Round 1: TITANS vs DRAGONS (2024)

[DIEHARD]

TITANS vs DRAGONS

Match centre: https://www.titans.com.au/draw/nrl-p...ans-v-dragons/

[Titanic]

Someone more tech-savvy than me will most likely add the two teams to this thread.

On topic: I am not even one little bit surprised by this week's selection, except perhaps that Palasia has been named at 13, which I do agree with to a certain extent. So apart from that addition and a few positional tweaks 2024 looks like 2023. At this point my expectations are limited to Des-watch.

Difficult game first-up, Titans by the skinniest of margins.

[MaroonTitan]

Should be a cracker! Carrying two locks on the bench, I'll be surprised if the 13 run on in order.

[5 Year Contract]

Ready to just let this team do the talking but the dragons won’t be easy beats anymore and to be honest every team seems to have gotten better in the offseason. Not coming into this one with high expectations all I want to see is

-full effort
-no dumb mistakes
-no panic and capitulation
-no injuries

Lesssgoooooooooo

[Hail Sezer]

Ready to just let this team do the talking but the dragons won’t be easy beats anymore and to be honest every team seems to have gotten better in the offseason. Not coming into this one with high expectations all I want to see is

-full effort
-no dumb mistakes
-no panic and capitulation
-no injuries

Lesssgoooooooooo

Yeah, I think this year is going to be the toughest comp in a while.

Agree with that list as priorities and I'll add on to effort the small effort areas on D, urgency, and falling into system. Were a few guys that looked shaky and unsure of how to execute their role during the last trial so I'm interested to see if that improves with better personnel on the field.

Big thing for me this year generally speaking is just having a better share of positive field position, and that really comes down to our defensive sets and how we control other teams in yardage. It's handicapping our halves/fullback ability to contribute and control with the ball. Will be good to see how we go on this front on Sat

[Upthetits]

Yeah, I think this year is going to be the toughest comp in a while.

Agree with that list as priorities and I'll add on to effort the small effort areas on D, urgency, and falling into system. Were a few guys that looked shaky and unsure of how to execute their role during the last trial so I'm interested to see if that improves with better personnel on the field.

Big thing for me this year generally speaking is just having a better share of positive field position, and that really comes down to our defensive sets and how we control other teams in yardage. It's handicapping our halves/fullback ability to contribute and control with the ball. Will be good to see how we go on this front on Sat

After those trial matches I expect the dragons to roll straight down the field. We can't seem to control the ruck or win the tackle

[Hail Sezer]

After those trial matches I expect the dragons to roll straight down the field. We can't seem to control the ruck or win the tackle

I didn’t think it was bad versus the Dolphins at all, which is weird considering we rolled out a bunch of toilers & kids

Vs Parra it was awful. We had no answer when their middles were carrying the ball. Hard to be optimistic with that being what we’ve got to go off hey

[Whats Doing]

The Dragons are going to be very physical down the middle and we need to be with them at the 30 ninute mark when their intensity starts to tire.

We have a rather small side overall and we will be targeted down the middle all year. As such we need to move off the line quickly to minimise the yardage, and negate the speed which will reduce their power down the centre. Also we need to start our defensive sets within their 20 metre zone as deep field position in defence also assists our defensive resolve. Our kick and chase needs to be much better this year to get the good deep defensive position on the field on the majority of our defensive sets

[Cowabunga]

I'm not to fussed about the middle defence. Going to go in positive even after the Eels performance because there were still good signs imo on the defensive end/yardage.

Eels threw more offloads then any other team in the comp in 2023 with Hopgood(1st), Carwtright(2), Paulo(7) and Penisini (25) who were all the biggest offenders besides Moses who was carving up that left side (they usually all happened on the same plays). It's not great but I don't think it's a big issue yet when they were always going to really push the offload in a trial. On top of that our left side had no communication got ripped to pieces anytime it happened to roll down the field, That should at least be better with Foz out there.

The difference with the left and right side was noticeable in defence which is a good thing imo, The right side were moving together even with Jojo and Francis where as on the left side looked better when the reserves came on because they have played together.

Seeing the bench now it's the same as the trial besides Liu and they gained the momentum back when they came on which didn't even happen with our bench last year. Besides the first stint with the starting forwards, Our defence from the bench was way better then any point last year and the line speed and contact was really solid.

It sounds dumb but there were a lot of the same signs from the Dolphins game from the majority of the squad, Everything looked a lot better.

Now that's my positivity done for the year and for them to make me look like an idiot this weekend.

[willhelm]

I reckon we’re gonna smoke em

We didn’t take the trials seriously

[GC Giant]

Saints second trial was very good. Disciplined in attack and defence.
We were a bit all over the place. I think we could have to have a serious turnaround to win this. We looked off the pace all game.

[willhelm]

When has trial form ever carried over to the real season? Didn’t we flog the Dolphins then draw with the Donkeys in the trials last year?

[Hail Sezer]

When has trial form ever carried over to the real season? Didn’t we flog the Dolphins then draw with the Donkeys in the trials last year?

Every single year trial results prove to mean little to nothing across the NRL

Every single year people get carried away with trial results and mistake it for form going into the season

I think you can take things out of it for sure, to make an assessment about different aspects on the field and what needs to be improved in actual season. But as a general indicator of a teams actual form or capability, it means very little

[hungryjacks]

From the way players talk about Des Hasler, especially from the Kieran Foran interview on this weeks 'the fan', that Des Hasler loves to get his players up for game day. I wouldnt be surprised if they are saving the big 'rev up' for game day this Saturday.

[Cowabunga]

Hopgood ran 22 times for 228 metres and made 30 tackles playing 60 or so minutes and Fermor had a game that would have Schoupp hung aroud here, Keenan ran for 12m and made 8 tackles, The difference was a couple of guys putting in more effort.

Judging Dragons when they played Tigers is wild, They might be good but we know what we're getting in a physical big team, they have nothing else. Tigers had defence that put our 2019 team to shame and the week before Dragons got slapped by a Souths team with a bunch of Cup players...

At the end of the day if our forward pack is getting beaten by packs like this there needs to be big discussions why we're spending the money on them that we are. We've got 2 props who play for QLD, 2 internationals in Liu and Keenan + Jolliffe (won't count Ireland) and everyone else....

We need to be winning 90% of the battles with that pack when we're probably spending 1.8m+ or so on Moe and Tino to be those guys. We've been spending money for no reason at this point on a good forward pack on paper, Time to earn it.