I know Johnny Raper's a Dragons legend and perhaps he's earned the right to speak about his club.But sometimes I just wish he'd keep his comments to himself.It's often reported that the current crop of players really resent stars of years and years ago offering their opinions on everything from how the team is going, what they should be doing and which players just aren't up to scratch.
Read more Try Hard blogs Full coverage of The St George Illawarra DragonsLeading the way there is Johnny Raper, who doesn't seem to take much prodding to offer his opinion on the Dragons.Most of the time, it's not exactly helpful. Such as in late 2006 when he said Trent Barrett wasn't putting in.It was a ridiculous comment - Barrett may be guilty of a lot of things but not trying was never one of them. If anything, Barrett would try too hard - pushing passes, putting up kicks, doing unwise things in an attempt to get a win.Yet Raper took it upon himself to open his mouth and give Barrett a gobful."There is a bloke there who is not putting in," Raper said at the time."He wears the No 6 but if I had my way, he would not be in the team. He forgets the thing that is sitting over the top of his left tit."It's the St George Dragons crest and he is not fit to wear it on his chest."And remember, this was just two weeks out from the finals - Raper could hardly have picked a worse time to lay the boots into the team's playmaker, giving him what could easily have wrecked his confidence.This week Raper's offered more unwelcome remarks, though this time they're positive.With the finals still five weeks away and the Dragons not having won a damn thing, he pipes up and says this team is on the verge of a dynasty and will rule the NRL for several years.Jeez, Johnny, how about we wait and see how 2009 goes first?As any longtime Dragons fan knows all too well, when the team is flying high, you shut the hell up about it. You don't go skiting about this year's premiership that you haven't won yet - let alone the premierships of the next two years. That's because we've seen the team lose too many grand finals and know it's a bad idea to get our hopes up.We've seen things go pear-shaped before and we really worry that talking up the Dragons this far out from the finals is just going to jinx us. After all those failed grand final attempts, I'm sure no footy fan believes in jinxes more than the Dragons.We don't want to hear or read about former Dragons big-noting the team and possibly putting pressure on the players. We don't want people crowing about St George Illawarra and drawing the attention of the Footy Gods who have punished us for so long.What we want is for is to take one game at a time. In a Zen kind of way, we want to be in the moment, enjoy the now and not getting ahead of ourselves.We also want Johnny Raper to please keep quiet. At least until the end of the season.
