Dragons search for next point after rout

You are correct that you do not need to be a coach to criticise a coach I wanted to see if you had any experience as your comments at times do not show that It was McGregor that put Dugan as a centre not me He has a problem with finding a fullback to take Dugans place and I suggested Widdop may be worth a try, which is the reason for my comment and not to throw the Dugan saga back at you My emphasis is that the Dragons have a problem in attack You keep saying Dugan must stay at fullback so do that, if it is the best move As far as I am concerned we need the Dragons scoring points so whatever happens you and my comments means nothing, it is up to the coach In regards to McGregor I think he is doing a good job despite all its problems When you go up against the master in Thurston and after having quick match turnarounds you can expect a hard time. McGregor is the coach and he has to work out how to fix it I for one am not going to put him down especially from a Canterbury supporter like Barry.

I have actually. I first coached my brothers league team when I was 15. Anyway...do you really have to be a coach to be able criticise a coach? The irony is you're using every opportunity to say McGregors got his selections wrong. So how much faith do you have in him? I have nothing against McGregor. I loved the story of his rise to first grade with the Steelers after knocking them back several times to play park footy with his mates in the Gong. He was awesome at origin level in a golden era for the blues. But his team is playing awful attacking football. As I've pointed out the cattle he has at his disposal isn't that bad but they're playing an awful style of footy with horribly inept plays. That's the coaches domain. 100%. You don't need to be a full time coach to know that. Every post of yours for the last 6 weeks has gone on about Dugan being out of position and the wrong sort of player. So you only want to talk to dragons fans hey? Good luck with that.

At no time did I say that Dugan was the only problem Barry so stop using words to make a point As we all clearly know by now the Dragons are not getting points and this has been happening for a long time, years in fact We need to reshape our attack from the back and shifting Dugan may help to do that Dugan can play centre, fullback and winger and do very well in all of these positions In regards to McGregor you are so quick to put him down as a coach You have never coached Rugby League Barry, have you? Do not answer my comments Barry, you are not a Dragons fan anyway!

How much time does it take to teach halves to run straight? McGregors had more than a full season in charge and the attack looks worse than ever. You can hide behind Dugan as the excuse all you like but he's the only bloke that looks like scoring points at the moment.

You do not want to bring the Dugan factor again but you do Barry! The fact is we are talking abut the Dragons and not any other team You say the halves are going sideways and the coach has to fix that which will take time As I said take Widdop into fullback and put someone like Quinlan in his place In this way it may solve both problems and add direction to the team

Benji, was a bad idea. I agree Widdop should have been given the chance he came over for. Sam Williams was a far better deal than Benji.

Gareth Widdop must go!

I really don't want to start the Dugan thing with you again but there is much more wrong with the dragons attack than the fact Dugans not a ball player. Plenty of teams don't have ball playing fullbacks yet manage to score points. The Dragons halves first movements are sideways. Marshall ran 40 metres to get pushed over the sideline last night. They're playing too far away from the defensive line. They have no ad lib footy in them. Their set plays are ponderously slow and telegraphed. Dugan is the only bloke that's looked like scoring for them. Not many teams have the luxury of internationals in their 1, 6 & 7 jerseys. If McGregor can't build a decent attack off the back of those players he should give it away.

Agree 100%. How about finishing the last 20 minutes the way they start. And ideally score some points in the first 20 minutes. Oh and flick Lafai.

The Dragons are better served with a ball playing fullback but if the coach wants him as fullback fair enough. The Dragons do not have ball players except for the halves so that is one of the reasons why they are lacking points, especially as they are running sideways. Matt Moylan showed in the Penrith match today what happens when you have a player like him at the back. Timing the runs will help to make Dugan job much easier and help the Dragons to improve our scoreline.

The odd game like that you can lay at the feet of the players but when your team is systematically incapable of scoring 10 points in a game then I think that tends to point to the coach. His forwards are making yards and getting them into position. Its not like he's got a backline full of numpties. He should be able to work something out with Marshall, Widdop, Dugan, Lafai, Nightingale, Aitken, etc. These guys are no slouches in attack. I know you don't think Dugan should be at fullback but the problems go much deeper than him. Other teams have running rather than ball playing fullbacks and don't struggle like the Dragons do.

In the first 20 minutes the Dragons were putting plenty of pressure in attack and held well in their defense. However their attack is not finishing into points so whose fault is that Is it the coach not doing the job or is it the players not listeneing to instructions

It does concern me TB. Macgregor clearly has no idea how to fix the issues. It's starting to sound like the Steve Price era, where he would front the press conference, tell everyone how good the team went at training, and couldn't understand what went wrong. Next will be to sack some scapegoats, get the board to extend his contract, then purchase some marquee players and de-skill them. Not very happy at the moment. . .

EB & D - If that is actually you, then you're better than that. Comment has been reported.

Agree Dean - I just posted similar above before reading yours. Dragons playing five metres in front of the defensive line and as a result fooling no one...

Ken - I agree too much lateral movement but I think they're also playing too far away from the defence. They put on their plays five metres away from the defence. The defence simply realigns and the guy getting the ball as a second man or whatever the play is has no space and a settled defensive line in front of him. If I were a dragons fan the following quote from McGregor would concern me: “But not scoring points is not good. “If it keeps going we will look at our personnel. “We’ve just got to take some accountability and ownership on it (attack).” That just sounds like he's got no idea what's going on...

I've often wondered what difference the number on the back makes. There's nothing to stop the guy wearing 10 play at halfback if that's what you want. By all means switch the halves in terms of their duties and expectations but you don't need to advertise it by changing their numbers around.

I'd drop Widdop first.. At least Benji has a crack - even if he's going sideways, there should be other bodies in motion who are running angles. Widdop did not run at the line the entire game. You need halves that go to the line and pass - not pass 5m before someone is going to tackle them.

Good calls Julian. Kurt Mann will be feeling a whole lot better, knowing the Dragons can lose just as well without him on the paddock. If you want to attack, then you need to set your backline deep - and actually use it. The Dragons went one out (or ran from dummy-half) all night for 5 tackles, and then kicked on the last. There were no offloads from the forwards. They did not shift the ball unless they were in their opponents 20, which tallied three times for the entire game - so zero threat to the Cows centres and halves. Jason Demetriou should be called the sleep coach, because you need a bed to get through a Saints game with him at the helm of their attack.

lol. There's no way of knowing how they'd perform unless you have a crystal ball. Take Cronk, J Bromwich and Proctor out of the Storm current line up and they'd be close to 0 and 4. What we do know is that the Cows are a serious footy team and will go close to winning it again.