Diary Of A... Dragons Fan: A View From the Opposite Grandstand
We’re sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled NRL reading experience… but the Wildcard has taken over.
Okay, maybe not taken over, just borrowing the throne for a spell. Those of you that listen to our Niche Cast (eyeTunes) podcast will already know that of the two head honchos at TNC, the Doc may stick firm with the Wozzas but I, el Wildcardo, am a triumphant Dragons fan. Don’t ask why, it just happened.
So with the Warriors playing the Dragons this week, a game known inside Nichey Towers as the TNC Clasico, it was decided at the end of a long board meeting that an opposition view of the Warriors would be a fun lil alternative to the usual kiwi torches and pitchforks that follow a Warriors loss/game. Looking at you, NZ Herald.
Here’s the thing though: I never felt like the Dragons wouldn’t win that game. Some of that is down to the 2017 form of those two sides, with the Dragons coming off a win over the reigning Premier Sharks while the Wozzas have only beaten the Knights so far, but also a lot came down to… let’s say force of habit. The Dragons always beat the Warriors. That Red V is like kryptonite for them, even when it’s buried under a ridiculous ant man get-up. Last season was the exception as NZW rolled to a 26-10 win (it was the game after all those lads got stood down for sippin’ on red bull & poppin’ pills) but overall SGI now boast 20 wins from 25 matches against the NZers. It’s some serious voodoo going on.
And Kieran Foran getting ruled out had no influence on that. Sure he’s a top player, but let’s see it from him again before we assume he’s gonna walk in and be the saviour. Although… that won’t be for a while since that hammy popped. Meh, secretly Ben Matulino’s return will be the bigger difference maker to this team anyway. The only selection I was worried about was Josh McCrone starting yet again at halfback for my buggers – if there’s a worse starting seven in the NRL then I’m yet to see him. One day it’ll be Jai Field, one day it’ll be Jai Field, one day it’ll be Jai Field…
But for now the rest of them are doing the job around him. It’s dumb how the commentators kept mentioning the thing about the Warriors’ forward pack’s reputation for enormous size being a myth as if that’s only become true this season. Matt Elliott said the same thing when he was dumped, that was like two coaches ago. They haven’t been big for ages, neither has the Dragons pack. However the Dragons – and it’s taken like three years to build this group – have a nice mix of guys who’ll run it hard and straight in Paul Vaughan and Leeson Ah Mau, guys with a bit more speed on the edges in Tyson Frizell and Joel Thompson, offloaders who mix it up with their size in Russell Packer and Tariq Sims and then the all-round rugby league masterclass that is Jack de Belin. Save your derisive laughter until after Origin selection, please.
Meanwhile the Warriors forwards all sort of give you the same thing. Tackling Charlie Gubb looks about the same task as tackling Sam Lisone or Albert Vete or whoever. The Dragons are suddenly getting talked about like they’ve got this massive lot of forwards themselves, which is also just not true, but every one of them offers something slightly different to a defender, enough to keep things tricky.
Losing Foran wasn’t a killer but having to replace him was. Tui Lolohea was there to offer a readymade fill-in but when you’ve been preparing all week to play one position, with one half, and now you’re suddenly playing another with another…. that’s gotta be weird. Not to mention that Blake Ayshford came in – a dependable enough player but not exactly a terrorising one. Obviously it rattled the Warriors because all they did for the first twenty-five minutes was make mistakes. Just mistake after mistake. Loose carries, lost offloads, penalties, missed tackles. Suicidal stuff.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck dropped the ball early. Issac Luke gave away a penalty. The game had hardly started and the Wozzas were already trailing 2-0. Oh and that Paul Vaughan penalty that levelled it up, tipping on Simon Mannering? Come on, man. Get the spirit level out if you think that was more than horizontal.
(Granted if we’re complaining about refereeing decisions then there are a fair few to get through. Did the strip before the first try go backwards? Did Issac Luke ground the ball on the line for his try? Was this pass forward, was that guy obstructing? Et cetera, et cetera, et bloody cetera. It’s the NRL after all.)
The Dragons scored three quick tries in about a dozen minutes. All three involved the Sydneysiders playing at a great offensive tempo and making metres through the middle… but all three also involved the Warriors making key mistakes.
- Blake Ayshford fumbles in the play-the-ball -> Paul Vaughan goes in under the posts
- Solomone Kata loses the ball in the tackle -> Josh McCrone eventually barges his way over
- Jack de Belin offloads and the Warriors defensive line doesn’t adjust -> Josh Dugan all the way
And there were a couple other chances there too. 22 minute played and it was 20-2, the Dragons doing what they normally do and the Warriors kinda crumbling. You can say ‘Same Old Warriors’ if you have to but they haven’t been making mistakes like this in 2017. They’ve actually been completing at a really high level so far, with the problem being a lack of incision at the end of it. They had great ball in the Bulldogs’ 20 and couldn’t hardly break through… it was honestly like watching the 2016 Dragons. The difference is that those Dragons sucked for creativity because they had none. These Warriors suck for creativity because they’ve got a new coach, it’s early in the season and they’re still figuring that all out.
RUN IT STRAIGHT, BRUH
Although, y’all let this guy score from here, and that ain’t right. McCrone looked one way, he looked the other way… and he willingly ran STRAIGHT AT THE ONLY DEFENDER IN THE PICTURE. How’s Jai Field’s rib injury coming along?
Plus after the first 25 minutes, this was far from a golden Dragons performance. In fact the rest of it they did the same bollocks the Warriors were doing, not completing sets and letting the others back into things. It was outrageously frustrating and had the Warriors been able to get over the line a time or two more then that game would have genuinely been in the lurch. The Warriors put points on the Knights and then scored 10 points against the Storm, 12 against the Dogs and 12 against the Dragons. Good luck with winning any game like that… but then those are three top defences as well. (Maybe not the Dogs. They should be but then 36-0 against the Sea Eagles doesn’t exactly flatter them – and the Warriors should’ve won that game, losing to Canterbury is easily the worst result of their season so far).
The Dragons have been a decent defence ever since Paul McGregor took over. Sometimes they’d get blown out late but that was more a matter of overwhelming pressure brought on by having zero forms of attack. This season they’ve started adding a little more pressure from the edges with not only the wingers looking to push up and in but also the centres too. Get the timing right there and you cut off the opposition wingers and effectively shrink the width of the field. It’s pretty funny because the Warriors used to get criticised for the same thing when they did it with Konrad Hurrell, for example, and here they were getting pinned inside by the same tactic. It doesn’t always work, Euan Aitken got beaten for Ken Maumalo’s try (hey, Ken Maumalo scored a try!) and his and Nene McDonald’s side was absolutely ravaged by that Parramatta left edge a few weeks back (Radradra, Jennings and Norman with French sliding in as well… gulp). I guess it’s all in the timing.
Johnson throws to RTS... who drops it here with Gypsy & Lafai already in his face, 10m behind the mark
Goal-line defence is also something I tend not to panic about with the Dragons. Josh Dugan specialises in try savers and he’s not alone. Gareth Widdop defended superbly in this game. Cam McInnes as well – he’s been in wonderful form. Obviously the more you defend in your own twenty the worse it’ll get but, I dunno, the Warriors just didn’t seem to threaten that much from close range.
Now, get them attacking from a distance and it was a different story. Shaun Johnson gets blamed for every defeat the Warriors have ever had, even the ones he didn’t play in, but he was terrifying on Sunday night. His second half he looked like he’d create something every time he touched the ball. He was getting on it at speed and his kicking was not only accurate but clever as well, although he got nothing for it (lucky for some desperation defence in there, Nightingale saved at least one sure try getting back to cover a kick). Can’t say Shaunie was the Warriors’ best when James Gavet ran for 129 metres in barely over a half of footy on the park, also making 20 tackles and OFFERING SOMETHING DIFFERENT TO THE REST OF THE FORWARD PACK but Johnson was immense. A shame he didn’t get a whole lot of support – even RTS was dropping footies.
Gotta imagine up against a Titans team that’s averaging over 30 points a game against them through four rounds, that kind of attack is gonna see more benefits. To be honest there was nothing between the two sides in the second half at all. This game was won with a fast start by the home side and they were able to play to their strengths from there, absorbing punches and playing percentages. The Dragons didn’t exactly do that too well, but they got away with it.
So to read tweets and headlines (they’re kinda the same thing at this stage) about how the Warriors are getting worse and worse, about how panic is setting in after four games, about which players should be dropped and which should be cut completely… it’s almost surreal. There’s nothing in there that mentions that Josh Dugan, an Australian representative, is playing some of the best ball of his life as he battles to keep the fullback jersey beyond this season. Same for Gareth Widdop who got rear-ended on his drive to the game and needed his coach to pick him up on the way with his wheel being totalled… only to play his finest game of the season, maybe his finest for two seasons. There’s plenty of talk about all the errors from the Warriors, 19 of them, but not a lot on the defensive pressure that might’ve caused them. The reaction’s all little too insulated.
The Warriors aren’t getting worse, it’s definitely the opposite. But they were playing away at a venue they haven’t won at since 2003 against a team they lose 80% of their games to and they had their five-eighth ruled out twenty minutes before kick-off leading to a massive reshuffle in positions and tactics. They’ve been a poor second half team most of the season and they outscored the Dragons 10-6 in the last 58 mins of this one. They only completed at 61% and still had more overall possession. 31 missed tackles is a huge problem but this was not a game they got dominated in. They haven’t been dominated in any game in 2017.
Maybe it just takes a step back to see that this team is not that far away from where they’re expected to be.