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Bulldogs Debate Page

Anyway we don't have a lot to lose gambling on a new line up.

I would go with.

1. Dykes
2. Tuala
3. Chricton
4. Readon
5. Rinakama
6. Burton
7. Galvin
8. Hughes
9. Hayward
10. Thompson
11. Preston
12. Toups.
13. Hayes

14. King
15. AJ
16. Mann
17. Gordon CKT

18. O'Sullivian
19. Sua
 
I reckon we faded out of the game when Hughes and Thompson went off. Max King off the bench is the ideal solution.

Mann sometimes offers impact off the bench.

Hayward needs some help at hooker, and an impact hooker might help.

We were runover in the forwards at the start of games in 23/24. Cirro finally has a good starting pack, but we lacked impact off the bench, and our outside backs who are way down on form and confidence leaked soft trys.

In relation to poor kicks, clunky plays, dropped balls, and bad passes, that game is probably a top 5 performance over the last 10 years. I,e. A lot better than an average performance. Our halves at least looked dangerous.

Our forwards didn't cost us the game, and our halves didn't cost us the game.

Of course our halves didn't do much in the second half, becuase we didn't have the ball. Stopping trys is one way to get the ball.

I remember plenty of games with Sexton and Hutch in the halves when we had a lot of ball and field position and rarely looked dangerous. Some of the clunky passing in that era was painfully commical.

Our pack is an asset and we need to leverage that.
 
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I've been through far worse seasons than this one, this season is surprisingly bad. 1981 was terrible and unexpected, 2005-2008, was diabolical, 2013-2018 very frustrating, 2019-2023 very poor.

Fortunately, i fogotten the rest of them, and that includes intentionally forgetting a few GF floggings. I am sure that Marty Bella never played for us.

I'm satisfied that Gus and Cirro haven't got a lot wong and that they can fix most of that for 2027.

I now see us as being in a similar position to the Panthers last season, but with more issues, and a lower ceiling.

Cirro just has to keep plugging holes until the boat stops leaking. Or we get to the end of the season,

If we achieve nothing else, we can progess some young talent in preparation for 2027, we can identify where we need to improve the squad, and we can make retention decisions.

Mid season, i would be trying to sign a winger with height and speed.
 
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OldDogFan said:
Last night turned out to be exactly what was expected. Yeah we started well but we are too slow in our ball distribution. The bottom line is we played poorly with too many errors, missed takes and bad reads, and to the phins, give them credit they played a good game and they were allowed that freedom through a mountain of possession, the skinniest 10 metres I have seen for a while and piss poor officiating. We severely lack speed on the wings and our spine is non existant. The Tracey re-signing aged like milk in the sun, nice bloke but not what we need. We have no ½, and we need a hooker that can distribute the ball with a bit more venom. Having said that about the teams, the biggest blight on the game was Atkins, if this is what a First Grade referee looks like then the game is lost. Some of his decicions were pathetic at best and it is a shame that the NRL administration is too gutless to hold them accountable for their game performance.
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I think Cirro's whinge about the refs was partially on the money.

Last season we got many teams into a grind, kicking long pinning them at their end and wearing them down coming out of their end, set after set. We rarely played sparkling attacking footy.

We still have a team that can do that, but penalties, 6-agains and occasional lapses by us shift the momentum, we rarely pin teams at their end for more than 1-2 sets. The way the game is currently ref'ed makes that harder to do.

With more field position and more ball, teams with more speed and size in the outside backs are exposing real weaknesses.

Tracey and Xerri seem to be a lot worse than they were last season.

Burton and Hayes don't seem to be completely healthy.

Montoya a combination of being worse and not seeming to be healthy.

Hayward and Galvin are young guys adapting to playing a new position and we don't have a better option.

The rest of the team are peforming around expectations or a bit above. Salmon at lock was never great, but he has improved slightly.

The team has to adapt, becuase I doubt that the refs will give us more of a go. Last year's game is out of fashion, and we need a team full of fit, healthy, in form players.
 
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The game does need a fair balance between attack and defence.

Especially when a good long kick, a good chase, energetic defence and great line speed for the first 3 tackles has the team without the ball well on top.

A nit-picking penalty or 6-again on tackle 4 or 5 can undo a lot of good work.

After a while, coaches at teams will start to value attack over defence, and the game will resemble the U20s comp.

Gus thinking Origin might be the time when the gsme resets and defence becomes more important. Origin turining into touch footy with 44-38 scorelines will not be great.

A lot of the good work our team does and a lot of effort is getting zero reward at present.

If we want to play footy this way we can save a lot of time and just draw the premers out if a barrel at the start of the season.
 
hd, I thought that's what they did! The way that some of these (I'll call them refs) officiate their games it has to be scripted. V'Landys won't be happy until he achieves AFL like scores and bets can be wagered off every tackle. Go Rugba Leeg the creampuff spectacle, but please gamble responsibly.
 
OldDogFan said:
hd, I thought that's what they did! The way that some of these (I'll call them refs) officiate their games it has to be scripted. V'Landys won't be happy until he achieves AFL like scores and bets can be wagered off every tackle. Go Rugba Leeg the creampuff spectacle, but please gamble responsibly.
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ODF it has gone way too far, us older fans want the game to at least resemble the game we grew up watching.

If i want to watch a game with high scores, i'll watch cricket or basket ball.

Next step will be the scorer kicks off, so it can be score for score like basket ball.

If the crackdown mysteriously disappears after SOO, i'll be annoyed becuase 2 seasons in a row we have copped the brunt of the crackdown.

It isn't all the NRL, we are doing some of it to ourselves, and players are out of form.

Montoya and Burton being sick makes me wonder if some of our players are playing injured or sick. I am not a fan of playing injured or sick at this time of the season.

The other thing I totally disagree with is Salmon ball playing at lock, especially at the start of games. Our attack needs more purpose and variety, we need more speed. We need these things regardless of how the game is ref'ed.
 
Gus is right about another thing, players currently need most of the time between gsmes to recover, injuries are pilling up.

If there is no reset, a team that is lucky enough to scrape in 8th might even get a "Bradbury Premiership", teams always struggle to recover from SOO.

If players are worn down before SOO starts, how will that end?

At this stage last season a "Bradbury Premiership" due to most of the good players being out suspended looked possible.

The NRL always put their finger on the scale, and it rarely works out great for us.
 
Hounddog said:
ODF it has gone way too far, us older fans want the game to at least resemble the game we grew up watching.

If i want to watch a game with high scores, i'll watch cricket or basket ball.

Next step will be the scorer kicks off, so it can be score for score like basket ball.

If the crackdown mysteriously disappears after SOO, i'll be annoyed becuase 2 seasons in a row we have copped the brunt of the crackdown.

It isn't all the NRL, we are doing some of it to ourselves, and players are out of form.

Montoya and Burton being sick makes me wonder if some of our players are playing injured or sick. I am not a fan of playing injured or sick at this time of the season.

The other thing I totally disagree with is Salmon ball playing at lock, especially at the start of games. Our attack needs more purpose and variety, we need more speed. We need these things regardless of how the game is ref'ed.
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Don't get me wrong I am not totally blaming Atkins but he had a big hand in it by starvng us of possession and very incompetent calls. The Dogs didn't help the cause by playing a very lack-lustre game.
 
We need a centre like that Roosters guy Hugo or even a Bostock type player , Very tall lanky players . Xerri could be a good lock or something . Very strong and nugget.
Hopefully once we get all troops on the field things will turn around . If Kikau Kiraz and King are in form we would match most teams ..
 
It is going to be tough from here.

I think Cirro is right, some of our players are hesitant and lacking confidence.

Sometimes getting the first win is the hardest.
 
We have a great tall guy in the lower grades Rauqe.

Anyway there is still hope to cling to.

I agree we are missing Kiraz and King.

Kiks and Mann are important players.
 
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As much as i hate the Eels winning, credit where credit is due.

A 2 young ex-dogs players set up and scored a critical try.

I always thought that the young fullback Papalii should have got more chances at the Dogs.

And when we let Papalii go, i assumed the Cocherane was close to being ready for NRL.

I don't know all of the circumstances, but Gus seems to be overprotective of young players, and we are not giving enough young guys a chance.

Letting Fox and Marhoney go was all about cap management. But when we make decisions like that, we need adequate replacements.

We now have forwards who can more than hold their own, hence this is a good time to give young halves and backs an opportunity.

When the forwards were being regularly runover, i accept that that wasn't the right time,

I always back the club, and i think Gus and Cirro are doing a good job. But i want them to learn from mistakes and do a better job.
 
I happy to use O'Sullivan and 5/8 and Burton in the centres if Cirro thinks that is the best option. That is probably our most potent attacking side.

Xerri, Sua and Tracey all deserve to be dropped and should be dropped. Dropping a player gives them the chance to improve their game, get thier body right and rebuild their confidence in reserve grade.

If tne coach keeps picking a player who should be dropped, the coach usually isn't helping the player, and may be making things worse.

If Cirro keeps picking Tracey becuase we don't have a better option, we have to wonder what is going on. The best fullback and all NRL clubs is clearly better than Tracey and many of the second choice fullbacks at other clubs like Papalii are currently in better form.

What was the plan if Tracey is injured?, Kiraz is currently injured and was never great in that role. The only other player in the NRL team I would trust at fullback is Tuala.

Critter and Burto might work at fullback, but will probably breskdown with injury.

I understand why many Dogs fans are frustrated, while I will always back and trust the club, on the surface some decisions are hard to understand.
 
Pretty interesting in Flegg we are playing Fing at halfback and he played fullback last week.

Udeh making his Flegg debut.

I'm in the camp that thinks Woods can play fullback and halfback.

In the past Dogs halves like Barba, McGrady, Sherwin and Alchin also played fullback. Guys like Averillo were capable of playing 5/8 and fullback.

Critter did it when he was younger,

Young halves go better at fullback.
 
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Dogs came back from trailing 18-0 to beat the Roosters 36-34 in Flegg.

Bronson Reuben kicked a 2 point field goal to win it, our lower grades are stacked with good halves.
 
We have Teaupa listed to play fullback in cup. That isn't fooling me, i reckon Dykes will play fullback and Teaupa will play 5/8.

If Cocherane isn't injured, he might be slighly annoyed.

If we drop Tracey we might plsy him at centre so Cocherane can play fullback.

Hopoi and Curran are playing cup, both need a good performance to remain in the NRL side.

Part of rebuilding our season is preparing players in the lower grades.

Reserves are also playing the Roosters and they always have a good side.
 
It is true that ODF and I look at games with ine blue eye and one white eye.

But you can look at play by play in the NRL app and from the 35th minute to the 65th minute it was absolute carnage in relation to 6- agains and penalties against us.

That period included the Preston sin-binning which itself was a total joke. I hope Cirro visits the NRL with video footage of every incident and similar incidents in other gsmes which were not penalised.

I am not sure how any team is expected to win the game under these circumstances. IMO winning the game was impossible, but if we defended and executed better earlier in the game, the Phins don't even get the chances at our end.

So i am starting to think I might be a bit harsh on Xerri and Tracey.
 
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Reserve grade lost, i don't know if Dykes played fullback or how he went.

Hopefully, Mann, Burton, Rinakama and King are coming back into the side.

Dykes, Spinks snd Gordon CKT may be under consideration.

If we get a sequence of 6-agains and penalties like that every game, we will not win many.

There are still plenty of positive things out of that game that Cirro can highlight in review.

Magic round is neutral venue, there may be more Dogs fans there than Sharks and hopefully more of the neutrals back us.

We desperately need a win, it isn't impossible, a 50-50 share of posession will give us a shot.
 
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