bulldogs trial #2 superthread

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JERRY LEE

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I went to the game it was a professional effort by the dogs Kimmorley controlled the game and ennis provided some magic. Barba was used in small bursts but eveything he did was class. Hodgson started strong hannant looked a little sluggish. Tia killifi well he is like Utai but not as hard running but can hold the ball. No one played badly and the team played better against the raiders then they did anytime last year. Roberts was ordinary to say the least and Barba looks better both in attack and defence. But its only a trial against the Dragons Barba completely outplayed Roberts. Roberts will get first go but Barba will be right behind him. Canberra didnt have there best team though No Duggan Monaghan croker.

THey didnt score untill10 mins left when bulldogs brought off Kimmorley and Ennis and didnt look like would. Dogs are in for a huge Year and need a fit Halatau to complete the team or even a homesick Eastwood
so babra's defence has improved he should make it in the top team now.
 

habibsta

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so babra's defence has improved he should make it in the top team now.
Well its better than it was for sure but it was terrible before. His tackling one on one is identical to Kimmorley he rushes and jumps on them holds up the play for others to then complete the tackle. Last year its his reads in defence went for the intercept alot and left holes in defence but he seems to have taken that away. We saw what he can do when he gets it right in the first division final last year. I think he was left out last year purely on attitude and immaturity nothing else he is as good as a Thurston, Lockyear, Prince, in defence.

But looking at him in both trials he looks like GOLD only thing im regretting is not seeing him and eastwood team up. Barba support play is identical to Lamb were he is always there for the offload hopefully Halatau can provide that or Paea mind you armits offload against cowboys could do the job
 

tempo

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I attended the match and was pleasantly surprised at how good a night it was. There were heaps of people in Bulldogs gear and the guy taking tickets even commented about all of the Bulldogs fans coming out of the woodwork. People were allowed onto the field before the match, at half time and afterwards which created a party-like atmosphere and although I don't reckon a trial is worth $20 at least the food wasn't a rip-off. The game was fairly entertaining too, so it was worth the money and the local clubs share it which is good. I was glad that the crowd was over 8k but it seemed like a lot more with people packing into the smaller hill and grandstand areas. The thing that was lacking was crowd involvement. Even with a lot of Bulldogs supporters there wasn't a lot of cheering. One Canberra fan near me was cheering all match though.

As for the game itself, the Bulldogs played quite well for a trial. There weren't many errors and for the most part they played quality footy. Hodgson and Paea were impressive up front getting through a lot of work and running hard. Seeing Paea perform like a starter was encouraging and he came very close to scoring a try as well. The long kicking game of Noddy and Ennis was a highlight, as were the skills of those two with Noddy holding up a pass nicely to set up Hodgo for the first try and kicking for Nanai to jump high out wide and knock the ball down for Morris to score. Ennis chipped from dummy half about 8m out from the tryline and easily got to the ball first. His goal kicking was good too. His only miss was near touch on his non-preferred side after Barba went scheming and put Nanai over in the corner. I didn't even notice Roberts. I feared extending his contract was a bad idea. He just isn't effective enough often enough. In the occasional game he plays great but for mine, Barba offers more because he usually has a try assist or at least a line break in every match and that's with limited time.

I can't remember much else from the game tbh but I left feeling confident of another successful year because we really dominated the Raiders. They were never in the match and when they did threaten our line, our defence was strong, except for their first try.

It was good to see bobcat chaired off the ground too haha.
 
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tempo

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He looked massive in person. He's really filled out in the off season.
 

Guardog

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I would have loved to be there. Did all the players get some good game time, or were they rotated regularly?? Did you see how Halatau hurt himself?
 
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