Bulldogs Form over the past 2-3 years

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The Dogfather

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It has come to my attention that there is a big problem with the way that we play our footy. We dont play to win, we play in a conservative way in other words in a way not to loose.

Our attack in the past 2-3 years has been really standard and average. We have been predictable and have not really set the world on fire. If you think about it if we didnt have ben barba in 2012 we wouldnt have been so successful.

We have a great coach and a pretty good squad but havnt really captured the form that gets the heart beating with excitement and gets the fans flocking to the games like the good old days when we really were dogs of war 2000-2008.

To break it down it comes to these factors:

The halves, hooker and backs. The dogs have always had a strong forward pack but we have never really had great halves since thurston, sherwin and anasta left the club. Adam perry and corey hughes were great out of dummy half and we havnt really had a hooker like them since. And honestly forget ben barba, no one has filled the gap left by luke patten. (Brett Morris still hasnt shown his best, too early to judge).

Curtis rona is a great signing but we havnt signed wingers with that excitement that utai and hazem brought. Yes its time for tall strong wingers but is it too much to ask for to have wingers like Semi radradra or DWZ from panthers or alex johnston.

For me there is still a lot of improvement needed in our team. They leave me wanting more out of their performance every week. Its a worrying sign. I still wait for the day where the dogs will dominate once more.
 

Kiraz Crazy

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queue thread 243 about why our team is "wrong, falling apart, lacks spark"

In the last 3 seasons.

2012 - Minor premiership, grandfinal runner up
2013 - Top 8
2014 - Grandfinal runner up
2015 - Currently, heavy premiership contenders

Like honestly, hasler is one of the best coaches in history. Shut the hell up and either support him, the club and what we have done/are doing, or go away
 

OTTO

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2008 we were a reserve grade team in the NRL barring a handful of players. 2002-2006 is more the time frame and even then, they weren't the real dogs of war.

#dogsofrewards
#postingforthedoggybones
 

Dogtime

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It has come to my attention that there is a big problem with the way that we play our footy. We dont play to win, we play in a conservative way in other words in a way not to loose.

Our attack in the past 2-3 years has been really standard and average. We have been predictable and have not really set the world on fire. If you think about it if we didnt have ben barba in 2012 we wouldnt have been so successful.

We have a great coach and a pretty good squad but havnt really captured the form that gets the heart beating with excitement and gets the fans flocking to the games like the good old days when we really were dogs of war 2000-2008.

To break it down it comes to these factors:

The halves, hooker and backs. The dogs have always had a strong forward pack but we have never really had great halves since thurston, sherwin and anasta left the club. Adam perry and corey hughes were great out of dummy half and we havnt really had a hooker like them since. And honestly forget ben barba, no one has filled the gap left by luke patten. (Brett Morris still hasnt shown his best, too early to judge).

Curtis rona is a great signing but we havnt signed wingers with that excitement that utai and hazem brought. Yes its time for tall strong wingers but is it too much to ask for to have wingers like Semi radradra or DWZ from panthers or alex johnston.

For me there is still a lot of improvement needed in our team. They leave me wanting more out of their performance every week. Its a worrying sign. I still wait for the day where the dogs will dominate once more.
You are definitely entitled to your opinion brother. Any long term fan of the Bulldogs would refer to the other glory days of Mortimers and Hughes and Lamb and Folkesey and Kelly and Tunksie as recent glory days as well. Our footie was either razzle dazzle entertainer style or bruising knock em down drag em out style. We ARE boring to watch now. Predictable, one paced, lacks imagination or creativity. Its not good enough to say we had relatively successful seasons since Barba left either. Surely you guys wouldnt suggest we were the 2nd best team last year? because we were in the GF. The draw opened up for us when Panther beat the Chooks in the early semi. At end of last year we would not have beaten the chooks or Cowboys or Suffs so we came 4th because of Manlys and Penriths injury tolls.

We lack direction around the park and we are all at the game dying to cheer something brilliant or off the cuff or inspired. Bumping it up the middle as we do...are we going to keep inspiring our kids to play this great game? For me the test is when I talk to people after the weekends rounds...so many people now say to me...they cant bring themselves to watch the Bulldogs...becasue of their boring unimaginative style of football.That says it all I reckon.
 

CrittaMagic69

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It all stems from the genius games plan from Dessie. We play boring.. but who cares, if we win I'm stoked.
Genius game plan? Lol. His game plan is to hold on to the ball and hope the points will come... Hardly a genius game plan.
 

CrittaMagic69

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You are definitely entitled to your opinion brother. Any long term fan of the Bulldogs would refer to the other glory days of Mortimers and Hughes and Lamb and Folkesey and Kelly and Tunksie as recent glory days as well. Our footie was either razzle dazzle entertainer style or bruising knock em down drag em out style. We ARE boring to watch now. Predictable, one paced, lacks imagination or creativity. Its not good enough to say we had relatively successful seasons since Barba left either. Surely you guys wouldnt suggest we were the 2nd best team last year? because we were in the GF. The draw opened up for us when Panther beat the Chooks in the early semi. At end of last year we would not have beaten the chooks or Cowboys or Suffs so we came 4th because of Manlys and Penriths injury tolls.

We lack direction around the park and we are all at the game dying to cheer something brilliant or off the cuff or inspired. Bumping it up the middle as we do...are we going to keep inspiring our kids to play this great game? For me the test is when I talk to people after the weekends rounds...so many people now say to me...they cant bring themselves to watch the Bulldogs...becasue of their boring unimaginative style of football.That says it all I reckon.
A forward throws a simple short ball and everyone beats off as if they are the best ball playing forward in the game. That is the only thing to get excited about atm ffs. I watch sport because i enjoy it and love experiencing the different emotions in such a short period of time, atm i am as bored as ever.
 

Haddaway

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As long as we are at the end I don't give a ****. The Four years prior to Hasler we made the finals once. 2012 I thought we played good footy, 2013 thank you Barba, 2014 boring and 2015 its three games in and we average 4 tries a game. Again I could give a rats how we play as long as we win and are there at the end.
 

abedee

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i think you are worrying to much you don't go on the field to lose you go out there to got the "W" next to your name, it doesn't say if there was a razzle dazzle performance, it doesn't say if the halves played well or not, it doesn't even say who the man of the match was all the weeks effort is for a "W" and as long as they win im pretty sure most people will forget how its done in 6 weeks
 

Rodzilla

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wtf, if we play not to lose then we are still trying to win:noidea:
 

Haddaway

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As fans all you want from your Team is to be consistently at the business end and have a chance at the big one, and we have that. Of course everyone wants Premierships every year but realistically that does not happen.
 

Tegga

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Why do we need to play exciting footy? Scoring is exciting and at the moment we're scoring enough to win. Solid grinding games are just as entertaining as a game where there is 10s of passes a set
 

Karat

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We made the grand final last season with Mitch Brown on the wing and Sam Perret at fullback..let that sink in..
 

Izzy Forreal

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It has come to my attention that there is a big problem with the way that we play our footy. We dont play to win, we play in a conservative way in other words in a way not to loose.

Our attack in the past 2-3 years has been really standard and average. We have been predictable and have not really set the world on fire. If you think about it if we didnt have ben barba in 2012 we wouldnt have been so successful.
I agree MightyBulldogs. As I see it the reasons for this are:

1) Flat footed attack
2) Lousy kicking game in opponents 10-20 metre area
3) Lousy last tackle options
4) No set plays

The only upbeat part of our playing style is our defence (most of the time).
 

Izzy Forreal

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We made the grand final last season with Mitch Brown on the wing and Sam Perret at fullback..let that sink in..
And the score was...? :beat:
 

dogluva

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Yeah we are a boring team, we would rather grind out a win than rack up a score against the other team.I remember the "entertainers"and we did play some rather attractive football as well as give our opponent a footballing lesson with our brutal defence, but, those days are gone, the game has moved on.
Last few seasons our for and against has been really skinny and even in the negative which backs up my first statement.I love the fact that we can still win games butI hate it that our attack has suffered and even though we have made the finals and grand finals over the last four years I still feel cheated that we have lost the ability to consistently play attractive footy. Is it the style that Des wants or is it because we only have the players on our roster to suit that style?
We shouldn't brush the fact we have performed better than a lot of other teams but should we really be happy at the way we performed?
 

_G-Dog_

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At least Dessies got the team fit & pretty consisent compared to 2010-2011
 

Horny Wog

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On form - no premierships.

2012 - pairing of Reynolds/Keating better than the pairing of yesteryears Reynolds/Hodko.

2013 - Maloney comes over to the Roosters to pair up with Pearce giving the Roosters a great combo - Boom 2013 premiers

2014 - 2012 and 2013 the Rabbitohs drop out in the preliminary final with Sutton at 5/8, Keary cements his spot at 5/8 midway in 2014 - Boom 2014 Premiers
 

KimboSlice

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I see our problem purely in the halves, with out halves there is a gap between forwards and backline and we grind wins out..

Get a confident, ball playing half and we will dominate and win games spectacularly ala souffs..

I hate Souths, but they have a good forward pack, creative halves and a quick and strong backline...

I see with the addition of Morris and Rona, we have a better squad Barr halves.. I'd be keen to get a Mbye and Reynolds combo for a bit more flair, Hodko isn't in great form and when he is, he's solid, not amazing...

Chin up, we will come good, but it just may not be as spectacular as we all want till our halves situation is cleared up-
 

immortalbulldog

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It has come to my attention that there is a big problem with the way that we play our footy. We dont play to win, we play in a conservative way in other words in a way not to loose.

Our attack in the past 2-3 years has been really standard and average. We have been predictable and have not really set the world on fire. If you think about it if we didnt have ben barba in 2012 we wouldnt have been so successful.

We have a great coach and a pretty good squad but havnt really captured the form that gets the heart beating with excitement and gets the fans flocking to the games like the good old days when we really were dogs of war 2000-2008.

To break it down it comes to these factors:

The halves, hooker and backs. The dogs have always had a strong forward pack but we have never really had great halves since thurston, sherwin and anasta left the club. Adam perry and corey hughes were great out of dummy half and we havnt really had a hooker like them since. And honestly forget ben barba, no one has filled the gap left by luke patten. (Brett Morris still hasnt shown his best, too early to judge).

Curtis rona is a great signing but we havnt signed wingers with that excitement that utai and hazem brought. Yes its time for tall strong wingers but is it too much to ask for to have wingers like Semi radradra or DWZ from panthers or alex johnston.

For me there is still a lot of improvement needed in our team. They leave me wanting more out of their performance every week. Its a worrying sign. I still wait for the day where the dogs will dominate once more.
You're absolutely right. Let's all meet on the hill at Belmore and we can all drink the kool-aid and just end this miserable life that is tormenting us all so badly. The situation is hopeless.

So rather than giving our current squad time to get continuity and gel you'd rather write us off. And let me get this straight? You're suggesting we find players in the mould of Adam Perry (great defender but nothing in attack) Corey Hughes (very average on his best day) and Matt Utai (the guy matt sing used to leap over from a standing start) to fix any attacking problems we have?

So basically in your infinite wisdom you are saying we need to re-establish our 2004 team and everyone else since then has been rubbish?

Awesome strategy
 
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