Opinion 7 years of GroundHog Day So Far ..

1967

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We’ve all heard this before, forwards win you the game, your backs determine by how much.

They can change rules, they can continue to try and make the game faster, they can do whatever they like with the game, but that old quote still stands true today, and so it will tomorrow.

Rugby League is a very straight forward game, the team that over powers their opponent and eats up the metres, is at the same time fatiguing their opponent, you out muscle & fatigued your opponent, they make mistakes, they get sloppy, they draw penalties, penalties put your opponent on the back foot and you fatigue them even more, obviously, your whole job just continues to get easier.

Who’s the most penalised team in the league right now? … yes you can blame ref’s, you can scream bias ect. but realistically, most of those penalties you can put down to fatigue and stupidity.

I’ve seen fans on TK blaming our losses on Ciraldo, Burton, Flanagan, Mahoney, Perham, I’ve seen comments saying Oloapu doesn’t have what it takes, the poor kids only 18 and played 3 games.

Individually it’s none of those players fault that we lose, these players can’t fully utilise their skills while we’re going backwards, and when they do get their chances they’re generally fatigued ….. we lose because we don’t have a squad that’s capable of over powering most of our opponents, we haven’t since we lost Klemmer James Graham and Co. we don’t over power, we get over powered.

I’m over hearing about the “these days you need more of a mobile pack” that’s not what the Bulldogs are about, it’s not what we’ve ever been about.

Go watch the games again where we lost to the Raiders, Warriors x 2, Sharks, Parra, Rabbits, Manly, we simply struggled to stop them going forward and put them to ground, these teams simply out powered us and in doing so they fatigued us, over power and fatigue your opponent, complete the majority of your sets, and 8 times out of 10 you’ll win the game.

One team in the league suits a mobile pack and that’s the Panthers because they’ve all played together since they were 14, that whole team trusts each other and can all ball play promoting the ball to tire teams out.

If the plan is to develop the “mobile pack” get used to losing, because we’re not good enough for that type of play, and meanwhile our opponents are all focused on building powerful packs.

We are not going to win games or play finals footy until we totally rebuild our engine room, honestly, right now, Max King is the only one I’d keep, some others might make bench or depth.

We do have the makings of a good team and despite what people think, we do have a smart talented coach.

I’m now hoping against odds that we snag Hunt, we need leadership, after 300 first grade games, reps and origin, he’d be very good for us & I think we might be very good for him to finish his career with.

This might be controversial but I feel we need 2 new centres, 2 aggressive powerful centres that can tackle, run, make metres, and break tackles. Personally, I don’t feel either Alamoti or Averillo are powerful enough right now to be modern day centres, (think Ramien - Talakai) whilst Al & Avo hold their own, they get dominated in defence by stronger more powerful body’s and therefore fatigue. Not sure Xerri’s that type of centre either but we’ll find out and hopefully he is ..

We have 2 powerful metre eating outside backs, we have 2 very good wingers, a good 9, we have Burton, Crichtons a ? the squad desperately needs a game managing 7, 3 big aggressive metre eating props, and 2 aggressive defensive tackle busting centres to back them up, we don’t need elite big money players, just aggressive powerful metre eaters that hurt, until we get them nothings changing and not even Cleary would have us winning games ..

The 2 biggest things we’re missing is “power and aggression” get that and we become a fearful pack again, until we get it we’re not going to be winning games and we certainly won’t be playing finals footy.

So continue to individually blame players as much as you like, but power mongrel and aggression is where the real blame lays ..
 

RookieDog

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We’ve all heard this before, forwards win you the game, your backs determine by how much.

They can change rules, they can continue to try and make the game faster, they can do whatever they like with the game, but that old quote still stands true today, and so it will tomorrow.

Rugby League is a very straight forward game, the team that over powers their opponent and eats up the metres, is at the same time fatiguing their opponent, you out muscle & fatigued your opponent, they make mistakes, they get sloppy, they draw penalties, penalties put your opponent on the back foot and you fatigue them even more, obviously, your whole job just continues to get easier.

Who’s the most penalised team in the league right now? … yes you can blame ref’s, you can scream bias ect. but realistically, most of those penalties you can put down to fatigue and stupidity.

I’ve seen fans on TK blaming our losses on Ciraldo, Burton, Flanagan, Mahoney, Perham, I’ve seen comments saying Oloapu doesn’t have what it takes, the poor kids only 18 and played 3 games.

Individually it’s none of those players fault that we lose, these players can’t fully utilise their skills while we’re going backwards, and when they do get their chances they’re generally fatigued ….. we lose because we don’t have a squad that’s capable of over powering most of our opponents, we haven’t since we lost Klemmer James Graham and Co. we don’t over power, we get over powered.

I’m over hearing about the “these days you need more of a mobile pack” that’s not what the Bulldogs are about, it’s not what we’ve ever been about.

Go watch the games again where we lost to the Raiders, Warriors x 2, Sharks, Parra, Rabbits, Manly, we simply struggled to stop them going forward and put them to ground, these teams simply out powered us and in doing so they fatigued us, over power and fatigue your opponent, complete the majority of your sets, and 8 times out of 10 you’ll win the game.

One team in the league suits a mobile pack and that’s the Panthers because they’ve all played together since they were 14, that whole team trusts each other and can all ball play promoting the ball to tire teams out.

If the plan is to develop the “mobile pack” get used to losing, because we’re not good enough for that type of play, and meanwhile our opponents are all focused on building powerful packs.

We are not going to win games or play finals footy until we totally rebuild our engine room, honestly, right now, Max King is the only one I’d keep, some others might make bench or depth.

We do have the makings of a good team and despite what people think, we do have a smart talented coach.

I’m now hoping against odds that we snag Hunt, we need leadership, after 300 first grade games, reps and origin, he’d be very good for us & I think we might be very good for him to finish his career with.

This might be controversial but I feel we need 2 new centres, 2 aggressive powerful centres that can tackle, run, make metres, and break tackles. Personally, I don’t feel either Alamoti or Averillo are powerful enough right now to be modern day centres, (think Ramien - Talakai) whilst Al & Avo hold their own, they get dominated in defence by stronger more powerful body’s and therefore fatigue. Not sure Xerri’s that type of centre either but we’ll find out and hopefully he is ..

We have 2 powerful metre eating outside backs, we have 2 very good wingers, a good 9, we have Burton, Crichtons a ? the squad desperately needs a game managing 7, 3 big aggressive metre eating props, and 2 aggressive defensive tackle busting centres to back them up, we don’t need elite big money players, just aggressive powerful metre eaters that hurt, until we get them nothings changing and not even Cleary would have us winning games ..

The 2 biggest things we’re missing is “power and aggression” get that and we become a fearful pack again, until we get it we’re not going to be winning games and we certainly won’t be playing finals footy.

So continue to individually blame players as much as you like, but power mongrel and aggression is where the real blame lays ..
Thanks for the post. I agree with what you wrote.

One slight amendment required to the title of the thread.

It should be "7 Years of Groundhog Day so far ..." as there appears to be more to come. I hope I'm wrong.
 

1967

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Thanks for the post. I agree with what you wrote.

One slight amendment required to the title of the thread.

It should be "7 Years of Groundhog Day so far ..." as there appears to be more to come. I hope I'm wrong.
I hear what you’re saying mate, I really hope for all us Doggies fans they don’t have a vision of us becoming a Panthers style of footy playing club.

That type of mobile pack/team takes years to develop, it’s not something that can just be built and introduced into an pre existing squad ..

The Bulldogs are a big powerful feared mongrel out muscle you club, that’s our culture right there ..
 

Paulie Gualtieri

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It's the fuckin forwards, the fuckin spine and the fuckin 7 not taking leadership. Our backs play of the back foot of a pussy middle, our backs defend of the back foot of a pussy middle. Say Crighton comes good at FB, our backs ain't to bad 1 - 5 fully fit next year. That cunty middle and rookie halves we need something Madone. Till we sort that out we could have Panthers backline and nothing would change.
 

RookieDog

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I hear what you’re saying mate, I really hope for all us Doggies fans they don’t have a vision of us becoming a Panthers style of footy playing club.

That type of mobile pack/team takes years to develop, it’s not something that can just be built and introduced into an pre existing squad ..

The Bulldogs are a big powerful feared mongrel out muscle you club, that’s our culture right there ..
Yes definitely agree.

I just hope one way or another that it turns around for us ... and soon.

I keep buying 4 season tickets - year after year - and it always seems to be the same thing "Next year will be our year" hence what you wrote about it being Groundhog Day.

Have a good arvo.

Cheers,

RookieDog
 

Mr Shhh

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A couple of ball busting middles and we’re a different team.
 

belmore_utd

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I’m over hearing about the “these days you need more of a mobile pack” that’s not what the Bulldogs are about, it’s not what we’ve ever been about.

If the plan is to develop the “mobile pack” get used to losing, because we’re not good enough for that type of play, and meanwhile our opponents are all focused on building powerful packs.
Said about the mobile forwards obsession in another thread earlier.

Club has been obsessed with the word 'mobile' when it comes to forwards. Sign some fucking forwards that go forward before you worry about 'mobility'
It's true, we are weak gutted dogs :tearsofjoy:
 

EXPLORER

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We’ve all heard this before, forwards win you the game, your backs determine by how much.

They can change rules, they can continue to try and make the game faster, they can do whatever they like with the game, but that old quote still stands true today, and so it will tomorrow.

Rugby League is a very straight forward game, the team that over powers their opponent and eats up the metres, is at the same time fatiguing their opponent, you out muscle & fatigued your opponent, they make mistakes, they get sloppy, they draw penalties, penalties put your opponent on the back foot and you fatigue them even more, obviously, your whole job just continues to get easier.

Who’s the most penalised team in the league right now? … yes you can blame ref’s, you can scream bias ect. but realistically, most of those penalties you can put down to fatigue and stupidity.

I’ve seen fans on TK blaming our losses on Ciraldo, Burton, Flanagan, Mahoney, Perham, I’ve seen comments saying Oloapu doesn’t have what it takes, the poor kids only 18 and played 3 games.

Individually it’s none of those players fault that we lose, these players can’t fully utilise their skills while we’re going backwards, and when they do get their chances they’re generally fatigued ….. we lose because we don’t have a squad that’s capable of over powering most of our opponents, we haven’t since we lost Klemmer James Graham and Co. we don’t over power, we get over powered.

I’m over hearing about the “these days you need more of a mobile pack” that’s not what the Bulldogs are about, it’s not what we’ve ever been about.

Go watch the games again where we lost to the Raiders, Warriors x 2, Sharks, Parra, Rabbits, Manly, we simply struggled to stop them going forward and put them to ground, these teams simply out powered us and in doing so they fatigued us, over power and fatigue your opponent, complete the majority of your sets, and 8 times out of 10 you’ll win the game.

One team in the league suits a mobile pack and that’s the Panthers because they’ve all played together since they were 14, that whole team trusts each other and can all ball play promoting the ball to tire teams out.

If the plan is to develop the “mobile pack” get used to losing, because we’re not good enough for that type of play, and meanwhile our opponents are all focused on building powerful packs.

We are not going to win games or play finals footy until we totally rebuild our engine room, honestly, right now, Max King is the only one I’d keep, some others might make bench or depth.

We do have the makings of a good team and despite what people think, we do have a smart talented coach.

I’m now hoping against odds that we snag Hunt, we need leadership, after 300 first grade games, reps and origin, he’d be very good for us & I think we might be very good for him to finish his career with.

This might be controversial but I feel we need 2 new centres, 2 aggressive powerful centres that can tackle, run, make metres, and break tackles. Personally, I don’t feel either Alamoti or Averillo are powerful enough right now to be modern day centres, (think Ramien - Talakai) whilst Al & Avo hold their own, they get dominated in defence by stronger more powerful body’s and therefore fatigue. Not sure Xerri’s that type of centre either but we’ll find out and hopefully he is ..

We have 2 powerful metre eating outside backs, we have 2 very good wingers, a good 9, we have Burton, Crichtons a ? the squad desperately needs a game managing 7, 3 big aggressive metre eating props, and 2 aggressive defensive tackle busting centres to back them up, we don’t need elite big money players, just aggressive powerful metre eaters that hurt, until we get them nothings changing and not even Cleary would have us winning games ..

The 2 biggest things we’re missing is “power and aggression” get that and we become a fearful pack again, until we get it we’re not going to be winning games and we certainly won’t be playing finals footy.

So continue to individually blame players as much as you like, but power mongrel and aggression is where the real blame lays ..
I only read the first couple of paragraphs
Need my reading glasses to focus long enough to get through the rest of this post.

But so far, I absolutely agree.
I look forward to reading the rest of this novel tonight with my glasses on.
 

PaxMaxi1980

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I think you’re a bit harsh on our centres. We have the worst spine in the competition and easily the worst pack(especially middles).
We need 2-3 new middle forwards.
I’ve been extremely disappointed in Mariner. We have put so much into him, he’s our club captain and we get smashed through the middle every week. The guy should be having trouble walking off every week he’s put in that much effort, instead we get half assed rubbish from him.
 

lovemachine

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We’ve all heard this before, forwards win you the game, your backs determine by how much.

They can change rules, they can continue to try and make the game faster, they can do whatever they like with the game, but that old quote still stands true today, and so it will tomorrow.

Rugby League is a very straight forward game, the team that over powers their opponent and eats up the metres, is at the same time fatiguing their opponent, you out muscle & fatigued your opponent, they make mistakes, they get sloppy, they draw penalties, penalties put your opponent on the back foot and you fatigue them even more, obviously, your whole job just continues to get easier.

Who’s the most penalised team in the league right now? … yes you can blame ref’s, you can scream bias ect. but realistically, most of those penalties you can put down to fatigue and stupidity.

I’ve seen fans on TK blaming our losses on Ciraldo, Burton, Flanagan, Mahoney, Perham, I’ve seen comments saying Oloapu doesn’t have what it takes, the poor kids only 18 and played 3 games.

Individually it’s none of those players fault that we lose, these players can’t fully utilise their skills while we’re going backwards, and when they do get their chances they’re generally fatigued ….. we lose because we don’t have a squad that’s capable of over powering most of our opponents, we haven’t since we lost Klemmer James Graham and Co. we don’t over power, we get over powered.

I’m over hearing about the “these days you need more of a mobile pack” that’s not what the Bulldogs are about, it’s not what we’ve ever been about.

Go watch the games again where we lost to the Raiders, Warriors x 2, Sharks, Parra, Rabbits, Manly, we simply struggled to stop them going forward and put them to ground, these teams simply out powered us and in doing so they fatigued us, over power and fatigue your opponent, complete the majority of your sets, and 8 times out of 10 you’ll win the game.

One team in the league suits a mobile pack and that’s the Panthers because they’ve all played together since they were 14, that whole team trusts each other and can all ball play promoting the ball to tire teams out.

If the plan is to develop the “mobile pack” get used to losing, because we’re not good enough for that type of play, and meanwhile our opponents are all focused on building powerful packs.

We are not going to win games or play finals footy until we totally rebuild our engine room, honestly, right now, Max King is the only one I’d keep, some others might make bench or depth.

We do have the makings of a good team and despite what people think, we do have a smart talented coach.

I’m now hoping against odds that we snag Hunt, we need leadership, after 300 first grade games, reps and origin, he’d be very good for us & I think we might be very good for him to finish his career with.

This might be controversial but I feel we need 2 new centres, 2 aggressive powerful centres that can tackle, run, make metres, and break tackles. Personally, I don’t feel either Alamoti or Averillo are powerful enough right now to be modern day centres, (think Ramien - Talakai) whilst Al & Avo hold their own, they get dominated in defence by stronger more powerful body’s and therefore fatigue. Not sure Xerri’s that type of centre either but we’ll find out and hopefully he is ..

We have 2 powerful metre eating outside backs, we have 2 very good wingers, a good 9, we have Burton, Crichtons a ? the squad desperately needs a game managing 7, 3 big aggressive metre eating props, and 2 aggressive defensive tackle busting centres to back them up, we don’t need elite big money players, just aggressive powerful metre eaters that hurt, until we get them nothings changing and not even Cleary would have us winning games ..

The 2 biggest things we’re missing is “power and aggression” get that and we become a fearful pack again, until we get it we’re not going to be winning games and we certainly won’t be playing finals footy.

So continue to individually blame players as much as you like, but power mongrel and aggression is where the real blame lays ..
Ito only feels like Groundhog Day because you steal people stuff, and why do you want a big forward pack, are you the Titans roster manager? A nimble Ford pack would cut them up like Swiss cheese in the last 20 minutes
 

OldDogFan

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Ito only feels like Groundhog Day because you steal people stuff, and why do you want a big forward pack, are you the Titans roster manager? A nimble Ford pack would cut them up like Swiss cheese in the last 20 minutes
It only feels like Groundhog Day because you keep posting the same inept sh!t.
 

lovemachine

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Guy talks about us having too much fatigue and wants to introduce 130 kilo props Ayri feek
 

lovemachine

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If you listen to this harami OP ‘games won by huge forwards’ then tell me about the team coming first at the halfway point of this season?

yeah cuz massive forwards smashing cünts from here to Bombay right here wallah.
8991D216-E05F-4866-8169-7556BEA78838.pngNotuijg to do with the slick spine and nimble pack no way.
 

John Matrix

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Insightful post and I appreciate your efforts in posting it.

If our plan was successful than every club would be doing it, they clearly aren’t so the proof is there.
 
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