News A complete spine, Tevita Pangai Junior and Trent Barrett: Five burning questions – Canterbury Bulldogs

[From the area]

Our halves combination will be the 4th best by seasons end, mark my words.

Depends on who’s the 7. If it’s the right fit then I am inclined to agree with you.

 

[Bulldogsteve]

I reckon Jmk will have a good year this year. My Smokey for most improved

We have enough talent across the park , we just everyone to do their job and we will be competitive in every game

 

[Phalangist]

Whats the difference?
Historically you might have said half is first receiver and 5/8th has freedom to run more but nowadays its merely a left and right with equal skills so not sure what the fuss is about.

In fact if you can have floating halves who swap to keep defences guesssing or better still, stack the one side, i think you are better off.

I don’t agree, if this is so why didn’t josh renoylds ever player halfback for us?
Why didn’t Brad Fittler play halfback?
The two positions are different.

 

[Bulldogs09]

He’s been unlucky, once he got his confidence back from the GF he had a run of injuries. He was QLDs player of the series last year and he only played one game.

If he was our halfback with Burton we would be in the top half of this list.

I’d hardly say Ben hint has been unlucky for 6 years mate. He’s a solid nrl player. Though I think he makes a better 9 and that won’t happen (dunno why they got McCullough he’s rubbish these days) no way I would take hunt over burton. That alone has us above the dragons for me.

 

[Chris Harding]

even looking at it i don't understand. i know i'm biased, but for example how does Brimson whos moving from fullback to partner Sexton who's played 6 games rating higher than us?

It's not your bias - it's the bias of the media which simply thinks "Bulldogs came last because they had no halves combination all year, therefore they will not perform in 2022".

 

[COVENS]

I don’t agree, if this is so why didn’t josh renoylds ever player halfback for us?
Why didn’t Brad Fittler play halfback?
The two positions are different.

The line between 6 and 7 are blurring, that was made even more obvious last season.

Munster and Hughes kick the ball at a 45%/55% split.

Walker didn't kick the ball as much as Reynolds but with 37 Assists and how left side orientated the Rabbitohs are its hard to argue that Walker isn't the dominant half.

What about Jack Wighton? More touches than George and Sam Williams combined.

How about us this season? Burton is going to shoulder our long kicking, midfield bombs and I'd guess a lot of our attacking kicking and be playmaker to our attacking edge but he'll be playing 6. Who's going to be the dominant 7 next to him when we're likely to see 2-4 different guys tried there at some point?

 

[Alan79]

Fair point, I do understand what you're saying. But then if that's the case, don't Brisbane with a new half in Reynolds who hasn't played with Brisbane before or got a locked in halves partner, Cronulla with Hynes and Moylan in the halves and Mcinnes potentially at hooker having never played together, Warriors with the new pairing of Johnson and Ash Taylor or CHT, Knights having to use a new hooker due to injury and a new half due to Mitchell Pearce leaving, Tigers with a combo of Brookes/Hastings/Douehi halves and Peachey potentially filling in at 14 in the spine, Cowboys with an inexperienced Dearden in his first full season there to partner the new recruit in Townsend, St George with almost as many signings as we've had, Souths with a new rookie half to cover Reynolds, all have to gel too? Not to mention other players that aren't in a spine position that those clubs have freshly recruited too. Not once have we heard from media about any of those teams having to 'gel' yet all we've heard about our team is the sentiment of it'll take them a while to get used to playing with each other. In line with your comment, if those teams also have to gel, won't our attack look better than it really is?

I look at the fact that we're getting a load of articles about us gelling as an indicator that the media just have no clue about how we'll go. It's a sitting on the fence thing. If we come out the gates firing they're able to say we gelled. If we stumble through our first month looking disjointed in attack & defence, they can say they called itnabout us needing to form combinations. We're basically an unknown quantity with all the changes to our top squad.




I personally think those halves ratings are pure guesswork. South's for instance have had the benefit of a top organiser that also had a running game to take pressure off and allow Walker to do his thing. The youngster he's paired with can possibly be put off his game with some hard hitting defence. Walker hasn't had to deal with opponents that can solely focus on containing him for the bulk of the season. Very hard to say how any non established half will contribute to a team

 

[Philmus]

I look at the fact that we're getting a load of articles about us gelling as an indicator that the media just have no clue about how we'll go. It's a sitting on the fence thing. If we come out the gates firing they're able to say we gelled. If we stumble through our first month looking disjointed in attack & defence, they can say they called it about us needing to form combinations. We're basically an unknown quantity with all the changes to our top squad.

That actually makes alot of sense, i never thought of it like that