Bulldogs Season Preview from Fifth and Last Podcast

[DinkumDog]

The brothers are back for an 8th season of the popular Fifth and Last Podcast.
Here's their warts and all preview of the Dogs in 2020.
Not much we didn't already know, but good to hear another view:

- Acknowledged rough start to 2019 - plenty of inexperienced kids playing due to cap problems.
- Impressive defence, gritty and never say die.
- Became and will remain a nuisance for several teams who will have to play for 80min to beat the Dogs.
- 2020 is a big development year. No forecast for playing finals (not enough has changed).
- 2020 is about giving the young squad more experience and making some key purchases for 2021.
- Cleared the decks with who they released - no substantial losses.
- Stimson and Britt are good young players who will help bolster last years squad.
- Back 5 is solid, will be good defensively, the concern remains the spine.
- Extremely well coached, biggest issue is the lack of cattle. Very easy to blame the coach without cattle.
- No glaring holes with the coaching. Pay has done a tremendous job with the cattle he's had.
- Pre-season needs to have been about creating point-scoring opportunities.
- CHN has a good offload, otherwise the pack are all workers.
- Need to get on the market to get a gun middle and a strike half for 2021 (assuming Foran is released).
- Need a quality hooker.
- No huge reason to buy backs with plenty of quality coming through (Unless the likes of Harper don't fire).

The club has been through the suffering of the cap problems and have been punished for that, so they must use 2020 to develop, buy well for 2021 and look forward.

Problem could be additional injuries, inadequate depth and with a lack of points.
However, any opponent who thinks they are going to turn up and get an easy win - they're not.

To win between 9-11 games. Unlikely to win the spoon unless they are hammered with injuries.
Sibling Predictions: 13th / 14th

 

[Dognacious]

A lot of it makes sense but 13-14th is picking us to do worse than last year. Dunno why we would be worse.

 

[Scoooby]

13-14th Lol what a joke! Don’t agree with that at all.

 

[GDR]

hardly "warts and all" tbh...

if they want "warts and all" tell them to come and have a chat with The Kennel !!

 

[bricktamland]

Let them write us off it’s what we need, no pressure . People
Forget we win all
Those games last year witn easily the least experienced side, building off a off season of belief surely they can do it again but not wait till half way through the year to start

 

[TwinTurbo]

Let's try this, for some fun.

If (yes, that's IF) Foran comes back after the Round 16 bye I can see us winning 7 out of the 9 games. That's 16 points (inc the bye) out of the 26 needed to make the Finals as per last year. Which means we need to win 5 of the 15 games before that. In that time we play Parramatta, SeaGulls, Cowboys and Wabbits twice. We play the Tigers at Campbelltown, where we have an amazing record and we play StGeorge, SeaGulls and Wabbits during SOO time. Plus Sharks and Raiders at home then Warriors and Broncos away. There are at least 5 winnable games in those earlier rounds.

That's 8th compared to =11th last year, by winning 2 more games, seems possible to me.

Go Dogs

 

[Spoonman84]

A lot of it makes sense but 13-14th is picking us to do worse than last year. Dunno why we would be worse.

The ladder is so tight that positions on the table are so what irrelevant if you miss the 8.

If we won a extra game last year we finished 10th and if we lost another we would have been 14th.

 

[KiwiDog7]

Calm the farm it’s only pre competition predictions

We were hot fav for the spoon last year and proved them wrong

I’m not factoring in Foran returning so I’m saying we will just miss the 8 (9-11)

If we make the 8 then I’ll be very pleased

 

[youoboys]

Bulldogs fan here: we come 5th and make the GF. Don’t want to spoil anything unless the timeline changes will keep you updated

 

[The_Chimpster]

Bulldogs fan here: we come 5th and make the GF. Don’t want to spoil anything unless the timeline changes will keep you updated

Lay off the sci-fi movies nasheed

 

[youoboys]

Bulldogs fans here: you fans don’t have faith , so I am here to guide you into transcendial reality! The future is now and this team is about to drift into dominance. The chimpster , follow me my child !! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!!

 

[albatross]

If Foran returns, he then has to stay fit - two big if's. I like his determination to get himself right, but I'm not banking on him. I understand why tipsters have us low - we're second bottom in the market again to get the spoon. Other than us Dogs supporters who have either genuine belief or supreme optimism or just everlasting hope, no one thinks we can crack the eight. We may have finished well and played with spirit but we've still got the same sort of spine that got us the least points, and that's all non-Dogs people see.

For me we have one hope for the finals and that's to start well and gain momentum. A side like ours needs confidence and self-belief to make up for experience and skills. I don't mind too much if we focus on defence and grinding out wins to start with as long as we're in a decent position after 6 or 7 rounds. We'll need to score more points than last year to do that, and the points if they come, are most likely to come in the early rounds by attacking through the middle IMO. Guys like Wakeham and Averillo should get a go at some point and hopefully the team can build toward the 2021 team, find some spark and go on with a good start. That would be my blueprint anyway (based on my view that Pay is going to pick a conservative side for Rd1).

 

[Alan79]

There's generally not a great deal of difference in the level of quality between the bulk of NRL squads. A few have a huge amount of talent in every position. Most have a couple of great players surrounded by guys that can do the job. So our results will largely come down to the attitude, work ethic and ability to handle pressure.

Given our finish to last season, I saw a team that worked hard for every point and players that learned to believe in themselves and their team mates. All we can ask for is that the team this year don't stop believing they're able to beat any competitors if they put in the effort.

I'm going into this season without expectations, but with plenty of positivity. The thing that makes me nervous is knowing that the referees can apply bias and make life very difficult for any team. The grand final controversy displayed just how much impact they can have with a few decisions.

 

[speedy2460]

Extremely well coached, biggest issue is the lack of cattle. Very easy to blame the coach without cattle.
- No glaring holes with the coaching. Pay has done a tremendous job with the cattle he's had.

Sums it up nicely. We will go well in 2020 but things will be better in 2021.

 

[The_Chimpster]

Bulldogs fans here: you fans don’t have faith , so I am here to guide you into transcendial reality! The future is now and this team is about to drift into dominance. The chimpster , follow me my child !! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!! BULLDOGS!!

Nasheed, if I was your child I would require many years of therapy, even then that still wouldn't be enough to keep me from the nut house.

Type BULLDOGS again though, I don't think other users can quite make out what you mean

 

[justdogs]

Bulldogs fan here: we come 5th and make the GF. Don’t want to spoil anything unless the timeline changes will keep you updated

Can you please tell us, who we play at GF, I can't wait

 

[Teddybear]

We will do better than that, top 4 for me.

The boys are tight, as per recent team photo.

Let's try this, for some fun.

If (yes, that's IF) Foran comes back after the Round 16 bye I can see us winning 7 out of the 9 games. That's 16 points (inc the bye) out of the 26 needed to make the Finals as per last year. Which means we need to win 5 of the 15 games before that. In that time we play Parramatta, SeaGulls, Cowboys and Wabbits twice. We play the Tigers at Campbelltown, where we have an amazing record and we play StGeorge, SeaGulls and Wabbits during SOO time. Plus Sharks and Raiders at home then Warriors and Broncos away. There are at least 5 winnable games in those earlier rounds.

That's 8th compared to =11th last year, by winning 2 more games, seems possible to me.

Go Dogs

 

[KiwiDog7]

Also all this talk about how great our defence was last year (back end yes) but as a whole it wasn’t great and messed up our for and against

 

[Straight18]

What evidence is there that pay is some top notched coach, lets just blame the squad ?
He cant even get the selections right let alone the coaching.
My time under dean he was a good manager, ordinary coach.
Good bloke with some decent knowledge but not an nrl coach. he still is making the same mistakes he was 12 years ago.

 

[Spoonman84]

Also all this talk about how great our defence was last year (back end yes) but as a whole it wasn’t great and messed up our for and against

All you need is a couple of blow out loses to ruin your points differential when you are relying on grinding out results. It could be a problem this year too.