The hip drop could also be avoided to an extent. All the wrestling and a lot of the dangerous incidents occur in the extra time allowed in the tackle because of the 10 metre rule.

I can see him being an elite player, I just dont think he is yet, not in that position.

I'm hoping he is. I just wonder how much of a gun halfback we need to unlock him.

I think he needs to get back to his strong running game to compliment the excellent kicking game and then all he needs is options around him to unlock his passing game.

Ben Hunt and DCE are the types that can help him I believe.

Steve Hage would have been proud of Swa-la-lee-ee's knee lift yesterday. Did we have someone else who use to do the knee lift? I know there was a St George player in times gone by

Something needs to be done to restrict the use of the bunker. As intense as yesterday's game was it was marred by players continually staying down & a trainer running on every time a player felt a breeze blowing past his head. They did not always get the result they were looking for which exposed the tactic.
Between the ref and the touches they should be able to make these decisions. The refs and touches are staying out of it because they have the bunker to make the decision for them. The officials need to be judged on the decisions they make or don't make and should be marked down accordingly if they can't make a decision. If an incident is missed let the MRC handle it. No bunker. The number of these stoppages is bordering on the ridiculous.

Craig Smith I think…

The Dragon…

I think that we can fairly safely say that Flanagan isn't the right plwyer to unlock him.

But Flanno was slightly hamstrung by service from dummy-half.

I agree with Zef in the opponents red-zone the dummy-half should be passing the ball on almost every attacking play. The quality of the decision, the quality of the pass and the speed at which service is provided makes a difference.

Rating our halves out of 10 on ability to combine with Burton and year.

I have:-
1. Hayward 9/10 (2024)
2. Wakeham 7/10 (2023)
3. BBO 6,5/10 (2023)
4. Flanagan 5/10 (2022)

I doubt that we will do better than Hayward, even if we throw a big pile of cash at the problem.

For 2023 I would try Wakeham or BBO, it is hard to split them, but I think Wakeham has a better kicking game.

With better service from dummy-half, Flanagan might surprise me and lift his ranking a point or 2.

We are not lacking options at half who can do the job,. Throwing a big pile of money at a name half is entirely the wrong move. Signing an experienced half cheap to provide another option for a year or 2, is the maximum we should do.

We are not winning the comp in 2023, we should aim to make the 8.
We are probably not winning the comp in 2024, we should be aiming for top 4.
We might be a chance to win in 2025.

The halfback will be ready when the team is ready.

Yes, lots of cheap shot merchants from that club.

Most slugs have more charisma than Dragons players 😉

Welcome to Rugba Leeg!

Nothing wrong with getting a top half for a couple of years to pave the way for the younger halves to strive to that level. That was the whole point of getting Stuart and Kimmorley decades ago. And it worked.

It won't be easy to get Hunt on the books. After he wins Dally M, it will be even harder to get him a year early. Dragons might purposely keep him to ensure we don't make top 8 at their expense next year. And that's if we can get him at all.

Of the halfbacks you listed, I'd really like to see Wakeham get a shot with Mahoney and Kikau in the team. Are we even keeping Wakeham? I'd hope so given BBO is out for a while

Fans, and people that know the game well, people that love the game, people that play and have played the game have been saying less bunker would be better for yonks…

Yet we get told shit like the bunker doesn’t make calls during the run of play… out and out lies, insincerity, and virtue signalling…  but that is the increasing domain of Corporate types as the move toward trying  rule just about everything in the world…

Trys and try’s alone… let the judiciary sort the rest out… Vid refs in cricket and footy have become a massive ‘get out crutch’ for on field refs… and they take it every time… The addition of the captain’s challenge only furthered it… The endless replays on obvious shot have negated any attempt to speed up the game… 2 games this weekend went for 6 hours… and they weren’t the game that included 15 mins of extra time…

The real blight on the game is wrestling and laying down to attract a penalty… yet nothing is done..

I read an article on SMH today about how VLandys and Abdo want to revisit their broadcast deal after the AFL scored the biggest deal to date....

I'm curious as to why this is such a big deal... 
Is it some sort of cock fighting between the codes? 

Who really cares if AFL deal is 20M more than NRL's? It's not like they robbed the NRL to pay AFL....

If anything, I would have preferred Foxtel had shaved 15M from each deal and kept the A-League rights instead of surrendering it to that rubbish Paramount+ service.

If the NRLol want a better deal they better come up with smarter ideas than a team having a bye each week, a team missing ‘magic mock’ round round and no team in the country west of Campbelltown…

Held is held!!!… Why the fvck do we need a release call???…

Stand up, play the fvcking ball with your foot!!!… play it on the mark and square!!!…

Its not that hard you useless fekkers… 

Villi will tell you I used to play and ref after school Friday footy at the same time… never had a problem… I even sin binned myself once for a professional foul.. then stayed on to ref…

I think this absolute bullshit started with a penalty against the dummy half for passing into a bloke laying in the ruck…

NRL deal $400m a year for 5 years. AFL $643m a season for 7 years. Not so long ago PVL and Abdo were crowing about the good deal they got. Even allowing for the timing offset it looks like they were outsmated by 9, Fox and TV New Zealand. By the way the jewell in the crown, SOO, is included.
Other than getting the football back on during covid, which everyone else did anyway, i can't  think of anything  positive this administration  has done.

There appears to be no understanding of the meaning of the word progress.

I’ll add to that I think Greenberg absolutely turning to water over the what turned out to be 2 week crack down on PTB however long ago…

Its a joke that that a couple of weeks of criticism from the likes of Kent can have such an impact on the game…

Add the halves running deep into the line and turning their back to pass not being allowed to be touched courtesy of Joey and Thurston over reactive  rants…

The figures I read worked out to be something like 400M for NRL and 425M for AFL..... but does it really matter?

The NRL deal was done in 2020 for 5 years expiring in 2025 while AFL was just recently.

Of course there would be an adjustment for inflation but more importantly, AFL suffered significantly more crowd losses last 2 years (covid) than in previous years. Lots of people started to watch it on TV instead. This was factored in.

I don't really see the point in both codes competing for the larger $$ deal. Sure it gives them more money, but watch the Kayo and Foxtel subscriptions go up just to make it work financially. In the end, we pay for it.

It's fair to say that "safety" and the rules introduced to create safety for the players have brought all this on.

Imagine if you could whack any player who ran into the line, clobber that leaping winger or fullback as soon as he caught the ball in the air, and simply shoulder charge anyone at any time?

How good would that be?

Whatever happened to the rule that after a player caught a "bomb" the opposition as not allowed within 10 metrrs until the player catching the ball moved off the mark. We need to put Burton at fullback and bring back the kicking duels.

As I have said before the "safety" aspect and the various rules that have been established to ensure "safety" is only lip service by the NRLol. It is not about duty of care to the players although that's what they are trying to sell us,  it's all about mitigation and legal issues.

Nrl.com $400m per year from 2023 to 2027 announced December 2021. Afl deal $643m per year from 2025 to 2031. NRL home and away 2022 average juast over 16k per game. AFL average just under 31k per game. I Don't get why the TV stations would factor in the crowds at the game to the extent of the rights differential, which are only down about 4k on pre covid figures.

He is a Laurie Daley / Freddy Fittler type of player. Strong kicking and running games. Even Wally Lewis didn’t have the great passing game until late in his career. 

AFL is worth $6.43 a season. I know, there is nothing to do in Melbourne.
Lame excuse when there is a team playing real footy in town,. 😁

NRL possibly limited by not having WA and SA teams, not being popular in the NT and Tassie.

I can remember back to the days of Humphries, incompetent admin at NRL level is practically a job requirement.
Same for most clubs most of the time.

A better approach is appoint a football person or group of people as NRL football managers and then have accounts, legal and marketing report to the football managers. Decisions need to be made in terms of what is good for the game. Get the product right, and the money will follow.

Getting the product right means getting all development pathways, the fan experience at the game, the flow of the game and the officiating right.

For the bunker, we already have captains challenges, give a team more challenges, but only go to the bunker on a challenge. Everything is what the ref ruled unless challenged. Bunker is never used for foul play, the refs ruling is final but the game is reviewed and players are charged if needed.

I can't think of a 5/8 who played his position and halfback at the same time.

Burton does most of the kicking and creates most of the attack, by either kicking, passing or running.

I agree that his passing needs work, but too little happens before he gets the ball.

You've got to keep in mind:
2020 - Luai and Cleary were the established halves and due to Covid there was no reserve grade so he played very little football this season. I think he played a couple NRL matches and not sure how many were in the halves.
2021 - Played the bulk of the season in first grade as a centre.
2022 - Comes to the Bulldogs to play 5/8th with a rebuilt team, surrounded by inexperienced and an unsettled, unproven spine plus arguably the worst coach in club history.

Reserve grade is great, deep in the semi finals with a young injury weakened team.

Young players will need to step up for us to go further, but it is great experience and in the circumstances any win is a good win.

Very few in the side are currently an automatic selection for NRL, but some may increase their chances for 2023.

I don't know how long we will last, other sides might be closer to full strength.

I think the ref and touchies probably know what happened but the convention is to go to the bunker. Take the bunker away and make the on field officials make a decision. They can then be judged on their ability to make the correct decision. I bet they get most calls right. There is too much time wasted waiting for the bunker to tell the ref what to do. The same goes for most in goal and into touch decisions. The delay is to the advantage of usually the defensive team. Bunker only for genuinely tight in goal decisions 

Exactly this. And he still was our most dangerous player. Superstar Burto.

 Marki will mock him into immortality 

The reason AFL can command the big dollars is the game is national. The NRLs lack of vision since before Super League and the game selling out to the TV networks has put he game back twenty years.