Nailed it Mooloolaba the team is more disjointed than Ivar the boneless

Okonbor and Waddler the Duck who can not pass or look left,  need to go! How Barrett picks Waddell every week is like Hasbeen picking TRex  just a joke.

We have great young talent including a North Queenslander called Bailey who I saw rip teams but Barrett like Hasbeen and Pay are to stubborn to drop their love child's JMK, Waddel Burns before injury..... and I am over the bullshit this club has become a laughing stock and a St George blow in is not the answer... His pressers are embarrassing with "we need to improve" it is your job to fix it!!!! Or just fuck off 

Just saw a replay of the game as I was at church during the live feed.

Seems unfortunate that we end up losing by such a margin. We didnt deserve it. Brisbane didn't deserve to win by that much although they probably deserve the win given they were willing to win it.

And this my friends is our problem. Our halves just don't look like they have the ability to chance their arm.

I will say it again. Flanno is Rubbish. Don't be fooled by his last couple of games (we have now lost 3 by a solid 20 points each with him in the team). He just passes WAY too early and doesn't engage defenders. His outside receivers are easy pickings for a sliding defence. Only Dufty's and Kiraz's step can create anything outside of his early pass. He is not the solution at halfback, no matter what anyone thinks. 

Special mention to Kiraz who had a wow of a debut game. Tsikrikas did well also. Schoupp was very good too. JAC had a mixed night. Needs to show more urgency in kicks as he cost us dearly tonight.

Broncos chanced their arm with some kicks behind on at least 4 occasions with 3 of them resulting in tries. 

We need to learn from them and do the same.

Best thing for me is that we are improving (slowly) but even better was the look on Barrett's face once Broncos hit an 8 point lead. He looked like a man about to lose his job. About time.

I said it ages ago and I'll say it again. Barrett needs to throw his penriff game plans in the garbage bin. They will never work for us, we are NOT penriff. He has to get off his @rse and learn to understand his players and know how they play and then form his own Bulldogs game plan around them. He also needs to show his conditioning coach the front door because these blokes are only good for sbout 50 minutes max.

Well said ODF. 

There is a vast difference  between the roles and responsibilities  of a coach and assistant  coach.  A bit like a teacher and teacher's  aide. Both important roles, but very different. Some can make the change, some can't.  Barrett has demonstrated a difficulty  transitioning  at two clubs now.

As to what went wrong we need to scout and develop our own talent rather than relying on over priced imports.

When Moore and Baz were doing a total rebuild there is no other option. But we need to transition to homegrown talent to be a force. This is what Gus is planning.

Probably Burton's best game in the halves but our kicking was a bit off including the wrong players doing some of the kicks.

Flanno was good the previous 2 weeks, while he didn't do a lot odviously wrong, he didn't have much impact, give him a few more weeks.

Kiraz and Schoupp look like long term centres. Both are young Kiraz is outside the top 30, this season is about easing him into the NRL.

TPJ and Duffy unfortunately defended exactly how I expected them to. Close to our try line if we replace Duffty with a traffic cone we will get better results. I would try shifting Duffty to the wing in defence at our end, he is so bad we have to try to hide him. Swap for Fox and see how that goes, or just drop him out of the front line.

Fox is a big disappointment, positionally and defensively, Fox and TPJ coming out of the defensive line or chasing one out caused us a lot of problems.

Against the Chooks I just want us to make them earn the win.

Trying to salvage something from this season looks unfortunately a tall order. Let's give some young guys a run and try a few different things.

I agree with your post except the fitness part.
I don't think it's a fitness issue. I just think even we don't score points from plenty of posession, we leave ourselves in a vulnerable state for things to go against us. We either invite teams to come back at us or allow luck or a bad decision to hurt us. Then momentum kicks in, panic and despair.

This team has abit of a mental resolve issue that has manifested itself from over years of losing and from certain types that are still in the team. 

It all starts from the inability to put teams to the sword. We had over 90% completions and still couldn't shut the opposition out. What are looking for 150% ???? 

There's no such thing.

It's difficult for me and some other fans to concede the season after only 7 rounds. 

Afew years back (2018) Hawthorn was in a similar position and then coach (Clarkson) came out and said that you have 2 options when you are in that position.

You can continue with your perceived 1st graders (senior players) and continue to try to salvage the season at the risk of longer term damage, or you can concede the season and blood youth to give you a running start for the future.

Of course, Clarkson earnt the right to say this having won 3 premierships. It was a tough pill to swallow. 

Not sure I'm that keen on giving up on the season as yet, although I find it hard to think we can turn it around. 

My concern is that we have yet to identify our problems let alone try to figure out how to fix them.

To me, only a change of coach can save us now.

JAC wanted to be a FB... there is no time like the present. hd called it, JAC to fullback, Dufty to wing. What have got to lose.Okunbor showed us last night he is still nowhere ready for first grade, about another 4-5 years in reggies should do the trick. There has also been a lot of murmerings that we are still playing Desball, that is way off course. Hasler has been gone a long time now but what it is, Barrett has his "penriff" gameplan clipboard and is too stubborn to admit it's just not working and Bazball reminds people of Desball. Our biggest worry right now is our conditioning, because we are only competing for half a game or so. We need a conditioner like Billy Johnstone, this Ferris bloke is so far behind, we will NEVER keep up with the fitter teams while he is with the club.

It might be a good idea to rotate the hooker and/or lock after 25-30 mins, JMK is a good fit for coming off the bench after 25.

Topine and Cook are the guys I would like to see tried.

We also didn't see much "game management" from our halves, any halves combination we have tried so far.

I would have signed Hastings and I would try Sezer, the main criteria is experience.

When we are conceeding 30+ points per game, attack is not the main problem.
If It goes wrong against the Chooks, we will concede 50+.

A team that can't defend, always loses, and never has any confidence. When they fall behind, the attack starts to panic.

Game management and kicking game is well short of where it needs to be, there is no odvious quick fix for this season.

Unless we fix game management, defense and fitness we will get flogged every week unless the opposition is reserve grade standard.

I would only do that defending at our end, both are a liability in their current position.

I would rotate the roles and give JAC some shots at playing fullback in attack, if he is highly movitated and involved, he might add something.

I am over 60 and was always as piss poor tackler, but I am a better option than Duffty in the front line.

We also don't have any scrum plays designed to create an overlap with JAC or Duffty on the wing.

I also don't see our halves and hooker trying to create overlaps on shortsides to set up long range attacks.

Or our hooker putting runners over the advantage line after the first 20-30 mins.

Baz seems to think if we play like Penrith we will get the same results.

Walters looked like a dud coach last year.

They added some experienced halves last season, then Reynolds this year.

Their defence has improved, and the bench roation by the Broncos was very good, and certainly contributed to their win.

After June 30th, we can try to add an experienced half or utility. The right guy might make a difference.

But so far, Walters looks like a much better coach than Baz, if we were making that kind of progress fans would be happier.

Well this sucks…

That Board sacked Hasler…

Game management means you put points on board when you get good posession - not play one out shit.

It also means you chance your arm when the conditions suit and play conservatively when conditions don't. You identify players who are down in confidence or playing out of position and you exploit that side. You throw your gameplan out the window, because circumstances have changed.

You are right about game management. We just don't have the players that can do it. There's no point having a coach who is smart enough to identify these things. We need the brains on the park.  We can have a deadbeat coach in the box and still win.

It is bordering on criminal that Topine has not been given a chance in first grade this season.

This guy along with Schoupp and Averillo were the shining stars of last year. Schoupp should never have been dropped. He has completely shut down Tommy Turbo and Staggs and was unfairly dropped in the first place.

Even though Schoupp may have looked average in reserves when dropped, it doesn't mean he isn't ready or not the best option. I reckon same as Topine. Even if he may look abit average playing in reserves, we ar least know he can do good things in first grade. There is no point playing 72mins of JMK. We need points. We need some variation in the forwards to create things. Playing only a solid conservative game with intent to win by scoring only 3 tries is not gonna win you many games.

Too many things need to go your way. 

You still need a good coach. The supporting cast still have to present at the right time and in the right place to take advantage of the game management skills  This is a product of good coaching. Bringing it all together

Still my opinion on our biggest problems in order is.

1. Lack of game management.
2. Lack of workrate / resilience / fitness in defence.
3. Individual poor decisions by players in attack and defence- going off script, or lack of attention.
4. Poor execution of attacking options, bad defensive technique 

There is no doubt problem 1. Contributes to all other problems and makes them worse.

On our halves-
Burton - showing some potential,
Flanno - possibly a long term 7. But far from the finished product.
Wakeham - some potential, might be a better long term prospect than Flanno.
BBO - way too young, needs more time in the lower grades.
Averillo - more of a centre / utility than a specalist half 
.
We need an experienced half for 1-2 seasons and it seems like we have needed that for 5 years.

If we have to let a young guy go, Flanno is the one to punt,  eventually we need to make the call on Wakeham or BBO but I would rather kick that can down the road as both potentially have a high ceiling.

The coach or recruitment and retention have contributed to this problem.
Many other reasons to think Baz isn't the coach for us.

We had lots of problems last night, many of them already addressed. I don't know who broke a mirror at Belmore but it's pretty obvious because we are devoid of the rub of the green and the 50/50 calls..... hell even the bounce of the ball has deserted us.

ODF… I think many of the calls went our way, we got plenty of 6 agains & penalties last night. But as usual, we got down the other end.. it was forward after forward hit up thanks to that imbecile JMK & we ended up with f{}ck all points. 

I think by Gus’s recent tweets there’s the first cracks in his support of Baz. Words like “concern” and “disappointing” are not supportive words.

Maybe I read too much into it, but I don’t think I do.

He’s concerned and disappointed.

Villi I was referring to the rub of the green the 50/50 calls and bounce of the ball in general so far. Last night, a bulk of the game was refereed quite well, just a couple of crucial calls went against us in the last 20 minutes.This also coincided with our lack of stamina.

Agree. Apart from problems with coach and spine, we need a shaman or priest to remove the evil spirits enveloping our club and the players minds

From a purely football fan perspective, there’s been some great football this year. Particularly but not exclusively from Cronulla. Penrith have them for talent and execution but nobody’s playing more attractive football than Cronulla and haven’t for a few seasons.

God help the rest if they can put together a solid 80.

Yeah, some great stuff….

Zef, I am not sure if I can be patient or even enjoy the ride. Surely we can't continue being smashed all season and management not do anything to address the issue. Even a glimmer of us climbing out of this hole would be refreshing.

The six again has to be critically reviewed. It is basically a differential penalty with the sanction being between one and six extra tackles without the normal options available to the non offending team. We have seen tonight a number of restarts given on tackle one. This means seven tackles instead of six with one of those tackles virtually negated by the infringement. So effectively no sanction. Bloody ridiculous.
The NRL has half conceded the stupidity by reverting to the old rule in the defending forty. Same infringement, different sanction depending on field position. Imagine if we adopted this principle for all infringements.

We can't blame the ref last game.

We are all concerned and disappointed.

But in the long run I trust Gus to sort it out.

Gus can give Baz advice.

So far weeks 1 & 2 were the only relatively easy games for us.

This is the NRL don't expect easy games, the standard is high.

In terms of luck and refs, the better we play the more lucky we will get.

In sport when a team lacks confidence and is tentative,  that is a receipe for disaster.

We can get confidence 2 ways, win but keeping the opposition to less than 10 or win by scoring more than 30.
We need to win by 2 clear trys and dominate for the full 80.

We have a squad that might be capable of that against the Tigers.
The game against the Roosters is a possible stepping stone.

Or we might continue to be concerned and disappointed.