Who is/isn't finals bound.

[tiger_nick]

actually after looking at the panthers run home they will do very very well to make the 8, i think that throws the tigers and warriors back in the mix

 

[Timbo]

Carney has been good but our great wins have come off the back of Campese, Tongue, Monaghan and Milne.

Herbert will be fine for us. He's been talked about as a first grader for years.

 

[Rovelli]

28 and a (relatively) good +/- will get you there.

In our (the Warriors) case, we will need 30 points to make sure of it. That means we have to win 5 of our last 7
Home - Storm, Broncos, Sharks, Panthers (all top 8 teams)
Away - Rabbits, Dragons, Eels

Keep in mind, the Warriors are 8-2 against teams outside the 8 and 0-7 against teams in the 8.

So we're gonna have to buck the trend to get there, but our draw isn't as bad as it sounds.

 

[Gaba]

I have never once said we don't have an easy draw, just said it is ironic that you would say this when the Dragons have played Storm, Titans, Broncos with depleted teams.

However we do play the Storm twice, Manly twice, Knights twice on the road basically and your lot twice, so it isn't easy the whole season. The first time we played the Bulldogs they were about even favourites with us, yet we smashed them, second time we were missing 7 players yet still won. Souths were favourites to beat us in round 1 because of their good team on paper and good signs in the pre season, yet we still won comfortably. The Warriors were yet to lose at home when we played them in Auckland so that was by no means an easy task plus we were missing 3 starters and Origin players backing up.

When you say 'understrength dragons' how bad was it? I remember Cooper was out, who else was? If it was just him then we can make the point that Minichiello was out also.

You can only beat who you are playing, so unless you are trying to sugest the NRL gave us an easy schedule deliberately?

The dragons beaten a full strength titans and also were about the same when played titans again they had 3 the dragons had 2 so similar

That was the first time the dragons ever played a bronco team which wasnt full strength , it ws the broncos who always been full strength agasint depleted dragons and the dragons still beat a full strength broncos.I will give you the melbourne game which was the only game in doubt for a dragons win if the storm was full strength,

The game against the broncos the dragons would have probably won no matter broncos team was up against them, same with the goldcoast. The only game was in doubt was the storm


So those who say the dragons had an easier draw look foolish now

 

[Johns Magic]

So those who say the dragons had an easier draw look foolish now

No, you do

 

[mxlegend99]

So those who say the dragons had an easier draw look foolish now

What a load of crap.

They had a period of about 6 or 7 weeks where the draw couldn't have possibly been any kinder to them, unless they had gotten byes instead of actual matches.

Storm without Origin players
Manly at near full strength. Good win here.
Souths when they sucked
Broncos without Origin players
BYW
Panthers without Petero and injured players
Titans who were racking up injuries and hitting poor form
Knights with a long injury list

They might have won all those games against full strength teams. But they didn't. They had a luck of luck in that run, and they made the most of it. The only win which gives them any credit is the one over Manly.

 

[gregstar]

Storm without Origin players

true

Manly at near full strength. Good win here.

true

Souths when they sucked

how's that a drama?

Broncos without Origin players

true

BYW

assume you meant bye - true

Panthers without Petero and injured players

how's that a drama - were the people who designated this game to know what injuries would take a toll?

Titans who were racking up injuries and hitting poor form

same again - who'd know?

Knights with a long injury list

and again - how were people expected to know what injuries would be effecting which teams?

They might have won all those games against full strength teams. But they didn't. They had a luck of luck in that run, and they made the most of it. The only win which gives them any credit is the one over Manly.

true - except you can only beat what's in front of you. beating a side which is depleted by injury is not a lucky draw.

furthermore mate, we've had our fair share of injuries & rep reduced teams since '00.

& further to that we've performed extraordinarily well under such circumstances. it's called depth - if clubs can't cope - stiff sh*t.

 

[mxlegend99]

My point had nothing to do with the draw being purposely drawn that way... the NRL wasn't to know that those teams would be hit with injury/poor form to help the Dragons. The point is that it was a very easy run.... and Gaba suggested that it wasn't.

I know the Dragons can't help that the likes of the Titans and Panthers were racking up an injury toll, while the likes of the Souths were just terrible. They got a lucky draw and made the most of it. Some teams (ie. Eels) struggle to take advantage of easy runs. I think my Panthers have lost a few games which should have been easy to win.

 

[petetheileet]

What a load of crap.

They had a period of about 6 or 7 weeks where the draw couldn't have possibly been any kinder to them, unless they had gotten byes instead of actual matches.

Storm without Origin players
Manly at near full strength. Good win here.
Souths when they sucked
Broncos without Origin players
BYW
Panthers without Petero and injured players
Titans who were racking up injuries and hitting poor form
Knights with a long injury list

They might have won all those games against full strength teams. But they didn't. They had a luck of luck in that run, and they made the most of it. The only win which gives them any credit is the one over Manly.

Broncos playing origin were Boyd, Thiaday and Hunt (the replacemt for him was the best bronco on the park that day)

Origin players out for Saints were Cooper and Gaz..

Id say the players missing due to origin had little to do with the smashing we gave them.

Petero played u f**kn genius! lol the long injury list was what???

Priddis
Puletua (both obvious in form superstars!!!)

Yeah seems pretty long.... about as long as ur wang


Titans missed Bailey we missed Creagh
Titans missed Prince we missed Gasnier
Titans missed Lafranchi we missed Cooper

Matched played when Titans were undefeated at skilled park

Newcaste missed Buderues we missed Gasnier
Newcastle missed Cross we missed Creagh
Newcastle were missing sum1 else...i cant remember, we missed Cooper

Felt like it was about 3 degrees that night at Energy Australia stadium.

score was what 24 nil with 20 to go

In summary i too agree we were lucky to be handed all of these wins without even showing up...we deserve to have loast all of them and every other team has been treated unfairly over the last 5 years because the dragons have had the least amount of players playing origin and are only in the top 8 for these reasons,

It had nothing to do with the close losses we had leading up to this run and the fact we smashed the roosters when they were on top and were robbed by the ref when we lost to Parra by one point.

St George we also extremely lucky to be the only side at this point in the comp not to have lost a game by more than 12 points. Their defense is much much worse than that and now that melbourne have smashed them in a fair match they will be lucky to come within 12 points of another team all year.

St George are imposters and will only win another game this year when another team has a 'long list of injuries' or 'players out for origin'.

 

[tiger_nick]

you can say what you want however the reality is that the dragons run started the week before origin and ended the week after origin.

in the 9 rounds prior to origin you probably played one decent game, since origin you have played none.

 

[BrisVegas]

Broncos playing origin were Boyd, Thiaday and Hunt (the replacemt for him was the best bronco on the park that day)

Origin players out for Saints were Cooper and Gaz..

Id say the players missing due to origin had little to do with the smashing we gave them.

Hannant and Wallace were also in the origin squads, Lockyer was out injured, and Hodges was suspended.

So the Broncos were missing their first choice halves pairing, fullback, their 2 form forwards, and their 2 first choice centres.

The Dragons were missing their 2 first choice centres.

Missing players had plenty to do with the Dragons smashing the Broncos.

 

[mxlegend99]

Broncos playing origin were Boyd, Thiaday and Hunt (the replacemt for him was the best bronco on the park that day)
Origin players out for Saints were Cooper and Gaz..
Id say the players missing due to origin had little to do with the smashing we gave them.

Dude, the Broncos were missing more then 3 players:
Karmichael Hunt
Steve Michaels
Justin Hodges
Darius Boyd
Darren Lockyer
Peter Wallace
Sam Thaiday
Ben Hannant

6 players from their 1-7, of which 5 are State of Origin players. Throw in those 6 state of origin players, and you think they only have 10 points in them?

Petero played u f**kn genius! lol the long injury list was what???
Priddis
Puletua (both obvious in form superstars!!!)
Yeah seems pretty long.... about as long as ur wang

We were missing atleast 8 players... which is a massive injury list for ANY team:

Michael Jennings (our best centre)
Michael Gordon (our best back... he got 20 points last week on his own)
Tony Puletua (our second best front rower)
Adam Woolnough (would've helped cover the loss of T)
Luke Priddis (our best hooker)
Joseph Paulo (awesome impact player)
Josh Bateman
Geoff Daniela (our first choice replacement for injured backs)
and our fullback got injured 10 minutes into the game... after scoring a great try aswell.

Petero was missing from our game against the Broncos, so i got the 2 confused. The injury list was practically the same with him on Origin duty, and Wesser out from when he injured himself against you guys.

You guys were practically at full strength and only won by 1 point on the back of a ridiculous run of penalties against us to keep us from having the ball and having a chance to win the game.

Titans missed Bailey we missed Creagh
Titans missed Prince we missed Gasnier
Titans missed Lafranchi we missed Cooper

Titans have very little depth to cover losses... letalone their 3 best players. I'm sure they were missing other players aswell (can't be bothered looking it up), just like the other teams. The point is that they had an extremely lucky run and faced some strong teams missing crucial players.

They've proven they're a capable side, in beating Manly at full strength. So i'm not questioning how good they can play. But there's no way that they would have won 7 in a row against full strength teams.

 

[Ribs]

So these teams that had all their players missing..... did they not play anyone else besides St George during Origin?

The only reason you idiots keep going on about it is because Saints won 7 straight. No other teams have been finding games easy...

Its a load of crap perpetuated by a bunch of dickheads that are far more comfortable when they think Saints arent going well.

 

[Ribs]

We were missing atleast 8 players... which is a massive injury list for ANY team:
Josh Bateman
Geoff Daniela (our first choice replacement for injured backs)
and our fullback got injured 10 minutes into the game... after scoring a great try aswell.
.

Yeah phew, those blokes are game breakers. :lol:

 

[Johns Magic]

All these Dragons fans talking it up trying to reassure themselves.

Let's see how they go the rest of the year.

 

[mxlegend99]

Yeah phew, those blokes are game breakers. :lol:

Never said they were game breakers.... although in a one point loss, who's to say they couldn't have been?

Our best players were injured, and those are blokes we turn to for depth... so we had to stray even further from our typical first grade players.

 

[_Johnsy]

All these Dragons fans talking it up trying to reassure themselves.

Let's see how they go the rest of the year.

At least we will exceed everyones expectations in 2008 (including ours) and play finals footy. Tell your lads to enjoy Bali/Fiji or whever they go for end of season trip. Must suck being you right now.

 

[Ribs]

All these Dragons fans talking it up trying to reassure themselves.

Let's see how they go the rest of the year.

Even more stupid are the constant references to Saints fans talking it up. There are always exceptions but I dont think you'll find a lot of that here at all.

But when people say the 7 in a row were gifted, of course we'll have plenty to say.

Seems the ones bleating the same boring message are the ones Saints pasted. Tough.

 

[Johns Magic]

At least we will exceed everyones expectations in 2008 (including ours) and play finals footy. Tell your lads to enjoy Bali/Fiji or whever they go for end of season trip. Must suck being you right now.

You've gone exactly like I expected you would.

2 wins from 8 to start the season, then 7 gift wins during Origin. Of course, you haven't won again since.

Must be a really satisfying feeling being given a free ride into the bottom of the 8. Even with that free ride, you still mightn't make it.

Have fun getting belted in week one of the finals.

 

[Ribs]

You've gone exactly like I expected you would.

2 wins from 8 to start the season, then 7 gift wins during Origin. Of course, you haven't won again since.

Must be a really satisfying feeling being given a free ride into the bottom of the 8. Even with that free ride, you still mightn't make it.

Have fun getting belted in week one of the finals.

Sour grapes. I guess playing our rejects in Newcastle was something of a gift. Not as much as you guys taking them from us in the first place though.

Enjoy watching us in the finals.