OFFICIAL | GAME DAY ROUND 2 TRIAL | Bulldogs vs Sharks | Discussion thread (8pm @ BSG)

[ChesoBulldog]

Yep the a defender was his assignment and he missed it all together and he got hooked for it.

Did he get hooked right after that? Says it all then
Kempsey still arguing the point tho

 

[Kempsey Dog]

….. I’ll choose to move on

Hutchinson fell for decoy but overshooting play and Pooasa didn't cover. Both at fault, but yes move on. I would also argue Taaffe was dumb AF and more responsible here as #1 he didn't organise the line and did a Matt Dufty hiding on the inside at marker.

 

[Kempsey Dog]

Did he get hooked right after that? Says it all then
Kempsey still arguing the point tho

Or fail to ignore that big boy already been out there for 15 and would have been taken off anyways.

 

[maroondog72]

He ddoesn't seem to have the wave of forwards running onto the ball, giving him options, like Parra's game plan. He is running to them sideways searching. CC needs to fix it.

It is

don't think I've ever seen Reed run out from dummy half either whilst being with us.

he has, Sideways.

 

[Doggiezbrah]

Hutchinson fell for decoy but overshooting play and Pooasa didn't cover. Both at fault, but yes move on. I would also argue Taaffe was dumb AF and more responsible here as #1 he didn't organise the line and did a Matt Dufty hiding on the inside at marker.

Isn’t he more of a halfback and played FB for Souths filling in? I think he is a depth signing at this rate.

 

[D- voice]

Some pointers for whom ever is interested in reality !
* The sooner we realise what our deficiencies are the sooner we know what our problems are !
* Every team has at least 4 big first grade standard props, we have 2 bench standard at best, it's work in progress.
* We all know, " we must go forward before going sideways ".
* We have many new players in our team it takes time to gel.
My advice is be patient & stay positive...It the only way to success !!!

 

[Kempsey Dog]

Isn’t he more of a halfback and played FB for Souths filling in? I think he is a depth signing at this rate.

Yeah played juniors in halves, filled in for Souths at FB in NRL. I like his effort don't get me wrong, but I think hes clearly a stop gap solution

 

[Doggiezbrah]

Ok 2024 premiers!

Spin shit harder.

Bro, I think it is being in denial and not being objective about our team. Yes, our defence improved in effort errors but we were still getting steamrolled by the big boys. If we stick with the same team last night. We are in for a long season.

 

[Doggiezbrah]

Yeah played juniors in halves, filled in for Souths at FB in NRL. I like his effort don't get me wrong, but I think hes clearly a stop gap solution

I wouldn’t even play him as a first resort. After last night, I rather try other options there. I wish Tracey was fit. We are slowly improving but I feel CC rewards players based on effort in training than talent.

 

[InGusWeTrust]

I said this all along about Xerri.. it’s going to take him a couple months to get his body back into game shape you just can’t take 4 years off and walk back into grade, especially after how much the game has changed. People here thought the opposite tho lol
I think we need Kiraz on the wing because of his yardage out of our own red zone we really struggled today against the big sharks pack. Wilson tries hard but he’s still not ready for first grade imo. I really hope Skelton can take another leap this year he would be perfect

Also that number 10 is not first grade material he really struggled up the middle and pretty much let Wilton go in untouched

Also think Hutcho will play half because of his defence. He needs to be better with the ball but his defence was great.

Disagree about Xerri. He was one of our best backs in the two trials. Got through a lot of work in both games. He played better than both Sharks centres last night. I don’t know if he’s the best pick for a centre spot round 1 but we have other more important decisions, e.g: if
Tracey isn’t fit, do we play Critta at fb and Xerri & Kiraz/Clark at centre? Taffy blew it last night and hasn’t done enough over both trials to convince me he has a spot in the team at this stage. I’m comfortable with Tracey or Critta at fb, but prefer Tracey.

 

[InGusWeTrust]

They haven’t been not shit for a long time that’s why

WOOOOOOSH

 

[King Gus]

hayward’s service from DH was better than mahoneys

He also cost us the game, he will be better than Mahoney just needs a little more time.

 

[hackenbush]

Would not read too much in a trial match. However was impress with our defense especially defending multiple sets. Hopefully we can hang-in more games & snatch a few more wins. Attacking looked disjointed but look good in patches. Hopefully the cohesion will get better.

 

[InGusWeTrust]

I'm not writing them completely off, just worried that the assistant hasn't addressed our obvious issues.

Our biggest obvious issue was conceding a thousand points every game. Based on the two trials (the only thing we can judge so far) he has done exactly that, addressed the awful defence.

 

[Grunthos]

Ahhhh, guys, some of you really need to grow up...

 

[InGusWeTrust]

During the off season I've been praying they work on their defence at the very least, and it looks like they've done that. Good scramble, they're quicker off the line and moving as a unit. That's one big positive that I've noticed so far.

Also, Critta is gonna be massive for our team. We'll win more games this year just by having him in the side.

But yes, our attack still looks disjointed and predictable. Possibly nerves? Mahoney needs to concentrate on quick passes from the ground first and foremost rather than taking the ball to the player. It all starts with him.

Overall I have mixed feelings about the team this year. I'll give 'em til Round 5-6 to iron out the wrinkles, coz there's still a few there.

While the attack concerns me, I’m not too worried. It was a trial with too many interchanges to build any rhythm, but mostly we had a terrible completion rate that was the issue. We simply didn’t have enough good ball attacking sets to try out plays. Those errors are a concern too, but that’s easily fixed.

Defence is paramount and that’s the biggest thing I’ve taken from the trials. The players we’ve recruited and the training has the whole top 30+ committed and determined in defence. Let’s hope they keep it up throughout the year.

 

[ElMagicElMasri]

Hutchinson fell for decoy but overshooting play and Pooasa didn't cover. Both at fault, but yes move on. I would also argue Taaffe was dumb AF and more responsible here as #1 he didn't organise the line and did a Matt Dufty hiding on the inside at marker.

It’s 100% Poasa’s fault

This is a very common play that a lot of teams run. They specifically isolated Preston in the previous play so he was involved in the tackle. Brailey then looks at Poasa and knows he’s the A defender and he just completely missed his assignment with his hands on his knees.

Really needs to get his fitness up if he is to contribute meaningfully. He has to be able to play 20 mins in a stretch. Round 1 will also be a few notches up from last night as well.

 

[John Matrix]

While we showed plenty of good points there was plenty left desired, no matter how hard you train there is no better way than test it in action, the big question I have is if we will come out better in round 1. We can't waste time giving players a chance to prove they are upto it if there are players who have already.

Reed was the worst for me yesterday when you consider how seasoned he was and how he talks it up, he has the ability just needs to key it in and not over think things.

 

[InGusWeTrust]

No, it was 10s fault. Hutcho, Xerri and Wilson all went up in a straight line and the 10 was stuck in mud on the tryline. Just too tired. Watch it again.

It was both. Hutch shot out, Poasa didn’t (he stumbled or something) which left a yawning gap. Big deal it was the only try they manufactured. The other came from a poor pass to the ground from Heyward iirc.

Besides that I was very happy with Poasa. I can’t believe how many negative comments I’ve seen about him. He was good defensively besides that one stuff up and made many strong hitups. Pleasantly surprised by him tbh, as I expected nothing more than maybe a bench role.

 

[battered sav]

If we hang onto the ball in that game we win. As Gus says the best defence is ball security. Thier big forwards were starting to tire and in a normal game with only four on the bench we come home stronger.
Obviously a couple of big mobile props and a top flight 7 would improve our roster enormously
but we don't have those ATM. The best we can hope to do is trying to wear down the opposition middle with quality ball movement and swarming defence.
I believe our attack can go up a few notches when the team has spent some more time together. We didn't seem to have very good shape yesterday and when we did have some set
pieces it either broke down early or we ran out of room. This should definitely get better.
We will be better than last year, time will tell by how much.
My two cents.