Round 2: St George-Illawarra Dragons vs Gold Coast Titans

[Hoppy2007Dragons]

You mustn't know too much about professional rugby league. Sure, they missed tackles, but look at the score line. They must have defended ok to only lose by a converted try. If the try to Mini was awarded it may have been a different story. Borderline flat passes were happening over the whole weekend of footy and depending on who was reffing the game, points were awarded. No use blowing a fuse and swearing about it. It's round two.

I'm gonna have to agree with ryan, my dragons alligence aside, the titans put in a pretty poor effort considering how deep they dug to fight back in round one.

The titans first try came off a poor hornby pass and the second try was on the fulltime siren.

Carty will definetly need to drill the team, the dragons attack was pretty poor and disorganised, a more potent attacking team will def put the titans to the sword if they pull out another performance like that.

I think carty should look at arriving at away games early, the team looked lethargic, maybe the titans should think outside the square to beat their away hoodoo, morale concepts have a huge effect on the team.

[Titan2007]

I'm gonna have to agree with ryan, my dragons alligence aside, the titans put in a pretty poor effort considering how deep they dug to fight back in round one.

The titans first try came off a poor hornby pass and the second try was on the fulltime siren.

Carty will definetly need to drill the team, the dragons attack was pretty poor and disorganised, a more potent attacking team will def put the titans to the sword if they pull out another performance like that.

I think carty should look at arriving at away games early, the team looked lethargic, maybe the titans should think outside the square to beat their away hoodoo, morale concepts have a huge effect on the team.

Sure, but as I wrote in another comment, dehydration = lethagy. Perhaps thats why. Also it doesn't matter if trys come from opposition poor passes, as long as they score and get the points.

[Ryan]

You mustn't know too much about professional rugby league. Sure, they missed tackles, but look at the score line. They must have defended ok to only lose by a converted try. If the try to Mini was awarded it may have been a different story. Borderline flat passes were happening over the whole weekend of footy and depending on who was reffing the game, points were awarded. No use blowing a fuse and swearing about it. It's round two.

I'm no footy genius, but I'm obviously a few pegs up on you.

Like Hoppy just and and a few others before - the Dragons had next to no attack. If we played like that against Melbourne, Brisbane or Nth QLD it would have been a +40 scoreline.

A side with the attacking options like the Titans shouldn't need to rely on 'borderline flat' passing to scrape in for a chance at victory.

[Hoppy2007Dragons]

Sure, but as I wrote in another comment, dehydration = lethagy. Perhaps thats why. Also it doesn't matter if trys come from opposition poor passes, as long as they score and get the points.

No it doesn't matter in regards to points, but in weeks to come when people examine the titans attacking potency, i'm sure they would rather look at the tries they created rather than the ones handed to them.

Dehydration may have accounted for this loss, but what about the other 25+ away loses over the short history.

[josh_m]

I dont think that dean's comments are as ridiculous as they're being branded. The Titans will struggle this year (again) if they cant get their away game stigmata sorted, you have to win more than 12/12 home games to be a chance of even making the finals, let alone be in premiership contention. As already mentioned, the Titans have the Dogs who are 2/2 and a shadow of their former selves, the Cowboys and then the Storm... Both away games.

They better get it sorted and they better do it fast.

[TITAN PETE]

The boys played fairly poorly for most of the match & i think the shake up is needed at 5/8 & the backrow.......Zillman needs to start & maybe wearing the 6 & swapping throughout the game with Presto & leave Rogers in the centres will help in our pretty lifeless attack Our backrow was one of the best in the NRL last year but apart from maybe Minni at times , they have been average so dropping 1 of them may be a kick in the **** thats required at the moment as Odywer is out playing all of them off the bench & with guys like Henderson,Tagatese,Berdie & Thompson all playing Qld Cup i think there should be a couple of changes made earlier rather later

[Steel Dragon]

If the Titans put in a performance like that against any team other than the Dragons, I'd be jumping up and down like the rest of you. Our attack is pedestrian, but it only needed to be pedestrian to win that game, you guys just made so many errors.

I guess the positive is that the respective defences of both teams are well in order, and the Titans attack always seems to mysteriously roar back to life on your own dung hill. I really hope you guys can figure a way to con yourselves into thinking you're playing at Robina every week. And someone might want ot have a word in Carty's ear and remind him Presto is a half, not a fullback. Swapping him and Rogers would be a very good move.

As for us, I suspect the ABC commentators are correct - Bennett focussed largely on our defence during the pre-season, realising that you can't turn chokers into world-beaters overnight. Virtually all our problems in the past have been mental, and I believe Bennett is working on getting our heads right first, then worrying about looking pretty. His comments in the media seem to back that up.

As for the ref, you're not the first team to ever be dudded, and at least you weren't cost a Grand Final by a bad refereeing error. But blaming the ref is always the first excuse of those who aren't good enough to win by themselves (we Dragons fans are exhibit #1), and I'm not aware of a result ever being overturned on the basis of a refereeing error. Carty and a couple of your players will be lucky to dodge $10k fines for some of the post-match comments.

[Steve]

Preston was always a fullback before he got shifted to half.

You're right about the ref though. It happens in games. We saw it plenty this weekend and the last, not just our game. It'll happen again too.

If the guys were really firing, they'd have scored enough tries that in the end the ref would have been played out of the game. You need to do that if you want to win consistently and make the finals. It's great to snatch a win in the close games, but you need as few of those as possible.

Laffranchi was still one of our top tacklers, made the most metres and most hit ups, but he's not breaking the line and offloading like we're used to. I think once our forwards kick into gear, we'll be going a lot better. Still need to work on those backs though!

[shavenjas]

I think the Titans would struggle to win an away game if it was played at Tweed Heads can someone tell them that the fields are all the same size, except for the in goal at Melbourne..

Question: How many Titans players does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer: 1, Scott Prince he does everything

[Coaster]

Backline ends at Rogers.

We could have Inglis Folou and Jesus Christ himself playing wing, they wouldnt see the ball because once Rogers has it, he either

1. turns it back inside
2. runs and gets tackled

the only time our centers see the ball Preston or Prince give it to them, and because both centers are second rowers they do the same as Rogers.

The best halves in the game IMO are Lockyer and Wallace, Wallace controls the game, and when he is under pressure or out of position Lockyer takes over and controlls.

Us on the other hand have Prince, and who, ill tell you now its not rogers, even though he is kicking a lot more.