The end of another dissapointing year

[Chris M]

Bud has had a chance at dummy half and one game at half. Never set the world on fire.
You wanna change Amone for him. You are getting similar players.. neither of which are natural play makers. If I was choosing the player with the most promise and natural ability of the two, Junior gets my vote. He knows his defense is not first grade standard so expecting him to work his bum off, specially his front on defense in the off season. Not the only one in this club.

We will agree to disagree amicably on this issue. In my view he won't help us play semi finals football in the next few years.

I'm going to amicably disagree with JoDragon on this one. I also think his defence can be fixed. Though the jury is still out on it.

 

[jodragon40]

Good point.

In my view JDB has an offload, stats show 12 in 19 games in saying this he is not that type of forward essentially he is a lock it is not the job of a lock to offload, well not in my day. In my day it was the prop/ 2nd rowers job.

 

[jodragon40]

I'm going to amicably disagree with JoDragon on this one. I also think his defence can be fixed. Though the jury is still out on it.

One final say in 2021 Amone played 12 games missed 22 tackles, avg 1.87 misses. In 2022 played 19 games missed 70 avg 3.68 or close to double. That in my humble view is not good enough to play 1sts. If I was a member of the jury then he's guilty

 

[Chris M]

One final say in 2021 Amone played 12 games missed 22 tackles, avg 1.87 misses. In 2022 played 19 games missed 70 avg 3.68 or close to double. That in my humble view is not good enough to play 1sts. If I was a member of the jury then he's guilty

Coaching staff is guilty.

 

[RedVHeartbeat]

In my view he won't help us play semi finals football in the next few years.

You dont see the improvement in his game from when he first started at 5/8. I do. He was thrust into a position he was clearly not comfortable with as he was not a natural organiser. He lacked confidence and it showed in his play. The longer he has been in the halves the more confident he is becoming. You will see that in his improved passing game. We have to remember that of his 30 first grade games he has played only half of them at 5/8. Cut him some slack. He is still only 20/21. A novice.

 

[jodragon40]

Coaching staff is guilty.

Again we will agree to disagree amicably on this issue and player. All I can say is, in my experience if a player has not been taught to tackle , step, pass, kick before he makes 1st grade it isn't going to happen, you have to have those attributes to play 1st, you can get better in those attributes playing top grade but you cant relearn what you haven't been taught. There are exceptions but in this case he will not be one of those exceptions.

 

[jodragon40]

You dont see the improvement in his game from when he first started at 5/8. I do. He was thrust into a position he was clearly not comfortable with as he is not a natural organiser. He lacked confidence. I still see some of that in his game. I now see a more confident man with an improved passing game. He was back then and remains a work in progress in the halves. Of his 30 first grade games he has played only half of them at 5/8.

He is not the type of 5/8 we need at the moment

 

[jodragon40]

You dont see the improvement in his game from when he first started at 5/8. I do. He was thrust into a position he was clearly not comfortable with as he is not a natural organiser. He lacked confidence. I still see some of that in his game, tho also see a more confident man with an improved passing game. He was back then and remains a work in progress in the halves. Of his 30 first grade games he has played only half of them at 5/8. Cut him some slack. He is still only 20/21. A kid.

What improvement? He is not in the top 25 in try assists he has scored 1 try this year, made 6 offloads, made 5 line breaks, avg 44m in kicks, no 40/20, has made on avg 7 runs a game and has run 58m a game. Stats don't lie he is not good enough and wasting more money in the future on him would be a big mistake in my humble view.

 

[RedVHeartbeat]

Coaching staff is guilty.

Specially the two that have been given their marching orders.

 

[Chris M]

Specially the two that have been given their marching orders.

And the main one who will surely get his marching orders soon.

 

[RedVHeartbeat]

He is not the type of 5/8 we need at the moment

Again we agree to disagree amicably. He is the ideal 5/8 we need.. if his halves partner and chief play maker was the ideal organiser. He is terrific on his feet, sizeable to break tackles and is developing a clever short kicking game. Give him ball with a team going forward and he will score plenty of four pointers for us in next few years.

 

[jodragon40]

Again we agree to disagree amicably. He is the ideal 5/8 we need.. if our half was the ideal play maker. He is terrific on his feet, sizeable to break tackles and is developing a clever short kicking game. Give him ball with a team going forward and he will score plenty of four pointers for us in next few years.

Time will tell have a good night. I hope I'm wrong but experience is telling me that I am not.

 

[RedVHeartbeat]

So jodragon40 you think our season is over. I have to agree after our last 20 minutes against the Cowboys. Where do we go from here. We are jettisoning many players.. mostly dead wood with one or two that should stay imo.. such as Gosie. Cant spell his name. Our salary cap is inexplicably full so unlikely any new imports coming. This could well be a blessing in disguise as it presents an ideal chance to blood some more good local juniors.

 

[jodragon40]

So jodragon40 you think our season is over. I have to agree after our last 20 minutes against the Cowboys. Where do we go from here. We are jettisoning many players.. mostly dead wood with one or two that should stay imo.. such as Gosie. Cant spell his name. Our salary cap is inexplicably full so unlikely any new imports coming. This could well be a blessing in disguise as it presents an ideal chance to blood some more good local juniors.

I agree but we need a good prop as it doesn't appear that we have any developed enough to step up next year.

 

[RedVHeartbeat]

you can get better in those attributes playing top grade

..and that is what Amone is doing.. albeit slowly. I can tell you he certainly has learned to step. He is magic on his feet.

 

[RedVHeartbeat]

I agree but we need a good prop

Yeh we do. One with experience and street cred. Had hoped Aaron Woods was that man this year. But he is clearly past his best. Lodge would've been ideal but uncle Nick knows a good player when he sees one.

 

[GCRV]

Interesting thread, this one.
I just wanted to say, I'm still optimistic about Amone. He's shown before he has all the skills and can tackle. It's just a question of doing it consistently.

But I also understand this may be just wishful thinking and the cold, hard logic of jodragon40 is correct.

I just want to make two excuses for him. Not sure if they are justified buy anyway.

1. It would help if the forwards were going forward a little more. Against Manly I think he played his best game all year. That is the game I think when the forwards ran for the most metres all year.
2. I don't know WTF the coaching staff is doing. Why have they allowed Bird to get so fat? Why did Sloan get a second chance after his shocker vs Cronulla in the pouring rain and howling wind when every fullback was having a lot of trouble taking bombs? Why have they allowed the same players to keep missing so many tackles? I mean to say, the coaching staff have lost it. Seems to be a classic example of the team not playing for the coach. That includes Amone more than anyone.

 

[GCRV]

So jodragon40 you think our season is over. I have to agree after our last 20 minutes against the Cowboys. Where do we go from here. We are jettisoning many players.. mostly dead wood with one or two that should stay imo.. such as Gosie. Cant spell his name. Our salary cap is inexplicably full so unlikely any new imports coming. This could well be a blessing in disguise as it presents an ideal chance to blood some more good local juniors.

That last 20min was putrid. Takes a brave supporter to honestly believe the team is a hope of making the finals after that. That and several other capitulations this year!

 

[jodragon40]

Interesting thread, this one.
I just wanted to say, I'm still optimistic about Amone. He's shown before he has all the skills and can tackle. It's just a question of doing it consistently.

But I also understand this may be just wishful thinking and the cold, hard logic of jodragon40 is correct.

I just want to make two excuses for him. Not sure if they are justified buy anyway.

1. It would help if the forwards were going forward a little more. Against Manly I think he played his best game all year. That is the game I think when the forwards ran for the most metres all year.
2. I don't know WTF the coaching staff is doing. Why have they allowed Bird to get so fat? Why did Sloan get a second chance after his shocker vs Cronulla in the pouring rain and howling wind when every fullback was having a lot of trouble taking bombs? Why have they allowed the same players to keep missing so many tackles? I mean to say, the coaching staff have lost it. Seems to be a classic example of the team not playing for the coach. That includes Amone more than anyone.

I agree with your assessment in regards to the forwards not reaching the advantage line consistently. That does directly affect your halves. It cuts down their time to assess and create that then affects your backline because it means that they line up much flatter in attack. My real issue here is the inability of both our halves in defence as of round 19 Hunt was rated 1 and Amone 8 in most missed tackles between them they miss close to 9 tackles a game. Now as a coach that clearly indicates that the opposition game plans revolve around attacking us on both edges of the ruck knowing that 9 times a game they are going to create try scoring opportunities or make major ground to set up the rest of their attacking structures and options. Now if they are successful on 50% of those 9 occasions per game to score well that's 4 tries if converted that's 24 points. On average the Dragons have conceded 23 points a game this season. Can you see the correlation between the two sets of facts? Last season we conceded 25.5 points a game so we have only improved by 2.5 points which equates to a conversion kick. Last year we finished 11th this year again most likely 11th. Forwards and defence win games. Until we improve in these 2 key statistics we will not be able to play semi finals football in the next few years. As I have said consistently in my experience forwards win games the backs determine by how much.

 

[jodragon40]

That last 20min was putrid. Takes a brave supporter to honestly believe the team is a hope of making the finals after that. That and several other capitulations this year!

Agree nearly identical to the Roosters game albeit less points were scored by the Cowboys