Looking at the reserve grade team, I think 1-20 is the team, though AJ or Underhill might come in for Readon. O'Sullivsn might start, but more likely he plays lock similar to how Hayward played lock last year, That role suts a halfback, becuase IMO the lock plays like a traditional hakfback at...

I am hoping that the Warriors game will pan out like the Manly game last year. Round 21 2025, featuring a brilliant performance from Tracey. Manly came out with intent to bash us in the forwards, we matched them, wore them down with energy and execution, then dispatched them convincingly at...

If O'Sullivan can do what he did against the Tigers against the Warriors, we will all be happy. Tigers were not as bad as some think, but there is no doubt that the Warriors are a big step up in class. Critter off the bench is ok for a few weeks. If prefer to keep the same wingers and...

Right edge defence was apparently suspect in reserve grade. Reserve grade missed O'Sullivan and Conti went off HIA. Our forwards were outmuscled. But AJ and Zyron played well. I don't think we will see Conti in NRL this season, Xerri and Sua need to improve their defence, but are good in...

I think our team has progressed beyond the "mentally fragile" phase. Being tested in all kinds if ways earlier in the season sometimes works out great at the end. The coaches and players know what to watch out for and they know how to keep fighting.

Some of the media criticism of the Tigers is over the top. However, our first try was way too easy, Skelton is a fairly poor defender, but their entire right edge was very poor most of the game. It is like us earlier in the season, have a few guys out injured, lose a few games, lose...

The Raiders kicked 2 40/20s, and won the forwards battle. They had a lot of possession and their halves had a great platform to kick off. We kicked 2 40/20s against the Tigers and easily won the forwards battle, they had no field position. The Warriors fullback is fast, I don't think he...

The Warriors are the real deal this year, but we are a way better team than most people think. We are capable of beating any team. We still haven't fielded our strongest side, we often have 2-3 of our best forwards out injured and 1-2 backs carrying injuries. But the situation with injuries is...

O'Sullivan's positionng in defence was way better against the Tigers, his technique only looks poor when he is out of position. When he is in position, and the team is working together, his defence is very good for a half. How would he go tackling a big Warriors second rower for 80 mins? We...

Tits are beating Manly, excellent, I hope they can finish the job. We need teams 6-9 to lose and we need to win our games, no other results matter. I think the teams in 11-17 might win a few games and that is exactly what we want. Hopefully we are not in a showdown with the Broncos for a spot...

In future in Burton or Tuala is out we slot Critter in at centre. If Critter or Galvin is out we play O'Sullivan at 7. If Tracey is out, we play Kiraz at fullback. Or we might try some young guys ... If we get Toups, Mann and Hughes back there is also a log jamb in the forwards and guys like...

O'Sullivian was good at 7, but Critter was also good a 7 in our wins over Manly and the Titans. IMO Burton and Tuala are our best centres. We can fit Critter and O'Sullivan into the 17, that gives us good injury / HIA coverage. We might have Critter on the bench and barely use him or not even...

I think O'Sullivian might start the next game with Critter on the bench.

My new Beatles playlist might be the lucky charm. Is is good enough to plsy game day for a few weeks.

Tigers were a rabble, they completely lost the plot.

Good to get a win, we still make a few too many errors.

If we can't beat the Tigers, we are making up the numbers. Injures are a factor, especially the injury to Woods. If we can beat the Tigers we roll on to the next game and we can only afford 2 more losses. I like the change with Burto moving to centre, perhaps we should have done it earlier.

Letting Thurston go is the worst decision the club ever made. If we kept Thurston we probably would have won one comp and possibly a few more. We can never be sure abour winning comps, but Thurston was the best half in the game in his era, and a great leader.

I don't listen to the media. I hope we can win this week, I expect the Tigers to be up for the game. We need to get our defence right O'Sullivan offers plenty in attack, but can be suspect in defence. No surprise that Api has made a miracle recovery. IMO Gavin will play SOO and possibly for...

I can't find the ref for our game against the Tigers listed anywhere. I am prepared to fly down to Sydney at short notice. I don't even need to be on the field, I can ref the game from the bar. Happy to take suggestions from Dogs fans on calls. I have some dice for the 6- agains. Signing...

I have never bought the media narrative that we would have won a comp with Sexton and Marhoney. Fans who think that are clueless about footy. Winning s comp and making the semis regularly is all that counts. I understand and support everything the club does, but we do make mistakes. IMO we...

We might be making a bid for Walker, but getting his signature will be hard. We are playing another motivated tesm close to full strength this week. But if we are contenders, we can win without Critter. Some valuable lessons in the Canberra game, Canberra did play well and got most of the...

Looking at the line up Gordon CKT might start at hooker, Hayward at 5/8, Curran left back row, Salmon lock. Bench, Mann, Hayes, Underhill, O'Sullivian, Criitter, Kikau. If we start well, O'Sullivian will come on at 5/8 after 20 mins, otherwise Critter will come on. If the game is going well...

I couldn't watch the entire Canberra game, I kept seeing decisions from Sutton that really annoyed me. TV commentators are getting good at glossing over and ignoring bad ref and bunker decisions. I centainly don't remember the standard of the refs and the bunker being worse. I did notice that...

We have had 9 losses I recon they can be assigned as follows Refs - 2 injuries, recruitment, team selection - 5 New rules, confidence, mistakes - 2. (In part due to the 5 losses above.) The biggest problem is playing injured players or players down on confidence because we didn't think we had...

I am going to rewatch the Canberra game to see how much they were holding us down. I only noticed it at the start when we got the 6-agains, but I was visiting family and having dinner with them while mostly watching the game. Other fans think it was a big part of the result. The main lesson...

I am not sure if we can read too much into our trys in the last 10 minutes, but at least the guys kept trying in a very difficult game. Looking at the game rather than the scoreboard, i think that we outplayed the Raiders in attack and defence. Except for when the Raiders had a large chunk of...

Other fans have pointed out the Raiders deliberatley conceded 6-agains early in the game and may have been slowing our PTB all game. It wasn't as obvious to me as the Tigers game, and I thought that we handled it well early. Still we know the tactics the Tigers are going to use and we continue...

For the soft trys we conceded against Canberra, the line wasn't set and the scramble was too slow to get there. We have got good at not conceding 6-agsins, but at times we need to concede some tactical 6-agaiha.

Woods scored a great solo try stepping past players in resrve grade. Later he came off injured, fans think it might have been hamstring, but ir sounds like it might have been cramp. Edit Woods onoy played 51 mins, my cramp theory was wishful thinking. Either way Woods isn't a candate to...

Given a chance to name a ref they didn't want, fans and players at a club would probably name the same ref. Different clubs would name different refs, but I think a couple of refs would be named by 5 or more clubs. Of course the NRL would never allow that. In our game there seemed to be more...

Regardless of the potential knock on, I thought Rinakama grounded the ball. First 40-20 possibly wasn't a 40-20. We played pretty well for the first 20 mins, the effort was there, we had no luck, but somehow we were not at our best. I am not going to criticise team selection or the players...

Not sure what to make of the Raiders game. Sutton didn't do us any favours. I have hunch that someoone grounded the ball before the Savage length of the field try. After that we didn't get much ball. Usually only one Canberra half kicks the ball, we may have been to fatigued to pressure him...

I don't like the fact that we are favourites against Canberra. I am glad the Critter came through the SOO match ok.

Great to see Loz call out the negative media BS in the presser. It is the same BS the the Dogs and other important clubs cop. Canberra never cop it, becuase the media hacks are Sticky's mates and no one cares about Canberra. The media only do it for clicks and eyeballs and most of it is mase up.

I expect the goal keeper and the 3 CBs to remain in position. IMO formation shouldn't stop the other 7 plsyers on the team making runs into space.

What i am trying to say is, if we change the coach, some things will probably be better, and it is unlikely that anything important will be worse. Unlikely is not a 100% guarantee, just that we will be unlucky if changing the coach makes things worse. But i don't see changing the coach as a...

IMO there was an opportunity for our fresh players off the bench against Egypt to make an impact, but we struggled with ball control. As a result we didn't have much ball. We might need to change the coach, but my impression is, that will solve around 30% of the problem. Our team was defending...

I am surpised that many of our fans don't rate Hughes,. He is out injured a lot and he seems to be playing with injury moxt of the time. Inspite of thst he scores more trys than King and Thompson in fewer playing minutes. He is surpisingly fast and mobile fir a big guy, has good anticipation...

It is worth repeating .... ... many of our fans think a lot of our players are way better than they actually are. A thread on - how to develop elite players - might be a good opportunity to list all of the things we probably are not doing. Inspite of that, we are developing xome promising players

Raiders have a couple of key forwards back for us Pappa and Martin. That follows a pattern this year, often key players come back for our game. The weakened Storm side was the only major break we got recently. I am expecting Skicky to have the Raiders pumped. It is a dangerous game and we are...

I'm very happy that the US lost, I doubt that anyone here tipped them.

We have some quality players in this squad, and they should improve with experience, especially if they get signed by top clubs. Striker is the most odvious gap in the side. There is no reason why Austraila can't produce elite talent, but the pathways and junior development probably need to be...

The fundamental considerations for most sports are. 1. Defence has to limit the opposition to less than their attack can score. 2. A coach is rarely braver than the level of player skill that they trust is consistently available. When a coach is timid, he doesn't trust the talent. Sometimes...

If Austalia had Haaland we would would have been a world cup contender. A player like that is the biggest hole in the team, but only a few countries have that level of elite talent. Without elite attack, the defence has to limit the opposition to a score the attack can get.

Joey admits that he doesn't watch the defence, if he paid attention he would understand, but he just isn't interested in it. Sometimes it is very hard for elite players to understand why the players they are coaching can't do what they could do. Yes, that is what I meant, being able to do it...

Soccer fans are even more relentlessly negative than Dogs fans :) I am always amazed when fans think a coach doesn't know the game. Coaches that have been total flops as head coaches like Baz have detailed footy knowledge. Joey Johns knows the attacking side well, but knows nothing about...

There are reasons why teams play the styles they do. We need more talent to play a more attacking style either one truly elite world class talent who scores lots of goals very regularly or 2-3 world class talents who are regular starters at elite European clubs. Otherwise it is a slow grind...

The NRL may be about to get $5 billion for a broadcast rights deal. If the A-League standard was high enough, it would get the same kind of money. WC results will not necessarily result in broadcasters paying more for A-League broadcast rights. Improve the standard of the A-League, and the...

I was hoping that the Broncos would best teams like the Sharks as it would make it easier for us to climb the table. If we win our games, the ladder position should work itself out.

The situation with Poppa reminds me a lot of the situation with David Moyes at West Ham. Fans were complaining about exactly the same things. Sacking Moyes was the right decision, but was also a big part of West Ham being related. When West Ham finally found the right manager in Nuno it was...

A lot of sports fans are very unrealistic about the abilities of their teams players. IMO the standard of the A-League is poor. We need to be good at developing young A-League players and have talent scouts for EU clubs viewing A-League games and signing young players. High ambition at the...

The case for Poppa is, the defense was pretty solid all tournament, well drilled and connected, with players working together, knowing their roles, and generally sticking to their roles. If we change the coach, I hope he doesn't tinker too much with the defence.

All of the highest rated NRL coaches have 1 attribute, a conversation with a player never starts with football. Players relate to them as a human, and know that the coach cares about them and their family. Aside from building a relationship with player, showing that they have faith in the...

The plus is many of our better players are young enough to be around for another 12 years, and they should keep improving. I agree about needing a good specalist 9, ideally one who can score with his head and feet, hold the ball up and play other players in. Then we just need more depth...

The players Egypt brought on off the bench looked way better and far more skillful than our subs. With a different coach, and a few different team selections, we might have done a bit better. But I saw nothing that inspired any great confidence in that outcome. The good young players that we...

All I am saying is, don't expect a change of coach to be a miracle cure for all of our problems, we need more talent. I don't have an opinion on the coach, there might be better options.

Ok fair enough, but I assume the coach had his reasons, I definately would prefer to play that way, if the striker was good enough. Do you think we had more talent that Egypt or the US? I think both of those squads were way better than our squad.

When he came off the bench, he looked ordinary. What position should he have been playing?

Perhaps, but I didn't see a good option to start at striker instead of Irankunda. If we had that player, things would have been better, the guys that came off the bench didn't look like that player. IMO a different coach would get similar results, except for Ange. With Ange, results could have...

That is my take on the game. On most sports a team builds it's game on defence, becuase teams that can't defend always lose. We had 3 of our better attacking players out and ultimately 3 others couldn't last 90 mins. Aside from a few of individual moments of brilliance in attack we didn't...

IMO the main issue for Australia is a lack of skill and depth. We went backwards in the game when our subs came on. The Egypt subs were much better and swung momentum in their favour. And our execution in attack was fairly ordinary most of the game. Whoever the coach is they need more talent...

I was wrong about Souths / Panthers, old man Bennett will not be happy.

Top defensive sides this season in order, Panthers, Manly, Warriors, Dogs. Dogs and Manly big improvers in recent weeks. Some of our better attack also in recent weeks. We look nothing like the side that played rounds 7-11, shame that we couldn't turn it around earlier. But 2 wins Canberra &...

It is funny the switch to fewer 6-agains and McLean being out may be factors for the Panthers. Cows played well and were pumped up to honor big JT. After looking at the team lists I think Souths can beat the Panthers. If it happens, it will be 3 losses in a row. I agree that we owe the Tigers...

If we are down 24-0 after 30 mins we need to use Woods and Dkyes instead of Salmon and Hughes. If Woods can play some minutes at hooker/lock/fullback, he could add a lot to our side off the bench. He can play halfback on the left and right side. Dykes can play 5/8 left side and fullback.

The loss to the Tigers is the game that is costing us so far. WIns in the next 2 games will cancel that out. We did play well and we did get some bad luck, and a few dud ref calls It was the Tigers GF, they were pumped for that game, but we were surpsingly out played in some aspects. Our...

Mitch Woods back in reserve grade next game. My bench for a full stregth side. 14. Salmon 15. Hughes 16. Toups 17. Kicks 19. Woods/Conti 20. Dykes/Cocherane If we can make the 8 and field this side, we can beat anyone.

Canberra will be desperate and fresh after the bye, their young spine might crumble under pressure. Keep the Curran / Critter combo on the left, start Salmon on the right and bring Presto on when needed, or late if we are going well. If we can qualify for the 8, we can put a great line up on...

Looking at the rest of the season Canberra - opportunity to score Tigers - opportunity. Warriors - tough game. Storm - opportunity Roosters - tough Souths - tough Dragons - opportunity Penrith - rest players? Broncos - opportuniy Opportunities are becuase the season is over for that team, or...