I was only commenting on the Warriors game and I do acknowledge it was our first game of the season.
Granted, early possession did contribute to fatigue, but the Warriors completion rate was marginal and their error rate was above average. Disadvantaged on-field positioning was contributed by sub standard, misdirected, ineffective kicking, easy meters gained by the Warriors and the lack of urgency by our markers (allowing their hooker, first receiver and kicker too much time on the ball). Throughout the game the Warriors pinned us inside our half and/or quarter.
I presuppose that you are a competent judge of the game, therefore I will not bore you with all the Dogs negative stats. But any team that misses 38 tackles in a game (majority of them due to poor execution, technique and communication), against a team that in honesty did not display a fluent attack and ultimately ended up with average attacking stats, has no hope of competing successfully in the NRL.
We are the Bulldogs, a breed that everyone used to dread to play against. As our theme song states : " We play it hard, we play it tough. We have a mighty pack of forwards"
So for the first time in over 50 years and with a bleeding heart, ashamedly I associated our team with "paper thin defense". Why? Because like everyone else here, we all refuse to accept and be subjected to more mediocre defensive displays. It is evident we have numerous defensive issues to address, ignoring the facts, making excuses, sticking our heads in the sand and singing "Kum ba yah" ("Come by Here") will result in the dreaded wooden spoon.
Bulldogs Forever.