round 1 team

[singlemalt]

not really.. they laughed about it. i gave him a serve tho.

Yep, it will get a good run on the sports blooper reels

Hmmm, I think the last time I saw that was probably 2007 vs Raiders @ Olympic Park - I remember Lima hitting one of there guys so hard his grandchildren will feel it, then he got up and played the ball the wrong way .... at least he had a good excuse!!

[nacho]

not really.. they laughed about it. i gave him a serve tho.

Yep, it will get a good run on the sports blooper reels

Hmmm, I think the last time I saw that was probably 2007 vs Raiders @ Olympic Park - I remember Lima hitting one of there guys so hard his grandchildren will feel it, then he got up and played the ball the wrong way .... at least he had a good excuse!!

yeah that was when lima hit weyman, played for the dragons tonight, i dont think he even made it to his feet to play the ball?

[Michael :P]

Ok performance,we ll get alot better over the next month.

GImgood and Adam Blair were great. Hopefully GI set the tone for his year this game and if so, look out. Blairy is set to become a star, he played the way those of us who have rapped hm for a while, have been looking for i.e with skill and always a threat to get a ball away.

Will Chambers and Willie Isa were OK, they'll get better, and indeed were better in the 2nd half. Isa in particular cant rest with Joe breathing down his neck

Kev Proctor to me looked tentative.

Billy Slater was ok but there were a couple of pre-06 moments there.

Of the rest Koopu, Lima, Turner and Coops were solid (and cam).

Anthony Quinn looked like he had been dragged out of the swan hotel after a starting a bender at 7:30 this morning.

Just one more thing. Aiden Tolman, dont know what to make of him. He's smaller then a true prop, doesnt have the explosion necc. for a back-rower, he's a workhorse type but we already have one of those and IMO there wasted on the bench.

[Insomniac]

I feel sorry for Quinn - it just wasn't his night.  But I certainly wouldn't drop him because of an off night...

I thought it was a good game considering it is Round 1 - both teams were a bit rusty but will improve, and the Dragons are a better side this year with a better coach, and we have come away with a hard fought win nevertheless.

I have no idea what happened with that Sailor/Cooper try - did we have 5 players on the field or something???  Where the hell was everyone???  They must have all eased off in defense seeing Sailor running sideways, but he certainly had the last laugh!  How embarrassing! 

Just one question: did I miss something, or did Hinchcliffe come on for the first time around the 68th minute?  If so, what's with that?  Bellamy has been saying how impressed he has been with Ryan, and he certainly added to our attack in the trial vs. Broncos, so why give him so little game time? 

Some of the reffing was a bit dubious, even with an extra official on the field.  I love how we get penalised over and over for holding down, and yet the Dragons are allowed to do it, and somehow two refs and two touchies miss their forward passes but see most of ours...    I have no idea what some of our penalties were for, even after seeing the replays... did Cameron get penalised for lifting???

Anyway, Inglis was the difference for us in my opinion, so he gets my M.O.M.

I look forward to seeing how we improve next week for the Broncos... it should be a great game!

[bula]

How eerie was that try the Dragons scored at the end - brought back nightmares from last season's Warriors debacle.

And can someone confirm if Billy kicked the ball back to the Dragons with about 5 seconds left(in normal time) to give them another shot at field goal?!! That was a brain exposion.

Reminded me of that Paul Carriage (???) from Parra who put a chip through in that 98 final against Canterbury, anyone seen that?

Anyway I thought the boys did really well
Slater 7- Love how he attacked the ball but made a few mistakes.
Turner 9 - Great defense and his dummy half running was awesome.
Chambers 7 - I think if given enough ball he could really be a go-to man out there.
Isa 6 - Like Chambers, didnt see enough so still not convinced although he didnt look out of place.
Quinn 5 - Worst game ive seen him play, should have a big one next week
Inglis 8 - Needs more ball, give it to him every set! Was a joy to watch
Cronk 7.5 - Got the job done.
Lima 8.5- Was awesome, he just belted into them every time.
Smith 8 - Led well, made some great tackles
Blair 9 - Really stepped up and got some offloads away which was good to see.
Proctor 6.5 - Ran hard and played well, has to keep it up will only get better
Hoffman 6 - Not bad, couple of strong runs but looks little low on confidence
Johnson 8.5 - Didnt offer much in attack but his defense was second to none

Hinchcliffe 4 - Would of liked to see more of him
Anderson 5 - Didnt really notice him
Tolman  5 - Average, like Anderson didnt really notice him either
Koopu  9 - Must be in the team next week, he was a nice surprise, great skill and looked really fit

[Michael :P]

Oh yeah, dont worry about 5/8 next year, whether Taumata is here or not.

Dane Chisholm is a major talent. Could be anything.

[singlemalt]

How eerie was that try the Dragons scored at the end - brought back nightmares from last season's Warriors debacle.

And can someone confirm if Billy kicked the ball back to the Dragons with about 5 seconds left(in normal time) to give them another shot at field goal?!! That was a brain exposion.

Reminded me of that Paul Carriage (???) from Parra who put a chip through in that 98 final against Canterbury, anyone seen that?

Anyway I thought the boys did really well
Slater 7- Love how he attacked the ball but made a few mistakes.
Turner 9 - Great defense and his dummy half running was awesome.
Chambers 7 - I think if given enough ball he could really be a go-to man out there.
Isa 6 - Like Chambers, didnt see enough so still not convinced although he didnt look out of place.
Quinn 5 - Worst game ive seen him play, should have a big one next week
Inglis 8 - Needs more ball, give it to him every set! Was a joy to watch
Cronk 7.5 - Got the job done.
Lima 8.5- Was awesome, he just belted into them every time.
Smith 8 - Led well, made some great tackles
Blair 9 - Really stepped up and got some offloads away which was good to see.
Proctor 6.5 - Ran hard and played well, has to keep it up will only get better
Hoffman 6 - Not bad, couple of strong runs but looks little low on confidence
Johnson 8.5 - Didnt offer much in attack but his defense was second to none

Hinchcliffe 4 - Would of liked to see more of him
Anderson 5 - Didnt really notice him
Tolman  5 - Average, like Anderson didnt really notice him either
Koopu  9 - Must be in the team next week, he was a nice surprise, great skill and looked really fit

Interesting that Billy didn't run up a lot of balls from the kick-return, did a lot of passing to his wingers instead.

Last year I reckon Slater would back himself to run the ball up at least 4 out of 5 times. I did notice a couple of times he passed off and did a run around ready to receive again, but it didn't happen either time - perhaps something Belly has been working on?


And doesn't GI look like a monster this year - that extra bulk really shows .... and Soward felt the full brunt of it with that try 

[Surandy]

To be honest I actually preferred watching the replay rather than watching it live. Possibly knowing the result in advance helped! 

Got plenty of laughs watching the replay whereas watching the game live just found it damn frustrating. Watching the replay I loved seeing over and over Soward getting shoved 500 metres backwards by Greg and the Quinn playing the ball the wrong way, not to mention Cameron's "whats a chicken wing?"  Although what was frustrating with that was when about two or three minutes later a chicken wing is performed against us, and you guessed it, no penalty!

Typical Round 1 match, too many errors, hoped these are ironed out of our game before next weekend. Koopu was very solid and deserves to be part of the 17 again next week. Hinchcliffe was unlucky it was such a close game, Bellamy wasn't game to play him until right towards the end. Great to see the emergency services honoured the way they were.

[Surandy]

I forgot to mention, good to see the Under 20's hold out for a two point win.

[Super Cronk]

I feel sorry for Quinn - it just wasn't his night.  But I certainly wouldn't drop him because of an off night...

I thought it was a good game considering it is Round 1 - both teams were a bit rusty but will improve, and the Dragons are a better side this year with a better coach, and we have come away with a hard fought win nevertheless.

I have no idea what happened with that Sailor/Cooper try - did we have 5 players on the field or something???  Where the hell was everyone???  They must have all eased off in defense seeing Sailor running sideways, but he certainly had the last laugh!  How embarrassing! 

Just one question: did I miss something, or did Hinchcliffe come on for the first time around the 68th minute?  If so, what's with that?  Bellamy has been saying how impressed he has been with Ryan, and he certainly added to our attack in the trial vs. Broncos, so why give him so little game time? 

Some of the reffing was a bit dubious, even with an extra official on the field.  I love how we get penalised over and over for holding down, and yet the Dragons are allowed to do it, and somehow two refs and two touchies miss their forward passes but see most of ours...    I have no idea what some of our penalties were for, even after seeing the replays... did Cameron get penalised for lifting???

Anyway, Inglis was the difference for us in my opinion, so he gets my M.O.M.

I look forward to seeing how we improve next week for the Broncos... it should be a great game!

mate...its never quinns night...he is either ok or terrible.

Yep hinchecliffe came on with around 10 to go. Bellayche has done this forever...names someone on the bench then gives them the last 10-15 to play. i have no clue why...im not sure exactly where he played either because cam was at hooker during the time he was out there.

yeah cam was done for lifting and lima a chicken wing....neither were close.

[Play the ball]

all though the off season I have had  the feeling along with most supporters with the loss of all the players, that we will probably have to take a step or two backwards to go foward again,

And I came away from the game with that feeling reinforced,

We will improve though, but it may not be overnight, it's hard to put a time on it,

An interesting stat though , mentioned by Gus Gould, and a positive one,

when the team was named,  Slator and Smith were the oldest named , at 25, thats an amazing stat for a side that has just played in 3 consecutive GFs.

There are plenty of positives to go with the concerns.

Go Storm.

[Thunderstruck]

Goodness gracious, just watching the game on Australia network, Greg Inglis went from a chimp to a gorilla. That guy could be playing as lock or back row!

[I love Cooper]

Wow! That was tooooo close!! Greg was a beast!! And Steve Turner was awesome!! I always felt the ball was going to be safe with him holding it, after seeing Quinn, Chambers and Billy do some mistakes. Overall, it was a horror match to watch, lots of fumbles from both sides and glimpes of brilliance uhhhh but exciting the same time lol.

Awwww who saw Jezz hanging with the Storm boys after the match. Missing him already!!

And finally who was that Dragons guy who tried to get Will Chambers into touch? He pushed his head to the ground! I hate him!!!! lol

[gothestorm]

Was the video ref used last night?

[nacho]

Was the video ref used last night?

first video ref for the year was between manly and buldogs tonight