Opinion St George Illawarra enigma

[James Rick]

In my opinion the Dragons are an enigma and last year was a perfect example of it they had the wood over Storm and Broncos being the only team to go undefeated against both, while losing to South Sydney, Parramatta, New Zealand, Canterbury-Bankstown in close games they probably should have won. What are your thoughts on the Dragons?

 

[Dogs Of War]

They are playing Flanno Snr footy. It's tough and niggly. If they get teams forced to play their game they hang in there and give themselves a punchers chance. I'm not sure they have the talent in their ranks to do much more than aim for the bottom of the eight though. You see that in how they lost loads of close games, cause they just don't have the cattle to put themselves over the edge in those situations.

 

[Vic Mackey]

They are playing Flanno Snr footy. It's tough and niggly. If they get teams forced to play their game they hang in there and give themselves a punchers chance. I'm not sure they have the talent in their ranks to do much more than aim for the bottom of the eight though. You see that in how they lost loads of close games, cause they just don't have the cattle to put themselves over the edge in those situations.

This sums them up. They generally put in, are strong and fit but lack class and dont have a single 'really good' player. Teams that have a class player or two in important positions can play poorly and win games. Teams like Saints have be the better team every single time and sometimes that still wont be enough. From memory the Storm and Brisbane both had some pretty key outs (Jarome Hughes and Reec Walsh for starters) which brought them into it. I also really rate Ryan Carr the assistant that they just lost.

 

[Bazal]

In my opinion we should have an opinion thread about every club started by alts.

 

[Mother Nature's Son]

In my opinion the Dragons are an enigma and last year was a perfect example of it they had the wood over Storm and Broncos being the only team to go undefeated against both, while losing to South Sydney, Parramatta, New Zealand, Canterbury-Bankstown in close games they probably should have won. What are your thoughts on the Dragons?

I don`t buy this argument that we don`t have the talent: Holmes, Suli, yes, Sloan, even on the wing, Leilua, Gutherson, Liddle, Cook, and our many talented young forwards who will only be better this year.
What we do lack is a first-rate halves pairing, hopefully Atkinson will solve part of this, but we`re going to need two to unlock the talent we have in our team.

 

[Dogs Of War]

I don`t buy this argument that we don`t have the talent: Holmes, Suli, yes, Sloan, even on the wing, Leilua, Gutherson, Liddle, Cook, and our many talented young forwards who will only be better this year.
What we do lack is a first-rate halves pairing, hopefully Atkinson will solve part of this, but we`re going to need two to unlock the talent we have in our team.

Nearly all of those guys their glory days which are behind them and they just ain't those guys anymore. Yeah for a game they can look good, but week to week it's not there. While guys like Suli were never all that. And Sloan is Sloan, fast but way too prone to making mistakes or being out of position in defence. It's a similar problem at Souths, the key guys are just old, and you can't expect the same things they did 3yrs ago from them.

 

[kurt faulk]

.

Flanagan is allergic to fast young backs.

The trash he put on the field last season in the backline was criminal. If Sloan wasn't on the wing they had nobody that could score a try. Teach him how to defend properly, that's Flanagan's job.

Get some fast players in the backline.

.

 

[Vic Mackey]

I don`t buy this argument that we don`t have the talent: Holmes, Suli, yes, Sloan, even on the wing, Leilua, Gutherson, Liddle, Cook, and our many talented young forwards who will only be better this year.
What we do lack is a first-rate halves pairing, hopefully Atkinson will solve part of this, but we`re going to need two to unlock the talent we have in our team.

Honestly, apart from Holmes the rest dont make 90% of the sides in the NRL

 

[This Year?]

In my opinion the Dragons are the manifestation of my mental illness and hair loss.

 

[Valheru]

Dragons are in a real bad spot IMO. Should be one of the blue bloods of the competition and up until around 2011 they were exactly that.

Now they can't pull a crowd with an aging fanbase and for whatever reason the 09-11 period didn't result in a new generation of fans like it did with other premiership winners.

It also doesn't seem like anyone of value wants to go there either.

 

[Dogs Of War]

Dragons are in a real bad spot IMO. Should be one of the blue bloods of the competition and up until around 2011 they were exactly that.

Now they can't pull a crowd with an aging fanbase and for whatever reason the 09-11 period didn't result in a new generation of fans like it did with other premiership winners.

It also doesn't seem like anyone of value wants to go there either.

I think the crappy facilities don't help. The new gen don't want antiquated facilities, especially those with families. They really need at least on the Sydney side, to move to one of the better grounds for most of the Sydney games, while having a return to Kogarah once a year like the Bulldogs do with Belmore.

 

[i0Nic]

The Saints are fixing some things up, the new COE in Wollongong will centralise training, ops and front of house to one modern location, rather than two outdated centres. This will attract and retain good athletes. They will essentially be a Wollongong based club with some home games in Sydney. This will further attract players who want that coastal lifestyle and live in gerrigong or bulli with their families without having to do regular Sydney commutes just for training.

The focus on recruitment with a dedicated and good recruitment manager on board will help and has helped already as evidenced by the signing of KK.

They are also putting more emphasis on marketing specifically digital marketing / socials to appeal to younger audiences and really connect better with fans.

I’m sure there are more things they are doing that I’m not aware of. But one thing the do need to sort out is the home stadium situation.

They need to play more games at win but need to push the government for an upgrade to incentivise that decision. If the government can commit to a 200-300m upgrade of WIN and in return the Saints play 8 games a year there that would be a win. Then they should play 3 games at Allianz (roosters, souths, dogs) and 1 at Kogarah (heritage round: titans). They should be aiming for sellouts for all Sydney games., and a 15-20k average for win stadium games. This would push us comfortably over a 20k average.

Hopefully all this will result in better on field performances with regular finals appearances, re-engage fans and attract new fans getting our average crowds up around 20k.

 

[Dogs Of War]

The Saints are fixing some things up, the new COE in Wollongong will centralise training, ops and front of house to one modern location, rather than two outdated centres. This will attract and retain good athletes. They will essentially be a Wollongong based club with some home games in Sydney. This will further attract players who want that coastal lifestyle and live in gerrigong or bulli with their families without having to do regular Sydney commutes just for training.

The focus on recruitment with a dedicated and good recruitment manager on board will help and has helped already as evidenced by the signing of KK.

They are also putting more emphasis on marketing specifically digital marketing / socials to appeal to younger audiences and really connect better with fans.

I’m sure there are more things they are doing that I’m not aware of. But one thing the do need to sort out is the home stadium situation.

They need to play more games at win but need to push the government for an upgrade to incentivise that decision. If the government can commit to a 200-300m upgrade of WIN and in return the Saints play 8 games a year there that would be a win. Then they should play 3 games at Allianz (roosters, souths, dogs) and 1 at Kogarah (heritage round: titans).

Hopefully all this will result in better on field performances with regular finals appearances, re-engage fans and attract new fans getting our average crowds up around 20k.

I thought they split training between the two sites because it used to be only Wollongong but the players who wanted to live in Sydney would just travel down to the gong. So to make it fairer they split between the two sites so that all players had to experience a bit of travel. And this is something Flanno Snr put in when he took over. I remember reading an article on it back then.

EDIT: https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...g/news-story/1689f0ba538e1f7ed91c62f7fcc35340

As for your 8 games at Win. The Gong support has never been that strong, yeah it outdraws Kogarah, but it's not like it's anything to write home about compared to other Sydney clubs. If anything I'd have 4-5 at the Gong, the rest in Sydney at big stadiums other than the heritage game at Kogarah.

 

[Diesel]

More helicopter flights

 

[Wb1234]

Lost a lot of games they could’ve : should’ve won

If Atkinson goes good at seven they can make the 8

 

[Captain Apollo]

More helicopter flights

 

[gerg]

In my opinion we should have an opinion thread about every club started by alts.

What about a (insert team name) is shit, and a separate (insert team name) is awesome thread and we could alternate between the two depending on the weekends results?

 

[bad boy bubby]

Any other team in the NRL have $1.6M invested I their Centre's?
That's just Cap Suicide right there unless it's G.I and Latrell both included.
Holmes and Suli aren't that calibre.

 

[Bazal]

What about a (insert team name) is shit, and a separate (insert team name) is awesome thread and we could alternate between the two depending on the weekends results?

You mean the Parramatta Forum?

But for everyone, not just the intellectually challenged

 

[RedVee]

I thought they split training between the two sites because it used to be only Wollongong but the players who wanted to live in Sydney would just travel down to the gong. So to make it fairer they split between the two sites so that all players had to experience a bit of travel. And this is something Flanno Snr put in when he took over. I remember reading an article on it back then.

EDIT: https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...g/news-story/1689f0ba538e1f7ed91c62f7fcc35340

As for your 8 games at Win. The Gong support has never been that strong, yeah it outdraws Kogarah, but it's not like it's anything to write home about compared to other Sydney clubs. If anything I'd have 4-5 at the Gong, the rest in Sydney at big stadiums other than the heritage game at Kogarah.

1 training run a week at Kogarah since Flanno took over.
Plus some Footy staff based in the Leagues Club.