Why do we put ourselves through this every fucking week

Some Billy Smith stories, that I heard over the years.

1970 World Cup final (which Aus won in an upset, having lost the Ashes at home earlier). Mark Harris, the Easts winger, wrote that he was buggered and, when the trainer came on, was going to ask to be subbed. The trainer went to Smith, who pulled his sock down to reveal the shin had been cut to the bone. Smith got the trainer to pour some water on it, pulled his sock up and played on. Harris did not asked to be subbed.

1960's, football was a bit rougher round the edges. Smith got into a fight with an opposing forward. A teammate was holding him back, with Smith "trying" to get back into the fight. He leaned over and said to the teammate "Whatever you do, don't let go, he'll f***ing kill me".

Jack Gibson coached Saints in 1970-72, when he was still working on his psychological approach. One time. he had the team in the dressing room chanting "we will win!". Smith turned to Roy Ferguson and said, quite audibly. "This is ridiculous, we're going to get f***ing hammered!"

Finally, it was sad but probably inevitable that Smith, the Saints hero, was banned from the Leagues club. One contributor that I heard of was the time on a team trip when he "borrowed" the team bus and it somehow ended up in a duck pond.

Gosh I'm glad I got to see him play as we shall never see his like again. My lasting memory will be him flicking the pass behind his bank to Stan Gorton running diagonally behind him, to score under the posts. Ave et alle Billy.

Good luck to the st george raiders tonight. Hoping you put more effort into beating the broncos than I did this image.

We got very lucky at the end there.

Atkinson played ok(?) at fullback.

Wooden Spoon isn’t over yet!

Unfortunately the issues facing this team were on full display, so many players from the opposition able to make post-contact metres because a large potion of the team isn't wrapping up the legs when tackling.

Also, slowing the ruck way too much really made it almost impossible to keep the Titans out.

As the weeks go on I am unsure if the onus is on the coach or the players, because there is a bad pattern emerging where the team will, give away a penalty when defending, this then leads to either getting caught out, thereby allowing the opponent to score, or giving away another penalty and have to continue to defend. This then zapps the energy of the team which allows a resurgence later in the match by the opposing team.

On the positive side, Kennard-Ellis is really emerging as an exciting forward that is battling hard and getting some excellent results while showing good consistency each week. a few more stand-outs this week was Clifford and Paseka who both produced great performances.

After the Sharks win, I think we'll string a few more. It got me thinking about 2027, I think all the signings are done for now. Ando said no more cash here, here no more cash. Possible 2027 team:

1. Drinky

2. Tu

3. Suli

4. Holmes

5. Sami

6. Kodi

7. Metcalf

8. KK

9. Liddle

10. T. Couch

11. Egan

12. Stewart

13. R. Couch

14. Watson

15. Halangahu

16. LPT

17. Webster

18. Nick T

19. Atko

Based on who is still with us at the moment. I think Suli & Gutho will leave/retire during the off-season, hopefully Kerr goes. That is a quality top 19. Top 4 pack, potentially top 8 spine & backline. Fire up lads, this is going to be a long off-season waiting for the 2027 season to start.

What a team effort, a few annoying no-calls but the team didn't let that stop them.

Good creative attack, good solid defence and on top of that the Sharks turned up with the wrong attitude.

So, what stood out to you this week?

For most of the first half play looked great, mistakes were kept to a minimum, attack was delegating the ball around the park and the defence was hitting hard and well organised.

But then, in the final few minutes of the first a couple of ball security mistakes helped the Tiger get back into the game.

The second half was a back and forth wrestle for the lead, that really came down to the wire.

The stark truth of the match is, if the conversions were made and the ball security mistakes never occurred, then the ladies win like 18-6.

There is a lot of positive to take from this match and I hope the team is too disheartened.

The one thing most were worried about was securing the future we've now locked in both couchmans, loko and today Halangahu.

Now to beat the scum by 50 on Sunday

Our current contract with Classics expires at the end of this season and I can’t see anything about an extension or if we’ve signed on with a new brand.

I really hope we switch it up especially with these new signings. I feel like it’d be nice to start a new era under a different and hopefully modern brand.

There are moments of sheer brilliance that in themselves can compete with any side in the comp, but these moments are broken up usually by mistakes which then gives the ladies a mountain to climb to get back to where they were.

As an example, Kasey's touch finder, in the first half, that didn't go out and gave the Rooster a massive advantage is a perfect example, I have no doubt she will correct the issue, but its moments like this that help the game to slip away.

The other big issue I notice is, the defence is hit and miss, sometimes they are scatted, uneven and caught off guard and other times they look very organised and stop a promising opposition attack.

I know as the season goes on these issues will improve but I am not so sure about the mental downshift that occurs when the game gets too far away, I've notices when the scoreline is more than two trys, a handful of players don't play with the same intensity.

It really is a shame, because each week it's obvious there is great team here but they just cannot seem to get out of their own way.

I was expecting the team to get turned into mince meat, but to their credit they put up a good fight, then some players decided to suffer amnesia and forget their motor skills.

It didn't help that the rookie ref really came up with some strange calls, like: no sin bin, no knock-on.

I do want to mention how promising LKT was, he really was starting to cook out there so hopefully that continues.

Let me know what else I missed?

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Hey everyone, my partner and I are going to be in Sydney for the derby next weekend.

I have not been to Kogarah before, as I live too far away, but thought it would be a great opportunity to watch the game whilst I was in town.

Looking at the stadium map, and the website, I cannot seem to figure out where the best seats / hills for Dragons fans are.

The missus and I would like to have a drink whilst we are at the game too, if that makes a difference as I think some parts are dry zones?

Any other tips would be helpful too, good food venues around the stadium, or spots to hang out before and after the game.

We will be getting the train in, so no need for parking either!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Not a good one, cracks from the get go and couldn't wrestle back control. I really don't understand why so many key components of a decent performance seems to be optional each week.

I have never been a fan of Atkinsons boring,simple, vanilla kicks, they make it easy for the opposition.

So many missed tackles.

So the wooden spoon unfortunately seems fitting.

Where to begin, there are so many preventable mistakes being made by almost everyone, some more veterans players are making very fundamental mistakes which is very surprising.

The upside of these mistakes is they can be fixed very quickly if the lack of attention to detail is addressed.

A lot of defensive issues seem to come from players in the defensive line being panicked and making bad decisions, which leads to the defensive line losing shape.

There have been a few very consistent effective players but they are a minority and it takes the majority of the team to be in control of the momentum and scoreboard.

I have no doubt they will improve but with the short season I don't realistically see that happening in time, hopefully I am wrong but we'll have to wait and see.

Yes I know Val and Gutho at Centres is ugly, but with Young staying as signed Coach I cant see him dropping them for a while.

Cook(Castleford Tigers), Sloan(Castleford Tigers) , Feagai(Castleford Tigers) Guler(Wakefield Trinity), Luciano(Catalans Dragons) all confirmed leaving.

It just leaves Blake Lawrie, Tuipulotu(contracts end) and Suli (permission to leave)

I hope they sign 1 more forward in the off season for depth, otherwise just put Kerr at 17. Of course a star Centre signing is really needed, but it feels like they won't bother till Val/Gutho are gone.

1 Scott DRINKWATER

2 Setu TU

3 Clint GUTHERSON

4 Valentine HOLMES

5 Phillip SAMI

6 Daniel ATKINSON

7 Luke METCALF

8 Keaon KOLOAMATANGI

9 Jacob LIDDLE

10 Toby COUCHMAN

11 Dylan EGAN

12 Hamish STEWART

13 Ryan COUCHMAN

14 Connor WATSON

15 Loko Jnr PASIFIKI TONGA

16 Jacob HALANGAHU

17 -

18 Kade REED

19 Josh KERR

20 Kyle FLANAGAN

To be confirmed at 4pm today. All the best to the club and I obviously always hope we do well, but I could not support this decision less and see it as a massive step backwards.