FULLTIME SCORE: Saints 4 - Cowboys 50
Match Conditions: 28 degrees C, fine, good breeze
favour NQ first half.
Attendance: 13,768
MATCH SUMMARY:
SAINTS ANNIHILATED 50 - 4
In what is turning out to be one of our worse years, Saints were crushed
today
by the last placed North Queensland Cowboys by a mammoth 46 point
margin.
Saints were firm favourites to take out this encounter. The locals in Townsville
were hoping for a good showing from their team. No one expected the hiding
which was to take place.
For most of the match, Saints had less than 30 % of the ball. This was
mainly
due to their lack of ball control and an obvious inability to properly
complete
their sets of six.
At half time, the score was 32-0 and although we picked up a trickle of
possession in the 2nd half, it was a shell-shocked Dragons team which took
to
the field for the final 40 minutes.
On top of being thrashed, Saints also have to face the music on Tuesday
night
with both Craig Smith and Darren Treacy on report. Although Treacy (late
tackle) seems to have enough in his favour to mount a defense, Smithy (head
high) looks to be in strife. He has already been suspended once this year.
Bartrim was sin binned for dissent for the 2nd week running as he
took out his
frustration on the ref, blurting out one expletive too many. He would have
been
better off concentrating on the game plan as only a few of the Dragons
showed
up to play and most were just plain lazy, especially in defense.
In all fairness, the Cowboys were pretty to watch today and were clearly
a
team full of beans. With the worse attack record in the NRL, the Cowboys
have now posted 2 scores of 50 points this year.
The Dragons now have to re-group once again and will front the inevitable
crappy tabloid controversy of the 'Mundine factor' which may or may not
have
contributed to their loss. Even when the guy isn't at the party, he will
be
accused of making too much noise. As far as I could see, the only thing
which
contributed to this latest Dragons' loss was a lack of basic effort.
FULL MATCH REPORT:
Saints applied the early pressure with Timmins looking dangerous
but the NQ line held firm. Saints' defence, on the other couldn't mark
up when NQ scored a soft try in the 8th minute.
Score: 6-0
What followed was a procession of NQ tries, mostly under
the posts and mainly resulting from feeble defensive work, especially up
the middle of the ruck.
Needless to say, NQ took full advantage of these opportunities
and everything went right for them. NQ had some luck with the bounce of
the ball and the luck usually went the way of the locals but the reality
is that they were 10 times more enthusiastic then their visitors.
When Saints did get the ball, they meekly gave it up with
poor ball control and woeful kicking options. On one occasion when Saints
really needed to dig deep, the ball carrier, Ainscough was unimpressive
when tackled into touch about 20 metres out from Saints' tryline.
The Dragons' defenders made NQ look good when they let in yet another soft
try and mid way through the first half, NQ were scoring an average of a
point a minute. After 23 minutes and with only 23% of the ball, Saints
just couldn't mount anything that even slightly resembled a contest.
It was around the 30 minute mark that we noticed the frustration
of the day starting to get to team members. This mainly manifested itself
into panic play and handling errors but there were also a few late tackles,
a little bit of head hunting and too much arguing with the ref. An example
of this was when Barto came back on after a spell and immediately tried
to start a dust up. This lack of discipline became more apparent as the
match went on and was one of the many contributing factors as to why we
copped such a hiding.
Saints threw a few moves together and were looking capable
of scoring if not for some poor finishing. But a few minutes before the
break, Brasher scored a blistering try off the boot, kicking ahead
and re-gathering. With everything going NQ's way, it was heart breaking
to watch...these are the sort of tries that we want to see Saints scoring.
By the time half time had come around we had had just about enough but
we knew that we would all be glued to the match after the break, hoping
for a miracle.
HALF TIME SCORE: SAINTS 0 - NTH QLD 32
Saints started the 2nd half miserably with a simple handling
error one pass after the kick off. But they regrouped in determined fashion
and had clearly put the previous 40 minutes behind them. A try or two in
the next 10 minutes would give us some hope and there was talk of Saints
pulling off a remarkable comeback. Smith, Treacy and Bailey worked hard
up the middle while Barrett and Branighan tried hard to mobilise their
outside men. Unfortunately, Saints' best scoring opportunity of the match
went begging when Ainscough looked to where he expected his unmarked winger
to be only to see the touch judge - Blacklock hopelessly out of position.
Nevertheless, Saints got their first back to back sets
of six early in the second half and some positive things were happening.
Top quality work from Barrett saw Smith in a gap and we would have scored
if 1, he passed the ball quickly to an unopposed
Bartrim or 2, he backed himself once the tryline
was only 2 metres away and Brasher was desperately hanging on. Instead,
he sent out a forward pass and another try was bombed. A minute later,
Craig Smith was on report for a high tackle and will probably find himself
sidelined after he fronts the judges on Tuesday night. He will almost certainly
get suspended.
Seven minutes into the 2nd half, NQ lose the ball
on halfway and Saints have possession again. From about 40 metres out,
we thought once again that we see the boys mount a fresh attacking raid
with Luke Bailey and Chris Leikvoll driving it forward. We were denied
a try when the ref ruled Luke Branighan offside as he touched down after
a Nathan Brown kick into the in-goal. I watched this back a few times and
it is inconclusive because Branighan is out of shot. But the angle of his
run suggests that he would have been OK. There was no vid ref called and
there should have been a call for a 2nd look. But whatever way you look,
this was another opportunity biting the dust.
On the subject of Luke Branighan, we are all pretty
impressed by this new young half back who is recent weeks has come close
to scoring a number of times in a team which is performing well below par.
He sets up many plays and has laid on a few tries, his kicking game is
top notch, he offloads consistently while drawing 2 or more defenders and
he also defends well against blokes twice his size. Its only a matter of
time before Luke starts to get a few tries next to his name and we hope
that he stays a Dragon for a long time.
Well, like I said, we had our chances early on in the
2nd half and hoped for a revival. Sadly, it was NQ who scored in the 49th
minute courtesy of a forward pass to the NQ winger, Connelly who had
no trouble getting around Timmins. Connelly's opposite man, Mark Gasnier
is nowhere to be seen. The try was orchestrated by Paul Green who put up
a mid field bomb. An oversupply of Saints players (including Gasnier)
were all in the middle of the paddock and they all looked at each other
as the ball bounced into a NQ players hands who sent it wide to the try
scorer. The O'Niell conversion from out wide hits the post and goes in.
Score: 38-0
In the next set, NQ score what might be the try of the
year with a 60 metre effort passing through many hands and ending with
Paul Green touching down next to the sticks. Green also had an early hand
in starting the movement which was instigated by NQ simply having the numbers
in the backline. The real turning of this match was somewhere in the first
20 minutes but tries in the 49th and 53rd minutes puts the match
beyond any doubt. The conversion attempt hits the posts again and like
before goes through for the extra 2 points.
Score: 44-0
In the 55th minute, Luke Branighan charges down a kick
in mid-field and Saints have the ball. Bartrim takes it up and takes exception
to being tackled. Darren Treacy then takes it up making good ground. Barrett
and Bartrim combine to get the ball closer to the NQ line and Saints look
to be on a roll. Bartrim once again takes issue about being put to the
ground, lashing out when in playing the ball. The final play comes to naught
after a forward pass but at least Saints are having a go.
In the meantime, Bartrim and Relf are having a go at each
other in the back play and the ref intervenes. Bartrim carries it on and
the ref calls him over again. This time there is a touchie report but it
was looking like a nothing situation with perhaps a penalty at worse. Unfortunately,
Barto acted like a peanut by talking crap and swearing at the ref. With
team mates dragging him away, Bartrim is sent off for 10 minutes. Listen
up Barto - you're a drongo! I know you must have some off field hassles
but we don't bring our home problems to work and we don't bring our work
problems home. For 2 weeks running you have let your team down by reducing
them to just 12 defenders. You look like a bloke out of control. Wake up
to yourself !
At 44-0 down and with only 12 men it was a case of just
waiting for the next NQ try to be scored. With 2 penalties in a row the
Cowboys look specials but somehow the Dragons hold firm and defend better
than at any other time in the match. Gasnier leapt high and took a bomb
with confidence earning a relieving penalty as O'Niell tackled him in mid
air. NQ get the ball soon after but once again Saints defend well close
to their line. Back in possession, Saints show some enterprise in attack
and play their best footy of the day. A good set of six, followed by a
good kick, followed by some heavy defensive work close to their opponent's
line and forcing the NQ error and getting a penalty to boot ! Sadly, Saints
crucify the try chance when they knock on and we lose possession. But the
lead up was good. In fact, during this 10 minute period (55-65min), Saints
do well and we can only wonder why they were unable to consistently put
in the hard yards for the other 70 minutes of the match.
For the rest of the match, Saints played on equal footing
to their opposition. Both teams coming up with one try each in the final
15 - 20 minutes.
In the 64th minute Saints score the try which could
have been scored an hour earlier. Trent Barrett found a gap and put on
a simple step to run through. Jason Hooper who has backed up all day was
on hand to score 15 m left of the up rights. A few players came up to congratulate
Hooper but the rest of the team just went back to their positions, happy
enough that we were at last on the board. With Barto sin binned, Thommo
out for the year and Ainscough off the field, it was up to Tingha to attempt
the conversion which was unsuccessful.
Score: 44-4
NQ attacked the Saints line continuously for the final
10 -15 minutes and would have scored if not for the Tingha snatching the
ball out of a potential try scorer's arms after a bomb and later when a
NQ try was disallowed when Brasher ran the some 80 metres only to be penalised
for stealing the ball from a tackled Brown. Once again, Saints got the
ball back and looked OK, almost scoring a couple of times - we look and
wonder as to why we were thrashed when for the last quarter of the match,
we actually looked the better team.
With less than 5 minutes to go, Darren Treacy is put on
report for a 'very late' tackle but it looks OK. The penalty is warranted
but it would be surprising to see Treacy cop a suspension. The penalty
gives NQ an opportunity and in the 77th minute they score the final
try of the match.
Before we came into this match we thought that there might
be some complacency. We thought that with all the hassles which have dogged
us us in recent months that there would have been a good reason to put
in a less than average show. After all, team morale can't be the best.
We all knew that when we sat down and tuned in for the Saturday match at
2.30 that we might be watching a Dragons team who will win in a less than
convincing fashion.
Instead it was a nightmare.
The Cowboys played well and looked like winners from early
on. They can't win the comp but they deserve to be better than wooden spooners.
Saints in contrast were frustrating us. What we have here
is a team in trouble and it has been my displeasure to endure these losses
in slow motion. We have to rally more than ever - these bad times are temporary.
FULL TIME SCORE: 50-4
Saints Best
3- Bailey, 2-Hooper, 1- Branighan
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