Dragons woes continue: Is the Price right?
Roar Pro By Nathan Beuman, 18 Jun 2012 Nathan Beuman is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- NRL, Rugby League, St George Illawarra
St George Illawarra’s somewhat pedestrian performance Friday night against Canterbury, showed just how far the joint venture has slipped during season 2012.
A team that just 12 months ago was riding the crest of the 2010 NRL Premiership, and looking in good stead to go back to back, has failed to find the form that saw them take out the World Club Challenge.
The once formidable St George defense was made to look paper-thin during much of their Friday night clash against the Bulldogs, as Canterbury ran in four first half tries to one.
Due to limited cap space, a number of key players like Darius Boyd and Mark Gasnier, as well as promising young prospects Jack Bosden and Alex McKinnon were forced to find new homes at the end of 2011 season, leading to a number of holes in key positions.
However, possibly the biggest loss for the big Red V was the departure of head honcho and chief arbiter Wayne Bennett, who pulled the pin and moved to Newcastle during the off-season.
Since then, his former apprentice and offsider Steve Price, who took over the reigns at the club, has been unable to harness the same skills that saw Bennett deliver two minor premiership during his three year tenure in the Illawarra.
Having played 14 of their 24 games so far this season, the Dragons have been leaking points like the New York Stock Exchange, letting in 252 points to date, just 47 short of what they conceded during the year they won the Premiership.
To make matters worse, St George are not being helped out much in attack. Off the back of a kicking game that looks about as stable as WIN Stadium’s short lived former Western Grandstand, the Dragons have only scored 210 points to date, a far cry from the 518 they racked up in 2010 and the 483 from just a year ago.
Already without Michael Weyman for the rest of 2012 after he ruptured his ACL during their Round 10 golden point loss to the Panthers, St George were met with more bad news last night, with promising young center Kyle Stanley picking up a groin injury in the loss.
Currently sitting in 10th position and with a tough end of season stretch that sees them take on the West Tigers, Melbourne and North Queensland, Mr Price will need to rally his troops if they have any hope playing football in September.
With their NSW Cup feeder side the Illawarra Cutters sitting in 3rd last, and the Toyota Cup team just outside the 8, they don’t have the calibre of players to draw upon that they once did.
About the only solace that the men in red and white can take out of their lacklustre season to date is that Bennett’s Boys sit below them in 13th position on the ladder.
What do you think Roarers? Can St George turn their season around or will their lack of a kicking game and inability to score points be to much for them to overcome.
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The Crowd Says (13) | Page 1 of Comments
Have Your Say
- Explore:
- NRL, Rugby League, St George Illawarra
June 18th 2012 @ 7:47am
Chris said | June 18th 2012 @ 7:47am | Report comment
The dragons didn’t lose anyone due to the salary cap, Boyd followed Bennett and gaz chose to retire.. We put in an 800k offer for cooper cronk this year so we definitely have plenty of money.. We are just lacking in attack! Plain and simple! We are too predictable, dummy half runs and one out passes! When we get close to the try line we just seem to try to barrell our way over, no decoy runners or anyone running inside angles, come last tackle we put up the bomb and hope for the best! I don’t why we don’t make a play for Sam Tompkins, he can play in the halves and at fullback, and showed in the world cup how good he is! And we need a another back rower like Glenn Stewart or someone in that mould!
June 18th 2012 @ 8:14am
Andy said | June 18th 2012 @ 8:14am | Report comment
The Dragons should be much higher on the ladder, they can turn their season around but they have to address one of their problems which is Ben Hornby. He needs to get more involved with his kicking game to take some of the pressure/workload off Soward. Soward has one of the best long kicking games in the comp, but the ball is always going to him for the kicks so it does not make the job difficult for the players applying kick pressure. Lastly, by spreading the kicking duties Soward may look to get involved more by taking on the line more often, which may help improve the Dragons attack.
June 18th 2012 @ 8:21am
jamesb said | June 18th 2012 @ 8:21am | Report comment
I hope from here on end the dragons have a go in attack like they did in the second half against the bulldogs.
However, I still think some tough decisions from Price needs to be made, and that is dropping Hornby, put K.Stanley at 5/8, and switch Soward to halfback.
Than shift Morris on the wing, Vidot in the cnetres, and bring in Evander Cummins at fullback. If Hornby doesn’t rediscover his form very soon, not only will the Dragons season come to an end, but I think Hornby should retire.
I hate to say this, because Hornby has been a great clubman, captain and player for the club, but right now now, Hornby is the weakest link in the side.
June 18th 2012 @ 10:45am
sean maguire said | June 18th 2012 @ 10:45am | Report comment
That sounds fairly sensible James. Soward really needs to be more involved in attack but Hornby is past it. He hits the line like a milk truck. The thing that really gets me this year is how bad their defence is. Bennett seemed to base his game plan around low risk football and solid defence. Price seems to like greater risks in attack but the defence has dissapeared.
Anyway maybe The Roar can get Nathan Brown to do a column on what is wrong with the Dragons?
June 18th 2012 @ 11:26am
wlact said | June 18th 2012 @ 11:26am | Report comment
Agree – currently Hornby is a weak link; his defence has been unacceptable. But the attack wheels fell off following Morris’ move to fullback. Get him back to wing or maybe even centre. Also Vito lost us a couple of games with his dropped balls both poor handling and under bombs (admittedly a lottery most times). He could go better at full back and would get the space to wind up – he’s a big guy and needs this time. Also we are not getting enough penetration from our dummy half runners. What’s happened to Mitch?!! The team started to roll on Friday night after their experienced players got more involved. Creagh has to fire up and learn to run into the gaps. Where is the skills coaching – the forwards find it difficult to string any passes together and the whole team has forgotten how to support. Overall poor coaching.
June 18th 2012 @ 12:17pm
hazz said | June 18th 2012 @ 12:17pm | Report comment
hi all I have been a dragon supporter for 30 years and i am sorry to say that this team at this tme is the worst i have seen. Forget what they did under Bennett the game has changed you need to be able to score points.Newcastle under Bennett not doing well.The game has changed teams have changed attacking players is what is needed.Hornby young fien cooper have to go. KING to 5/8 Soward to half.Give the young blokes a go You need to be able to score 25 points or more to win these day Saints have not got 25 point in them even when they won the comp. very rare did they score more than 30.They are in a time warp and until things change it will be a long year.
June 18th 2012 @ 1:10pm
Christo the Daddyo said | June 18th 2012 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
“I have been a dragon supporter for 30 years and i am sorry to say that this team at this tme is the worst i have seen”
Gee that’s a bit harsh. I would say the team that Nathan Brown was coaching was perhaps more culpable in that they should have performed much better than they did.
Anyway, the game on Friday night was interesting as the first half performance by the Dragons was dreadful. But for whatever reason the team managed to turn that around and almost win the game in a much improved second half performance. If the team can find some attacking spark then I don’t think they’re too far off getting their groove back.
June 18th 2012 @ 2:17pm
hazz said | June 18th 2012 @ 2:17pm | Report comment
I am hoping the same but things have to change. I dont care if they loose. but its they way their loosing.The effort is there they need to change things.
June 18th 2012 @ 5:02pm
Ken said | June 18th 2012 @ 5:02pm | Report comment
I’m not sure I follow the Nathan Brown line, obviously he was coach for 6 years and you get a few bad patches in that type of timeframe. They tended to be towards the start of the year though, it seemed like every other year around there we’d be 1-4 to start the year,. Rustiness at the start of a season is not desirable but it’s more forgivable than losing your way mid-season after a decent start (they were in the top four 6-7 weeks ago) As is often the case the worst years tend to be when you have major injuries, Barrett, Gasnier, Young all had a couple of severely shortened seasons during the Brown years which tended to correlate to poor seasons for the team. We’ve lost Weyman this year, which is significant, but we’ve otherwise had basically our strongest team on the field week in, week out so i’m not sure that is the blame here
June 18th 2012 @ 9:28pm
Nathan Beuman said | June 18th 2012 @ 9:28pm | Report comment
Brett Morris looks about the only dangerous back likely to do anything near the line. Being a Manly supporter, I used to hate playing St George because they were such a good defensive side and always had the ability to do something in attack.
Sadly for Saints supporters, this has disappeared as of late to the point where teams don’t fear playing the red and white. Even if they make the playoffs, I really can’t see them doing much damage.
I also thing the comment about them being “one of the worst teams i have seen” is a bit over the top. As i’m only young i can really only talk for the last 8 years or so, but some of the Brown led teams were pretty ordinary.
June 19th 2012 @ 8:44am
Ken said | June 19th 2012 @ 8:44am | Report comment
I think there’s been some revisionist history going on over the last few years since the Bennett success. It makes it a better story if Bennett swooped in and transformed a hopeless team into killers – it never happened though, even he admits he just added a bit of polish to the top. Brownie’s reign was not a bad time for the Saints, although naturally it would have been better if they’d managed a premiership. They only missed the finals once during that time, and made 2 major semi’s (in 05 they were equal on points with minor premiers with the Eels). I can go back 20-odd years with good clarity and I tend to agree with him. The way we’ve played over the last 6 weeks is about as directionless as I’ve seen.
June 19th 2012 @ 3:49pm
hazz said | June 19th 2012 @ 3:49pm | Report comment
Ken you are right Bennett had a side that was ready to win a comp. Players were 4 years younger than now.
June 18th 2012 @ 6:38pm
David said | June 18th 2012 @ 6:38pm | Report comment
The Nathan Brown years have to put in context that two major semis were made and Bennett took over a side who missed the top four by one win and got bundled out by Manly and by less points than the Grand Final. Nathan Brown presided over a long string of young players who came into grade and players such as Best and Ennis who made their careers strong after playing at the Dragons. Soward and Hornby are equally to blam as is the whole back row who are not giving Rein options. If this is a deliberate strategy by Price to get them runnning straight then to unleash some more potent attack to allow the straight running to be more effective. I also think that this forward predictability was really exposed by a big pack and the bulldogs short passing game showed what sort of mindsight the dragons are in. One thing that could change everything though is a couple of inspired performances in the forwards to unleash that potent backline. I am confident that seeing as even Manly and Wests and Bulldogs had a 1 win in 5 run and they pulled out of it the Dragons can also