Trials 2021

[Forbes Creek Dragons]

Anyone know why Poasa didn't get a run tonight or last week ?

Secret weapon ?

He must have played more than 12 games I assume

 

[George Sancti]

In both trial games the Dragons started well and were overrun later in the game which indicates that their condition may be below that of the opposition. Whilst I want to see us win every contest, I am not prepared to concede that we will have a poor season at this stage. Player endurance will improve as will the outside backs' positional play. The one player that I am disappointed with is Jackson Ford. I felt at this level he would be a standout. Perhaps he is recovering from injury?

 

[Incorrect]

It will be interesting to see who Hook picks to cover hooker. I doubt Macca will be able to play 80 straight up.

Billy Britain's service from dummy half is awful... He engaged the markers well enough this evening but yeah, his passing from the floor is ordinary for a specialist hooker

 

[Dragonslayer]

The All Stars game for Kerr and Fui has now become a bit more important.

The CS wont have the part-timers (maybe) and most of the expected rd1 squad will play, minutes for each is questionable.

 

[Forbes Creek Dragons]

H

Billy Britain's service from dummy half is awful... He engaged the markers well enough this evening but yeah, his passing from the floor is ordinary for a specialist hooker

He has barely played of late to be fair and he’s been injured so probably hasn’t trained much either. I’ll cut him some slack, usually his service is pretty good I’m sure it will improve next week. It’s more his defence and size that worries me.

 

[thebigredv]

Trial or not, that defence is not pretty.

 

[redVinme]

Our forward depth is awful. We need some big bodies yet we never really seem to chase Polynesian players though they make up such a significant % of nrl players. Just seems weird to me.

Thought hunt was good again. Sullivan and amone have decent first contact but get bumped off a bit. CC will seem them grow quickly I think. Both extremely likely long-term. Alvaro looked alright again and im still not on the blacker bus.

Lomax and Williame had f all at this level and our discipline, awful to the point of embarrassing.

Worst of all was Ford. Cmon mate you gotta show a lot more than that. You have the chance to cement a first grade spot and you are getting bunted by wingers.

 

[thebigredv]

Our forward depth is awful. We need some big bodies yet we never really seem to chase Polynesian players though they make up such a significant % of nrl players. Just seems weird to me.\.

100%. Actually the inaction to recruit some forwards, props in particular is unacceptable and we all know how it positions us for the upcoming season.

 

[Dragonsteve2]

Will some posters finally work out they have pumped up far too many tyres way to early and now cut them some slack as they develop or will the posters concerned just make these kids they have over inflated their new whipping boys?

A lot to be liked in our younger players and a hell of a lot to be done to get them remotely near 1st grade standard so opinions / criticisms need to be tempered with reality and not on the basis what was mistakenly thought / hoped for.

OT, you have made some valid points here and in a later post. For me, I do hope posters grasp that all players will be working and trying very hard and do not make personally derogatory remarks. In a similar way I would like to see Dragons fans sticking together and recognising that we are just emerging from a nightmare. A nightmare beginning with an inexperienced coach followed by those long years with the incompetent Mary whose ego led him to think he was the latest Supercoach.

Having said that, similar to many on here, I did not find much to like about this evening's trial. Having said that we need to recognise that whenever one team dominates possession the game usually becomes lopsided. Comments on players' fitness should take note of this imbalance. Why were there so many "six to go" calls spread across three refs and so few calls against the Eels? Perhaps holding down has been part of a plan to improve the poor defensive record of late. If so, it certainly backfired tonight.

Handling tonight was better in the first half than last week. The first 6-7 minutes of the 2nd half however was disastrous.

Nice to see Bird and McCullough get through unscathed. Ellis looks solid like last year, Alvaro should add something to the pack, Hunt looks useful. As OT and others have commented Wishart looks good and Blacker was better. Does anyone know the contract status of Wishart?

At least we should expect the new coaching staff will be working hard to arrest problems that emerge rather than just getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.

 

[BIG RIG]

Last 2 trials have been really worrying considering these trials for many clubs are for
‘ depth ‘ players - most of the guys playing for St George are a genuine shot of playing first grade in RD 1 and other than Jayden Sullivan none of them played well

our forward depth is our biggest problem

Tyran Wishart will be handy in the future whilst Amone and Sloan are good juniors coming through

and josh Coric is a solid player aswell - too bad he got the head knock tonight

Good to see Jack Bird get through unscathed looks like he will centre this yr

 

[mickeylane]

about to throw the kitchen sink at Mcguire on last-ditch effort!

 

[mickeylane]

Are the below additional bodies enough to bring us up to the level of a top 8 competing team?
Big worries in the back row...that's the problem area IMO

Dufty
Rav
Lomax
Norman
Hunt

Kerr
Vaughan
Poasa
Fuimaono
Merrin
Lawrie

Special Mentions
McCulloch (better for the run)
Bird (Better for the run and must play lock)

 

[kit66]

I just had a chance to watch the first 25 minutes or so that I missed earlier and I gotta say I thought we went OK, 100 times better than in the rest of the game ( or after McCullough went off ). I also heard in the commentary that Parra had 3 ring-ins ( full timers from last year - i.e. more that 12 games ) because of some injuries - Papalii being the most obvious.
While we didn't dominate we were still competitive and showed plenty of good signs. Our defence was a marked improvement on last weak. The young outside backs were all keen and doing good things - maybe even too much in taking hit ups that our forwards should have taken. Amone and Bud ( Sullivan's nickname is Bud ) showed some great defence and while Bud's kicking game could use some work he'd have Hunt to share that with if they teamed up. Jaiyden Hunt is looking to be a good buy, I think he might make the 30 if he goes well in the CS. Ramsey had some good touches early, McC looked fairly sharp and the J Bird got through unscathed. Alvaro, Sims and even Ellis were good in the first 20 minutes too.

Then, McC goes off and BB comes on and it goes downhill fast.
I'm surprised by Fords sudden drop in form, most peculiar, hope he comes good soon.
Have to say the 6 agains were bullsh*t, we weren't holding down any longer than Parra except once or twice. The 3 in a row was a joke. It's a stupid rule anyway and open to abuse by overzealous refs ( aren't they all ), like tonight for example. They're supposed to call 6 Again instead of blowing a penalty - no-one told them to change the interpretation of the hold down rule, a dominant tackle is still a dominant tackle for example.

Anyway I feel a lot better after watching that first 20 minutes. Can't wait for next week.

 

[kit66]

He must have played more than 12 games I assume

So he did, 15 according to his profile. No worries, we'll see him next week I'm sure.

 

[boardlumps62]

I just had a chance to watch the first 25 minutes or so that I missed earlier and I gotta say I thought we went OK, 100 times better than in the rest of the game ( or after McCullough went off ). I also heard in the commentary that Parra had 3 ring-ins ( full timers from last year - i.e. more that 12 games ) because of some injuries - Papalii being the most obvious.
While we didn't dominate we were still competitive and showed plenty of good signs. Our defence was a marked improvement on last weak. The young outside backs were all keen and doing good things - maybe even too much in taking hit ups that our forwards should have taken. Amone and Bud ( Sullivan's nickname is Bud ) showed some great defence and while Bud's kicking game could use some work he'd have Hunt to share that with if they teamed up. Jaiyden Hunt is looking to be a good buy, I think he might make the 30 if he goes well in the CS. Ramsey had some good touches early, McC looked fairly sharp and the J Bird got through unscathed. Alvaro, Sims and even Ellis were good in the first 20 minutes too.

Then, McC goes off and BB comes on and it goes downhill fast.
I'm surprised by Fords sudden drop in form, most peculiar, hope he comes good soon.
Have to say the 6 agains were bullsh*t, we weren't holding down any longer than Parra except once or twice. The 3 in a row was a joke. It's a stupid rule anyway and open to abuse by overzealous refs ( aren't they all ), like tonight for example. They're supposed to call 6 Again instead of blowing a penalty - no-one told them to change the interpretation of the hold down rule, a dominant tackle is still a dominant tackle for example.

Anyway I feel a lot better after watching that first 20 minutes. Can't wait for next week.

Didn't like 6 again last year so what will be different. The refs will have their favorites. If we don't have it it becomes a wrestling match. But that's preferred over blowout scoreline. What we have then is a game of Touch which is a completely different game. So we either get up quick off the tackle and get fit or we get the Wooden Spoon. Simple

 

[kit66]

Didn't like 6 again last year so what will be different. The refs will have their favorites. If we don't have it it becomes a wrestling match. But that's preferred over blowout scoreline. What we have then is a game of Touch which is a completely different game. So we either get up quick off the tackle and get fit or we get the Wooden Spoon. Simple

I agree. As long as they enforce that rule the same as last year and not change the interpretation of it like the ref did tonight. Most tackles last year were around the 3 to 4 second mark with the majority closer to 3 - 3.5 which worked well. These refs tonight were going out of there way to speed things up beyond the norm and were being one-eyed about it as well. 3 or 4 6 Agains in the one set is ludicrous - if it gets to that point either the refs out of line or a penalty or even the bin should come into play.

Edit : hopefully tonight was an aberration - from both the refs and from our team as last year we were the least penalized by the 6 again rule.

On a side note does your username allude to a bit of kneeboarding at some point ?

 

[getsmarty]

PRE-SEASON TRIALS


Dragons downed by Eels in shortened trial
Author
Edward Tannous Dragons junior reporter
Timestamp
Thu 18 Feb 2021, 08:38 PM
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St George Illawarra have suffered their second-straight pre-season trial defeat following their 28-6 loss to the Parramatta Eels.

Much like last week, the Red V started the game positively but lost control in the second half of the game on Thursday night.

The trial would be called off with 12 minutes remaining as a result of the Dragons only having 12 players available by that point of the game.

There were positives though as the Dragons welcomed the return of Jack Bird and experienced hooker Andrew McCullough debuted.

It would be Bird who would create the first scoring opportunity of the game after forcing an Eels knock-on before passing the ball on to Matthew Feagai.

Feagai's 65-metre dash would eventually lead to twin brother Max scoring on the next play in the opposite corner come the 20th minute.

It didn't take long for the Eels to crawl back as their left edge attack had the better of the Dragons defence, with Tom Opacic crossing the line from a sharp ball from Will Smith in the 30th minute

A knock on by Matthew Feagai led to a Will Smith try for Parramatta soon after, as the Eels headed into the break up by four points.

The Dragons started the second half poorly, conceding two tries from two scrums in the opening five minutes of the second half courtesy of Will Penisini and Oregon Kaufusi.

Solomone Naiduki's try in the 66th minute would prove the final scoring play of the game, with the game called off soon after


https://www.dragons.com.au/news/2021/02/18/dragons-downed-by-eels-in-shortened-trial/

 

[getsmarty]

Match highlights: Pre-season trial v Eels
The Dragons and Eels face off in week two of NRL Trials

https://www.dragons.com.au/news/2021/02/18/match-highlights-pre-season-trial-v-eels/

 

[Dragons154]

I only watched the first 20
But..
It’s a Trial ffs...
at worst it shows us that our depth is rubbish, 90% of the players haven’t played a game in over a year due to the whole COVID shit shutting down the lower grades, which will be pretty clear for all teams come origin time.

positives.

Sullivan has a big future.

Jack Bird looks bloody fit, had a few nice touches and will secure the left centre position pretty early on in the season I’d imagine.

AM looked to be very controlled considering he literally just walked into the club.

Jayden hunt and Alvaro looked strong.

negatives.

Ramsey is not a full back

Ford’s defence is dreadful

our depth is abit scary

 

[st.phil]

Why don’t we sign poly players ? Men against boys out there