It's a terrible time to be a Dragons fan

In regards to coach Steve Price he has been given the job already spending a year in that position. Only two weeks in the competition it is wrong to say that he should be sacked. In fairness to the club officials it was just bad luck that their 1/2 back Kyle Stanley is injured for the whole season. As we all agree it is the 1/2 back position that he needs to fix urgently and that would apply to anyone who would take over. In regards to Cooper he is well experienced enough to fix any problems he may have and should not be a problem overall.

i agree Cooper is past it but he certainly has not lost any of his strength as you stated

I'm not a Dragons fan but I can see the problem is the halves. Dragons have a great backline and a solid forward pack on paper. The forwards are making the metres but the halves aren't doing their job with that platform. as far as Matt Cooper goes, watching him and Justin Hodges against each other is worth the price of admission. I think he has earned the right to retire when HE chooses to, but hope he does it sooner rather than later for his own sake.

Agreed ... Jamie Soward does not shirk the defensive work

Lets just give it a little more time. Obviously they are no good, but just how bad we will need to wait and see. Remember that the Dragons were never going to beat the Storm, as the Dragons never beat the Storm. Also, the Brisbane team is going to be in the 8 this year. The Dragons play the Raiders this Sunday. If they are really crap then, even against the Raiders, then it will be alarm bells. Cause the Raiders are well crap this year.

There are a lot of fans calling for Price to be axed. other say this is a little harsh as it is only 2 weeks in, but these cries for Price's head have been going back over last year. I can understand some fans feeling this way as the Dragons don't seem to have change since last year, so I wonder what has Steve Price been doing ove the summer break. The big question is that to sack a coach, you need to have someone to move in. Some say Steve Folkes is the second in command and he could coach, but Folkes was there all last year as well and you would think he would have had some input into this team already, will little to show. Then who? Tim Sheens? Please no. Brian Smith, or Nathan Brown? Those who have forgotten, both of them didn't end well. My point is that you need to have someone ready to step in if you sack a coach. And maybe this shows the reall problem at St George Illawarra. The people whose job it is to have a plan B ready, to have a coach or player ready. Some succession plan. Peter Doust is the man in charge. He screwed up the Bennett deal, only getting him on contract for 3 years when Wayne wanted 5. He screwed the Dragons with his deal on Barrett, making it so the club still had to pay for Barrett when he left for overseas, and under the salary cap. the same goes for Mark Gasnier, the first and the second contracts, costing the club a fortune and allowing Gaz to get out of the deal to go to Paris, spending so much on the deal that Jeremy Smith and Nevil Costigan had to leave. The the Tim Moltzen saga, Cooper Cronk and Bellamy. There is more, so much more, but don't worry because Peter Doust is not accountable. so when you blame Price, remember that Dousty got the team and the fans into this mess.

I hate thes dragons, but dont think they are as bad as the fans may think. If Fien doesnt throw a forward pass, or doesnt push the marker, Saints would have been in good nick.

superstar, I am with you on Cooper. He has been a great player for the Dragons, but must step down. Regarding Stanley, his defence on Friday was dreadful, his positional play in defence was very very bad. He wasn't helped by being next o Fein, who was targeted and isolated, but it isn't Stanley's job to come in to help and leave a three on one against Nightingale. Bronson Harrison and Matt Prior should have been in the line to help Fein and were not tome after tome. But Stanley's attack shows no promise, he doesn't read they play very well and most times runs side ways, either not passing to Nightingale or leaving the winger no room. I wee no place for Stanley.

JeepLag

I have passionately supported the dragons for 42 years and will NEVER stop. But it really pisses me of when a fan says what he thinks about the team and other fans so he is not stickng solid and not to bag the team. What a crock of crap. The dragons need to be told they are playing half assed. If anyone thinks that the way they played on Friday night is in anyway acceptable for a professional NRL team then yu should start watching another sport. Schoolboy teams are more affective than the dragons at the momet. To say that we have been succesful is a joke. We have had the team to win the comp for nigh on twenty years and have done so once! The difference in 2009\10 we had a coach that didnt buy into the idea that it would all come together sooner or later. You performed or you were out. The whole club needs a shake up and if Drinkwater is not to injured he should start at halfback this week otherwise why did we buy him? We are certain to win the wooden spoon unless something is done and then I'm sure you same fans that dont have the balls to call your team when they are playing bad will join Doust and Price in saying oh we just didnt stick to the game plan and unfortunately every team in the comp gave us a flogging. I dont pay my membership fees to not have my say good or bad!

Steve Price sums it up perfectly ~ http://www.dragons.com.au/news-display/Press-Conference-Round-2/70103 as in NO INTERVIEW

Yeah, our probelm is our halves, plain and simple. If we had Thurston or Cherry and Foran we would have won for sure last night. I will remind everyone that the only try we scored was when Fien went to the line and drew defenders to put Weyman over. Just after he passed the ball he got hit. This is exactly what Soward is afraid to do and that is why he is such an inefective playmaker. Fien also put Creagh through a gap, only for the try to be disallowed for a forward pass. Soward didn't even look like setting a try up.

Geez yeah you are right, injured his shoulder. I only watched part of the game and thought he was doing ok. Certainly enough to get the call up, on a nothing to lose scenario. Poor bloke hope he isn't out too long.

The problem with the Dragons is the centers and the halves. Cooper is done. He's been a great servant to the club and has had a magnificent career (the majority of which was in Mark Gasnier's shadow). But he is finished. When his pace deteriorated a couple of years ago it was his defence that justified his place in the team. He would rarely come up with bad reads in defence, and even on the rare occasion that he did, he had the strength and power to compensate for it. I still remember a game against Souths either last year or the year before when Dave Tyrrell was diving over the try line and Cooper grabbed him in mid air and threw him back. Cooper doesn't have that strength anymore and he makes more and more bad decisions as he gets older. Blood Nathan Green at left center, or move Beale to left center and Cummins to fullback (although Beale is still entitled to a few more weeks to prove himself at fullback). Chase Stanley is not done, and has a long career at the Dragons in first grade ahead of him. But he is playing without confidence. He is 188cm and weighs almost 100kg. He should back himself every time when he runs the ball. He doesn't, and because of this he steps back on the inside every single time. He has the size, strength and speed to break opposition defences. Send him back to Cutters so that he can realize this. Replace him with Daniel Vidot. Of our two halves Soward has been better than Fien, and deserves the chance to prove himself alongside a proper halves partner. Bearing that in mind, word is that young Josh Drinkwater got injured playing NSW Cup today. If we don't sign Josh Dugan, I think the Dragons are stuck with Soward and Fien as the halves pairing. The only other real option is to give Cameron King a go at either 6 or 7. Then Fien goes back to the bench as reserve hooker (a position where he probably does still have a bit to offer). I seriously doubt Price will try this though until its too late. He's not the sort of coach to make such a big selection gamble.

Didn't Drinkwater go down injured in the NSW Cup game?

In reality most of it is 2nd hand knowledge especially for players in NSW Cup. They often play on different days in different cities. They can get told by other coaches, advisers of their progress, read the stats and watch a tape of the game. But nothing comes close to seeing the game in the flesh and focussing all your attention on one man From what I saw of the game today Price would have been impressed by Drinkwaters efforts. I'm guessing he will get the call up this week.

The Dragons have a decent pack and a good back three but lack creativity and strike in the halves and centres. Points will be hard to come by this season on current form. But just as worrisome is the defence, 52 points conceded in two games. Fien is a good player off the bench but not the answer at 7. Give Drinkwater a run. If signed Dugan will bring much needed thrust out wide or at 6 with Soward moving to 7. The Dragons are suffering a premiership hang over but they will be back.

It's not only halves that are the problem ~ last night Dragons had 11 consecutive sets ~ 55 actual tackles, and zero penetration except for 1 forward pass. No support play, no dummy runners, no set plays, no side-steps, no dummy-passes, chip-kicks only when desperate, covered, & expected. Soward & Cooper tight-marked again yet no plan to use the broken defensive line that allows it, even when the opposition was down to 12 men!!

I would have thought that any coach would already have 1st hand knowledge of ALL contracted players, newer players especially.

Soward is a 10 times better defender than Nightingale, who is useless when the attack comes his way.