Apparently the club is chasing two more players for 2009

[astroboy]

Former international forward has approached bulldogs to come across who is ittttttt?

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BY MATTHEW O'NIEL

The Bulldogs have received a massive boost heading into the 2009 season with the confirmation that Brisbane utility David Stagg will be heading to Belmore.

Stagg has been signed as a direct replacement for sacked lock Reni Maitua and it's believed that Stagg will be given first shot in the No.13 jumper next year.

The former Queensland representative had a year to run on his Broncos deal, but had an out clause and chose to exercise that.

Stagg holds the record for most tackles in a premiership match with 64 and his work-rate will be considered a massive bonus for the Bulldogs, who leaked in a club record amount of points in 2008 and had serious defensive issues.

There's suggestions within the Bulldogs bunker that two forwards - one of whom a former International have approached the Bulldogs about an opportunity to join them in 2009. The Bulldogs are also believed to be looking at an outside back.
The Bulldogs are the one club in the NRL with money to play with following the departure of Sonny Bill WIlliams and the sacking of Maitua. Stagg was signed to the Bulldogs for two years and on a deal believed to be $60,000 cheaper than what Maitua was earning.

Despite having money to play with in the salary cap, the Bulldogs won't be spending money for the sake of it and know they'll have to upgrade the contracts of promising youngsters Jamal Idris, John Kite, Rob Worsley, Daniel Harrison and Ben Barba into the future.

The Bulldogs confirmed Stagg agreed to terms on Friday night at a function held at Canterbury League Club with Stagg confirming the move this morning.

After a terrible 2008 season the Bulldogs have recruited well for next year and most importantly have changed their image off the field with a view of being a business run club with strong family club ethics that made Canterbury the benchmark club in the game.

Led by Chief Executive Todd Greenberg, Chairman Dr George Peponis, Coach Kevin Moore and Directors Arthur Coorey, Ray Dib and Barry Ward the Bulldogs have done an unbelievable job in such a short amount of time to the point where the Bulldogs are now one of the best managed and attractive clubs in the game.

 

[bluewhite]

we need more forwards with size,eg kite and soulos,the rest of our forwards are nt big enough need afew who are up near the 110kg mark with mongrel in them week in week out.

We've got enough size, we need forwards that can last longer in the games now that the interchange has been reduced, as all the players will have to stay on the field longer before their replaced.

 

[sammy08]

outside back is matt king

 

[rand0m3r]

forward is tonie carroll.

 

[w00t]

nahh outside back is justin hodges, we are gonna steal all of the broncos stars

 

[astroboy]

hahaha i hope we don't sign garbo man matt king and the jaws tonie carroll

 

[rand0m3r]

yeah coz all u want is simon "the male supermodel" mannering.

 

[mrr1]

hahaha i hope we don't sign garbo man matt king and the jaws tonie carroll

your dreaming buddy ,carrol is an asset to any team he plays for.

 

[Ben Godberts]

astro boy has no idea

 

[XxFoVoSxX]

Nigel Vagana and Willie Talau

 

[Dognacious]

really hope so. just one block-busting forward will make my day. i don't even care about the potential outside-back, we really need yardage.

Also someone who tackles 30+ every game. We need everyone to tackle more. Then we wont have 20+ missed tackles most weeks.

astro boy has no idea

Grass is green.

Nigel Vagana and Willie Talau

Who got a time machine for xmas?

 

[bleedblue&white]

20+ missed tackles?
more like 40+ last year absolutely pittyful, biggest improvement we need to make and immediately.

 

[kimlo]

hahaha i hope we don't sign garbo man matt king and the jaws tonie carroll

 

[Berries]

Reni is coming back.

 

[CMP]

20+ missed tackles?
more like 40+ last year absolutely pittyful, biggest improvement we need to make and immediately.

LOL Exactly! How good would it be to read 20 missed tackels @ the end of a game!

 

[Berries]

LOL Exactly! How good would it be to read 20 missed tackels @ the end of a game!

I thought it was good reading that at half time in some games/.

 

[ByRd]

haha true that, that is one area we really need to improve. For years we heard talk "how we are one of the fittest teams etc." well that has well and truly past. We fall away at the back end of halves and our second halves have been a problem for a couple of years now.

I just wanna see us consistently get under 30 missed tackles per game and alot closer to 20, it all comes down to attitude so lets hope the squad is working hard to improve on this

 

[w00t]

seemed like that started in the 2nd half of the prelim finals in 2006..we haven't been the same since that game

 

[Hodgo007]

haha true that, that is one area we really need to improve. For years we heard talk "how we are one of the fittest teams etc." well that has well and truly past. We fall away at the back end of halves and our second halves have been a problem for a couple of years now.

I just wanna see us consistently get under 30 missed tackles per game and alot closer to 20, it all comes down to attitude so lets hope the squad is working hard to improve on this

This is a bit of a myth with us actually If you look back at our miss tackle counts for the few years when we dominated (2002-2005) I'm sure we still were one of the worse teams in the comp in regards to number of miss tackles. I think our cover and scrambling defence was sensational which is why we were still as good as we were. We had a few passengers in defence especially Brent Sherwin who would miss half a dozen a game himself.

I agree about out fitness levels though. Losing Billy hurt us a lot.

 

[ByRd]

Yeh, we have always been good at the scrambling defence but we are not at that standard anymore, we need to make tackles stick and limit our missed tackles, this all comes down to attitude and fitness and players putting in 110%.