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Plus we already had him a few years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if we signed him but at the same time I just don’t see it happening.

I know he was good mates with Topine, so I wonder if there’s more to it. I wonder if he left because of the rumours right now with the apparent divide between some of the pacific islander players and Ciraldo? Just speculation though…

Karl seems the most likely

Sharks seem to be clearing up some space. Maybe they will end up signing AFB for 2025? They would be more attractive than us or the Dragons.

3rd is Moyle and 4th is Hayes I believe

Who would be the 6 if Burton went to centre? Would it be Hutchison ?

Optimistically 10th-11th Realistically 14th-15th

Exactly, Curran’s a good signing. If Flanagun, Nasheed or 04 Dreaming idolise a player, they’re probably not good If the above three complain about a player/signing, they’re most likely good.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire JAC will not be a Bulldog in 2024

I think I speak for all of us when I say if Fox walks, we all walk

Besides Kitione, anyone know anything about the other two dogs players? Potential for first grade?

Doubt he will return to us though but he probably will come back to NRL and it is probably for the better of his career that he goes to the UK for a bit.

Bulldogs defend ‘punishment’ of player who walked out and didn’t return By Michael Chammas August 29, 2023 — 9.31pm The Canterbury Bulldogs are privately defending their treatment of an NRL player who walked out of training five weeks ago due to mental health reasons. The player, who hasn’t...

So apparently this happened 5 weeks ago and the player has requested personal time off since. It’s Topine.

So you reckon Skelton will come into the centres then and Perham is the one dropped? Because surely Ciraldo plays Skelton now

Well in that case we probably will end up with Avo to centres, Perham to fullback, Skelton to wing, and Alamoti out 1 hour before kick off tomorrow

Burns out, Alamoti in. Didn’t realise we could change the line-up before 24 hours to kick off as Alamoti has been called out of the 21 man named squad.

Our pack was already undersized this year. Now imagine it next year without TPJ, Okunbor, Pele…

100% Gus just makes it up as he goes sometimes and Ciraldo seems to not have much idea what he is doing. It’s for sure showing dangerous signs of the direction that the club is going in.

I’d rather Watson (I’d prefer neither but only if the club is set on having one)

Sorry I can not agree that King has been better. He has been so average this season. He was one of our best and safest last season and yes his clearly playing injured this season, but he has really underperformed based on the expectations he gained from last season.

Sarcasm btw!

Sutton and RFM straight in, thank God! Was worried they were leaving for a minute.

TPJ had so much potential. Who on earth are we going to replace him with? Yes he wasn’t worth his price tag but we were a lot stronger with him than without. Do we even have any middles for next year now?

Is TPJ even muslim? I don’t remember him ever speaking out about it, unlike Haas and SBW

Not at all. If we kept Avo still we would be one of the fastest backlines but still not the best. I would argue right now Critta is the only one you could argue is sensational and we haven’t seen how he will perform in our team yet. Taafe is unproven as a week in-week out fullback and don’t let...

Hoping Brown comes in for Flanagan tomorrow but guessing he will remain 18th man.

I’m getting excited about our future with Papa at the back.

I think one of Skelton or Brown will come on bench and the other will remain 18th man

I think he means Brandon Clarke.

To be fair, I found it funny that Skelton’s first touch was a drop because I am one of those who was wanting to see him in first grade and I was so excited to see his first touch and it ends up being terrible. It was almost a bit of an egg-in-face moment as everyone kept complaining that Skelton...

Sutton won’t play as category one EQW will be back to reserves, probably straight swap for JAC, with Kiraz to centre You’re only other change is Edwards in for Morrin which I’m not sure I agree with I think it will be either Pele or Patolo on the bench. Probably Patolo as he at least started in...

Ward was taken off for Skelton but he only came back on for Burns HIA. I think Ciraldo could see his defence wasn’t up to scratch. However, I’m not going to write him off as a one-game player yet. He needs to work on speed and defence but he hasn’t even had a pre-season with us yet. I think he...

You guys think we will see Skelton today or CC will roll with just 3 on the bench?

I don’t think his a good fullback but I don’t think his a bad player. I think he would make a good centre. Probably wouldn’t be in my top 17 but would be handy as one of our back-up centres.

A family member of Skelton commented on that facebook post to say he was told by Jeral himself that he is 18th man. So it’s either EQW or Topine in the centre position today.

Think we’ll be 1-17

Papa playing origin u19

Hearing Oloapu and Sexton in halves, Burton to centre, Burns to wing, Hoffman to replace Flanno on bench.

Replace Topine with EQW/Skelton Sutton with Patolo Oloapu over Flanagan on the bench Okunbor with Topine and this is actually a decent team.

No way he has dropped Alamoti and Perham!!!

Not sure that’s the case as Topine on the bench could have replaced either Okunbor or Alamoti. He could have even got players to swap sides. Rajab’s defence is simply not good enough for first grade, and he was having a shocker on Sunday.

Was Sutton a Gus signing?

Just looked him up, he has an interesting face. The rest of my judgement I will reserve until I see him play.

Nah, I can’t see Rajab being named when he was hooked in the first half. I think Sexton will walk straight into the team if cleared.

I would go 1. Hopoate (2020) 2. Addo-Carr (2023) 3. Smith (2020) 4. Averillo (2023) 5. Kiraz (2023) 6. Averillo (2020) 7. Burton (2023) 8. Thompson (2020) 9. JMK (2020) 10. TPJ (2023) 11. Jackson (2020) 12. Preston (2023) 13. Smith (2020) 14. Topine (2023) 15. Atoni (2020) 16. Sue (2020) 17...

Apparently Burton who was front runner for the vacant centre spot with Graham ruled out, has lost it to Bradman Best after he scored a hat-trick against us yesterday.

Just out of curiosity when did he say this?

KO has a neck injury

1. Edwards 2. To’o 3. Crichton 4. Graham 5. JAC 6. Walker 7. Hynes 8. Haas 9. Robson 10. Turbo 11. Martin 12. Olokau’atu 13. Murray (c) 14. Burton 15. Kolomatangi 16. Paulo 17. Leniu 18. Kyle Flanagan

His a Dragons junior but played briefly for Mounties. I think only one year or so.

Hunt would play 9

BBO posted on his Instagram story a few days ago which seemed to indicate he should be back to playing sooner than later

Who knows maybe Bennett gets the best out of him and then after Gus has built up the club, he comes back as a much better player? If he truly loves the club and we become in need of a centre again. Unlikely though as we have a lot of good junior depth in backline which will hopefully...

Hopefully becomes another Mbye/Schoupp

This puzzles me because Ciraldo’s game plan at the start of the year was get the ball in Avo’s hands. I reckon we bring on the new Ethan kid on Skelton now and look towards next year’s centre now because I’m not entirely convinced on the Alamoti x Xerri pairing yet.

Edwards apparently got concussed at training. So Ciraldo still hasn’t made any unforced changes, despite all his talk last week that changes will be made.

I think Nu Brown should be more likely and has more utility value than Flanagan but Ciraldo has been hinting Flanagan will probably earn a recall on the bench sooner than later, and after his performance last week, and Ciraldo’s need for a new utility on the bench for this week - I think this...

So Rajab to 7, Flanagan to 14, Skelton 18th man most likely

He didn’t make one unforced change…

Fox dropped?

That’s 9

Joash dropped or injured?

Missed the game but did we play bad enough to have any unforced changes? So far Ciraldo has only really dropped Reynolds and Flanagan. RFM has been an unforced change due to illness. Ideally Waddell and Perham are next, but Ciraldo seems to like both of them.

Why are you the only one who seems to know him? Even a quick google search and nothing comes up for that name. Unless are you talking about Kautoga from the tigers?

Alamoti has not yet shown he is a top centre yet and will most likely go to the forwards as his body develops. Xerri has been out of the game for years and is no guarantee to return to previous form. Skelton is unproven in first grade. Burns will be handy depth but think we can aim a bit...

Averillo gone by that last comment

The problem is which forwards to drop in first grade? TPJ I doubt would get dropped but probably deserves to at least be benched. King prob should be rested but I doubt he gets dropped as he is one of our better performers on average. Waddell has been playing alright this year but I don’t think...

Yeah he did say JAC back next week. He didn’t specifically say Wilson to fullback, but he gave him a wrap so I wouldn’t be surprised if he did keep his spot and went to fullback because surely Perham gets dropped.

I am not disagreeing with you, I think Wilson is much better than Casey. Last week we would have needed an exemption for Wilson, and as we were coming off from a win the week before and Kiraz was returning, maybe the club just didn’t think it was needed? Besides Gus implied Skelton would have...

He put big emphasis that he can pick players from out of the top 30 from next week. He specified that players have a chance to put their hand up tomorrow. When we look at who we actually have in our top 30, we have been quite limited for choice. We are only just starting to come out of our...

Also just wanted to add that he moved Okunbor away from the wing after he made the mistake of playing him there that one game. Past coaches we had kept Okunbor there a lot longer so Ciraldo is clearly showing he is willing to make changes.

Casey was in top 30 and Wilson wasn’t. Casey was already signed to the club before Ciraldo got here. Ideally Skelton would have been above Casey but he probably went with the fact that Casey had first grade experience with so many injurues. Otherwise a backline of Perham, Alamoti, Averillo...

I think we all have PTSD from Des, Pay and Barrett’s team selections. Let’s see if Ciraldo makes some big calls this Tuesday. So far his dropped Casey and Flanagan, which was both for deserved reasons.

Just watched Ciraldo’s press conference. He has called out that senior players are underperforming and will be paying close attention to NSW cup to see which players put their hands up. He gave signs that the 17 will be changed as players are not doing their job so hopefully we should expect...

We are only missing Thompson and Kikau right now. Not sure them 2 alone will make us a top 5 pack.

That’s the issue. You can see that he is still too nervous to try anything creative. He has shown from his defence that he is not afraid of the contact. I don’t want Flanagan in first grade and would like Oloapu to continue developing as I really want him to take off. I just wish that he will...

He was far from our worst today. I noticed you called him out when he scored a try that was taken back. He crossed the line twice today and although they were both taken off him, it was due to mistakes from other players. Not really sure you can put the blame on him for someone throwing a...

oloapu runs and tackles hard but has showed no playmaking ability. I am in no way hating in him as he is only 18 and have high hopes he will kick on but he has showed nothing as a half in first grade yet. I have yet to see him even put up a good kick yet, if anything he took 2 pretty poor...

Hughes/Edwards over Sutton. Waddell will also probably go to the bench once Kikau is back. 8. King 9. Mahoney 10. TPJ 11. Kikau 12. Preston 13. Thompson 14. RFM 15. Pele 16. Hughes/Edwards 17. Oloapu

Xerri is still banned until September 23. I see almost zero chance of that changing, considering it’s a doping ban. He hasn’t even trained with the team yet and hasn’t played since 2019 so he is in no way match-ready. He even claimed in January of this year, that he hasn’t watched an NRL game...

You first complain about making unnecessary changes and then say that you rather we lose so that changes can be made? Crichton is also coming to play fullback so hopefully that will fix one position. Papali’i in reserves is also one to watch in case Crichton doesn’t work out at the back.

With Skelton still suspended next week and JAC probably still some time away, should we see Wilson come in at the expense of Casey next week? Or with some saying his a better centre, should we see Casey shift to centres, with Wilson on the wing and Alamoti to reserves?

That’s always been the rule. It’s one or the other.

Wilson for Casey and Edwards for Okunbor are only changes I would make for final 17. I would’ve preferred Skelton though, but strange he isn’t even named on the extended bench.

It depends whether the coach decides to persist with Okunbor in the forwards. When fully fit, I don’t think Brown will be in the 17, but for now I think he may continue to be used for lock rotation with Edwards/RFM (not sure who actually played there yesterday). I think Pele may also come in for...

Brown was playing more of a lock role off the bench, we haven’t really been using a second hooker. I think Flanagan is just playing hooker in reserves so he doesn’t disrupt the development of Rajab and Hayward.

Not sure if you had a typo then but you originally wrote Alamoti is first drop, then Casey. My mistake.

Not sure if you’re trolling but in what world is Alamoti getting dropped before Casey?

Skelton will be in for next week for Burns anyway.

Just noticed that Eels are rolling with an almost all ex-Bulldog bench.

No to Mbye for me. Averillo, BBO or Oloapu as utility. Also ideally I wouldn’t have Sutton or Waddell in my top 17.

Just to add that a lot of these may be some time away or may be on potential. However, I think it won’t be an issue even from next year. 1. Crichton 2. JAC 3. Alamoti 4. Xerri 5. Kiraz

We don’t need a centre. We have Alamoti, Skelton, Xerri already. Once Papali’i is ready, Crichton may potentially have to be shifted to centres. If any of Oloapu, BBO, Rajab, etc. succeed as halves, Burton can be shifted to centre. Averillo, if kept as depth or even as a utility, is also...

Warriors have been playing good this year. Wouldn’t call them an easy win at this point in time.

do we even have a 2nd hooker in the top 30 whose not injured right now (so besides nu brown and bbo)

Yeah, we need an 18th man, so normally won’t play reserves. Not sure about keeping the 19th man off for both though

Yeah I wouldn’t mind it. Not sure Burton will be a good 7 though? I guess we’re going for two running halves, but I still think we need a good organiser.

To be fair, he could be playing qld origin tactics. Oloapu and Skelton slipping in towards the last day won’t give Sharks much time to prepare against them.

Hopefully we see some late changes. Skelton in for Averillo, Oloapu in for Flanagan, and Hughes/Topine in for Davey