The future is bright

[vegny]

Thats my opinion based on the potential of the younger players in the team.

- Fualalo is getting better with each game. High work rate. Developing into a potentially decent no 13.
- Tualau is a beast. Can be a good impact player with more experience in nrl
- Elliot if he can improve his handling, has mobility and energy
- montoya seems reliable and a good finisher
- brenko on his good day offers a lot

Klemmer, rfm, mbye are still young and developing.
We obviously have a good depth as the isp team is doing well.
A new recruitment guy. Anyone >>>cleal i guess.

In summary i think the club has done ok. We have not signed the best talents, which is not unusual for bulldogs, but we are not doing too badly either. We have a decent base to build on.

 

[CrittaMagic69]

*Without Hasler and a few key recruits

 

[Chris Harding]

Agree, they are looking promising; but we lack outright speed. Brenko picked up a loose ball yesterday, and was run down. I can't think of too many backs from other teams who wouldn't have scored in the same situation. That's no condemnation of Lee; I think he is well worth keeping at centre, or wing.
Watching Hoppa's passing I think he's wasted at fullback; he'd be much more effective nearer the play.

 

[belmore_utd]

The big improvement I am looking forward too is the reduction in skin folds.

Sick to fuck of the cuddly bears.

 

[MasterP]

Good to read some positive feedback about the club & direction moving forward. Bulldogs need a lot more supporters like the above.

 

[MasterP]

Vegny, Chris Harding

 

[dogsballs]

I really like RFM, future star for sure.

 

[Oatley Dog]

Was thinking the same thing myself earlier today. If you look at our pack for next year, you would have to say we have outstanding props, a great second rower, 2 young blokes in RFM and Elliott who will only get better and better and a bench that has Taulau, Fualolo and then Martin, To'omaga and Fine to pick from. That is without even looking at Graham/Tolman/Eastwood. If you look at the backs we have Hoppa, Kennar, Lee, Montoya, Morris x 2 for starters so there is both speed and experience there. In the halves we have Mbye, Foran, Cleeland, Frawley and maybe Lewis to pick from. Hooker is Brown with Woolford and the kid in U20s an outsider. Then you have Carr, Bergamin and hopefully a couple of kids coming through the 20s that might do a "montoya" next year. A lot of my footballing mates keep talking about the need for an 'x-factor' which currently you would have to say we don't have although RFM may develop into that. So with young blood in there and the confidence they bring we should go OK.

 

[Alan79]

I'd say priority one for next season would be to get the kicking game and service from.dummy half right. What killed us this year was that our forward pack always had the defense in their faces and our halves and backs had to wait for the ball because Lichaa never seemed to know where they were and opted to pass to the bloke who was within a metre of him.

Hopefully Foran brings a kicking game and whoever we see in the hooking role has enough awareness to get the ball to the right option at different times of the games.

 

[CrittaMagic69]

I'd say priority one for next season would be to get the kicking game and service from.dummy half right. What killed us this year was that our forward pack always had the defense in their faces and our halves and backs had to wait for the ball because Lichaa never seemed to know where they were and opted to pass to the bloke who was within a metre of him.

Hopefully Foran brings a kicking game and whoever we see in the hooking role has enough awareness to get the ball to the right option at different times of the games.

Our forward pack just wasn't good enough this year, has nothing to so with the service. They weren't running onto the ball or running any decent lines. They also spent way to much time running sideways into the defence and that lead to them getting dominated and playing the ball slowly.

And lol a Foran bringing a kicking game. He can put in a few handy kicks here and there but is by no means a dominant kicker. Has nothing left in his legs these days.

 

[flamebouyant]

At the beginning of the year i was optomistic. Sadly, as the season unfolded it became clear that haslers game plan and team selections were just rubbish, and the more the season unfolded you could see that the players were also sick of the game plan and it was showing in their efforts. They were trying, but they just didnt look inspired or happy on the field.
Im confident that with a new coach in charge we can turn things around pretty quickly, not the doom and gloom 3-4 years that some are suggesting. Players like montoya, brenko, (ok not always) RFM and fualao have really stepped up this year, and i think there are a few more younger players who could similarly step up next year. But we need a new coach who will give them a chance in the place of plodders like eastwood.
The dogs are never down for long.

 

[Kelpie03]

Was thinking the same thing myself earlier today. If you look at our pack for next year, you would have to say we have outstanding props, a great second rower, 2 young blokes in RFM and Elliott who will only get better and better and a bench that has Taulau, Fualolo and then Martin, To'omaga and Fine to pick from. That is without even looking at Graham/Tolman/Eastwood. If you look at the backs we have Hoppa, Kennar, Lee, Montoya, Morris x 2 for starters so there is both speed and experience there. In the halves we have Mbye, Foran, Cleeland, Frawley and maybe Lewis to pick from. Hooker is Brown with Woolford and the kid in U20s an outsider. Then you have Carr, Bergamin and hopefully a couple of kids coming through the 20s that might do a "montoya" next year. A lot of my footballing mates keep talking about the need for an 'x-factor' which currently you would have to say we don't have although RFM may develop into that. So with young blood in there and the confidence they bring we should go OK.

Mate its great to read something positive for a change I agree with everything you've said, the only thing I've enjoyed this year is the hard running of RFM, Fualolo and Taulau.
More positive news would be for Des to depart along with Eastwood Tolman and Graham, I believe that Des would be a mill stone around our club's neck, and I can see Eastwood, Tolman and Graham contributing zero next year.

 

[XR6T]

The future is looking bright but it would have been much brighter if we had kept the ones we let go like Finucane, Latu, Ese' Ese instead of Plodman, Feastwood, Holland etc...

 

[SweetFA]

Thats my opinion based on the potential of the younger players in the team.

- Fualalo is getting better with each game. High work rate. Developing into a potentially decent no 13.
- Tualau is a beast. Can be a good impact player with more experience in nrl
- Elliot if he can improve his handling, has mobility and energy
- montoya seems reliable and a good finisher
- brenko on his good day offers a lot

Klemmer, rfm, mbye are still young and developing.
We obviously have a good depth as the isp team is doing well.
A new recruitment guy. Anyone >>>cleal i guess.

In summary i think the club has done ok. We have not signed the best talents, which is not unusual for bulldogs, but we are not doing too badly either. We have a decent base to build on.

We do have a good core, Mbye is the fastest player in the club; why would you play him in the middle(hooker) & blunt his strength with a high defensive work rate. Hey played most of his juniors at fullback, Hopoate/Lee/Montoya can fight out the Right outside backs; Montoya was also an excellent fullback at schoolboy level.
We URGENTLY require an accomplished goal kicker. Our general play kicking needs working on. Our power/speed across the park is not acceptable, Woolford is not physically ready for a full NRL season.
This is all achievable with a complete overhaul of our entire coaching staff

 

[Oatley Dog]

We do have a good core, Mbye is the fastest player in the club; why would you play him in the middle(hooker) & blunt his strength with a high defensive work rate. Hey played most of his juniors at fullback, Hopoate/Lee/Montoya can fight out the Right outside backs; Montoya was also an excellent fullback at schoolboy level.
We URGENTLY require an accomplished goal kicker. Our general play kicking needs working on. Our power/speed across the park is not acceptable, Woolford is not physically ready for a full NRL season.
This is all achievable with a complete overhaul of our entire coaching staff

Someone sure as hell has to practice goalkicking over the off season. even with the rubbish we played for most of this year if we could've kicked goals we probably still would be vying for a top 8 spot. Add to that the absence for most of the year of a good tactical kicking game and its probably a wonder we did as well as we did. I know foran doesn't kick much with the Warriors but given the role of Johnson that's not too surprising. Will be interesting to see how he goes next year. I think Brown has a reasonable kick on him as well.

 

[BELMORE]

The big improvement I am looking forward too is the reduction in skin folds.

Sick to fuck of the cuddly bears.

Hell yeah. I reckon Montoya is in for a big 2018 as well, can focus on getting a bit more weight on in the offseason.

 

[BELMORE]

Someone sure as hell has to practice goalkicking over the off season. even with the rubbish we played for most of this year if we could've kicked goals we probably still would be vying for a top 8 spot. Add to that the absence for most of the year of a good tactical kicking game and its probably a wonder we did as well as we did. I know foran doesn't kick much with the Warriors but given the role of Johnson that's not too surprising. Will be interesting to see how he goes next year. I think Brown has a reasonable kick on him as well.

Maybe with a new coach Rhyce Martin could be brought in. Anyone got stats for his kicking? Need to move Jacko to lock though so that we can rotate RFM and Elliot..

 

[Oatley Dog]

Maybe with a new coach Rhyce Martin could be brought in. Anyone got stats for his kicking? Need to move Jacko to lock though so that we can rotate RFM and Elliot..

I think someone else reported that he was kicking at about 80% or so. If his form is strong enough in the pre-season he might get a shot early on.

 

[boggie23]

And lol a Foran bringing a kicking game. He can put in a few handy kicks here and there but is by no means a dominant kicker. Has nothing left in his legs these days.

Exactly. Foran has been lucky he has played in teams with big kicking halves. DCE and SJ both have huge boots on them so Foran just had to chime in and do his thing. By no means is he a dominant kicker. Even Norman last year was the dominant half between them both for kicks and running the plays.

Foran is just a polished/rich mans Reynolds. He is more constant and has less brain fades during games (mind you Foran is a class 5/8 and Reynolds can never be described as a classy player).

Hopefully he can straighten our attack and take players to the line (he isn't a running sideways type of half) so that's the best we can hope for. For long locking game, and controlling field position/repeat sets from his boot.... we will have to wait and see I guess. He had never had a role like that in any other team he has played on in the past.

 

[immortalbulldog]

Does anyone know if that Will Kerr is going to come back or has he given it away for good? always had such huge wraps and we could really use a good young half