Bench is important. Sifakula is out for a while yet.
Best bench would be whoever is available in this configuration
Hybrid fix it all like Walker or CHT
Prop
Prop
Second rower fast enough to be a centre cover
Our problem is injuries I reckon
Post Match Dragons v Warriors - [Round 7, 2024]
- Thread starter mt.wellington
- Start date
Best bench would be whoever is available in this configuration
Hybrid fix it all like Walker or CHT
Prop
Prop
Second rower fast enough to be a centre cover
Our problem is injuries I reckon
Did they need another day off from training? Were they flogged beforehand or just didn't show up?
Wrighty
Contributor
This is total conjecture but I feel the starting 13 did the same maths we did and figured we had to be up by 18 points within the first 30 minutes to make up for their bench being better. We seemed to have no patience or trust in our processes to play the long game as a result and tried to rush everything:
1) Guys trying to score tries by themselves in the red zone instead of passing the ball out wide
2) Guys trying to force an error in a big defensive hit and giving away a penalty for lying on the ball too long.
In order of shitness
1) TMM gets my award every time he finally got the ball he tried to score a try himself when he is not a great runner of the ball. Also gave away a stink penalty for lying all over the guy in the ruck when we had already given away two previous piggy back penalties and should have learned our lesson by then. For some reason he complained to the ref about it too when he was clearly guilty
2) RTS for the drop kick ten metres thing. That was unacceptable. He can't be in the right head space.
3) Berry = flood gates started to open after Suli waltzed past him to score and Berry barely got a hand on him. Probably didn't even go down as a missed tackle but it should have.
4) Montoya - for all the reasons people have noted about him. I have been advocating Kosi in for him for the past 4 weeks. Will take Pompey though.
We had
1) AFB
2) Barnett
3) SJ
4) Egan
5) CNK
6) Tohu Harris
7) Ford
8) Capewell
All fit and ready to play last night so injuries are not an excuse and I am sorry but from where i was sitting I thought the Dragons played mediocre at best so we lost to a drab average team and got smashed by them.
We looked and played like a poorly coached team where individuals tried to win the game by themselves by doing hero plays instead of sticking to the process and the grind.
We can win the premiership this year but only if Webby makes some line up changes. If he does an SK and sticks his head in the sand like an ostrich and blames last night on bad attitude then I see us losing to the Titans next week as well.
The next steps are all on Webby.
1) Guys trying to score tries by themselves in the red zone instead of passing the ball out wide
2) Guys trying to force an error in a big defensive hit and giving away a penalty for lying on the ball too long.
In order of shitness
1) TMM gets my award every time he finally got the ball he tried to score a try himself when he is not a great runner of the ball. Also gave away a stink penalty for lying all over the guy in the ruck when we had already given away two previous piggy back penalties and should have learned our lesson by then. For some reason he complained to the ref about it too when he was clearly guilty
2) RTS for the drop kick ten metres thing. That was unacceptable. He can't be in the right head space.
3) Berry = flood gates started to open after Suli waltzed past him to score and Berry barely got a hand on him. Probably didn't even go down as a missed tackle but it should have.
4) Montoya - for all the reasons people have noted about him. I have been advocating Kosi in for him for the past 4 weeks. Will take Pompey though.
We had
1) AFB
2) Barnett
3) SJ
4) Egan
5) CNK
6) Tohu Harris
7) Ford
8) Capewell
All fit and ready to play last night so injuries are not an excuse and I am sorry but from where i was sitting I thought the Dragons played mediocre at best so we lost to a drab average team and got smashed by them.
We looked and played like a poorly coached team where individuals tried to win the game by themselves by doing hero plays instead of sticking to the process and the grind.
We can win the premiership this year but only if Webby makes some line up changes. If he does an SK and sticks his head in the sand like an ostrich and blames last night on bad attitude then I see us losing to the Titans next week as well.
The next steps are all on Webby.
John Nick
Contributor
Short turn around for round 8.
Hopefully Walker is ready to go
Montoya was pretty good to start that game, had 2-3 good runs and earned us a penalty to start off. He's an absolute rock when we're getting attacking kicks down our end in the air though.
We need to start playing with more shape as well. We showed what we can do with a bit of shape when DWZ scored on the right and that's how we scored a lot of tries last year.
Biggest issue is we don't look like we're moving forwards with improvement and how we're playing. We seem to be getting worse each week. Need a big turn around next week, I'm sure Hasler will be licking his lips reviewing our game last night.
John Nick
Contributor
All teams are carrying injuries so no excuses.
Certainly SJ Capewell Egan Tohu playing with niggles.
It's NRL and FG and attitude is everything.
Montoya playing on the non attacking edge doesn't help his stats and his carting back has been good imo.
Only Walker hopefull of returning back this week.
Don't know what changes Webster can make without the huge risk of disruption of positional changes.
Not the time for panic
But can we all agree RTS can do what Montoya does and better?
John Nick
Contributor
RTS is struggling to learn about centre.
How do you feel about him aiming up on the wing. Another challenge
Would be more suited I feel, he can be a hog more and make huge carrying runs from yardage.
Not sure what changes Webby can do that don't risk of making things worse. You can't change players just because the current guy sucked over the weekend.
Things I've read on here from various posters imply:
1. The NSW Cup players aren't following the structures set out in the NRL squad.
2. The NSW Cup players, irrespective of 1, don't look like they're knocking on the door of NRL selection.
Every Finals 8 in the NRL seems to have two surprises in it (a team doing much better than expected - Warriors 2023 and a team doing much worse than expected - Rabbitohs 2023).
Dragons could be one of those...
Things I've read on here from various posters imply:
1. The NSW Cup players aren't following the structures set out in the NRL squad.
2. The NSW Cup players, irrespective of 1, don't look like they're knocking on the door of NRL selection.
Every Finals 8 in the NRL seems to have two surprises in it (a team doing much better than expected - Warriors 2023 and a team doing much worse than expected - Rabbitohs 2023).
Dragons could be one of those...
Wrighty
Contributor
Panic would be giving up on Roger at centre before say round 12. He has not had a consistent run there to learn the position yet.
Sensible would be
1) Replacing Montoya with Pompey.
2) TMM replaced by CHT if CHT fit.
I said I'd wait to round 6 on the RTS centre thing but because he's played multiple positions I'm happy to give him another 12 rounds to get it comfortable and then get it firing by August
Dragons were very good and defended with a lot of resilience but we made it very easy for them in the first half with terrible discipline. We looked a bit easily irritated all game might be a bit of tiredness and complacency there
Webby didn’t use his bench but we dominated up the middle all night with AFB, Ale and Barnett. Labans not ready for big minutes and Roache and Pompey were picked as cover.
We are badly missing Walker to get SJ a bit wider and that left side isn’t functioning. RTS hasn’t played any centre and it’s showing. He should improve given time but it was never going to be an overnight success
Webby didn’t use his bench but we dominated up the middle all night with AFB, Ale and Barnett. Labans not ready for big minutes and Roache and Pompey were picked as cover.
We are badly missing Walker to get SJ a bit wider and that left side isn’t functioning. RTS hasn’t played any centre and it’s showing. He should improve given time but it was never going to be an overnight success
No excuses BUT 5 injuries to middle forwards is going to severely hamper any team.
But the Backs arn't doing anything either
The team is not firing
All our wins have been close and somewhat lucky
WE ARE NOT AS GOOD AS YOU THINK
Let's not forget the Rabbitohs - we thrashed them!
Was game 100 for him and reckon he had a point to prove that centre is his position after he stated so and had been shifted to the wing until yesterday
We have had arguably the most output from any back 5 in the league prior to last night so I disagree. The stats don't lie.
It all starts up front.
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