Opinion Theres a lot to like.

Kurrupt78

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Mate dont be fooled, this happens EVERY year, there is effort towards the end and we pick a few wins up making us look half decent then we get shown how bad we are the season next. People playing for their contracts thats all, atleast 7/8 need to go and a fair few new signings in key positions needed ie fullback, 9 and halfback
It’s a replica of the last 2 seasons. I agree. But hopefully next season Baz is the changing of the guard.
 

Suave

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Yeah I agree. I honestly thought Eels would run riot over us but we put in a decent effort. Definitely still some concerns but here are my positives:

- Ogden. He's looked really unfit in his earlier games but thought he finally showed what he's capable of. I think he's got immense potential equal to that of Averillo.
- Katoa looks like he's fitting in nicely as a bench impact player that can cover back row and hooker. Funny what happens when you actually back your players. His dummy half service can sometimes leave a lot to be desired but he can read the game so much better than JMK (who is better at the fundamentals but has zero vision).
- Meaney developing nicely at fullback. Needs to bulk up a bit more and back himself to take on players with his pace but some encouraging signs.
- He cops a lot on here but honestly Montoya showed a lot of heart. Launches himself into the defense when he runs despite knowing he's likely to get smashed. Makes pea-heart Napa look even worse.
- Finally, I saw more than enough yesterday to be confident that the Eels premiership drought will continue. They didn't impress me at all and will get exposed big time by the likes of the Roosters, Storm, Raiders and Panthers come finals.
 

flamebouyant

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We weren’t solid we down 18 nil and Parra ran riot. Paulo was off loading at will and absolutely dominated us I could be wrong but we didn’t score a point when he was on. You have your opinion and that’s cool but that first 30 cost us the game and was terrible we did well to get back onto it after that.
If we did score that try, or should i say, if the ref correctly awarded it, then it all plays out very differently. Instead they receive a penalty, march down field, kick, and we cough up the ball.
Im not saying we were great, but we were not terrible.
Ovedall, parramatta won the offlads 20-18, so not a massive difference either.
 

flamebouyant

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You mean the skills to pass it to another player on the chest instead of 4 feet behind the player. Guy has ticker but is fucking useless as a halfback trying to guide a team around.
The eels had plenty of waywatd passes as well though.
 

flamebouyant

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Mate dont be fooled, this happens EVERY year, there is effort towards the end and we pick a few wins up making us look half decent then we get shown how bad we are the season next. People playing for their contracts thats all, atleast 7/8 need to go and a fair few new signings in key positions needed ie fullback, 9 and halfback
How exactly am i fooling myself?? We are bottom 4 team. Theres no denying this. But that has nothing to do with this thread. And i dont think they are simply playing for a contract. It has been a terribly difficult season for our club, even more so then plenty of others, we even sacked our coach, and to their credit, the boys are responding well.
 

Spoonman84

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If we did score that try, or should i say, if the ref correctly awarded it, then it all plays out very differently. Instead they receive a penalty, march down field, kick, and we cough up the ball.
Im not saying we were great, but we were not terrible.
Ovedall, parramatta won the offlads 20-18, so not a massive difference either.
They didn't award the try though and it didn't play out differently we were terrible. I'd like to see the stats in the first 30 mins it wouldn't be good reading a lot of the stats evened out in the second half.
 

Jai81

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Looks like a completely different team since Pay left! we are actually competing every week!
Thats what I want to see every week, as long as the boys are putting in %100 we will get better!
 

GA45

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The eels had plenty of waywatd passes as well though.
Are we reviewing the eels ? I don’t give two shits about them I only care about the Bulldogs being better and having a competent halfback who can hit players on the chest is a step in the right direction.
 

flamebouyant

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Are we reviewing the eels ? I don’t give two shits about them I only care about the Bulldogs being better and having a competent halfback who can hit players on the chest is a step in the right direction.
Take a deep breath. In, out. Now, all i am illistrating is that even the best halfback on the field in Moses, was also doing the same thing. It is relevant you know.
 

flamebouyant

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They didn't award the try though and it didn't play out differently we were terrible. I'd like to see the stats in the first 30 mins it wouldn't be good reading a lot of the stats evened out in the second half.
Might jusy have to agree to disagree on this one.
 

kungfuman

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Maybe I'm being too harsh but apart from that no try we didn't look scoring. Granted I didn't actively watch every second because I took the kids fishing but we didn't look like we did like the last 2 weeks.
7-1 penalties its hard to do much with no ball even the big marn was having a go at the reff for the penalty count
 

Bazildog

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Lets not be stupid here, small improvements to see us show abit of pride however we still need to bin most of this squad as soon as the season ends regardless of what happens between now and the end of the season.
Glass half full I suppose. The other way to look at is a team filled with stars in Newcastle got beaten by our "crap" team. And then Parramatta who plenty of smart judges see being in the GF, would have lost as well if it wasn't for the odd dumb self inflicted mistake and atrocious refereeing...

Add Hopa back in this team and we should avoid the spoon easily and if we had a gun 9, a nasty forward and Cotric for 2021, Barrett has plenty to work with.
 

TwinTurbo

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How were the bench rotations better? Tolman and Napa played 60 plus minutes when being completely ineffective and out on their feet while Ogden tore up and only played 28 while Thompson played less than 50?

But I agree that since firing Pay the effort has been better and the team looks more competent. Hopefully the youngsters are prioritised in the next few games because that's what this season should be about.

I worry that Georgallis will keep playing Tolman and Napa huge minutes as he's trying to get results for his next job but the club need to advise him the minutes need to be better distributed so we can develop the players who actually have a future at the club.
I'm confident that if To'omaga wasn't injured he would have been in the rotation. And frankly until the last 2 games Ogden hasn't deserved to be anywhere near an NRL game, he was nowhere close to achieving his fitness targets. I think recent events such as RFM being resigned, Elliott deliberating, Pay getting the flick, a new coach watching plus he realised that his contract was up next year. Might have just woken him up to the fact that he needed to smarten up or he was going to be shipped out. Still not up to much more than 30 minutes though. Thompson's minutes are increasing as he gets more match fitness, gets accustomed to the pace and ferocity of NRL games and the effect of the 6 again rule. I thought 47 mins was about right for him. RFM and Jacko played the full 80 minutes, Swap To'omaga, when he's fit to play, for Cogger on the bench and the rotation doesn't look too terrible.

As for who actually "has a future at the club" I have no idea, it's all up to the new coach who doesn't actually start full time for another 4 maybe 5 months.

Go Dogs
 

hackenbush

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Don't mind losing when the team is competitive.
Certainly look to be subtle changes to the their structure especially in attack. Sometimes does not take major changes to make a significant impact.
Under SG dogs have
average 18.7 points for & 19.3 against
Under Pay
Average 10.4 points for & 23.8 against
 

speedy2460

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Hard to argue with most of the posts. However, the thing that has been missing for a few seasons now is leadership.
Jackson is just not a leader. Being Captain has affected his game. He stands back and Foran makes the decisions. Not good enough.
 

Chris Harding

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The only thing lacking was finishing off sets on the line with tries. We had them under loads of pressure for the bulk of the second half. Hopefully it's a sign that we're going to keep improving under Georgalis for the rest of the year. We won't play finals footy. But it would be great to finish with a few wins against sides that are heading into the finals.

If we hadn't shot ourselves in the foot with costly early errors we'd have win number 3 on the board.
Win number four, if we hadn't blown it against the Dragons.
 

SPEARTAKVIDREFS

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On paper Parramatta has a far superìor roster, yet be beat them in almost every single facet of the game. In fact your negative facts are factually incorrect also. Running metres bulldogs 1731-1612. Average set metres, bulldohs 41.2 - 40.3. Post contact metres were one of the few areas they came out on top, but when you look at their feared pack with Paulo, RCG, Lane, Brown etc etc, theres was 20 m in it, bulldogs 677 - 697.
We also won forced drop outs 4 - 2, tackle breaks
20 - 17, line breaks 4 - 2, kick return metres 199 - 189, we even had quicker play the balls, 3.41 - 3.67 sec.
Add to all of this that we were disallowed a try that was a fucked decision, and we should have won!!! Yeah im pissed we lost, but that was one hell of an effort against a far superior team with very few injury concerns like ours. Well done boys!!
I stand corrected.
 

Dognacious

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It’s a replica of the last 2 seasons. I agree. But hopefully next season Baz is the changing of the guard.
And instead of losing good players we might gain some this offseason.
 

B-Train

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I'm confident that if To'omaga wasn't injured he would have been in the rotation. And frankly until the last 2 games Ogden hasn't deserved to be anywhere near an NRL game, he was nowhere close to achieving his fitness targets. I think recent events such as RFM being resigned, Elliott deliberating, Pay getting the flick, a new coach watching plus he realised that his contract was up next year. Might have just woken him up to the fact that he needed to smarten up or he was going to be shipped out. Still not up to much more than 30 minutes though. Thompson's minutes are increasing as he gets more match fitness, gets accustomed to the pace and ferocity of NRL games and the effect of the 6 again rule. I thought 47 mins was about right for him. RFM and Jacko played the full 80 minutes, Swap To'omaga, when he's fit to play, for Cogger on the bench and the rotation doesn't look too terrible.

As for who actually "has a future at the club" I have no idea, it's all up to the new coach who doesn't actually start full time for another 4 maybe 5 months.

Go Dogs
Thompson's minutes are actually decreasing. 60 in his first game. Then 64, 52 and 48 minutes in his next three games.

As for Ogden he needs to have his minutes increased incrementally by 5-10 minutes to make him push through fatigue and come out a better player... The same applies to Renouf when fit. Surely Tolman and Napa's minutes decrease towards the end of the season.
 
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