As a preface I would like to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the dragons play this year. There can be no doubt that they have made a conscientious effort to make defense the key focus of their games. Attitude is a massive part of the game, and this dragons team seems to have it in spades at the moment.
Years of inadequate performances have me a little hesitant to get too excited. I'm seeing fans predicting a top four finish. But I'm not quite convinced. (Very pleased with the way they are going, but not yet ready to order my premiership shirt).
The teams that we have been doing well against are the very structured ones. The roosters, broncos and Melbourne all play a similar style of football, playing low risk football and playing for a penalty inside their half and working for a penalty, and working for a mistake when their opposition is coming out of their own territory. The last few years this has been very successful - we were the best exponents of it in 2010. What's been working very well for us against those teams is that we are recovering from bad territorial positions through excellent scramble and online defense.
Manly were very ordinary when we played them, and I thought that we were very good against the dogs. I can never really take seriously the Canberra game (if I did I wouldn't have survived as a supporter for so long - I have nightmares about Canberra games). The knights game was a wet affair where I thought we played the conditions exceptionally well
The tigers toweled us up with creative football and then went into their shell in the second half.
It's possible that the era of structured attack is coming to an end. The game goes through phases where a certain style of football is dominant, then it will turn and a style of football is developed to counter what was previously the dominant style. This could very well be that type of season.
With the rabbits and dogs struggling with their rosters, and manly really struggling, I think the makeup of the eight will be very dependent on the fate of injuries etc. there's not a team in the comp that I can dismiss at the moment. Rep season will also be a telling factor for several teams. I selfishly hope that none of our players make the nsw squad.
I think we are in the mix. But how strong we are could be an illusion at the moment. Enjoy the football ladies and gentlemen, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. There are some very good football teams out there.
Where are we?
Years of inadequate performances have me a little hesitant to get too excited. I'm seeing fans predicting a top four finish. But I'm not quite convinced. (Very pleased with the way they are going, but not yet ready to order my premiership shirt).
The teams that we have been doing well against are the very structured ones. The roosters, broncos and Melbourne all play a similar style of football, playing low risk football and playing for a penalty inside their half and working for a penalty, and working for a mistake when their opposition is coming out of their own territory. The last few years this has been very successful - we were the best exponents of it in 2010. What's been working very well for us against those teams is that we are recovering from bad territorial positions through excellent scramble and online defense.
Manly were very ordinary when we played them, and I thought that we were very good against the dogs. I can never really take seriously the Canberra game (if I did I wouldn't have survived as a supporter for so long - I have nightmares about Canberra games). The knights game was a wet affair where I thought we played the conditions exceptionally well
The tigers toweled us up with creative football and then went into their shell in the second half.
It's possible that the era of structured attack is coming to an end. The game goes through phases where a certain style of football is dominant, then it will turn and a style of football is developed to counter what was previously the dominant style. This could very well be that type of season.
With the rabbits and dogs struggling with their rosters, and manly really struggling, I think the makeup of the eight will be very dependent on the fate of injuries etc. there's not a team in the comp that I can dismiss at the moment. Rep season will also be a telling factor for several teams. I selfishly hope that none of our players make the nsw squad.
I think we are in the mix. But how strong we are could be an illusion at the moment. Enjoy the football ladies and gentlemen, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. There are some very good football teams out there.
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