Poor St George Illawarra. Whatever confidence they’ve got left – and it might be pushing it to suggest there could be any left at all – will probably disappear at the hands of Brisbane on Thursday night.
A few clubs have complained about the competition draw being tough on them during the early rounds, with five-day turnarounds between games and the like, but has anyone done it as tough as the Dragons are doing it this week?
On Saturday night they played premiers North Queensland at 1300SMILES Stadium and were blown away 36-0. On Thursday night they face Brisbane, the team the Cowboys beat in golden point extra-time to win last year’s grand final, at Suncorp Stadium.
That is surely the five-day turnaround to end all five-day turnarounds – and with both games away from home.
The Dragons elected to stay in Queensland for the time between the two games rather than fly home to Sydney from Townsville on Sunday and back up to Brisbane on Tuesday, which should help with the rest and recuperation factors as opposed to having two travelling days so close together.
But will sticking around in the Sunshine State be any good for their mental health? Being away from the distractions they would have in their normal lives at home just gives the players more time to think of how the Cowboys smashed them and how they now have to play the Broncos.
It’s a bit like a racehorse going up against Winx one week and Chautauqua the next, except the horse doesn’t know it’s getting its brains kicked in by another horse.
I know horse trainers think the better horses know they’re in a race and where the finishing post is and all of that, but most of them just think they’re running around with a bunch of other horses, don’t they?
Unfortunately for the Dragons, unless they’ve got mystical powers that enable them to eliminate the thought of anything negative that happened in the last few days, they will be thinking of the job North Queensland did on them.
And while these are professional footballers we’re talking about and after one game is finished they’re supposed to immediately start focusing on the next and concentrate on what they must do right to help get a win, they’re only human.
Surely at least some of them will have concerns pop into their head about what might happen against the Broncos.
As the score obviously suggests, St George Illawarra were poor against North Queensland.
If you had watched the game without any knowledge of the results from the first four rounds, you would have easily been forgiven for thinking the Dragons were winless going into the game.
But they went in with an even record of two wins and two losses. The two wins came in rounds three and four, so they were chasing a winning treble in Townsville.
What a fall back to earth the result must have felt like to them.
Brisbane weren’t nearly as dominant in beating Gold Coast on Friday as the Cowboys were against the Dragons, but it was a different type of game. The Titans had played pretty well overall in the first four rounds, winning three games and losing one, and were playing at home.
Good luck to Dragons coach Paul McGregor, trying to find a way to get his team into the game against Brisbane. He’ll impress the importance of defence and respecting possession as the first means of getting back on track, but the horrible truth is the Dragons have got very little in attack.
They have scored an embarrassingly low total of 40 points in the first five rounds and playmaker Benji Marshall, a superstar of times gone by at Wests Tigers, was poor against the Cowboys. Marshall is in the twilight of his career and struggling to attract offers for next season.
It’s only natural to think Brisbane are going to inflict more pain on Marshall and his teammates. How badly would it affect the Dragons if they copped back-to-back floggings from the two biggest guns in the competition?
Troy
Guest
Why wouldn't you say Widdop is screwing up Marshall rather than vice-versa? Just because Widdop is much worse? It's a myth Widdop was playing well before Marshall arrived. The entire team was a rabble.
The power of Will
Roar Pro
Terrible article
Zedman
Roar Rookie
Why is this being moderated.
steve
Guest
Rein goes well, incisive darts around the play the ball, seems to cover a lot of ground. Just needs to stop playing with his hair all the time! Imagine Dallas Donnelly getting hold of him?
Charles NSW
Guest
It is thecoach that will need to decide how he can turn things around I think he will do that after this round as he will lay down the threat that heads will roll if no improvement I would rest Lafai, Mata-utia and put in Widdop fullback, Dugan centre, find another winger perhaps Carr and have Quinlan into the halves. It may work but at the very least it will shake the team that the coach means business The front row needs to do more especially as Rein is trying to do too much instead of them
Zedman
Roar Rookie
They are playing like a team who wants a new coach. Players don't get sacked when the team is playing shite, the game is littered with sacked coaches, and the amusing thing is they get a job as assistant coach with another team.
Agent11
Guest
The Dragons attack has been dire since Bennett left and even under him it was never that enterprising. They were an awesome side to watch when Barrett, Head and Gasnier were running around and they should have won a comp in the mid 2000s but they were a mentally weak side under Brown despite having all that talent. It strange how they have struggled to score tries for basically the last 5-6 years though.
danwain
Guest
Widdop was a good running half at melbourne, even played fullback there and looked great. Seems he has completely forgotten how to run. Marshall just doesn't know how to straighten the play, when he does it looks dangerous, too few and far between though. The Dragons have such a good back row, can you imagine Thompson and Frizell running at another club, they would be used as fantastic attacking weapons. For the Dragons they barely even get into the play in the opposition 20. They need to start utilising that more as it has the potential to free up space wider of the ruck. You cannot fault the teams effort though, they are obviously playing for each other and putting in for their coach.
Fairdinkum
Roar Rookie
Nothing will change while Mary is the coach.Every player under him & Price have gone backwards.McCrone stated on the radio the other week that when they are inside their own half it is the backs turn to ruck it out,What a load of BS.If the chance is there to throw it wide who is there to receive it not the outside backs thats for sure.Crazy negative stuff from the most boring stubborn coach in the nrl at present who like Price before him refuses to try any new blood instead sticking to what he knows he'll get with a prime example being Marketo instead of Lui or so.
JohnnoMcJohnno
Roar Rookie
Unfortunately Hutch hasn't done much when given a go. But you may be right, it's time to try something else. This current halves combo has gone backwards since last year.
JohnnoMcJohnno
Roar Rookie
Because even when the forwards have been going ok (vs storm, south's, Penrith), the attack has offered nothing. The attack mostly starts with the halves so they are the logical focus.
JohnnoMcJohnno
Roar Rookie
I'd hardly call their defence excellent when they've let in six tries. Let's just say it started well and ended badly.
steve
Guest
1 John Dorahy (c) 2 Rod Wishart 3 Shaun Timmins 4 Paul McGregor 5 Alan McIndoe 6 Trent Barrett 7 John Simon/ Andy Gregory 8 Chris Walsh (vc) 9 Dean Schifilliti 10 Craig Smith 11 Neil Piccinelli 12 Bob Lindner 13 Ian Russell 14 Brad Mackay 15 Brett Rodwell 16 Wayne Springall 17 Michael Carberry Graham Murray (coach)
Bronco Juggernaut
Guest
Widdop isn't that good at all. He just isn't creative enough, nor does he pose any threat when he takes the line on. I don't know about you Dragons fans, but if I was a saints supporter I'd much rather see Hutchison in place of Widdop.
Julian King
Roar Guru
A deadly halves combination of John Simon and Mick Neil would have us averaging more than a try a game!
Tom Rock
Expert
Possibly. Although I think even Ron Jeremy would be impotent under McGregor and co.
Peter
Guest
Let's not forget about the way the team was playing before Marshall arrived and why they were so desperate to sign him.
Peter
Guest
Don't you think it has reached the point where the team needs a little more than "solid" out of Widdop? The biggest difference between Marshall and Widdop that I can see is that the former gets crucified for bad games while the latter is "solid" at best but mostly just very poor.
steve
Guest
Benji while offering spasmodic great plays and sleight of hand, is not an elite first grader now. Sorry Benji !!! t looks like they are disjointed as theres no flow when Benji has the ball, no overall structure. Widdop is a solid half but needs someone to compliment him, they dont look continously good together. Having said that im not unhappy to see them struggling, never took to the merge! Bring back the Steelers :-(
Julian King
Roar Guru
Cronk is older than Marshall. Ken's right. As fine a player as Cronk is, to gamble on him outside of the Storm setup is too risky. He's a structure player. There's a fair chance he'll be rendered impotent under McGregor and co.