Bulldogs Debate Page

[Hounddog]

The flegg side side is stacked with elite level talent.

Young and Teaupa really look like elite playmakers to me.

We need to start giving young guys more opportunities.

These players are perhaps too young for NRL, perhaps they can get more games in reserve grade?

What was really noticable in Flegg was Young, Teaupa and the winger Hayward though some vey accurate long passes. Decision making and execution was spot on.

Galvin is the best passer in the NRL side, but the Teaupa seems to make better decisions and throw better passes.

The young half Conti apparently played well in reserve grade, his defence needs work, but he is a full toolkit halfback.

I am starting to question Burto as our left sided half, while he is great at running and kickng, he doesn't have the passing instincts.

Ideally we want like NRL side playing as well in NRL as the Flegg side do in Flegg.

The Panthers showed that our attack is way better than it was last season, if the defence does its job. The defence turned up most games last season, it is patchy this season.

Overall it looks like it will be a slow build this season, we have a lot of work to do , we need more speed and talent in the side and we need to ensure that the defence turns up every week.

 

[Hounddog]

I understand what the club is doing, promoting young players to NRL too early can destroy their confidence or break their body.

On the flip side, promoting quality young talent is the best way we can create a premiership window,

Fans and young players can get impatient and sometimes young players will go elsewhere for an opportunity.

Gus is very conservative and this is mostly in the young players interests.

Trying to win with defence takes a lot of energy and comittment, the tank ran empty the last 2 seasons, but the players gave it everything.

This season, we don't seem to have the juice to win with defence every week. Other teams are fitter, their attack was improved and the game is faster.

IMO we need to start giving more talented young guys an opportunity. And some of the veteran players capable of week-to-week NRL need to play a bit of reserve grade to make room for the young guys.

Montoya is in that category, but he might not be the only one.

If there is any sign that the club is going backwards this season, the fans will get impatient. Even if the sign is only match results and ladder position and if we have some bad luck or dud calls.

Fans will like seeing talented young players with a lot of potential getting a shot.

 

[Hounddog]

Curran wasn't thst bad, but Tuala did a better job of keeping the defence tight on the right.

Dropped balls were slightly unlucky.

We haven't won a day game, perhaps the heat is a factor.

Apparently we have a long intense warm up, or perhaps the day games are simply the games where we turn up expecting an easy win.

It doesn't take a lot to go wrong for things to go wrong, the ball bounces for the team on top.

Hayward has had sone good attempts at a 40/20, but hasn't been able to buy a bounce.

Leo definately needed the run, Hughes was good.

 

[Hounddog]

The only times Sua has played centre in reserve grade this season, he has played left.

We possibly have 4 left centres, Xerri, Burton, Critter and Sua. Sua is very good at centre.

Tuala being ruled out late is the perfect storm becuase i don't think we could have added a player like Readon to the team.

For a guy filling in a short notice Curran did a reasonable job in defence, the lack of Tuala was very noticeable in attack,

O'Meley played left centre in reserves, he can probably play both sides.

If Critter isn't right, Readon is an option at right centre.

Apart from Montoya the performance wasn't as bad as it looked. The Parra forwards just ran a lot harder than we expected, Volkman defended way better at 5/8 than we expected.

The opposition surpised us and we really missed King and Tuala who were 2 of our better players.

People are going to think that Kiks is a bit of a flat track bully becuase he only had 8 runs for 48 metres. But he did make 36 tackles and he missed anither 4.

When we are behind in a game on yardage sets we struggle to get Kiks into the game. Perhaps we should have the option of giving him a rest on the bench switching Presto to the left and using someone like Hopoi or Spinks on the right?

We mostly lost the game in the forwards, but a few unforced errors didn't help our casue.

Parra were not the version of Parra we could have out 50 on. If we played with intensity for the first 30 mins, that might have been different.

Parra just put in a lot of hard work and got a bit lucky.

You don't need to panic, Cirro hasn't gone crazy and the team isn't about to fall apart. Broncos will not be easy, the vibe-o-meter isn't getting a read on that game, but hopefully Critter on the right is enough for us to eek out a narrow win in a close tight game.

 

[Hounddog]

Kiks was trying to get involved in yardage sets, we tended to play away from him.

Galvin is doing more of the kicks, there will be a reason for that. Often our yardage sets are finishing on the right and Kiks isn't back for the early tackles.

A penetrating run by a winger or fullback, a penalty of 6 again would get Kiks into the game. Not many 6 agains that game at times Parra had a skinny 10 or held us down. At times we didn't fight hard enough for a quick PTB.

Right centre is hard to play in attack and defense, especially with Montoya on the wing. People underestimate what a great job Tuala did.

Xerri is a really great left centre but struggled on the right, he has had more experience on the right than Sua.

The defensive workload is what makes playing on the right hard. Curran did that part, but he couldn't manage the attacking side,

We are very lucky to have 2 guys who can play right centre very well, Tuala and Critter, Kiraz is ok, and young Reado goes ok.

We could have switched Kiraz to right centre and started Sua on the left wing. Kiraz hasn't played right centre for a while and his defence might not be as good as the other 3 candidates.