Fitness

[LeeroyJenkins]

So true, they let us down more than Galvin did, not saying they are bad players just not fit and went missing badly when we needed them to defend. Kiks and Preston did way more defending than they should have.

Lmao what? Hughes was massive in defence, constantly got up and down the pitch. 22 tackles and 0 missed if you want stats to clear it up for you.

 

[Bullfrog2]

I know I've said it a few times now, but the game was done the second we took the 2.

Basically told them we are done.

100% Correct!
Fark we go for a try last week when we needed 2, and take 2 this week when we were screaming out for 4!
In 2002 we beat Newcastle away who did a very similar thing, I remember Gus at the time making the point Newcastle made a bad decision on halftime taking 1! It was 19-0 at halftime and Gus said Newcastle had just sent a message to the Bulldogs by taking 1 point they are still in this.

 

[Bullfrog2]

What we relied on for the first half of the season does not work anymore as other teams are becoming fitter. Last few games we tired out before the opposition.

So now that fitness has leveled, it exposes our flaws IE attack and discipline.

We need CC and Gus to do something to stop this form slump we are in.

Anyone else notice this?

It’s like losing weight, we have plateaued!
We need to taper before the finals as well which will give us a 5% boost. Problem is another couple of losses!

 

[ILiveForDib]

What we relied on for the first half of the season does not work anymore as other teams are becoming fitter. Last few games we tired out before the opposition.

So now that fitness has leveled, it exposes our flaws IE attack and discipline.

We need CC and Gus to do something to stop this form slump we are in.

Anyone else notice this?

That’s what NRL is teams reach there peak later on, season to season if u get me. Comes down to literally who plays better footy. Thing is our tactic does work and our fitness is solid but all the movement and headlines has messed with the pack it feels. For me it’s an ego issue, second we fancied our premiership chances we went down a level. Our fitness likely hasn’t dropped it’s just teams have upped there intensity and are playing good attacking footy where as we’re not, all equilibrium.

 

[Chris Harding]

You make some valid points, but as the year goes on we are getting fitter also. Our style, up and in very quickly, yes can tire us out but I think we are fit enough to handle it if we stick to the game plan.

We are tiring out because of our poor ball handling and making it harder for ourselves and defending more sets than needed especially stupid erros in our own half when we should be completingour sets and gettingdown field. We are our own worst enemies tiring ourselves out.

Can't win with a 67% completion rate when opposition teams are completing near 90%.

Our style of defence relies on opponents being forced into errors, so we can capitalise on their mistakes. It doesn't work when we are making the most mistakes.

 

[CPbulldog]

His blue print is midgets playing as middles. And when one is unavailable he brings in turnip. Can’t believe hopoi has been named 3 weeks in a row and misses out to the turnip. Should have started with Hayward and figured the rest out with hopoi, Todd, Morrin, Curren. But his game plan of having 2-3 smaller middles back fired when the quality isn’t as high as Mann or Hayward.

Agree with this. I think especially with the Mahoney signing for next year. We should only see Hayward playing as a back up dummy half now cause that is obviously what will play next year completely once reed gone.

Leave the bench to Hayward as a dummy half, give Mann starting 13 and more minutes and then bench with Hayward, Curran (was ass on weekend), sitili ( hopefully no more suspensions) & Hayes (Hughes to start but Hayes more minutes then him). Stop the small bench BS!

 

[CPbulldog]

Max King ,Dsf and Sitilli are so welcome when available.

DSF goes okay but he is literally making a habit of getting knocked out and leaving us one short. And when Ciro is playing a Galvin on bench basically playing with 2 subs.

 

[KiwiDog7]

I don’t think our fitness is too much of an issue considering our play style on defence structures which is all about effort on effort plus carrying small middles would require more fatigue wrestling with the bigger boys on the opposite side.

I think Marley hit it on the head, Ciro needs to be better with his rotations as having 3 interchange up his sleeve and our boys are barely hanging on is just straight negligence.

We could have done with Turpin in that last 20 who would have generated more energy with his line speed like he did in his first and only stint (opening 30min).

The week before in a set for set grind Ciro had one interchange up his sleeve where he could have put Reed back on (like he did v Souffs) to close the game out in clutch time and taken Sexton off at hooker.

It’s woulda coulda now but Ciro saying the players need to learn the lessons well he does too

 

[Menteek]

I don’t think our fitness is too much of an issue considering our play style on defence structures which is all about effort on effort plus carrying small middles would require more fatigue wrestling with the bigger boys on the opposite side.

I think Marley hit it on the head, Ciro needs to be better with his rotations as having 3 interchange up his sleeve and our boys are barely hanging on is just straight negligence.

We could have done with Turpin in that last 20 who would have generated more energy with his line speed like he did in his first and only stint (opening 30min).

The week before in a set for set grind Ciro had one interchange up his sleeve where he could have put Reed back on (like he did v Souffs) to close the game out in clutch time and taken Sexton off at hooker.

It’s woulda coulda now but Ciro saying the players need to learn the lessons well he does too

Yeah kind of makes sense. But I’m looking at the last few weeks. We had to up our intensity against Penrith last week and we did. However I feel like because we’re coming into the last 9 weeks or whatever it is, big teams coming up and we’re trying to conserve our energy for those last 4-5 games before we get into the finals. I do like the media bashing at the moment because it’s keeping us under the radar about being the team to beat. It’s like a mentality battle we’re going through as a team to prepare us for finals this year. We should have won against manly last year and would have definitely beat roosters the following week. It’s just a period where we need to bleed the young ones through to prepare them for any sort of issues we face getting closer to finals.

 

[boggie23]

DSF goes okay but he is literally making a habit of getting knocked out and leaving us one short. And when Ciro is playing a Galvin on bench basically playing with 2 subs.

Agree. Also he either struggles to come back on or ciro doesn’t trust him late in games with fatigue to defend. And I guess in right games he feels safer with other players on. But I think it’s something like he’s only had 2 30+ min games and rarely gets 2 stints. Starts and plays generally 17-22 straight then is done for the night.

I wouldn’t mind him having 3-4 weeks in reserves playing 60 mins to sharpen him up before the finals. Just to get his reps in and his fitness higher.

 

[Philmus]

We used 5/8 subs lol

so fkn stupid

 

[Dogs Of War]

Agree. Also he either struggles to come back on or ciro doesn’t trust him late in games with fatigue to defend. And I guess in right games he feels safer with other players on. But I think it’s something like he’s only had 2 30+ min games and rarely gets 2 stints. Starts and plays generally 17-22 straight then is done for the night.

I wouldn’t mind him having 3-4 weeks in reserves playing 60 mins to sharpen him up before the finals. Just to get his reps in and his fitness higher.

I hope we don't have to play DSF at all. He just doesn't have the right stuff other than size to make us a better team.

 

[KiwiDog7]

Yeah kind of makes sense. But I’m looking at the last few weeks. We had to up our intensity against Penrith last week and we did. However I feel like because we’re coming into the last 9 weeks or whatever it is, big teams coming up and we’re trying to conserve our energy for those last 4-5 games before we get into the finals. I do like the media bashing at the moment because it’s keeping us under the radar about being the team to beat. It’s like a mentality battle we’re going through as a team to prepare us for finals this year. We should have won against manly last year and would have definitely beat roosters the following week. It’s just a period where we need to bleed the young ones through to prepare them for any sort of issues we face getting closer to finals.

You’re not wrong champ
The exciting thing looking ahead is by finals time (touch wood for Wednesday night) we will have everyone available for selection and it will be our best 17 for the first time in 2025