After surrendering yet another substantial halftime lead in their Magic Round loss to the Warriors, Dragons second-rower Tyson Frizell believes their second-half stumbles are purely mental.
Starting to slip into a worrying trend, St George Illawarra led the Eels 14-6 at one stage in round eight, before they crumbled defensively to eventually go down 32-18 losers.
Unfortunately for the Red V faithful, lightning struck twice, with Paul McGregor's men leading 18-6 at halftime before eventually going down 26-18 to a desperately out of form Warriors side.
While the NSW Origin and Kangaroos representative sympathised with the club's fan base off the back of consecutive second-half collapses, in which the Dragons have conceded an un-ideal 46 second-half points while simultaneously scoring a paltry four, Frizell detailed to the media he is not overly worried as he sees a clear solution to this problem for the injury-ravaged Dragons.
"It's pretty disappointing for ourselves as a team after coming out and starting [the first halves] in the past two weeks so well and coming out and losing the second half quite convincingly," Frizell told Dragons.com.au
"There are areas there that we can work on. It's not something that we intentionally go out there and not perform.
"Halftime is probably not a situation that we want to come to because we're usually on the front foot.
"But we need to better ... It's all a mindset issue I think for us."
While Frizell remained calm in regard to his teammate's second-half fadeouts, coach Paul McGregor did not share the same sentiments following their loss to the Warriors.
"It is concerning, I'm not going to hide from it," said McGregor.
"You've got to be a consistent side for 80 minutes in this competition. We showed last week in how dominant we were for 40, and again tonight, but it's not good enough.
"You've got to be consistent for 80 minutes and disciplined in what you do and be clear about what it takes to get the job done.
"We've got a few people, as players and as coaches, who've got to look at why it's happening and address it. Quickly."
While missing key players such as Korbin Sims, Corey Norman, Gareth Widdop, and Jack De Belin clearly does not help the Dragons' cause, Frizell refused to use the Dragons' injury woes as an excuse.
"We've got the ability there, we've got the fitness, we've got the structure around our plays," he said.
"It's just sticking there for the 80 minutes. We need to start our first half how we start our second half."
Having limped to three consecutive losses after stringing together a period of consistent form, the Dragons will be hoping to get back in the winner's circle when they face in-form Newcastle Knights.
In a timely boost for the Dragons' prospects, Korbin Sims has been named on the extended bench to make his return against the very team he broke his arm against in round four.
Yeah that’s what he said last year about second half of season fade outs too and criticised fans for criticising St Choke after they had lost 3 in a row and then went on to lose 7 or 8 in a row. It might be purely mental Frizell, but you guys lack the brains to do anything about it.
It so easy to work out why St Illawarra are faders. After they build up a lead like they did against Parra recently, the Saint Steelers look around for support and they see 1D10T fans like redv13 singing out to parra fans like Kev saying……
redv13 May 5, 2019 at 12:16 pm
Good luck today Kev. 👅👅👅👅👅👅💞 Hope it’s a cracker of a game with minimal influence from the refs 👅👅👅👅👍🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
Good one haha .
With The Red V, There Has Been A Few Things That Has Troubled Them This Season. Firstly There Is The Injuries & Suspensions (Which Is Not An Excuse Given The Way Cronulla & Sydney Have Performed).
Secondly There Is The Team Selection Right Through From 1 To 17. They Have A Slow Backline, Forwards Who Are Out Of Shape & A Spot Which Is Wasted On The Bench.
This Is What I’d Like To See Next Year, Along With Some Proper Management 👍
1. Dufty
2. Oates (Sign From Brisbane)
3. Lomax
4. Gutherson (Sign From Parramatta)
5. Pereira / Lafai / Aitken
6. Norman
7. Hunt
8. Kerr
9. Mcinnes
10. Vaughan
11. Host
12. Sims
13. De Belin
14. Robson / Field
15. Graham / Lawrie
16. Welch (Sign From Melbourne)
17. Flegler (Sign From Brisbane)
Nice effort but we’re the dragons not the roosters. We comply with the salary cap each season. Not sure there is 2 million plus available in funds for those 4 recruits.
P.S: I nearly vomited with Lafai/Aitken on the wing 🤢🤢🤢 and where is Frizzel and K Sims??
It’s all very well to say the problem is all mental with the Dragons. then its up to the Coach to do something about the so called mental fade outs. What has McGregor done ? Absolutely nothing, he might as well not even be there at half time. There is only 1 solution left to do and that is to sack the coach and get someone in from outside with a tough approach. Look how Craig Bellamy read the riot act to the Melbourne Storm after they only lost by 2 points to Cronulla, the next week they came out and put 64 points on the opposition, thet’s the sort of coach the Dragons need.
Frizzel and Sims must have been given brown paper bags from Russell Crowe and headed over to the soufffffffffffffffffffs “TRANSIT LOUNGE”
How’s Kev going redv13💩👃👅👅👅👅 – – – – – -💪🐔👍==========🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
REDV13 Cry me a river 💩 breath. You remind me of a person……..blah blah blah………..CLOWN 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
FFS every team has their ups and downs during a season including the Dragons.
You Red V fans that bag your own team are worthless and shouldn’t comment on football at all.
We don’t need mass changes we just need to play more consistent footy over 80 more minutes.
We proved against the Roosters we can match it with the best.
One thing the team can improve on is the ball carriers need to find the players hitting the gaps, we have stuffed this up so many times already this season.
Cheers
Redv13, Haha What Am I Thinking! I Totally Forgot About Frizzel & Sims 😂 (Maybe McGregor Edited My Post & Is Gonna Put Those 2 In Reserve Grade).
Aitken I Personally See As A Winger Because He Is A Good Strong Ball Runner With A Good Fend, But Isn’t The Greatest Defender. While Lafai Is Just Overrated & Needs To Be Moved On Lol.
1. Dufty
2. Oates (Sign From Brisbane)
3. Lomax
4. Gutherson (Sign From Parramatta)
5. Pereira / Aitken
6. Norman
7. Hunt
8. Graham
9. Mcinnes
10. Vaughan
11. Frizell
12. Sims
13. De Belin
14. Robson / Field
15. Sims
16. Kerr / Host / Lawrie
17. Flegler (Sign From Brisbane)
Who Do You Think Is Needed To Add Some Spark?
Cmonthedragons, The Saints Are Getting On The Right Foot Don’t Get Me Wrong! Im Only Voicing My Opinion On How I Think We Can Improve The Squad & Return To The Summit Like 2009 & 2010.
Some Problems Are Crystal Clear Though! Ravalawa / Lafai Are Not Exactly The Best Backs Going Around, There Starts To Sets Are Sluggish. While The Bench Forwards Are Getting Caught Out In Defence On A Regular Basis In The 2nd Half, Leaking Points.