Official Round 1 - Bulldogs vs Eels - Discussion Thread

[XR6T]

If your mother was your father she’d be a man- if if if! Hypothesis are meaningless....Clogger was putrid in the trials plain as day he blew his opportunities in the 2 trials. Hopefully he improves his decision making, communication & most importantly his kicking game in NSW Cup & makes Pay take notice.
This is our roster, we have a diabolical spine;-
1)DWZ is all power poor passing game & has weakness under the high ball. Not in the top6 fullbacks in the NRL
2)Our halves; Lewis is our best option enough said!
3) JMK offers very little in attack around the ruck ; not an NRL level hooker.
Throw in outside backs who failed to score 40 tries collectively last season & it’s not hard to see why we’ll struggle to make the 8 again.
This is the roster that Pay has to pick from

" If your mother was your father she’d be a man"

How do you know she's not my father?
This is no longer a hypothesis mate....
Be careful what you say

In saying that Lewis is DEFINITELY not our best halfback. He was more shit than Cogger was in the trials. Looked like he was going through emotions. Cogger problem is he tries too hard to impress because he knows Lewis is Pays pet and he needs to WOW the coach to get even considered knocking off Lewis out of the team.

 

[Snake]

Dylan Napa take a bow! That was his best game in blue and white. He was physical in defence and bent the line with his runs. He looks in peak fitness and lead from the front. Well done Papi!

I rekon he will get cited for that shoulder charge and might miss next week. Hope I’m wrong

 

[wendog33]

Well someome mentioned the word FLANAGAN so I thought I'd bring up the other hoart ol chestnut of the off sesson for a bit of light relief lol

Fark, now youve done it. They'll be 3 new threads started about it now before I hit the 'Post Reply' button on this comment

 

[Spoonman84]

I rekon he will get cited for that shoulder charge and might miss next week. Hope I’m wrong

Yeah I think he would too it wasn’t real bad but I think he might miss a week. Crichton will get some time for his too.

 

[Headmix]

Sounds like a worse Josh Reynolds!

Haha... It does a bit.

Anyone think Averillo could have done something with the space Crichton had at times... Pay made a couple of selection blunders tonight

I thought chrighton was our best back after DWZ.

 

[DoggyStyla]

The problem with our attack is, all we do is one out hit ups for most of our sets. We barely pass the ball and when we do it’s clunky crap. We need an attacking coach, do we even have one? If we do he should be sack with Pay.

 

[wendog33]

Well said. Glad you elaborated on your thoughts re Wakeham. He's a rooky and looks the most likely to me.

Pay needs to give him the reins.

No I don't. I rate Wakeham but I think he is a 7 and Lewis should be 6. I don't understand Pays thinking on this point and I thought that when he had Lewis in 6 in the Cannerra trial he was starting to think this as well...

Problem is that Brandon needs to grab the reigns even if Pay doesn't hand them to him. I am fucking over the microscope of Lewis though to be honest, he so not the messiah just a good footy player that is a competitor with confidence, and he needs others to contribute. If we had Cooke in that team tonight out of dummy half we would have won with a leg in the air. There was no easy space for us in attack.

 

[Kempsey Dog]

Haha... It does a bit.

I thought chrighton was our best back after DWZ.

For hard carries yes, but he's just not suited to our style of attack inside the opp 20 as we don't create enough time and space to compensate for his lack of athletecism and finishing ability of someone like Smith who should still be wing

 

[2144superman]

I think we are really shooting our selves in the foot by not playing Reimis Smith on the wing, while he may want to play centre I think for think the best thing for the team overall is to have him on the wing. He is big fast and strong and being wasted playing in the centres.

 

[Chris Harding]

Well, I have to say, as clunky as the game was, the Dogs impressed me with their grit and solid defence. The Parra try came from an error, not from outplaying us. Considering the hype and the team that the Eels had on the field, this was a game that the Dogs can take plenty of positives from.
I expected a walkover. The result is far better than I predicted.

 

[Daustin]

i think the message tonight wouldve been simple, play hard, hold onto the ball and complete. early rounds there is a lot of errors. parra made plenty as well. once we look for the inside pass or offload (there was few) we actually started making breaks. I think we play our best when we offload and manage to complete high as well

 

[Kempsey Dog]

I think we are really shooting our selves in the foot by not playing Reimis Smith on the wing, while he may want to play centre I think for think the best thing for the team overall is to have him on the wing. He is big fast and strong and being wasted playing in the centres.

Agreed, if he doesn't want to go back to the wing then I'm happy for him to leave to another club tbh and spend the cash on someone else

 

[Spoonman84]

If you said we would only lose by 6 tonight you would have probably taken it after the week the club has had. In saying that it’s disappointing to lose after the effort in defence. That game was there for the taking if we had a functioning attack. Lewis just doesn’t have to ability to run the show and be on the ball as much as he did. We could have played for another 5 hours and the only way we would have scored is through an error. I didn’t think it was possible but the attack has regressed thankfully the defence is still there.

 

[Howard Moon]

the biggest concern of all is that Parra aren't even one of the better defensive teams lol. What do we score against Roosters or Storm? 1?

 

[Chris Harding]

If you said we would only lose by 6 tonight you would have probably taken it after the week the club has had. In saying that it’s disappointing to lose after the effort in defence. That game was there for the taking if we had a functioning attack. Lewis just doesn’t have to ability to run the show and be on the ball as much as he did. We could have played for another 5 hours and the only way we would have scored is through an error. I didn’t think it was possible but the attack has regressed thankfully the defence is still there.

True - but that was also how Parramatta scored. Ferguson and Siva were supposed to own an undermanned and less skilled Bulldog side tonight, yet the only try came from a fumble behind the line, and late in the game.

It should have been a cakewalk. Either the Dogs are far better than the experts predicted, or Parra are not the team everyone said they were.
We have room to improve on tonight's performance - does Parra? Or was that their best shot?

 

[Roll the Bones]

the biggest concern of all is that Parra aren't even one of the better defensive teams lol. What do we score against Roosters or Storm? 1?

Only if Lewis fluffs one of his dreadful bombs, which is very possible.

 

[Spoonman84]

True - but that was also how Parramatta scored. Ferguson and Siva were supposed to own an undermanned and less skilled Bulldog side tonight, yet the only try came from a fumble behind the line, and late in the game.

It should have been a cakewalk. Either the Dogs are far better than the experts predicted, or Parra are not the team everyone said they were.
We have room to improve on tonight's performance - does Parra? Or was that their best shot?

The end of last years form suggests our defence is better then Parra’s and their attack is better then ours so they could cancel each other out to some extent.

 

[2144superman]

#ProudToBeaBulldog this picture summed up
our effort for me tonight.
look at all the bodies in that one tackle. We were there for one another and played as a team.

 

[Mozzie]

I feel the game plan tonight was to try and grind a win which wasn't far off. I think Pay will ease Wakeham into the half role rather than throwing him in and risking losing his confidence. The Kennel is not very forgiving and we are supporters site! I think we will see him running the ball more over the next few games. I think/hope that Lewis and Wakeham can develop into an acceptable duo given the chance.

 

[Spoonman84]

View attachment 13634

#ProudToBeaBulldog this picture summed up
our effort for me tonight.
look at all the bodies in that one tackle. We were there for one another and played as a team.

The effort and desire was there in spades you can’t ask for anything more in that regard.