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Having experienced the highs of winning the 2010 grand final to the lows of the past two years, many will say fans complaints over the current state of affairs at St George Illawarra is sour grapes.
I assure you this piece is far from a fan experiencing sour grapes.
Like all clubs face at some point in time, the Dragons are going through a rough patch.
It just so happens this rough patch has been dragging on for close to 18 months now and, as a fan, it’s tough to watch but, as fan, I expect the club to fight its way out of it.
I expect to see ‘my’ club play with purpose, pride and passion.
What I saw the past Sunday against the Raiders was the complete opposite. In fact, I would go as far to say it was the worst performance I have seen since that glorious day back in September 2010.
For me, two things from that performance in the nation’s capital stand out. And for the purpose of this piece, I will refer to the players involved as ‘Player A’ and ‘Player B’. This will become a lot clearer as you read on.
Incident one was just after the Raiders had scored. Jamie Soward placed the ball for the restart, moved in and struck the ball only for the referee to blow his whistle for a penalty.
A Dragons player, Player A in this case, was in front of Soward before the ball had been kicked. He was offside. In fact, Player A was at least a metre in front of the kicker.
Incident two was just after Canberra had knocked on only a metre out from their try line on the fifth tackle. The result, the Dragons ball via a play-the-ball restart.
From the play-the-ball, Player B threw a forward pass from dummy half. Again, another cheap turnover.
The time of the game and the score at the time is irrelevant. The point I’m making is more than just about simple errors.
I refer to the offending players as ‘A’ and ‘B’ as to not discriminate when it comes down to the punishment. It could be the best player in the team or a guy on debut.
The fact is these two plays in particular should not have occurred. We are talking the best of the best. The NRL. The players involved have been playing the game for years. Any one word will not do these errors justice.
These mistakes, at this level, are unforgivable, especially for a club that is already so far behind the top teams in the competition.
Both players should be dropped and for one week should be paid the wages of a park player. No disrespect to those that play park footy but that is where you would expect such errors to occur.
These players must be accountable for their mistakes. I’m not raising my voice on the back of a ‘bad game’. These mistakes were prevalent last season and are now occurring only three rounds in to the 2013 season.
It’s not like they are 20 games into a long season and even then, it would not be good enough.
Many have been calling for the head of coach Steve Price, and on the back of that performance it’s easy to see why.
Let me play devil’s advocate for a second. It’s not the coach who kicks the ball, it’s not the coach who is offside on the kick restart, and it’s not the coach who passes the ball.
You’re right. I ask you this though – do players ‘play’ for their coach? I say yes.
The Warriors are a fine example. Before a ball was even kicked, a few of the Warriors plays voiced their concern on Twitter over the appointment of Matthew Elliot as their new head coach. Not for the fact that it was Elliot, but for fact that some of them wanted former assistant coach Tony Iro as the man to lead them.
The Warriors have now come out this season playing like a busted you know what.
There is no doubt in my mind that a team will put in that extra 10% – the difference between winning and losing – for a coach.
The attention to detail that I’m referring to – that extra 10% – is what the Dragons are severely lacking.
The Dragons are not rebuilding. We bought a ready-made team on the back of the appointment of Wayne Bennett.
He was hired to do one job over a two to three year period and nothing else and he did that. At no stage was the club planning long term. He did was he was paid to do. The club is now paying the price for that success, pardon the pun.
The club continues to experience issues with recruitment. No player is going to sign for a club that is clearly lacking direction.
A big play for Craig Bellamy and Cooper Cronk failed. Can’t blame them for trying. The way it was handled was poor. Price was publicly left out to dry.
CEO Peter Doust continues to make it clear that the club is still looking at all available options. How Price can continue to coach under these circumstances is beyond me. He is a sitting duck.
Another baffling decision, if it in fact it happens, is the signing of Josh Dugan. The fullback who was sacked from the Raiders only weeks ago for repeated disciplinary issues.
I will be staggered if the club pays $500,000 for a player who clearly has an attitude problem. Not only that, the Dragons aren’t short on quality backs.
Speaking of quality backs and recruitment, let’s talk Gerard Beale – a young kid (22) who came from the Broncos last season looking for a start in the number one jersey.
I acknowledge it will take some time for him to fit in to the structure but for a player desperate to make the number one jersey his own, and for the fact that there is the strong talk linking Dugan to the club, he is not doing enough.
I want to see Beale pushing up in attack. I want to see him running through the defensive line two or three times a set. Supporting the ball carrier.
Even if he doesn’t have the ball passed to him, he must show intent. He must show he wants the ball. If only for the fact the Dragons only seem capable of playing one out football with the odd bit of variance coming from a cut-out pass to the outside backs from inside our own half.
Several occasions on Sunday evening saw the Dragons – from inside their own half – attempt to go around the Raiders defence without much luck. One of the plays saw Jason Nightingale dragged into touch.
I applaud the fact our halves are looking to give our backs early ball but they must be giving the ball to the right type of player for this to be effective. Jason Nightingale is an international, a very good player, one of the Dragons most consistent for the past few seasons but he is hardly the Mark Gasnier type of player who will beat his direct opponent with a ‘shimmy-shimmy-whoosh’.
Admittedly he was only filling in the centres in the particular game, but if we are going to give the ball to the outside backs, I would rather see Brett Morris given more opportunity. He is the one who looks likely with ball in hand.
This all comes back to structure and game plan, which starts with the head coach. It’s clear to see the structure set out is not working and hasn’t been working for a little over a season now.
As Dragons skipper, Ben Creagh stated in the press conference after the most recent loss, “It is only round three – we are lucky that way.”
While he is right, the facts are the Dragons have been dishing up this crap for over a year now.
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