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A pretty good summary of the issues we have but a weird take on recruitment solutions.

We don't leave Sydney for the last 5 rounds and only once after our final bye. Helpful for rest in the leadup to the finals and partially offsets the lack of a late bye.

Noice :joycat::joycat::joycat:

We'll never hear the end of this now. Will almost be as bad as if Penrith won a 5th.

Loiero made the mistake of not being named Walsh.

No worse than Walsh's.

Wishart showing he's not a centre. What a dumb play on the second.

Paps does it all and they balls it up again.

Storm bottling it.

Walsh will get the Churchill whether they win or lose now.

Wingers should always stay on their man.

How can they give a penalty for an earlier play? I hate that.

Great first half. Really enjoyable as a neutral.

You might not like him but there's no doubt Walsh is a freak in attack.

If Hughes' tackle was high and reportable, then Walsh's deserves a life ban

Tried the ol Benny Barba chase off the scrum.

Great pass.

Walsh very lucky. Clear shoulder to the head and has been a sin-bin all season.

Only 10 minutes in and it's clear how lacking we are in offensive strike weapons compared to both teams.

Why did I read this thread? As if the end of this season wasn't miserable enough, we needed to remind ourselves of previous misery? We are all gluttons for punishment.

About freakin' time!

I'm so sick of Penrith. (Mostly because I live here and will have to put up with it for another year).

#Breaking: The Bulldogs have reacted to their straights sets elimination from the finals by recruiting the veteran halfback. DOGS SIGN DOLPHINS HALFBACK - Brent Read The Bulldogs have reacted to their straight sets elimination from the finals by recruiting Dolphins half Sean O’Sullivan to...

Anyone but Penrith.

Yep. Easy to look like a genius coach early season when your team is twice as fit as everyone else. Just a shame the best teams peak in September when we are burnt out.

Ciro clearly has some stupid training demand that unless they absolutely go 200% in the preseason and early rounds he doesn't want them. A genius move to have players who burn out each year by round 18.

I worry we'll be worse and a fair few teams are definitely improving.

"I thought we played well. Plenty of lessons to learn for next year."

I think I don't but my disappointment and anger tells me otherwise...

Why do I hope?

The defensive maestro can't organise a fresh defence against a team running around us. That's game.

Depends if Xerri passes to him.

Good article. Seems like a good kid.

Foregoing sleep is moronic seeing your body recovers during sleep. Hope we have wiser physios and trainers than that.

I hate sport.

And 16 years old. He won't debut for at least 4 years.

@Philmus You're the top scorer winner in my books. It was the only comp everyone here could join.

Will it though? Our spine is crap and rather than strengthen it, we've weakened it by letting Mahoney go. Our hooker depth is so weak we had to re-sign Turpin this week. We've only added one prop to a forward rotation that gets out muscled most weeks. We only have 1 genuinely quality winger...

Well there clearly wasn't any freakin emphasis on defence either!!! What the hell was the emphasis on then???!!! Smh

2 years in a row we have peaked far too early and had the wheels fall off a month out from the finals. It's like maybe having the most physically and mentally difficult bootcamps pre-season when you play a physically and mentally demanding style in one of the most physically and mentally...

So what the hell did we try differently in that Manly game and why the hell haven't we tried it since...

What's worst is that this was the year where Penrith are weak, Storm are injured, the Raiders while consistent lack finals experience, the Warriors are gone, and the other remaining finals teams are super inconsistent. It was a year there for the taking for whomever was consistent and injury...

Do we?

Finishing second and getting a home game would have been better than finishing third though.

NAS with a 3 game suspension so it's actually in their best interest to lose in the first round so that they can have him back for the grand final.

Beat the Sharks by 75 points and we get a home final

Went out beach fishing last night as I was in a bad mood and absolutely killed it. Had to call it quits because I hit the bag limit. So it put me in a better mood.

Don't think I've ever been more angry after a win of that size in my life.

Absolutely zero discipline and execution tonight.

Preston at least trying.

We got freakin lucky then.

This team should be dropped for our flegg side.

And the laziness and I'll discipline gets worse and worse.

Getting lazy and losing focus. Need to shape up.

Forward by a mile.

Salmon...

If you kick on the 3rd it can't be straight to the fullback.

Simply to slow the game down and give them rests. We are bigger, faster and fitter than them so they won't win a war of attrition. It's good coaching.

Shoulder to the head in an earlier tackle. Pretty clear cut.

Mann out for next week both suspended and concussed.

Mann gone. Won't be back.

When Laurie smashes Salmon you know he isn't a forward.

About freakin time. But I'm not celebrating.

Tracey balls'd that. Just needed to step inside. Idiot.

Great run Sitili. Need more of that.

Well we said we were a year or two ahead of schedule. This is proving we are still a couple of years away.

Absolute freakin morons.

If we can't score against 12 reserve graders, then we are genuinely useless.

Another rubbish last play option.

Great line Curran. Nearly balls'd it up by not passing it early enough.

Stupid rule. Team receiving the dropout should be able to get it from wherever.

Some better attack that set.

Good lad Xerri. We were under pressure.

Laurie looking like an immortal that play. Horrible defence.

Critta got greedy thinking he could just run over them. Was plenty of space for the grubber though.

Got away with that play the ball and possible lost ball all in 1 tackle.

Bloody useless. If we give them a sniff the enthusiasm of youth could do anything.

If we blow this I might have an actual breakdown :laughing:

And "home" this year is at Parra anyway, and hasn't had the same home fortress vibe anyway. So either way they are kinda playing away.

But now we could get another Cleary fieldgoal and w*%$fest

Stupid Penrith are going to win this stupid comp again aren't they...

That strip is an example of how just nothing went our way tonight. We played crap, and every bit of luck went against us.

We get to lose 2 finals games this year instead of 1.

Curran HAS to be dropped

We could easily lose our final 4 games.

Curran again...

That's all on Preston. It was on him to actually help his halfback when they have the prop running at him, but he didn't get across and fell off his ankle.

That's season.

Again bad luck then.

Preston pushed back in the opening set and I just realised I hadn't noticed him all game.

Absolutely no luck at all. But Tuala can't defend kicks to save his life and Curran continuing his run of atrocious form.

Tuala didn't even jump.

Must have signed up for Lachlan Lewis's program.

That list there doesn't have half the players let go. Just from this year it misses Sutton, Amone and Morrin.

Big bad Barry Ward.

I don't get your maths? How can you include 2026? We haven't even ended 2025 yet and there are 5 more off contract players for this year alone that at least 3 will likely go (Drew Hutchison, Daniel Suluka-Fifita, Blake Taaffe, Jake Turpin, Blake Wilson). He could let another dozen or more blokes...

Hetherington played 8 games for Qld and 2 for Australia, including a SOO man of match game and Qld best player of the series award, and won Dally M hooker of the year in 98. Edit 1: Ennis was great (and a close second) but I think recency bias and the overexposure of him on tv has some lifting...

Reports floating around that Hayward just re-signed to 2028. https://www.zerotackle.com/bulldogs-back-bailey-as-utility-signs-long-term-extension-225303/

Roosters finding that form that had them one of the favourites at the start of the year. They could easily push on in the finals if they keep the momentum going.