Official ROUND 1 | Bulldogs vs Eels | Discussion thread 5:30pm @ CommBank Stadium

[D- voice]

Ciro seems too laid back for this team who are lacking in confidence which seems to be causing the mishandling. Who knows really what's causing the lack of completions, penalties, ill discipline but it is Ciro's job to find out.

We all want to see the team go well. That's any supporters only agenda.

I believe he is the opposite of laid back on the interior, I also believe if he picks Sexton at halfback and allow the team to play no pressure approach attacking football they might have few stumbles but will go a long way towards building the needed confidence that has been lacking for many years, you learn from mistakes and his reputation should be the last of his concerns.

 

[Johnnny2233]

Defensive was fine we have too get our backs into the game preferably Crichton side with kikau taffe should be replaced with Tracey Connor there a new team I feel they will click very soon and when they do they will be dangerous

 

[MichaelM]

Gritty effort - great defensive effort to be only down 3 tries to 2 before the pushed pass that led to the Simmonson try.

Momentum /possession determines scoring - our handling / control was poor, however there were positives to take out of this game.

The toll of making so many extra tackles and the resultant field position also greatly impacts the ability to attack, so I'm not too concerned about that, particularly with so many new guys.

At the risk of sounding like our former coach, the Nutty professor, if we completed at 85-90% we would have been well in this game.

I see that as very fixable, so stay positive because we will be winning plenty of games this season.

Also, in terms of tram selections the pre-season determined which guys were given first crack - team selections will naturally sort themselves out with form in the coming weeks. Unless you have greater insight than our coaching staff (which no one has) than fan opinion means very little.

Don't be fooled by comments regarding our tries only being scored because of Parra errors! That demonstrates complete naivety or some kind of agenda. Nearly every try scored in every game can be connected back to an error - how many of Parra's try's get scored if we had not made an error in the lead up!! It just a stupid comment.

Finally, did anyone think there was a hint of a double movement in Cartwright's try?? (apologies if this has been previously mentioned)

 

[LordSidious66]

O

only In the nrl you could be charged for a play you are allowed to do

Rules are so easy to manipulate. A shame guru won't defend or stick up for our players as they are the ones copping the reffering shafts.

 

[Berries]

We had no ball. Spent so much fuel defending but ended up with a couple of 4 pointers. CC should be judged on defence this season. We don't have all the pieces yet in attack. I thought signs looked good for our D this season

He has an Australian standard left side attack. Should be judged on attack too

 

[88]

Gritty effort - great defensive effort to be only down 3 tries to 2 before the pushed pass that led to the Simmonson try.

Momentum /possession determines scoring - our handling / control was poor, however there were positives to take out of this game.

The toll of making so many extra tackles and the resultant field position also greatly impacts the ability to attack, so I'm not too concerned about that, particularly with so many new guys.

At the risk of sounding like our former coach, the Nutty professor, if we completed at 85-90% we would have been well in this game.

I see that as very fixable, so stay positive because we will be winning plenty of games this season.

Also, in terms of tram selections the pre-season determined which guys were given first crack - team selections will naturally sort themselves out with form in the coming weeks. Unless you have greater insight than our coaching staff (which no one has) than fan opinion means very little.

Don't be fooled by comments regarding our tries only being scored because of Parra errors! That demonstrates complete naivety or some kind of agenda. Nearly every try scored in every game can be connected back to an error - how many of Parra's try's get scored if we had not made an error in the lead up!! It just a stupid comment.

Finally, did anyone think there was a hint of a double movement in Cartwright's try?? (apologies if this has been previously mentioned)

I totally agree with your assessment. And Cartwrights try??? It wasnt momentum after being tackled on his try scoring arm. It was his second movement of rolling which scored it!!! Surely a second effort and a double movement??? Just my thoughts.

 

[pillow]

I totally agree with your assessment. And Cartwrights try??? It wasnt momentum after being tackled on his try scoring arm. It was his second movement of rolling which scored it!!! Surely a second effort and a double movement??? Just my thoughts.

Cartwright's 'try' was 100% second effort, he swung his entire arm over his body to get the ball down. Nrlol are setting a dangerous precedent if that's considered momentum

 

[maroondog72]

Mate he tackled at 82% yesterday and missed 3 tackles scored a try kicked 5 from 7 real stats not made up ones

Yeah because reserve grade stats are deadly accurate. Lol I watched the game mate.

 

[maroondog72]

I thought Burton's error was much worse (the leg pull on the 5th).

Funny though later on in the game Moses came up with burtons leg and not even a penalty blown

 

[Dogs4eva13]

TLT will be interesting forced backline shuffle. Hard to know if Tracy is fit. If he is wouldn’t have been better to play him in cup? If fit does Tasfe get dropped so early. Counting the trials I think we have seen enough. With our issues we need meters out of full back. I also don’t like our structure out of our end. Our backs are taking too many hit ups. Means we are not set for a play 4 shift to May e score some long range tries . Because of that I think we need knight back in the 17z start with knight and king. With Hughes, poasa and maybe kitone on the bench. I think kitone has shown enough and gives some second row cover. Curran starts 13 and CC needs to drop one of Mann or Salmon.especially if not going to spell Mahoney. From last week maybe Salmon.

 

[Howie B]

Funny though later on in the game Moses came up with burtons leg and not even a penalty blown

Yep that’s because we don’t have fucktards like Gutherson and Moses who put their arms out and question the ref after every tackle.

It’s nauseating

 

[bradyk]

TLT will be interesting forced backline shuffle. Hard to know if Tracy is fit. If he is wouldn’t have been better to play him in cup? If fit does Tasfe get dropped so early. Counting the trials I think we have seen enough. With our issues we need meters out of full back. I also don’t like our structure out of our end. Our backs are taking too many hit ups. Means we are not set for a play 4 shift to May e score some long range tries . Because of that I think we need knight back in the 17z start with knight and king. With Hughes, poasa and maybe kitone on the bench. I think kitone has shown enough and gives some second row cover. Curran starts 13 and CC needs to drop one of Mann or Salmon.especially if not going to spell Mahoney. From last week maybe Salmon.

It won't be interesting. The assistant will push Kiraz to the wing with Tracey coming into the centres and keep the rest the same unless anymore injuries. If it was possible he'd pick the same 17 again next week. Knight was awful in NSW cup (I don't care about his stats) he's not an option.

 

[Ambrose]

He has an Australian standard left side attack. Should be judged on attack too

I don't think we have a halfback. Not a first grade one. Fullback is up for grabs? We are at least one light in the forward pack.

I'm not sure we have the makings of an elite attacking unit, yet. We have some quality players who will do individual things to score points. I'm willing to cut the attack some slack. Not the D tho

 

[KiwiDog7]

Tomorrow we put this game in the bin no more postmortems
Sharts in 5 days

 

[Dogs4eva13]

It won't be interesting. The assistant will push Kiraz to the wing with Tracey coming into the centres and keep the rest the same unless anymore injuries. If it was possible he'd pick the same 17 again next week. Knight was awful in NSW cup (I don't care about his stats) he's not an option.

He wasn’t awful he was our best player. Yes he did a bad drop on a hit up from our own end that changed momentum. But recovered from that and had a good rest of the game. Often took 2 hit ups a set making good meters and defended strongly. He has too many errors in his game and if we had other options I wouldn’t play him. However we don’t so not playing based on the options we have is silly. He made a big difference for us last year. Stiffened things up a bit.

 

[maroondog72]

Yep that’s because we don’t have fucktards like Gutherson and Moses who put their arms out and question the ref after every tackle.

It’s nauseating

And that was after at least 3 high tackles that went un penalised the fucking germ

 

[KiwiDog7]

And that was after at least 3 high tackles that went un penalised the fucking germ

That penalty he gave the eels right in front cos he said Salmon went high was soft af

That’s play on or at best 6 again

Gifted them 2 points

 

[maroondog72]

That penalty he gave the eels right in front cos he said Salmon went high was soft af

That’s play on or at best 6 again

Gifted them 2 points

He has always been a fucking cat.

 

[Micko]

He wasn’t awful he was our best player. Yes he did a bad drop on a hit up from our own end that changed momentum. But recovered from that and had a good rest of the game. Often took 2 hit ups a set making good meters and defended strongly. He has too many errors in his game and if we had other options I wouldn’t play him. However we don’t so not playing based on the options we have is silly. He made a big difference for us last year. Stiffened things up a bit.

It’s a really tough option. We lost the game from making mistakes and losing control in the middle. Knight drops the ball a lot but adds a lot to the middle.

We don’t have much to lose so I’m happy to play him against the Sharks. We need some size on the bench.

 

[Trafford10]

While I agree with the errors ...

I'm not sure I agree on the "rinse and repeat" of last season part.

If we were playing like last season, they would've put 60+ on us as we were that bad defensively.

26 points on us. Not great but ...

Last try was lucky as hell.

First they got a good bounce.

Second should've been better.

I mean, yeah, we need to be better but for me the defensive structure was A LOT better than last year.

If we give up 37 or 39 points a game on average like last season, I'll kill myself now (metaphorically speaking).

Watching yesterday what concerned me was the dropped ball.
Lack of possession.
Like I said that plagued us all last season.
And it's not like we were playing high risk football throwing the ball around.
Something that coach needs to work on.
We will not win any games with 40% possession.
I think it was 32% at half time.