Phil Gould explains where it's all going wrong for the Bulldogs

[CaptainJackson]

What a load of shit. I'll write a better and more to the point article in one sentence;

The problem is the coach.

That what he says in a round about way but not directly

Piss off hasler! You fraud

 

[Chana]

I agree with the majority but if the players are hiding like he says then they need to be dropped to reserve grade for a spell and the position handed to another player that will make the most of the opportunity. One thing he contradicts himself on is when he says the players a fine, well that is not what he said last night. Sterlo said something about our forwards and Gould said it's not the forwards it's the backs they are slow.

 

[Flanagun]

That what he says in a round about way but not directly

Piss off hasler! You fraud

Yeah but just like our attack, we need criticism of Des that's more direct and doesn't pussy foot around.

 

[magdog]

We've played much more sideways this year...we "adjusted" to a new attacking style in the off season....who came up with this?

 

[BMOC]

Gould raises some very valid points about decoy runners, not enough inside balls, short passes and poor fifth tackle options. I also agree with his belief that the dogs are genuinely trying to win but just can't cross the try line. However, these arguments all suggest that 'the bulldogs can't play' proper footy and that 'Des cannot coach'. He is contradicting himself, especially with the 'not because the dogs are not skilful'. If you can't score you are not skilful and somehow the coach and players need to be accountable. In all honesty i think the dogs are not skilful at all. The bunch that runs in the blue and white are all solid but are merely conventional and boring. They are such frustrating players.
I would say Kasiano is a very talented and skilful player. He is a natural and enjoys his footy. Des is reponsible because he has been overcoaching this guy. Kasiano at a park with his mates will score 10 tries on his own because he would throw the ball around and try new plays. For some reason he has stopped offloading and eliminated the spontaneous nature of his game. I know people were getting annoyed when he kas used to make stupid offloads but the team is now far too textbook. Our only x factor is no x factor now and brenko our only hope gets dropped

 

[Chris Harding]

Nah. He's blaming everyone. He's blaming the coach for over-coaching and blaming the players for relying on the coaching structures and not taking any risks.

Personally I think it's a pretty accurate assessment to the most part but I think he missed one key part. The players aren't avoiding risks because of an over reliance on the coach and the structures, they're not taking risks because they're not allowed to. This is the key problem with Des. He has his structures and patterns and stats and everyone has to follow them. If they don't work then you have to keep following them.

He's trying to build a system that any player could slot into. That's why we had T-Rex for so long. That's why Mbye is still playing halfback. As far as Des is concerned the players don't matter. He believes his structures are all that matters. It doesn't work because it ignores the strengths of the player.

Pretty good assessment. Des is statistics driven; and takes the game to the level of robotics. He seems to think that anyone can slot into the role as long as they do the basics and keep the completion rates up. It's killed off any individuality, and creativity.

 

[obje]

Nah. He's blaming everyone. He's blaming the coach for over-coaching and blaming the players for relying on the coaching structures and not taking any risks.

Personally I think it's a pretty accurate assessment to the most part but I think he missed one key part. The players aren't avoiding risks because of an over reliance on the coach and the structures, they're not taking risks because they're not allowed to. This is the key problem with Des. He has his structures and patterns and stats and everyone has to follow them. If they don't work then you have to keep following them.

He's trying to build a system that any player could slot into. That's why we had T-Rex for so long. That's why Mbye is still playing halfback. As far as Des is concerned the players don't matter. He believes his structures are all that matters. It doesn't work because it ignores the strengths of the player.

I agree. The players cannot deviate from the structure so they're not hiding. From everything heard the reason Pritchard and Ennis got the flick is because they dared to question the glorious leader. Weren't Reynolds and Ennis training by themselves and got pulled up for it?

He got rid of Ennis by making him a dud offer then got rid of Reynolds by doing the same thing. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you don't "hide in the structure" you get offered a meat pie for 2 years for your efforts.

 

[Kila R Ralai]

Gus ruled out most of the possibilities that makes for our current state, but in reality most of those possibilities can be fixed by a good coach.

So the bottom line is DES needs to change style or ship out.

 

[finchie]

I could write that in bullet points and get my point across without all the dribble and quota for a 1000 word article;

Here goes

- negative
- slow
- robotic
- unfit
- lacking football nouse
- players out of position
- shit bench rotation
- training on an iPad instead of out on the field
- bullshit stats
- no kicking game or last tackle attacking kick
- worst spine in the history of our club

Shit I better stop there I'm
Heading towards 2000 words

 

[finchie]

Could've went hard for Dugan, ponga, Mitchell at fb

But no player wants a bar of him
West tigers were a rubble and practically pushed woods out and

Foran had no other option, he signed with us by default
If his ex wife and kids agreed to move to nz as Jim Doyle said he'd of remained with the Warriors

 

[B-Train]

I'm so sick if the media biting their tongue and not being completely honest and saying what they really think.

Gus knows full well it's all Hasler's fault the team plays the way they do. Just call it like it is and stop trying so hard not to hurt anyone's feelings.

 

[Dawgfather]

not sure if you have been reading my posts about des during last 4 years, if you did you would know I have been calling him the Fraud since he got rid of Ennis.

haha sorry, mustn't have been paying close enough attention!

 

[JackDog]

Pretty good assessment. Des is statistics driven; and takes the game to the level of robotics. He seems to think that anyone can slot into the role as long as they do the basics and keep the completion rates up. It's killed off any individuality, and creativity.

See the HT sheds vision last night. Des is wandering around with a fist full of stats, reading bits to each player.

 

[Kelpie03]

I would take anything that comes out of Gould's mouth with a very Liberal dose of salt as well as a good lacing of pepper.
Ever since Super League Gould has taken it upon himself to do as much harm to our club as he possibly could, and his hatred has rubbed of on many others in the media as well as many other League fans, Lets not forget the extra 30K-40K news paper sales mentioned by our CEO only very recently.
I 'm sure he will never say or do anything that would help our club.

 

[liljohny]

No wories gus. How bout we swap lichaa for wallace mbye for cleary moylan for hoppa and see how you go at penriff

 

[Raysie]

Honestly the moment the players are told to go out there and go nuts, is the minute we'll start winning games.

All we have to do is approach the rest of the games and play like the Eels did in the backend of 2009. I know it won't happen.

 

[Calibra]

Gus is spot on... he's not saying it's not the coach, he can't go full out on Des guys, read carefully and you will see he's putting it all in black and white what everyone has been saying so how some don't agree with this is beyond me.

 

[dogluva]

Well Phil, tell us something we don't already know. If a coach over coaches a team just whose fault is that then ? If a coaches tactics are flawed just whose fault is that then ?

It is not only Bulldogs fans who are questioning Hasler's coaching and pin pointing it as the major flaw in our performances. Players follow a coaches instructions, or they do if they want to keep being selected. Just when is the coach going to see that what he is instructing them to do is not working 99.9 % of the time? Why continue to have the players bash their heads against a brick wall following instructions that are well,.....basically not effective? Accountability works both ways too from the point of view of the coach and of the players. We have had Josh Jackson ( Rd 4 & Rd 16), Montoya (Rd 17) Garvey (Rd 13) Lee (Rd 8) sent to the bin for professional fouls this year, a lot out the the fact that we are failing to control play effectively and equally by the frustration of the players. We are having problems doing anything on the field with a full complement, let alone with one less on the field. Surely that record is the worst for any club this year?

Des must see holding the ball as completion and control ; otherwise why does he have Tolman for example on the fourth just ambling up to the defence and turning his back on them and going to ground. Call it a settler, I call it a waste of a tackle. Why not have quick play the balls and quick darts out of dummy half? Why not make the opposition work to get possession from a kick instead of putting it straight into the arms of one of the back three? Why does he have Klemmer tucking the ball under his arm and just running forward with no real venom not looking to off load. Perhaps the lack of players following the ball runner looking for an opportunity to make a break? Just about all of what we do on the field smacks of staleness, we are completely devoid of ideas.Basically hold the ball at all costs so you don't make an error.

In saying this though, we have, on very rare occasions actually looked like we might be going away from that stereotypical play that we have come to expect from our side. It pokes its little head up every now and then but unfortunately disappears just as quickly. We have scored a couple of nicely put together tries, but other than that we really offer nothing.

Every one is now starting to see what we really need to do to and we can all talk about it until the cows come home but until the people who NEED to address the problems do something it will be a moot point.

 

[KiwiDog7]

Pretty much saying the players are hiding in the structures

 

[KiwiDog7]

He mentioned the surprise try by Frawley nek minit Des hooks him for Lichaa in GP