It's never fun when your team loses. It's even worse when you have to write about it.
Sure, I could have chosen not to write a blog about Friday night's loss against the Broncs. But that would have been cowardly - not to mention a hated habit of other footy pundits. You know how they are - if they're right about something, they'll be sure to remind all of us. If they end up being wrong, they shut up and never mention it again.
Also, I'm not one of those hated fair-weather fans who never shut up when the team is going well but suddenly disappear at the first sign of trouble. The way I see it, part of being a fan is riding the troughs as well as the peaks. Even if it gives an opening for the "choker" chorus to batter out a missive on their keyboard and press send.
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SLIDESHOW: Darius Boyd named Goose of the Week at trainingList en to Graham Wilson's new Dragons songAfter the Raiders defeat, I'd said one loss doesn't worry me, but two in a row did. Now we've had that second loss and I'm worried. Not quite as much as I was straight after the game (but seeing as how I'd drunk more than a six-pack of beer I may have been a little "tired and emotional" at the time) but still worried.
Some fans have claimed these two losses are all part of Supercoach Bennett's master plan. It's the old rope-a-dope - drop a few games, let people call us chokers and lull the competition into a false sense of security before suddenly snapping into top gear and annihilating the opposition come finals time.
I think those people are dreaming. The idea that Bennett would have a one-word game plan - "lose" - is ridiculous.
But while I'm worried it's not at nail-biting "oh, no, here we go again" levels yet.
Realistically I know dropping a few games now is way better than doing it in a fortnight. And I'm also aware that maintaining the intensity the Dragons have shown so far this season is a very hard thing to do. So a drop in intensity for a game or two isn't the end of the world. Might even be a good thing to release that pressure for a bit.
As long as it's just for a game or two.
Anyway, with the benefit of a few days' space from Friday's full-time siren, it's not all doom and gloom. The Dragons defence, which has been the best all season, was still largely there. The Brisbane side's season was on the line on Friday and they played like it.
They were on fire and had a welter of possession and field position, yet we held the Broncs - who put on 40 in a half of footy the week before - to just two tries.
I dare say most other teams would have leaked quite a few more against a Broncos team playing like that.
Where we seemed to be flat on Friday was in our attack. While Soward almost scored two tries - both disallowed due to knock-ons - there wasn't much evidence of the electrifying attack we'd seen earlier in the year. Only a few times did I see set plays with men in motion - and each time I got really excited because it was so different from what I'd seen us do for the rest of the game.
I'm not at all sure what's wrong with our attack but I sure hope Supercoach Bennett can fix it before the finals.
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