How it all went wrong for the Dragons in season 2017

THEIR finish to the season did very little to help shake the tag as chokers. But it wasn’t all bad news for a Dragons team that rediscovered their attacking mojo.

Dragons season review 2017.

• Warriors 2017 Season Review
• Knights 2017 Season Review
• Tigers 2017 Season Review
• Raiders 2017 Season Review
• Bulldogs 2017 Season Review
• Rabbitohs 2017 Season Review

THEIR finish to season 2017 did very little to help the Dragons shake the tag as chokers.

The Red V looked every bit the genuine title contender until the wheels feel off after the ANZAC Day weekend when they fell to a heartbreaking 13-12 loss to the Roosters.

Yes, they missed the finals but considering they were expected to be languishing at the bottom of the ladder, a ninth place finish isn’t all that bad.

WHERE THEY FINISHED

Ninth

WHAT WENT WRONG?

After surging to the top of the ladder after seven rounds, the Dragons only managed to win six games for the rest of the season.

Their wining momentum came to a grinding halt with three consecutive losses to premiership heavyweights the Roosters, Storm and Sharks.

From there, they struggled to reignite their season even when coming up against lowly opposition. In the last two months of the competition they lost five games to teams below them on the ladder.

The fade out also raises questions about coach Paul McGregor’s gruelling training regimen. Is he burning out his players?

Dragons season review 2017.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Gareth Widdop and the forward pack.

With very little to offer in the pointscoring stakes in 2016, Widdop’s attacking game was given a new lease of life, the England international relishing playing off the back of a strong forward pack which lay for him the perfect platform to run the show.

Paul Vaughan’s addition added some more venom up front, as the big men in the Red V powered through an average of 1516 metres per game, more than any other team in the comp.

STATS THAT SUM UP THE SEASON

It feels like a case of so close yet so far for the Dragons. Remarkably, the Dragons finished their campaign leading the comp across key attacking stats like metres gained and tackle busts. In key defensive stats, they missed the least tackles and conceded the least amount of offloads.

But they struggled to convert the tight games into competition points. They lost seven games by six points or less. Six out of that seven were lost by four points or less.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SEASON

Leading the competition after the first two months of the season.

LOWLIGHT OF THE SEASON

Falling at the last hurdle. Considering the blistering start to the season they should not have been playing to save their campaign in round 26 but that’s exactly the position they found themselves in. Disappointingly, with everything to play for, Mary’s men turned in a flat and uninspiring performance against the Bulldogs.

Tyson Frizell dejected after losing to the Bulldogs in round 26.

BIG NAME RECRUITS

James Graham, Ben Hunt

BIG NAME LOSSES

Josh Dugan, Taane Milne, Russell Packer

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT YEAR

With recruits James Graham and Ben Hunt heading to Wollongong, anything less than a finals finish in 2018 should be considered a disappointing result. Widdop, who rediscovered his attacking flair this year, can only be better for having an established and stable halves partner in Hunt. Together they will form one of the more formidable halves combinations in the competition. Graham’s addition adds invaluable experience and goes a long way to filling the hole left by Russell Packer’s exit from the club. They’ll be without the class of Blues star Josh Dugan but Matt Dufty has emerged as a capable replacement, he even relegated Dugan from fullback to the centres in the last six weeks of the season.

COACH SAFETY RATING

7: They missed finals but Mary has shown he can turn his side into a competitive footy team. He re-signed for a further two years in June and barring a bottom-placed finish next year, you’d think he’ll so out the duration of the deal.