Flanagan's first outing

[Alan79]

I think what we need to keep in mind is that Kyle would be one of the lowest paid starting half backs in the NRL. Baz has bought him on potential.

I am not criticising his performance tonight nor am I am praising it. The fact that I didn’t see the game would make that somewhat hypocritical....

I just think it’s important to keep his wage in mind when judging him. Especially when most starting halfbacks are on $700k plus

I didn't get to watch it either. But it's his first game in a new team so I wouldn't be expecting a huge game from him or anyone. As long as the players blew some cobwebs off and are fit for round one it's all good.

 

[D0GMATIC]

I thought it was a solid first game. I couldn’t have been more impressed with Allan and Cotric.And Hetherington was sensational, Great work rate,aggressive in defence, and plenty of good carries.
I don’t know how someone can achieve the position of NZ captain and not be able to catch, the best you can hope for with DWZ is that he face our goal line when he goes for the high ball because he is gonna drop it.

 

[boggie23]

Slightly controversial but I didn’t mind his game today. Every time he got the ball 2-3 passes off the ruck he looked threatening. I liked the way he went across field then his the straight runner. Should have Assisted with the first try. Some of his defence was copybook. He did seem to hurt his shoulder early in the first half.

Wakeham can not play in a structure. He has natural talent but did nothing to take any pressure off flanno (he was hit every kick).

I saw some skill/flair and I saw some inexperience. Can only improve. Him and burton or even him and averillo should be a good combo. I am still excited with him and our future.

Was never sold on his goal kicking. I think he just had a huge year last season so he needs to back it up. But if he can be a 80% kicker it will be a huge bonus for us. Trial is a trial. It’s a way to get some fitness and try some combos. Let’s not write him off until he has a full season at the club.

 

[finchie]

Didn’t want him to begin with
Will support him as he is in a dogs jersey however a combo of averillo and burton is the way I’d go

he only looked half decent at the rorters as he had superstars around him and opp would focus on those and leave flanno with space

 

[SPEARTAKVIDREFS]

I thought he went ok.
Bit of pressure first outing for the dogs under a new coach.
Kicking was 5/10. Alot of pressure on his kicking from opposition though.
Dont remember seeing any mistakes.
No gun 5/8, hooker etc.

Besides, he has less than half of 50 games under his belt so if he doesnt get injured this year, he should come good 2022.

 

[Ribo Flavin]

I m looking forward to the future with him at the club. This team once it is finalised needs time to build confidence in each other. When that happens things should flow better.

 

[Malla]

Some of the comments on here lol

 

[Dingo]

I thought he was a little nervous but went okay. His kicking seemed to worsen as the game wore on.

 

[B-Train]

He wasn't great and was under a lot of pressure all night but it's the first trial and we need to be patient considering it's a whole new spine and coach etc. These combinations take time and I'm sure he'll be fine.

 

[Teddybear]

Average performance by Flanagan, wakeham.did much better ( and I don't rate wakeham) ....

 

[GreenTurd]

Flanno was fine for first game with us, Averillo / Burton will take more pressure off him.

I noticed flanno straightened attack, then passed it to wakeham and he runs his outside men into touch ‍♂

 

[Teddybear]

Yeah once pal, what Bout wakeham silky hands for try assist, showed more spark than flanno got the dogs moving in the 2nd half.

Did flannagan run the ball?
At this stage cogger looked better than flannagan

 

[hackenbush]

Solid but not flash. Hopefully still getting use to the new team & structures. Good thing is he touched the ball alot although most was standard plays. Kicked ok. Transitioning from the rucks was not at speed, too lateral & predictable.

 

[flamebouyant]

Slightly controversial but I didn’t mind his game today. Every time he got the ball 2-3 passes off the ruck he looked threatening. I liked the way he went across field then his the straight runner. Should have Assisted with the first try. Some of his defence was copybook. He did seem to hurt his shoulder early in the first half.

Wakeham can not play in a structure. He has natural talent but did nothing to take any pressure off flanno (he was hit every kick).

I saw some skill/flair and I saw some inexperience. Can only improve. Him and burton or even him and averillo should be a good combo. I am still excited with him and our future.

Was never sold on his goal kicking. I think he just had a huge year last season so he needs to back it up. But if he can be a 80% kicker it will be a huge bonus for us. Trial is a trial. It’s a way to get some fitness and try some combos. Let’s not write him off until he has a full season at the club.

Im not writing him off at all, I guess I just thought he would have more impact.
I disagree on Wakeham. I actually thought he showed a lot. The ball went to flanagan every single time in the first half, except for a few occasions, like his grubber for a repeat set.
Then, in the second half he was given the chance to get involved and looked dangerous.
Flanagans clearing kicks were solid, but his close range kicks were tereible, and we constantly went right.
All in all, i didnt take much out of the game. It looked like we played 2 completely different styles of football accross the game, and i dont think we showcased a whole lot of our new attacking structures. Baz seemed to be holding his cards close. I think we will see a lot nore come round 1.

 

[Chris Harding]

5/10 did what he had to, but didn't have much help. He's an organiser / support player, needs a runner in Averillo or Burton alongside him.
Attack was sideways and slow alot... I can see what Barrett wants to do with the attack making us similar to Penrith, issue is it will take time as we aren't as fast, skilled and clinical

We were still standing flat waiting for the ball from dummy half. Until the team starts to move as soon as the ball is played, so Flanagan can deliver the ball to a running forward, everyone will look unimpressive.

We need to use the tactic employed by the top sides, where a forward runs diagonally across the defence when the ball is passed back to Flanagan to kick. That will block them rushing up, give him time to get the kick away without being smashed.

 

[bowleggedwog]

I wasn't too impressed. But it wasn't just flanno, Wakeham sat on the left like the pay days. Our pack got dominated, we lost the ruck and went you don't win the ruck you end up playing sideways.
You can see in the last quarter winning the ruck and playing direct how it is easy to make breaks. Katoa is average as a hooker. If we had a threat at 9 it would take the pressure off in so many ways.

 

[EXPLORER]

Underwhelming tbh.. I could not really say anything positive about his game..

But the forwards didn't help his cause early on..

I'm sure he will settle in and get a lot better..

Somthing i have never really said before about Bulldogs teams,
But yeah you hit the nail on the head.

We need forwards.
Desperatly need forwards that can bust the line.

 

[Spoonman84]

I wasn't too impressed. But it wasn't just flanno, Wakeham sat on the left like the pay days. Our pack got dominated, we lost the ruck and went you don't win the ruck you end up playing sideways.
You can see in the last quarter winning the ruck and playing direct how it is easy to make breaks. Katoa is average as a hooker. If we had a threat at 9 it would take the pressure off in so many ways.

I thought the Sharks pack totally owned us in the first half and while I’m not overly concerned about it yet I hope it’s not a sign of things to come. We struggled to get out of our own end and we couldn’t dominate the ruck at all. The Sharks had some big bodies that stopped our pack in its tracks but that’s going to happen sometimes when we are using a smaller and mobile pack.

 

[Snake]

I thought the team played calmer and with more purpose then previous seasons and Flano helped in that respect. The kid stuck to the game plan, stayed patient even when down by 12 and kept us in the game until the tide turned

 

[Mr. Ditkovich]

I think he suffered tonight from both Wakeham doing nothing in the first half, and the service from Katoa.

Katoa takes too long to pass the ball, and a lot of times the defence would already be in Flanagan’s face when he receives the ball, leading to those one dimensional kicks.