Why is our attack, possession and completion stats so poor?

[ism22]

As we slowly watch this season (which was supposed to be ours) slip out of our grasp, what is the deal? Why cant we farking:
- Get 50:50 possession with ANYBODY?!?!? We always force ourselves to score more with less ball. Good luck with that!
- Complete our farking sets?!?!? WHY?!?!? 6 FARKING TACKLES!!! Surely it isnt that hard to complete most of your sets.
- SCORE SOME FARKING TRIES!!!! IS LATRELL FARKING MITCHELL THE ONLY FARKING PLAYER WHO CAN SCORE... ALL BY HIMSELF... FREAKISHLY?!?!? Frankly, we are not causing defensive lines any worries with the (limited) attack we are getting.

What is to blame here? What is so wrong with our style of play that it seems to ALWAYS involve:
- Doing way more defence than the other team
- Relying on freakish tries coming from outta nowhere
- Dropping the farking pill a lot

I am grtting sick of it! Maybe we can beat the Sharks, Doggies and Knights... but unless we fix this, IMO we will not win a lot of games this season.

[Guest]

Today we had 54-46% possession, 72-70% completion rate, 1755 metres to 1715 metres, 343 tackles to 338 tackles with 30 missed by each team. We made 15 errors to 13, 4 penalties each, had 8 offloads to 19 and 1 line break to 4.

Yet we still lost 24-8.

[roosterchook]

Today we had 54-46% possession, 72-70% completion rate, 1755 metres to 1715 metres, 343 tackles to 338 tackles with 30 missed by each team. We made 15 errors to 13, 4 penalties each, had 8 offloads to 19 and 1 line break to 4.

Yet we still lost 24-8.

The main difference was the coach. The scum were very well coached. We were poorly coached.

[Guest]

The main difference was the coach. The scum were very well coached. We were poorly coached.

I work with a Dragons fan who is convinced that someone else is coaching them behind the scenes lol

[chopstiks]

Latrell our only scorer in 160 plus minutes.

Watching Dragons crush Cronk, while Hunt saunters around all cool calm collected for the first time since carving up his ex Broncos, is down to coaching, and I'm fed up watching basic opposition strengths not be stifled.

Seems from the matches, and what he tells us, that Robinson wants to just 'worry about us'. Im not joking i reckon i could have coached Dragons to a win today.

[ism22]

Latrell our only scorer in 160 plus minutes.

Watching Dragons crush Cronk, while Hunt saunters around all cool calm collected for the first time since carving up his ex Broncos, is down to coaching, and I'm fed up watching basic opposition strengths not be stifled.

Seems from the matches, and what he tells us, that Robinson wants to just 'worry about us'. Im not joking i reckon i could have coached Dragons to a win today.

Is part of our problem that we are the benchmark (or were pre-season) so everybody has done their homework on how to bust up Cronk, Keary, Friend, Tedesco, Cordner, Fergo, Latrell...etc but nobody has done any homework on flogs like Dufty, Aitken, Sims, Lino...etc, so they are running amok?

I suspect people KNOW our combos and have worked out how to pressure them such that the speed of Cronk-Keary-Cordner-Latrell...etc kinda combos has been killed off. That line where Keary does a short pass to Cordner or a cutout pass to Latrell used to get us an almost certain linebreak/try. Now? I notice that if Keary doesnt get stopped first... Cords will be hit with numbers and/or Latrell will be hit with numbers.

IMO our strength has become our weakness as we have become too predictable. This causes us to get blinded when our plan doesnt work... so instead of that try or line break... Friend grabs the ball, crabs across the field, does nothing and this leads to either a knock-on, a stupid kick that goes nowhere or a forward pass. We need a backup plan for when our heavy artillery fails to dent their armour.

Here is my plan.
1. Keary and Cords or Latrell TRY their magic, but Radley trails behind them.
2. If there is no try or line break... then SURRENDER!!! Flop on the ground and play the ball to Radley ASAP.
3. Radley then has the option of either having another go along the short side, passing to one of the pigs to run down the centre, doing a cutout pass to Fergo/Teddy (GET THEM COMBINING IF MAUBS IS CENTRE!!!) or running the ball himself.

Simple plan but IMO we need to be thinking 3 plays ahead and looking for quick play the balls rather than farking hoping for a line break and having a crab across the field when it isnt forthcoming

[Lydon]

Latrell our only scorer in 160 plus minutes.

Watching Dragons crush Cronk, while Hunt saunters around all cool calm collected for the first time since carving up his ex Broncos, is down to coaching, and I'm fed up watching basic opposition strengths not be stifled.

Seems from the matches, and what he tells us, that Robinson wants to just 'worry about us'. Im not joking i reckon i could have coached Dragons to a win today.

Sims admitted after the game that McGregor challenged him to drop Cronk to the ground and pressure him every time he touched the ball..I must say Sims responded perfectly,he was hunting Cronk!
Whereas Ben Hunt scored a try and ran for many metres at will,it’s so frustrating to watch..

[ism22]

Sims admitted after the game that McGregor challenged him to drop Cronk to the ground and pressure him every time he touched the ball..I must say Sims responded perfectly,he was hunting Cronk!
Whereas Ben Hunt scored a try and ran for many metres at will,it’s so frustrating to watch..

Hopefully such tactics start to fail later on in the season as our game plan (which I will continue to assume exists) starts working.

Surely a tactic like this would leave a gaping hole and Cronk would be like oi Victor, Sims is big and stupid... he will put everything into this tackle on me. I am gonna let him waste his energy doing that, ao you MUST get the ball **ASAP** after the tackle and run the silly fool offside while he is getting up. Farking run it 20 metres and make sure Cords, Latrell and Teddy are with you.

[DP1990]

OUR FORWARDS ARE PISS WEAK AND SHIT HOUSE !

Keary/Cronk and the outside backs can't do shit if we're not moving up the middle strong and fast. Oh and Friend is slow and lacks any creativity out of dummy-half. Besides Friend making 50+ tackles per game what else does he have to offer ??? Loyalty will only go so far. he is too slow off the mark and does not have the pace and required creative ball playing skill to either shoot up and run out of dummy half or pass quality ball to our halves/players around him.

Radley or Baptiste needs to start at #9 with Friend dropped to the lower grades to sort his shit out/redevelop himself.

Teddy is trying but he will get better and on his best day he is arguably one of the most dangerous Fullbacks in the comp...but everything starts from the FRONT of the pack.

Lack luster forwards going no where with no off-load ability plus a boring/disinterested hooker = ROOSTERS STRUGGLING TO FIRE !

THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED NOW !

or what will our excuse be ? wait till SBW arrives around mid-season (if that even happens) or wait till we get Angus Crichton next year ??? yeah nah !

[Lydon]

I honestly do believe our issue is no attacking option from dummy half..
We have become so predictable with the Cronk to Keary backline play,adding to that no offloads from the forwards..
We need more variety from dummy half to give us another option,whereas now our plays are way to predictable..
Hence why I believe we are struggling to score points!
Either Friend needs an attacking game or someone else needs to come in,otherwise we’re done this year!

[chopstiks]

Is part of our problem that we are the benchmark (or were pre-season) so everybody has done their homework on how to bust up Cronk, Keary, Friend, Tedesco, Cordner, Fergo, Latrell...etc but nobody has done any homework on flogs like Dufty, Aitken, Sims, Lino...etc, so they are running amok?

I suspect people KNOW our combos and have worked out how to pressure them such that the speed of Cronk-Keary-Cordner-Latrell...etc kinda combos has been killed off. That line where Keary does a short pass to Cordner or a cutout pass to Latrell used to get us an almost certain linebreak/try. Now? I notice that if Keary doesnt get stopped first... Cords will be hit with numbers and/or Latrell will be hit with numbers.

IMO our strength has become our weakness as we have become too predictable. This causes us to get blinded when our plan doesnt work... so instead of that try or line break... Friend grabs the ball, crabs across the field, does nothing and this leads to either a knock-on, a stupid kick that goes nowhere or a forward pass. We need a backup plan for when our heavy artillery fails to dent their armour.

Here is my plan.
1. Keary and Cords or Latrell TRY their magic, but Radley trails behind them.
2. If there is no try or line break... then SURRENDER!!! Flop on the ground and play the ball to Radley ASAP.
3. Radley then has the option of either having another go along the short side, passing to one of the pigs to run down the centre, doing a cutout pass to Fergo/Teddy (GET THEM COMBINING IF MAUBS IS CENTRE!!!) or running the ball himself.

Simple plan but IMO we need to be thinking 3 plays ahead and looking for quick play the balls rather than farking hoping for a line break and having a crab across the field when it isnt forthcoming

They practice that play in the warm up. Lol. Hey check this out flogs.

Radley magic desperately needs more minutes. He's better than top 17. His attitude is superior. I'd like to see our coaches admit to themselves what's not working through different solutions, like you suggest. Currently it seems to be just wait, the good times will eventually roll, stick to our process blah blah.
One example, if we look to the one half decent team we beat, Sharks, why did we throw that winning formula back out the window?

[chopstiks]

OUR FORWARDS ARE PISS WEAK AND SHIT HOUSE !

Keary/Cronk and the outside backs can't do shit if we're not moving up the middle strong and fast. Oh and Friend is slow and lacks any creativity out of dummy-half. Besides Friend making 50+ tackles per game what else does he have to offer ??? Loyalty will only go so far. he is too slow off the mark and does not have the pace and required creative ball playing skill to either shoot up and run out of dummy half or pass quality ball to our halves/players around him.

Radley or Baptiste needs to start at #9 with Friend dropped to the lower grades to sort his shit out/redevelop himself.

Teddy is trying but he will get better and on his best day he is arguably one of the most dangerous Fullbacks in the comp...but everything starts from the FRONT of the pack.

Lack luster forwards going no where with no off-load ability plus a boring/disinterested hooker = ROOSTERS STRUGGLING TO FIRE !

THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED NOW !

or what will our excuse be ? wait till SBW arrives around mid-season (if that even happens) or wait till we get Angus Crichton next year ??? yeah nah !

Crichton. I was hoping Uncle Nick had a get out clause there after watching him the past few weeks.

[chopstiks]

Sims admitted after the game that McGregor challenged him to drop Cronk to the ground and pressure him every time he touched the ball..I must say Sims responded perfectly,he was hunting Cronk!
Whereas Ben Hunt scored a try and ran for many metres at will,it’s so frustrating to watch..

McGregor outcoached Robinson, at the most basic level.

We made Hunt and Widdop look like world beaters.

After being torn a new one last week they're back to Premiership favourites!

[Louis N]

When was the last time we saw a forward burst through the centre of the ruck ala SBW, Moa or JWH (in 2015) or slip a ball to a flying back ala Maloney, Jennings or RTS trailing through the middle. It's not happening. We're fixated on one out runs and quick play the ball. Our battering rams are now showing the effects. Not good.

When our own fans are saying we're predictable and picking our moves...then "we're predictable". And commentators have been saying it since last year. That wouldn't be so bad if it delivered premierships like the Storm who are predictable but nobody seems to be able to stop. But our predictability is our downfall.

[PeeGee]

As we slowly watch this season (which was supposed to be ours) slip out of our grasp, what is the deal? Why cant we farking:
- Get 50:50 possession with ANYBODY?!?!? We always force ourselves to score more with less ball. Good luck with that!
- Complete our farking sets?!?!? WHY?!?!? 6 FARKING TACKLES!!! Surely it isnt that hard to complete most of your sets.
- SCORE SOME FARKING TRIES!!!! IS LATRELL FARKING MITCHELL THE ONLY FARKING PLAYER WHO CAN SCORE... ALL BY HIMSELF... FREAKISHLY?!?!? Frankly, we are not causing defensive lines any worries with the (limited) attack we are getting.

What is to blame here? What is so wrong with our style of play that it seems to ALWAYS involve:
- Doing way more defence than the other team
- Relying on freakish tries coming from outta nowhere
- Dropping the farking pill a lot

I am grtting sick of it! Maybe we can beat the Sharks, Doggies and Knights... but unless we fix this, IMO we will not win a lot of games this season.

I love the passion. Every poster should be using the word Fark liberally after yet another Reserve Grade like performance,, not just us 2.

For Farks Sake , 8 farking rounds have gone by and we still look like a bunch of confused farking poorly coached u16s.

There must be a lot of unrest at Bondi Junction. And Robbo and the team performing under increasing pressure is not going to help one iota.