How the Bulldogs are building their attack
The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are 2-and-1 to start the 2023 NRL season following a nervous win over the Wests Tigers in Round 3.
They disappointed to allow Wests back into the game on Sunday but there are positives on both sides of the ball for new coach Cameron Ciraldo to work with, moving forward. They’re not at the level of the defending premiers just yet, but there are shades of the Penrith Panthers in how Ciraldo’s team is working upfield and constructing points in good-ball.
The Bulldogs are getting wonderful service out of their back five to start the season, as evident in the numbers from Round 3.
In Hayze Perham, Jacob Kiraz, Jake Averillo, Paul Alomoti and Josh Addo-Carr, the Bulldogs have five productive ball carriers to work out of their own end. Their back five combined for 953 metres – almost half (49.82%) of their total yardage gain – against the Tigers in Round 3 to consistently get Canterbury’s sets off to a positive start. Two runaway tries through Alomoti and Addo-Carr obviously helped give those numbers a bump, but its fast becoming a trend for the Bulldogs in season 2023 as it has been for Penrith over the last few years. For reference, the Panthers grand final winning side of 2022 made 42.79% of their total yardage through their back five – not a bad yardstick to measure up against.
Using up his outside backs in yardage is a ploy Ciraldo brought with him from Penrith and the results are promising, three games in. With the centres and wingers getting busy in exit sets, Canterbury’s middles are saving themselves for defence to dominate the tackle and win the ruck. No team in the NRL conceded less post-contact metres (363m) than the Bulldogs in Round 3.
The productivity of Canterbury’s back five is not only getting them out of trouble, it’s allowing them to build pressure with their kick chase and defence.
Some nice vision and a simple pass from Averillo allows the Bulldogs to work smarter, not harder, out of the backfield here.
Burton’s half break is backed up by Averillo who steals easy metres around the ruck to get Canterbury into the Tigers half. With Wests retreating, Flanagan chimes in to move the ball to space on the right edge, and all of a sudden the Bulldogs have gone 60+ metres and in position for an attacking bomb.
The quality of Mahoney’s kick is well supported by an enthusiastic kick-chase from Kiraz, trapping the Tigers in a corner on their own 10m line.
This is exactly the kind of pressure-building action we’re used to seeing from the Panthers; an enegertic exit set through the back five, a good fifth tackle kick and a hungry kick chase led by the outside backs. Over the course of 80 minutes, passages like this help Penrith and now Canterbury to a healthy territorial advantage.
The Bulldogs are also triggering scoring actions thanks to the work of their back five earlier in the set.
A good kick return from Perham gets Canterbury to the middle of the field to start this set, before Alomoti kickstarts an attacking raid with a strong carry one-off the ruck.
Alomoti’s quick play-the-ball allows Kiraz to follow suit with a scything run back in behind the ruck. The Tigers are still getting onside by the time Kiraz gets over the ad-line, and he too generates some ruck speed by finding his front and playing the ball quickly.
You could see this one coming from the couch at home.
Mahoney’s involvement here is key. He drags the markers one way before passing back across the ruck to Burton at speed. Poor Joe Ofahengaue doesn’t even realise what’s happening as Burton pours through a hole, cranks off his left foot to beat the fullback and scores a simple yet undefendable try.
When set up in good-ball, Canterbury are still working out the kinks in attack. The Perham-Burton-Flanagan-Mahoney combination is just three games old and we need to give them time to click. The early signs are good though.
Mahoney doesn’t have the craft of Koroisau from dummy-half but he’s picking his moments nicely. He controlled a few attacking sets as he tried to pass forward teammates into spaces around the ruck, and when the points didn’t come he showed great patience to force the drop-out and build pressure.
On the right edge, Flanagan is keeping his role simple and bringing both Jacob Preston and Averillo into the game. Preston in particular has made a barnstorming start to his NRL career to become an instant target for his halfback close to the line.
Flanagan isolated Preston onto Luke Brooks like this a few times in Round 3 and the Bulldogs were unlucky not to get a result.
Preston is still a raw talent – a conventional two-handed pass for Averillo here probably sees Canterbury score their fourth try of the afternoon – but the ability is clearly there. Already 189cm and 100kgs at just 21 years of age, his development throughout the season is worth watching and if he can strike up some combinations on the right edge he will help balance Canterbury nicely in attack.
The Bulldogs best avenue for points though is quite obviously on their left edge.
Burton and Kikau made a shaky start to the season but appear to be working things out, three rounds in. The numbers suggest Kikau is stil easing into his role at the Bulldogs (avg. 12.3 receipts, 82.7 run metres per game) but what the stats dont indicate is the variety of Kikau’s involvements. He and Burton worked interchangably as distributor and support player in Round 3, switching roles to execute a range of actions on Canterbury’s left edge.
Kikau appears to be the target here as the Bulldogs shift wide, inviting Adam Doueihi to shoot off his line and get up in the face of the big backrower.
Some quick hands from Kikau beats the rushing defence though, passing Burton into a three-on-two situation on the edge. Burton cuts back infield in this instance but the value and gravity of Kikau as a distributor was immediate.
One tackle later, the Bulldogs again go left through Perham to Burton in a more conventional ballplaying role.
Perham’s involvement gets Burton at Doueihi’s outside shoulder and with players in support on his outside. The pass goes out the back to Kikau who again produces some lovely soft hands to tip the ball on to Addo-Carr on the wing. The Tigers rush to sheppard Addo-Carr towards the sideline but The Foxx cuts back infield and almost creates points when he offloads to Flanagan in support.
Flanagan’s involvement here deserves recognition. He has no right to be in position to support Addo-Carr here, but his eagerness to be involved sees him follow the ball throughout this play and become an option back on the inside. Flanagan knows there is space back out to the right but he doesn’t throw the speculator and instead resets at the posts on tackle four.
The Bulldogs have now hit Wests right edge twice in three tackles and have another two up their sleeve. They only needed one.
Flanagan’s play-the-ball splits the Tigers defence down the middle, leaving five defenders to cover seven Bulldogs players on the left-hand side of the field. Those five defenders are under pressure and fatigue having just made repeat defensive efforts, and they all work sideways off their line when Mahoney shifts it left again to Burton and Kikau.
The width of the pass from Mahoney and Burton compounds the issue for the Tigers as Kikau finds himself in space and with early ball. Presented with a sliding defensive line, Kikau bangs off his left foot and pops a pass back around the corner to Perham in support, icing an extremely well constructed try that began five tackles earlier.
Kikau’s threat as a ball runner is beginning to open up spaces for Burton to run it himself, too.
Adam Douiehi and John Bateman only have eyes for Kikau when Canterbury spread it here. Both defenders have turned out which invites Burton to hit the gas towards Bateman’s inside shoulder. Only a poor pass from Max King bombs another Bulldogs try in this action, but its something we’ll see more of in 2023 given Burton’s strength as a ball runner.
All in all, its promising signs for Ciraldo in his debut season as an NRL head coach. He has the Bulldogs playing out a simple yet effective gameplan as they work upfield, and in good-ball they are building towards a well balanced and varied attacking system. Mahoney is dictating terms from dummy-half, Flanagan is making some valuable contributions on the right edge and the Burton / Kikau combination is picking teams apart on the left.
We’ll keep our expectations measured until we see Canterbury win the grind against a more resilient opponent. They beat a poor Melbourne Storm outfit in Round 2 and made light work of the Tigers in Round 3, but neither opposition applied or absorbed pressure like the Cowboys, Eels or Rabbitohs will do in the coming weeks.
https://rugbyleaguewriters.com/nrl-...3-how-the-bulldogs-are-building-their-attack/
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