Some perspective from tonights game.

[CrittaMagic69]

If any change....

Elliott > OUT
Fine > IN

Tolman if he's going to be benched, I'd like to see this:

13. Eastwood (he needs to remain at lock).
14. Tolman

Tolman would tighten the defence at lock, and looks to now have an offload (something we haven't seen since his Storm days). Plus he's not all that slow for a big bloke. Remember in fairness he didn't play a trial either.

One big plus for us... every time we were in Storm 40 we looked like cracking them.

Get over Eastwood, seriously. He was tired after a few minutes and was falling off tackles as soon as he got on. He was fucking shit and lazy, to suggest he should start is absolutely laughable. I would be fucking embarrassed if i was him.

 

[JMac15]

I've been reading through the posts and our defence was scratchy in the middle of the park. They dominated our ruck and couldn't make our way down the field. There was a couple of times we should have gotten a penalty in the play the ball area. We need to quicken our play the ball in my opinion.

They slowed down our play the ball which resulted in poor field position and the last tackle and kicks in play weren't effective.

Couple or are last tackle options were questionable but a lot better than last year. Good to see a few kicks in-goal for repeat sets. Montoya took some wrong options and was pretty quiet. Forwards did well getting up the field and Woods' offloads were good. RFM was dangerous so have no issues with them.

Overall good signs and plenty of positives to come out and for once in 2 years our attack is somewhat streamlined.

Fualalo scores that try and we would have been back in it. It's nothing but positive and good to see the boys not back down till the 80th mins.

 

[Mr Invisible]

Get over Eastwood, seriously. He was tired after a few minutes and was falling off tackles as soon as he got on. He was fucking shit and lazy, to suggest he should start is absolutely laughable. I would be fucking embarrassed if i was him.

I get Eastwood ate your lunch in high school and flicked boogers at you... but you need to get over that.

Your comments borderline on hatred of Eastwood as a person not just a player.

The bloke just had pretty intensive heart surgery and therefore no off season, and has only played a handful of games. Of course his fitness will be down... any players would be in that situation.

Give the bloke at least a chance before writing him off.

Eastwood came on the same time as Elliott and Tolman did. It was poor management of interchanges if anything.

 

[CrittaMagic69]

I get Eastwood ate your lunch in high school and flicked boogers at you... but you need to get over that.

Your comments borderline on hatred of Eastwood as a person not just a player.

The bloke just had pretty intensive heart surgery and therefore no off season, and has only played a handful of games. Of course his fitness will be down... any players would be in that situation.

Give the bloke at least a chance before writing him off.

Eastwood came on the same time as Elliott and Tolman did. It was poor management of interchanges if anything.

I don't give a shit, Eastwood hasn't performed for years and posters have praised him for it. I tried to give him a chance but his first performance was absolutely embarrassing. He shouldn't be playing NRL footy.

 

[Yanni Gogolak]

Interesting stat I just heard, Storm have never lost a Round 1 game - geez they are at a lofty standard that I want the Bulldogs to be at. We need to be able to identify and recruit the Superstar players like they do, and as early as they do. Also take a look at Kas... he should have been at that fitness level when he played for the Dogs...

Forwards - agree Tolman should be lock. He has a good motor and can tackle. Woods has a bloody terrific offload, I think our players are not used to this and he needs to be followed closely.. Moses ? RFM wow great game.

Backs should improve with a gew more games. Frawley ? Rocks & diamonds ... Commentators last nite said he had a great game (after a poor start).

I'm happier right now than I was for almost the entire Season last year. Let's give it a few games and a bit of tweaking from Pay.

 

[D- voice]

So we lost against the Storm. Some see our defence as woeful, but attack excellent.

A few interesting stats to take into account and reflect on tonights game:

1. The Storm have not lost an opening round game since the 2004 season (they lost to Knights).
2. The Storm have not had 18+ put on them by a side since 8th July 2017 (Round 18) when Parra beat them 22-6.
3. Storm went on to become Premiers 2017.
4. The last time the Bulldogs put 18+ on Storm = April 11th 2016 (We beat them 18-12 and it was last time we've beaten the Storm).

So the game tonight was against a team that is still the best in the comp. We still put 18 on them, which teams have failed to do for some time.

Winning tonight was an incedibly hard feat (given Storm have not dropped a first round game in 14 years).

Storm scored 2 really flukey tries. We had 2 disallowed/bombed.

All in all, we stayed with the Storm where others will have faded.

Encouraging signs, and against the best defensive team in the comp, if we can put that sort of performance together (or better) every week, we are definitely going to be up there at the pointy end of the season (based on the other games so far this round).

We shouldn't forget it was our first game and patience is essential to allow the team to gel, but still suggest some necessary changes.
1. Tolman must start to stiffen up the defense even if it means at lock, Fualalo not mobile enough to start.
2. We definitely need more impact players of the bench.
3. J.Morris is getting very slow and needs to be eased in as an attacking second row (long tearm).
4. Foran must stay as a halfback, therefore I can't see Frawley succeeding as a five eight. ( L. Lewis ) ?

 

[Mr Invisible]

Interesting stat I just heard, Storm have never lost a Round 1 game

@Yanni Gogolak Storm haven't lost a Round 1 game since 2004... so 13 years straight winning Round 1. Even for last years grand final losers they'd struggle to beat Storm.

Lets not forget the 2017 Grand Final score either: Storm 34 Cowboys 6.

So against the reigning premiers we put on 2 more tries than last years runner up, and conceeded the same amount.

Plus they fluked 2 tries, and we bombed a few.

That's a hugely positive sign all things considered.

 

[Brycycles94]

What was Hoppa doing on the left side catching kick offs?

Probably catching the ball instead of butter fingers frawley dropping it.

 

[Deathspell]

With a tight defence unless it slides fast a huge gap is exposed and/or 3 on 2 overlap between centre and second row,reason Jackson had issues.It gets worse if opposition lines deep and decides to run ball on the last unless wing sprints up fast into the line.1st and 3rd tries were due to this bad slow slide thus creating a 3 on 2 overlap and huge gaps between Hopoate and Jackson.It is also very important that with tight defences the edge players do not miss 1 on 1 tackles and wrap the ball as the man inside him takes the legs.

 

[Dawgfather]

I thought Tolman had a solid game on Saturday night. No complaints from me. I would like to have seen Montoya get more involved, perhaps out of dummy half on the first or second tackle.

I also think Eastwood is well past it and needs to retire immediately. His lateral movement is poor/non existent in defence. He is also likely to be responsible for at least 1 try against us per game. Decent halves will target Eastwood in defence and run at him all day.

Not sure if it's been mentioned but did anyone else feel like Klemmer was off the field for a very long time? Is Pay trying to save Klemmer and Woods in anticipation of the state of origin period?

 

[doggieaaron]

Hopefully pay sorts out the d my heart was in my mouth every time storm went wide

 

[bcmf]

I thought Tolman had a solid game on Saturday night. No complaints from me. I would like to have seen Montoya get more involved, perhaps out of dummy half on the first or second tackle.

I also think Eastwood is well past it and needs to retire immediately. His lateral movement is poor/non existent in defence. He is also likely to be responsible for at least 1 try against us per game. Decent halves will target Eastwood in defence and run at him all day.

Not sure if it's been mentioned but did anyone else feel like Klemmer was off the field for a very long time? Is Pay trying to save Klemmer and Woods in anticipation of the state of origin period?

I think he is lessening his minutes so that when he’s on the field he can just go balls out.

Only issue is when our first rotation happens, our bench offers next to nothing. Francis needs to be in the team at the expense of tolman, and fine and the png dude at the expense of Elliot and Eastwood.

Overall our bench is ineffective and pay needs to sort that out ASAP. Tolman and Eastwood have to get shipped off to Goldie’s.

 

[Bob dog]

Oh well, we had a hit out against the best and now know what to work on, defense first and foremost, spend all week on it.

 

[vegny]

This is an interesting stat and the old timers here can correct me if this is not right. Dean pay is the first coach since the early 80s, or may be earlier, that lost the first game as dogs coach.

 

[Mr Invisible]

This is an interesting stat and the old timers here can correct me if this is not right. Dean pay is the first coach since the early 80s, or may be earlier, that lost the first game as dogs coach.

@vegny Bob Hagan 1971 was the last newly appointed Dogs coach to lose their first game.

http://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/seasons/nswrfl-1971/canterbury-bankstown-bulldogs/summary.html

 

[Dingo]

With perspective, while showing promise we still have a lot of work to do.

 

[vegny]

@vegny Bob Hagan 1971 was the last newly appointed Dogs coach to lose their first game.

http://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/seasons/nswrfl-1971/canterbury-bankstown-bulldogs/summary.html

Thx mr i

 

[KiwiDog7]

I watched the press conferences and our one predictably short and cliched really. What is abundantly clear is the spine won’t change.

He singled out Foz RFM and Mbye for special mention. Pay also alluded to period before halftime where they rolled through us too easily and we struggled to get out of our own half

Translation, heads are rolling (Tolman Eastwood and Elliott) in firing line

Interesting that Bellamy and Smith both said our attack looked good and will get better singling out Foz and Woods

 

[MitchNewton]

Probably catching the ball instead of butter fingers frawley dropping it.

He was taking Mbye’s position as he was tacking goal kicks. Makes sense to have him go back to the 40m line than try line

 

[vegny]

With perspective, while showing promise we still have a lot of work to do.

Understand the point mate but i dont think we are that far off. From last sat i thought a slight improvement in execution and defence would make us very competitive against most team. Some players need to step up a bit. A few games under their belt the team will be fine.
The tough draw and the need for quick competition points to maintain confidence/energy are the challenges.