Was 2012 bad for the Bulldogs?

[Malla]

Key players were younger and in their prime ie. JMoz, Graham, Tolman etc. Kasiano was about 50kg lighter. Barba was Barba. Ennis was playing the best footy of his career. We had a tremendous squad. I wouldn't say that it was a bad thing for us, I think our management, recruitment team and shit coach just did not to enough to transform the squad. We still have most of the same guys running around for us this year and they are either older or fatter...or both.

Also one thing people dont mention enough... signing Brett Morris was one of the worst calls made. We signed him on as a fullback but he has barely played a whole month at fullback and I dont think he has even played a full season while he has been here. I heard he doesn't even train during the week - that's how bad his knee is. He's on something like 800k - waste of money. Dragons hood winked us.

 

[Oatley Dog]

Key players were younger and in their prime ie. JMoz, Graham, Tolman etc. Kasiano was about 50kg lighter. Barba was Barba. Ennis was playing the best footy of his career. We had a tremendous squad. I wouldn't say that it was a bad thing for us, I think our management, recruitment team and shit coach just did not to enough to transform the squad. We still have most of the same guys running around for us this year and they are either older or fatter...or both.

Also one thing people dont mention enough... signing Brett Morris was one of the worst calls made. We signed him on as a fullback but he has barely played a whole month at fullback and I dont think he has even played a full season while he has been here. I heard he doesn't even train during the week - that's how bad his knee is. He's on something like 800k - waste of money. Dragons hood winked us.

He didn't bust his knee until he played for us early in his first season at Brookie and his knee went into the turf. Just gotta file it under shit happens. Had that not happened he would probably still be our FB and we wouldn't have been talking about it. Unfortunately we have to keep paying him and we don't have that money available for a topflight FB.

 

[Malla]

He didn't bust his knee until he played for us early in his first season at Brookie and his knee went into the turf. Just gotta file it under shit happens. Had that not happened he would probably still be our FB and we wouldn't have been talking about it. Unfortunately we have to keep paying him and we don't have that money available for a topflight FB.

I am pretty sure every time he played FB for dragons he injured himself. Hence why Dragons never wanted to move him there and we (DUMB) signed him as a fullback.

 

[Boxer]

I scored a few free tickets from that legend giving away some tickets the other day. Taking my wife and daughter to game. I was a member since late 90s went to every game everywhere until we got whipped by Souths in grand final. I might tell her I'm gong to toilet but really sneak off to 40m line run down to fence and yell out my 2 years of frustration at the players and hopefully bring some pride back into the team. If we don't win this game I can't see myself ever going to a game again. As I have to travel up from the gong for doggies games

Hopefully we won't have to wait to long before something changes , not holding my breath but I'm hoping they turn up on Monday and you and your family can enjoy a decent football game.

 

[Oatley Dog]

I am pretty sure every time he played FB for dragons he injured himself. Hence why Dragons never wanted to move him there and we (DUMB) signed him as a fullback.

Yes he did have a few injuries but often it was his shoulder I think. He was fully fit when he came to us and was on fire until he did his knee and he played bugger all footy until late last year.

 

[Malla]

Yes he did have a few injuries but often it was his shoulder I think. He was fully fit when he came to us and was on fire until he did his knee and he played bugger all footy until late last year.

Just in essence a bad move to sign a guy who has played wing his whole career to play fullback.

 

[Oatley Dog]

Just in essence a bad move to sign a guy who has played wing his whole career to play fullback.

He had played FB coming through and played a number of games out the back with the Dragons so he wasn't untried. Truth is that when he plays FB he is usually very good. He is a top tier fb when fit, but his knee problem seems to prevent him from doing it every week. he was a great buy at the time.

 

[Malla]

He had played FB coming through and played a number of games out the back with the Dragons so he wasn't untried. Truth is that when he plays FB he is usually very good. He is a top tier fb when fit, but his knee problem seems to prevent him from doing it every week. he was a great buy at the time.

Stop trying to justify a horrendous signing by the club. We could have signed Gordon for a quarter of the price and he would have did a better job.

 

[Oatley Dog]

Stop trying to justify a horrendous signing by the club. We could have signed Gordon for a quarter of the price and he would have did a better job.

Whoa where did that one come from. BMoz was a great signing at the time - no ifs no buts. He's not the first player to get hurt playing footy and not the last. As for Gordon, if you knew anything about him you would know that he was still under contract with the Sharks at that time and happy playing there. It wasn't until halfway through the season that BMoz was already with us that he got the shits with the Sharks for not letting him play FB and asked for a release to go to Parra. Sharks refused and he went to Parra in 2016. So are you suggesting that the club employ psychics to predict when players are going to get unhappy at other clubs and base their playing roster on that? Don't care that you have an opinion on things but fair dinkum at least make it look like you know a little about what you are talking about. And just for the record Gordon played 1 origin, Bmoz has played 17 plus 18 tests and is still going.

 

[Chana]

Funny thing is our attack in 2012 was Dymocks and went well until the NRL decided to make it illegal. The signs were there though as we relied to much on Barba and I think that we never recovered after we were forced to change our angle due to the NEW obstruction rule, never really adapted since. The rest is history, poor recruitment and trying to keep playing through the forwards but no angles the squad has gotten stale and in any sport that leads to trouble. Melbourne is a great example, recruited a spine of young players that would rise to rep football and kept renewing the rest of the team. Des believes in defence and yes its an important part but not every player, once you focus on defence you are forced to bulk up you loose speed and like Gus said last night speed wins games now, there has to be a balance. What worries me is that we can all see it, the media can see it, even my grandmother can see it rest her soul but not Des.

 

[Malla]

Whoa where did that one come from. BMoz was a great signing at the time - no ifs no buts. He's not the first player to get hurt playing footy and not the last. As for Gordon, if you knew anything about him you would know that he was still under contract with the Sharks at that time and happy playing there. It wasn't until halfway through the season that BMoz was already with us that he got the shits with the Sharks for not letting him play FB and asked for a release to go to Parra. Sharks refused and he went to Parra in 2016. So are you suggesting that the club employ psychics to predict when players are going to get unhappy at other clubs and base their playing roster on that? Don't care that you have an opinion on things but fair dinkum at least make it look like you know a little about what you are talking about. And just for the record Gordon played 1 origin, Bmoz has played 17 plus 18 tests and is still going.

He is a winger and we signed him on to play fullback. That was a dumb thing to do.

 

[craigo]

Hopefully we won't have to wait to long before something changes , not holding my breath but I'm hoping they turn up on Monday and you and your family can enjoy a decent football game.

Nothing worse then driving 80km each way wasting money on petrol, car park, food, drinks and tickets to see them play shit and lose. A very expensive day

 

[silverelvis69]

Now before you all jump in and say "Yes, Des started coaching us" I wanted to make a different point.

Back in 2012 we were playing average footbal until we went on a run around mid season and probably should have won the grand final. We had a revolutionary new playing style that was hard to combat. On paper I remember thinking we were an average team particularly with Reynolds and Keating in the halves. James Graham in reality was our half back and we essentially rode on the back of a big forward pack and Ben Barba's career best form.

The problem was this football was only good for a season as the element of surprise was gone and it masked our lack of quality halves and a strong kicking game.

Had we performed averagely that season, we would have probably recruited new players in key positions over the next couple of seasons. I think we would have been able to attract high quality players. However, I think even Des was so surprised with our success in 2012 that he stuck with that same core group of players and didn't change our style of play, probably to our detriment.

If someone else was overseeing recruitment and retention and we built a new spine back then, I believe we could be in a very different and much better situation now.

It was a good year

However despite how it ended- I thought we will build from that instead dip for the worst

 

[Boxer]

Nothing worse then driving 80km each way wasting money on petrol, car park, food, drinks and tickets to see them play shit and lose. A very expensive day

Sure is.....maybe the player should start paying fans to come watch the shit they dish out