News Campo’s Corner preview: Bulldogs

Spoonman84

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CANTERBURY BULLDOGS
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak joined Canterbury in June of 2019, when the Bulldogs were absolutely terrible.

They were dead last on the ladder and were every fan’s pick for the wooden spoon. His first game was a dreary, 38-12 loss to the Roosters at the SCG in the rain. The once and future premiers rested a host of their rep stars and still won without breaking out of a walk.

It was the kind of existentially depressing loss wooden spoon seasons are made of, a loss from which there were no positives beyond the misery only lasting for 80 minutes – in real life, misery can stretch on forever, most of the time footy misery at least has a clock on it.

Nobody would have blinked if the Bulldogs laid down and just let the rest of the season happen. Just cop the losses, finish last, have a big summer and leave it all behind. That’s what bad teams do, and it’s what they’ve always done.



Watene-Zelezniak has been a great buy for Canterbury. AAP Image/Brendon Thorne.

But to their eternal credit, the Bulldogs refused to lie down. They won their next two, rose all the way to 15th, and Watene-Zelezniak said in an interview they could still make the finals. I laughed at him. You probably did as well. It wouldn’t have taken a miracle, it would have taken a string of miracles – think feeding the five thousand while walking on water that was turned to wine.

It was absurd, and it wasn’t possible, and in the end it couldn’t be done, but Watene-Zelezniak believed it and his teammates believed it and that’s more important than if some moron sportswriter believed it.

The Bulldogs won four in a row, never scoring more than 20 points, and they knocked off the finals-bound Rabbitohs and Eels. They faced the Broncos in the final round, with nothing to play for, and ran up their biggest score of the season, 30 points, that’s three zero, and Brisbane went on to the finals but Canterbury could be proud.



The Bulldogs could be proud of their efforts. Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images.

Watene-Zelezniak typified why the Bulldogs won these games. The former Panther has spent plenty of time on the wing but fullback is his true position, and off the field he’s a friendly fella but on it he’s a glutton for punishment and for punishing. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak is made for running the ball and running it hard, and every now and then he collects a kick, looks up at the defensive line and decides that the only thing to do is run as fast as he can for as long as he can until he hits something that’ll stop him.

That’s the spirit Dean Pay is building in these Bulldogs. They might not be winners, but they’re fighters. They can be outrun and outgunned, but if a team gets down in the gutter with them the Bulldogs will either beat them or rough them up trying. They played the Roosters again in that late season run, six weeks after the first meeting. The Roosters won again, 20-12 this time, but nobody got rested, and they weren’t walking through it this time.


Will desire be enough for the Bulldogs? Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images.

Finals football might be a bit beyond the Bulldogs this year. Desire is as admirable a quality as one can find in a footy team, but it can only carry them so far. As badly as the Bulldogs want to win, and as much as they sacrifice to make it happen, it won’t turn them into the kind of star-studded roster other teams can boast. Last year they scored more than 20 points in a match just five times, and defending totals like that every week just isn’t sustainable.

The Bulldogs still need to upgrade at a couple of key positions to end what has become the second-longest premiership drought in the club’s history. But those premierships have to start somewhere, and they start when a team learns how to fight and keep fighting even when the cause looks hopeless because it is hopeless, and those starts can be anywhere, even on rainy days at the SCG in games they never looked like winning in the first place.

THE TEAM

From a personnel standpoint, the Bulldogs have a lot of the same issues as last year. It’s not that their forward pack is bad, it just lacks punch. Aiden Tolman will get through his tackles and make his runs every single week from now until the End Times, and it’s good to have somebody so reliable who is always there, but he’s not the kind of player who can be the foundation of a real, top class forward pack. If he’s your second-best middle you’d feel great, if he’s your best there might be some elements lacking.

Dylan Napa has the ability to be the kind of destructive, tackle-busting middle the Bulldogs are crying out for, and he finished last year very strongly, but the blue and whites need him to do that every week. He’s seven years into his career now, so maybe that’s just not in him, but if the Bulldogs are to defy the oddsmakers they need the red menace, and they need him all the time.


Dylan Napa was not all he could have been in 2019. Picture by Alix Sweeney.

Josh Jackson is still Josh Jackson, and that’s all that needs to be said, because the Bulldogs can always count on him and although Corey Harawira-Naera started slowly in 2019 by season’s end he was the Bulldogs best attacking weapon, and a real threat on the left edge. That combination with Will Hopoate and Reimis Smith is the best thing Canterbury have going for them in attack, and how it continues to develop will be something to watch. Hopoate deserves special mention – he’s never really gotten his speed back after his Mormon mission, but his wonderful hands, judicious offloading and top shelf footwork have turned him into one of the most underrated players in the game.

There might not be room for him out there, but Dean Britt playing on an edge in Canterbury’s first trial was a promising sign. The skilful Britt is tenacious in the middle, but I like him more when he’s a little bit wider. Getting minutes with Jackson and Harawira-Naera in front of him will be tough, but Britt is more than good enough should the Bulldogs need some relief.


Britt was a good get for Canterbury. Picture by Tim Hunter.

With Kieran Foran gone for much of the year, and given his injury history his future has to be in serious doubt, the Bulldogs need to land on something in the halves. There were things to like about each of Lachlan Lewis, Jack Cogger and Brandon Wakeham last year, but Pay needs to pick a pair and stick to it. Cogger in particular took some big steps forward – he was thrown into first grade far too early at the Knights and suffered for it, but he’s still got plenty of ability.

Canterbury’s main issue in 2020, as it was in 2019, is points, and where they will come from. Their backline is solid, but filled with finishers rather than creators. There will be heavy pressure on their halves from the jump to create – as much as I have sung Watene-Zelezniak’s praises, he is still developing as a ballplayer, and Jeremy Marshall-King is, again, more of a runner than a creator for others.

THE TIP: If the Bulldogs can stay in the mix for the top eight until the final weeks of the regular season that’s a good result. They’ll aim higher, without doubt, and they’ll believe they can make the finals, but if they do make it they’ll be overachieving. As hard as they fight, and as stirring as the end to last season was and as much as it may have given them hope for the future there’s still some ways to go before a trip back to the finals becomes a realistic proposition.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/s...s/news-story/41b23b23002b48bfe717e06d3462b605
 

BlackDawg

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Pretty objective summary of our position. I think our roster is better than it was in 2019 as we have more depth for our bench choices. I think that gives us a stronger 80 minutes of footy than we had last year. The foran injury left us with a set of halves that means we really have to defend our way to victory in 2020 because we lack creative strike.
 

Scoooby

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We are in a better place than 2019 that’s for sure, with all going well an pay getting everyone in the correct positions we can definitely be a top 8 team, we certainly have the players achieve that..!!!
 

c-b-b

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Really decent article. Maybe it's bulldogs goggles but I think we can make the bottom 2 positions of the 8 if Wakeham is in the halves and we put together some performances like we did late last year.

Even playing one finals game would mean the team has come a hell of a long way and that Pay has the team heading in the right direction.
 

Spoonman84

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It's probably the fairest preview I have read. The success or failure of our season will ride on a few things.

- The defence has to play the whole season as it finished last year if it's not we simply wont win games.
- Scoring enough points to keep us in games. Even if our defence is water tight we still need to be getting over 3 tries a game.
- Luck! When you're grinding out games in an arm wrestle the bounce of the ball and ref's decisions are huge!

I'm worried about our defence the most we have a few positional changes like Reimis at centre and if our attitude isn't right we are dead in the water.
 

Alan79

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I'm of the opinion that attack starts with confidence. And the end of last season tells me that our youngsters had begun to build some. Hopefully they remember that from game one and we start with a few wins.
 

GDR

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Well written.. finally someone has highlighted our biggest issue.. love this quote......... Last year they scored more than 20 points in a match just five times, and defending totals like that every week just isn’t sustainable.......

Truer words have never been spoken... And people still think Lewis is the right fit............ Both cogger and wakeham show much more potential to score points or contribute to scoring points....
 

KLil

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Well written.. finally someone has highlighted our biggest issue.. love this quote......... Last year they scored more than 20 points in a match just five times, and defending totals like that every week just isn’t sustainable.......

Truer words have never been spoken... And people still think Lewis is the right fit............ Both cogger and wakeham show much more potential to score points or contribute to scoring points....
I agree but if you take Lewis out of the equation we might have to defend harder for longer also isn't as sustainable.. I honestly reckon pay needs to bite the bullet and throw Wakeham in regardless and let Lewis and Cogger fight for it. In saying that I would start with Lewis and let Wakeham take the reigns.
 

Bazildog

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I agree but if you take Lewis out of the equation we might have to defend harder for longer also isn't as sustainable.. I honestly reckon pay needs to bite the bullet and throw Wakeham in regardless and let Lewis and Cogger fight for it. In saying that I would start with Lewis and let Wakeham take the reigns.
I agree with this. Lewis at 6 and Wakeham at 7 with him steering us around. Cogger to 14 especially while JMK is out. The Cogger/Wakeham combo would be like an open gate for opposition teams and we would bleed points. Its imperative we start with wins this year, confidence will be everything and it should not matter if we look ugly doing it just so long as we win.
 

KLil

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I agree with this. Lewis at 6 and Wakeham at 7 with him steering us around. Cogger to 14 especially while JMK is out. The Cogger/Wakeham combo would be like an open gate for opposition teams and we would bleed points. Its imperative we start with wins this year, confidence will be everything and it should not matter if we look ugly doing it just so long as we win.
Throwing Lewis in first also gives the club the opportunity to see where he is at and if his not the go to half maybe a buy and sell before June 30 may benefit us in the run home.
 

Real1

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I think people need to stop talking about the back end of last season, that’s dead and buried in the water... it’s a new season now, it really means nothing now what we did.
 

Spoonman84

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I think people need to stop talking about the back end of last season, that’s dead and buried in the water... it’s a new season now, it really means nothing now what we did.
It does give a decent measuring stick of what the team can do especially in defence and attitude but apart from that you're right.
 

GDR

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I agree but if you take Lewis out of the equation we might have to defend harder for longer also isn't as sustainable.. I honestly reckon pay needs to bite the bullet and throw Wakeham in regardless and let Lewis and Cogger fight for it. In saying that I would start with Lewis and let Wakeham take the reigns.
I just don't understand the sentiment of having a half in a team on the basis of defense..

Lewis provides zero in attack and likewise in organisation..

If we had a great defensive centre on that side of the field, then Lewis would actually not contribute anything to the team...
 

JackDog

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I just don't understand the sentiment of having a half in a team on the basis of defense..

Lewis provides zero in attack and likewise in organisation..

If we had a great defensive centre on that side of the field, then Lewis would actually not contribute anything to the team...
Yup, thus imo Lewis needs to bulk up a bit and slot into lock.
 

CrittaMagic69

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Yup, thus imo Lewis needs to bulk up a bit and slot into lock.
Jackson, Britt, Thompson when he comes will all be better options than Lewis at lock. Lewis can't even use his frame as a half, doubt he can use it in the forwards lol.
 

CanterburybankstownBD

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It's never occurred to me until now just how good they finished the season last year.
They had a pretty shocking first half of the season but they didn't give up, they played hard and they believed in
themselves.

I've just realised, it says quite a lot about Pay, the coaching staff and the club and the players the way they finished the season.
I'd be very surprised if we don't play twice as good this year.

And Dean Britt, I really hope he's in the team, I like the way he plays.
 
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