News Bulldogs Overcome Adversity In Scary Warning To Rest Of NRL

[Kempsey Dog]

The biggest things, that get mentioned but on the whole glossed over.

Currently we have 6 first choice forwards sidelined through injury & Suspension.
•Hughes
•Sitili
•Preston
•Curran
•Salmon
•Todd

*We have had Burton, Kikau & Kiraz miss several games each.

We are coming into round 11. However we have only played 3 x Home games.

We are 8-1 despite all of these factors.

Our team (squad) are all dialed in on their own role so well that it really is next man up. They have a genuine belief in the systems and the players around them. We don’t have the superstars in anyone’s eyes. However it the old adage that a champion team will always beat a team of champions.

With more games at home (9) than away (6) to come. With only two games out of Sydney against the Storm & Cowboys.

If we can get a regular run with our best or close to best team on the park each week. We can give this competition a genuine crack. Our ability so far to cover players across the squad has been enormous. The pathway systems being put too work.

“Believe”

I was thinking in the preseason we were a couple of years off.

A combination of other teams not getting the job done and the Bulldogs stepping up. Leaves me feeling optimistic.
Dare to dream guys ️

Stoked that the Melbourne game is away also. Nice challenge for the team to reset heading into finals.

 

[CaptainJackson]

Stoked that the Melbourne game is away also. Nice challenge for the team to reset heading into finals.

We've played sharks and raiders away from home, 2 tough away games and come away with full points, not something to bawk at

 

[spscand]

Bruh, we just had to climb Everest, mind you in canberra mind you against the 2nd best team in the NRL right now. we bashed 32 unanswered points with a near perfect 2nd half performance. Take the W be happy. We are the real deal.

It's ok to still be critical of your team and still want them to do better and improve so that eventually they win the most important game, the GF. Yes we might be the "real deal" but we have achieved fuck all so far. Nothing counts until you win the GF. So we shall continue to be critical until then.

 

[spscand]

I hope we learnt lessons from both Bronco's and Raiders games, but did we really?
Why did we come out so slow out of the blocks on the weekend?
Like the Bronco's game, we should have been up for it from the start. It was a highly anticipated game and we missed the start. Ok, it happens and we showed fight to win the second half. Lessons to be learnt.
Did we take those lessons out of that game and bring them to the Raiders game? I say not. We missed the start again in a highly anticipated game. Amazingly and credit to the team and coaches, we came away with the win this time.
Do this against Melbourne and unlike the above they won't be so complacent.

Today, Ciro will be all over the players about starting well and trying to find the answers as to why we didn't. We have to take lesson and understand why we have had these starts rather than give pats on the back for the finish because the celebrations are over and into this week where we need to start fast and if we do, we can blow away any team.

Btw, I'm not putting a dampener on the win, it was one of the best comebacks I have seen and feel so proud.

It's not about the dog in the fight, it's about the fight in the dog.

100% agree.

Keep being real and critical my guy! Nothing counts until the GF is won. Nothing.
 

 

[TwinTurbo]

It's ok to still be critical of your team and still want them to do better and improve so that eventually they win the most important game, the GF. Yes we might be the "real deal" but we have achieved fuck all so far. Nothing counts until you win the GF. So we shall continue to be critical until then.

The GF is one day in time and the best team doesn't always win due to a plethora of factors. For example, Patten getting inured early in the game, Ennis getting injured the game before, Melbourne cheating the Salary Cap, etc etc.

Winning the JJ Giltinan shield is a better and more accurate measure of the best team in any given season.


Team Work

 

[spscand]

The GF is one day in time and the best team doesn't always win due to a plethora of factors. For example, Patten getting inured early in the game, Ennis getting injured the game before, Melbourne cheating the Salary Cap, etc etc.

Winning the JJ Giltinan shield is a better and more accurate measure of the best team in any given season.


Team Work

I completely agree that the GF system is trash and only exists for extra money generation.

The best team should always be the one that finished 1st, like how European soccer does it for example.

However, in the current format and system in place for rugby league, no one cares or remembers the minor premiership winners. No one. Fans also don't care. So the GF remains to only important thing even if not the "best team" in the season won it.

 

[Psycho Doggie]

And just when the team has finally turned the corner the whiners just get louder in here over a couple of players. Never happy despite winning 75% of our last 24 games and winning most quite comfortably. You would think the winning would help most supporters mental health but some just like being miserable over little details

The 75% of games won in the last 24 is an interesting stat. I decided to look up everyone who was in the top 8 at this point last season and who is in the top 8 this season and see what their percentage wins have been in the intervening time. Here are the results:

Bulldogs Wins 18 - Draws/Losses 6 - 75%
Storm 18 - 6 - 75%
Cows 15 - 8 - 65.2%
Chooks 14 - 9 - 60.9%
Wahs 13 - 10 - 56.5%
Raiders 14 - 11 - 56%
Sharks 14 - 11 - 56%
Panthers 13 - 12 - 52%
Manly 12 - 12 - 50%
Donkeys 9 - 15 - 37.5%
Tunas 9 - 16 - 36%

We are dead level with the Storm, I put us first because we are top of the current ladder. There are obvious factors in this list, Chooks are much worse this season, with 5 of their 9 losses for since Round 10 2024 coming in 2025, and the team most impacted by changes, the Pantsers, have 7 of their 12 non-wins happening this season. However, I think most of the teams on that list have the same core team across both seasons, so the list makes for interesting reading. It indicates that the cows are probably stronger than many of us give them credit for, and Manly and Donkeys are probably underperforming (especially the donkeys).

Clearly the Storm and us are the two teams most likely to make the GF as things stand, but Wahs and Raiders are on the way up, the Cows are a real threat, and Panthers, Manly, and Bronks have a lot to prove over the next ~15 games.

 

[spscand]

The 75% of games won in the last 24 is an interesting stat. I decided to look up everyone who was in the top 8 at this point last season and who is in the top 8 this season and see what their percentage wins have been in the intervening time. Here are the results:

Bulldogs Wins 18 - Draws/Losses 6 - 75%
Storm 18 - 6 - 75%
Cows 15 - 8 - 65.2%
Chooks 14 - 9 - 60.9%
Wahs 13 - 10 - 56.5%
Raiders 14 - 11 - 56%
Sharks 14 - 11 - 56%
Panthers 13 - 12 - 52%
Manly 12 - 12 - 50%
Donkeys 9 - 15 - 37.5%
Tunas 9 - 16 - 36%

We are dead level with the Storm, I put us first because we are top of the current ladder. There are obvious factors in this list, Chooks are much worse this season, with 5 of their 9 losses for since Round 10 2024 coming in 2025, and the team most impacted by changes, the Pantsers, have 7 of their 12 non-wins happening this season. However, I think most of the teams on that list have the same core team across both seasons, so the list makes for interesting reading. It indicates that the cows are probably stronger than many of us give them credit for, and Manly and Donkeys are probably underperforming (especially the donkeys).

Clearly the Storm and us are the two teams most likely to make the GF as things stand, but Wahs and Raiders are on the way up, the Cows are a real threat, and Panthers, Manly, and Bronks have a lot to prove over the next ~15 games.

The cowboys do scare me. They've turned it around hard !

 

[maroondog72]

The cowboys do scare me. They've turned it around hard !

nah cows are no problem, shut deardon down game over, everything comes off deardon in their attack and to a lesser extent drinkwater.

 

[gbrussell]

nah cows are no problem, shut deardon down game over, everything comes off deardon in their attack and to a lesser extent drinkwater.

Deardon is the one to shut down. Throws a lot of dummies. Defenders near him have to be on alert for that.

 

[billy beane]

Broncos - Sexton dumb pass to Preston, Mahoney rushing out of line.

Raiders - Burton giving away soft 7 tackle set, missed his defensive assignment forcing Kikau to give away set restart, Burton basically did 3 stupid things to leak the first try and gift huge momentum swing.

Our spine especially Burton and Sexton recently, just need to avoid silly mistakes for the first 10-15 mins and we will burn anyone with fitness.

Totally agree ..... Kempsey Dog.

The two poor halves have mostly been of our own making ..... featuring shocking discipline.

Against The Broncs we conceded two seven tackle set restarts due to terrible kicks by Sexton ... two sin bins ... 3 piggyback penalties and numerous 6 again set restarts. The Broncs also kicked two 40/20's with the ball skidding off the wet surface. To cap it off Reynolds had a five-star performance kicking for tries out wide which were undefendable. We had NO chance with stats and circumstances like those. To then come out and win the second half easily (Broncs last try was a fluke) was huge in my estimations.

Against The Raiders you are absolutely right in calling out Burton ..... he needs to get rid of the bone headed stuff that still features WAY too often in his game. Even his most ardent fans must see this. His kick allowing a seven-tackle restart was a KILLER and started the rot. Then a few errors back-to-back led to fatigue setting in, leading to more errors/ ill-discipline and it becomes virtually impossible to stop the momentum. NO team seemingly can at present. We honestly did well to keep a rampaging Raiders outfit, in front of a raucous home crowd to twenty considering they had close to 70% of the ball.

As a team we will live and die by our discipline as we are built to play the grind, keeping the ball in play for long periods.

When we get our game on, we can beat anyone, and it becomes a matter of can they go with us.

Also remember at no point have we had our best 17 on the park. Hughes who is our biggest body and our best in pre-season IMO, hasn't played a game.