Moedogg
Kennel Legend
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History stacked against Dogs
Canterbury up against history in elimination football
Canterbury’s Greg Eastwood, left, is congratulated by Aiden Tolman after one of his tries on Thursday night.
Elimination football is closing in on Canterbury as NRL history begins to haunt them.
The 24-16 loss to North Queensland at Belmore Sports Ground on Thursday night cost the Bulldogs a top-four spot. They are now fifth, could be sixth by the end of the round, and if they lose to South Sydney next Friday while Brisbane and Penrith keep winning, they could be eighth by the end of the regular season.
Canterbury came from sixth spot in 1995 to win the premiership. But since then the lowest placing for a team winning the title has been fourth — Sydney Roosters in 2002, Wests Tigers in 2005 and Melbourne in 2009.
The Bulldogs are not leaking too many points. They are fifth-best in the NRL for missed tackles.
But the errors are piling up. The Bulldogs are seventh with 202 over 23 games, an average of 8.8 per game. They made 11 against the Cowboys.
The players are aware of it and want to fix it and they are taking solace in the fact their traditional stout Bulldogs defence is still with them.
“They (Cowboys) had a lot of sets on our line and we turned them away. So defence is really strong and that’s a real positive going into finals,” prop Aiden Tolman said.
“A few indecisions, a few missed tackles and the game was lost.”
Tolman played in both grand finals (2012, 2014) the Bulldogs lost. He admits the Dogs were scoring more points back then.
“Our attack has been understrength a little bit,” he said.
“It’s not so much our structure needs changing. It is staying in the game for the whole 80 minutes. We have these 10 to 15-minute periods where things slip away.
“I don’t think it’s fatigue from getting to this point in the season. Every other team has played the same amount of matches.”
Backrower Greg Eastwood did what the Bulldogs need more of on Thursday night against the defending premiers. He scored two tries and broke the line.
The Bulldogs lie eighth in the NRL in line breaks. Eastwood’s was The Dogs’ only break compared with five to the Cowboys.
“It just comes down to the individual wanting to hold that ball, when going into the contact or playing the ball. In the last month or so our ball control and completing (sets) has let us down,” Eastwood said when asked where the polish was missing from the Dogs’ football.
“We’ve made some errors lately and it’s not like us. The first half of the year we were great with the ball. The second half we’ve slackened off a bit.
“Other teams are completing well and playing for the whole 80 (minutes). That’s why we’re losing.
“Our defence is good. It’s a matter of staying with teams and completing better.”
Coach Des Hasler said his players had “a real dig, did some admirable things” in the eight-point loss to a Johnathan Thurston-inspired North Queensland.
“We don’t always want to be admirable. We need to turn that around,” Hasler said.
Both Tolman and Eastwood said there would no panic about having to play elimination football every week in the finals.
“We’re not busted, but we need to be better,” Tolman said.
“It’s not so much going into the finals after a loss or two. It’s about having confidence. At the moment we’ve got that only in patches. We need to fix it.”
Eastwood added: “It doesn’t concern us. We just have to keep winning.
“Hopefully we win next week and get some momentum going into the first week of the finals. Then hopefully we make it four in a row and take out the big one.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sub...d3b4d33aa30e9b3c2bc26c9ff12&memtype=anonymous
Reading that article just annoyed me. Our structure is simply not good enough to chase points.
Canterbury up against history in elimination football
Canterbury’s Greg Eastwood, left, is congratulated by Aiden Tolman after one of his tries on Thursday night.
Elimination football is closing in on Canterbury as NRL history begins to haunt them.
The 24-16 loss to North Queensland at Belmore Sports Ground on Thursday night cost the Bulldogs a top-four spot. They are now fifth, could be sixth by the end of the round, and if they lose to South Sydney next Friday while Brisbane and Penrith keep winning, they could be eighth by the end of the regular season.
Canterbury came from sixth spot in 1995 to win the premiership. But since then the lowest placing for a team winning the title has been fourth — Sydney Roosters in 2002, Wests Tigers in 2005 and Melbourne in 2009.
The Bulldogs are not leaking too many points. They are fifth-best in the NRL for missed tackles.
But the errors are piling up. The Bulldogs are seventh with 202 over 23 games, an average of 8.8 per game. They made 11 against the Cowboys.
The players are aware of it and want to fix it and they are taking solace in the fact their traditional stout Bulldogs defence is still with them.
“They (Cowboys) had a lot of sets on our line and we turned them away. So defence is really strong and that’s a real positive going into finals,” prop Aiden Tolman said.
“A few indecisions, a few missed tackles and the game was lost.”
Tolman played in both grand finals (2012, 2014) the Bulldogs lost. He admits the Dogs were scoring more points back then.
“Our attack has been understrength a little bit,” he said.
“It’s not so much our structure needs changing. It is staying in the game for the whole 80 minutes. We have these 10 to 15-minute periods where things slip away.
“I don’t think it’s fatigue from getting to this point in the season. Every other team has played the same amount of matches.”
Backrower Greg Eastwood did what the Bulldogs need more of on Thursday night against the defending premiers. He scored two tries and broke the line.
The Bulldogs lie eighth in the NRL in line breaks. Eastwood’s was The Dogs’ only break compared with five to the Cowboys.
“It just comes down to the individual wanting to hold that ball, when going into the contact or playing the ball. In the last month or so our ball control and completing (sets) has let us down,” Eastwood said when asked where the polish was missing from the Dogs’ football.
“We’ve made some errors lately and it’s not like us. The first half of the year we were great with the ball. The second half we’ve slackened off a bit.
“Other teams are completing well and playing for the whole 80 (minutes). That’s why we’re losing.
“Our defence is good. It’s a matter of staying with teams and completing better.”
Coach Des Hasler said his players had “a real dig, did some admirable things” in the eight-point loss to a Johnathan Thurston-inspired North Queensland.
“We don’t always want to be admirable. We need to turn that around,” Hasler said.
Both Tolman and Eastwood said there would no panic about having to play elimination football every week in the finals.
“We’re not busted, but we need to be better,” Tolman said.
“It’s not so much going into the finals after a loss or two. It’s about having confidence. At the moment we’ve got that only in patches. We need to fix it.”
Eastwood added: “It doesn’t concern us. We just have to keep winning.
“Hopefully we win next week and get some momentum going into the first week of the finals. Then hopefully we make it four in a row and take out the big one.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sub...d3b4d33aa30e9b3c2bc26c9ff12&memtype=anonymous
Reading that article just annoyed me. Our structure is simply not good enough to chase points.
