the loss, as I feel we played to the best of our ability last night.

We've had a month of pretty intense football, culminating in the game last Friday in NZ in a heartbreaking loss.

They looked mentally and physically fatigued after 20 mins last night. Only Truck, Feagai and to a lesser extent Buck and LPT looked energized and it's not rocket science to figure out why.

We'll have some troops back next week, so hopefully we won't see some of the team that represented us last night.

Lastly, young JH is going to be one he'll of a football player.