Making the 8 may have been an over achievement....

We need to look at what has gone wrong and fix it. 

It starts with us running the ball one out on yardage sets, which seems to be followed by fumbling the ball.

Did Hhtch get anything right that game. His first 3-4 errors really lifted the Cows spirits. 

Yes I'll still blame the refs, especially that goon sutton. While he wasn't the blame tonight he still screws us ever so subtly. He deliberately "misses" calls that other refs pick up. Two in particular when Crichton was picked up, they both his legs off the ground and carried him over the sideline... that's a penalty and Tracey bein tackled while still in the air. Again always a penalty but "conveniently" missed tonight. Plus all the 6 agains we never seem to know why.

This time of the year a side can't be disorganised in attack, run one out, kick poorly and make dumb unforced errors,

Cirro needs to be smarter with team selections, beyond that the players need to be accountable .

hd, the last 2 weeks we have been a shadow of what has gotten us as far as we have. A team travelling as well as we were doesn't just "switch off". Maybe the 5 consective weeks on the road caught up to us and we are just mentally and physically fatigued.

He missed numerous penalties that could have gone me to the Cows as well. Stop being so one sided. 

We didn’t play a top eight side since round 20 when we got beat by the Cowboys. Before that we got a lucky ne point win over the Sharts and got flogged by the Roosters. 

I would say the last 3 weeks particularly the fist 20 mins has been very bad. 

Cirro mentioned this in the Presser.

If it can go bad suddenly,  it can also be fixed quickly. 

Even if we lose next week, I want to lose playing our best footy.

Salmon at lock is nowhere near as good a Mann, Hutch is a reserve graders and he sure played like one.

We don't have the depth to rest key players when they need it. 

Anyway if we don't sort it out, our season ends next week and if we do sort it out, who knows how deep we can do.

Agree we don't have the cattle but Ciraldo's love affair with Hutchison has cost us a position or too on the ladder this year. It is like he couldn't wait to bring him back at the first opportunity. It also took him way too long to push him back to reserves early in the season. 
With Burton back on deck I believe we can come back and win in the first final even if we have to play Manly again.

We definitely do have to play Manly. It’s only a matter of where. At the moment I’m thinking going to a Brooky might wake us up. 

I was happy that Clark and Sua played they were not the problem. 

I would omitted Hutch, started Hayward at 5/8.

Started Curran at lock and shifted Salmon to the bench.

Then added Taaffe or another forward to the bench. 

We played that badly that my side would have lost, but Cirro knows that he should have gone with Hayward. 

We may as well try to turn Hutch into a backrower or keep him as a 4th choice NRL half.

If we don't wake up now we never will, I doubt that the venue matters, but we have more chance at Accor.

The way we played the last 2 weeks we would have lost to most teams. Not Parra or the Tigers,but most others. Starting that badly might have even been a problem against Parra.

We definitely played better 3-4 weeks ago. 

Something is upsetting the side. I know we had three of our best players out but something is not right. Up until the win against the Wahs the boys looked hungry and keen to back each other and hunted as a pack, but the last 2 games they looked not only disjointed but disinterested. It appears they are not playing for one another, that hunger just isn't there. Is there something more serious amongst the playing group?

I am just a die-hard Bulldog supporter.
Oh and I think sutton is a narcissistic show pony trying to imitate a referee.

ODF this type of thing happens. 

We put a lot into making the 8, we were scratchy against the Warriors and the team seems to have lost the confidence to move the ball. 

When a smaller side runs one out they are easy to defend.

Manly and the Cows also went up a few gears. I thought that the games against Canberra and the Fins were pretty intense. 

Let's see what happens next week. 

You are probably right. Something not right in the playing group. It reminds me of the sudden change in team dynamics when Ben Barba was overly frie dlt with a team mates wife and the resulting sh!t show.

Fans just tend to think that. 

Mostly the issue is fatigue,  playing injured, confidence and falling into bad habits. 

Against Manly,  Sexton and Preston stepped up at the back end,  this week that didn't even happen. 

Players like Hughes,  Morrin, Preston and Hayes are sill young and are perhaps struggling with many consecutive weeks of NRL.

Kiks, King, Curran and perhaps a few others might be carrying injuries. 

A bye before the Manly game might have worked out well.

If we rested players to make the 8 in good shape,  we might not have made the 8.

 Next week is a new comp, players just have to find the energy  and confidence.

I think it’s just the small forward pack. The loss of Nann really hurts as well. 

I love you for it mate. It’s hard not to be. 

Penrith vs  Melbourne Grand Final. Lock it in. 

We have signed Tom Amone.

According to Gus we are mostly promoting lower graders. 

I am surprised that Cirro didn't experiment with one bigger body in the last few weeks. 

If he doesn't blow the budget I would sign Horsbough or even perhaps Hetherington.

I think that we will have a deeper squad with more ability to rest and rotate players next year. 

Karl O will add some  much needed class in attack. 

If we start the season well it will be easier....

I know that the whole team was off but Marhoney,  Sexton and Tracey were well down on the form I expect from them. Kiks well down for a few weeks.

Next season it will be all about the start, the best result this season is that we start next season hungry and motivated and in the form we were in a few weeks back.

This is the first game this season where Sexton struggled,  having Hutch in the halves at the start of the game didn't help.

A turnaround  next week isn't impossible. 

2 poor weeks doesn't guarantee a 3rd poor week, the biggest issues are confidence and focus. I agree with Gus the team seems to be a bit distracted, once we made the semis, we were not mentally ready for the next step.

We do a lot of work on state of mind, and IMO 80% of the problem is in the mind. If we can get our minds right we stand a better chance. 

Being smaller just means carrying more injuries and more fatigued, we are fit enough if we can get our minds right.

Very impressed with Ciro in the press conferences this year. And tonight he almost said it but held back. We simply don’t have the size and talent to go with some of the better teams. 

IMO 1-2 more signings mainly middle forwards depending on who we are keeping and who we are promoting. 

I don't see us signing a big name spine player or outside back.

Horsbough is probably the biggest  name, but we might get a young gun prop with limited NRL experience,  Parra need to let some middle forwards go, they need more outside backs and spine players. 

Cirro is a straight shooter in the press conferences. Last week he was more  confident that we could turn it around. 

This week he is less confident because we went even worse than last week. Hutch replacing Burto was 50% of that. I think Cirro knows that there is only so much he can do after that it is down to the players,

Like last season this factors into recruitment and retention.  So far we haven't been able to sign the prop we really need.

Bottom line - if the problem is physical, we can't fix it for next week. If it is mental, we can. 

I'm think 80% mental, so we should at least get back to 80% of peak performance if we can fix it.

We need to find additional improvements mainly from the starting side, bench rotation, and improving the attack via training.

At the start of next season, we should be in better shape than the start of the season.  Whatever the problem is, we should have fixed it, and rest is the cure if it is physical or mental fatigue. The End of season review will help pinpoint the issue.

Yep. We prided ourselves on defence all year and now that that part of our game is down, we look terrible and it's showing up our inability to attack or create opportunities.

I said afew weeks ago that we had reached our ceiling eith this team and that adjustments to spine are still needed to go to next level.

Lets see if CC can lift the team next week to at least put in a good performance but im afraid i cant see them beating Manly who have afew bows to their string and the footy smarts to adjust on the fly. 

We are going to need Manly to beat themselves.

The more I think about it, we are going to have to change a lot.

Our bench rotation needs to cope with the fact that sides are going to work us over up the middle. 

We need more variety in attack both in yardage and in good ball.

Our attack was great against the Broncos because we had the element of surprise, now teams are sweating on the intercept.

We need to be better in attack for lots of reasons one of them being if we throw nothing at the opposition they have plenty of energy when attacking us,

Manly and the Cows were as good as the scoreline suggests. It wasn't all us playing bad, the opposition probably played their best game of the season and would have been hard for a top 4 side to beat.

We can't kid ourselves that the scoreline was a fluke or that the ref was a factor, the chasm we need to close is enormous.

One big positive Clark and Sua can hold their heads high great debut from both lads.  Clark as good as I expected Sua even better than I expected. 

The fact that Cirro picked Hutch for the Cows game suggested to me that we were trying to win with defence. Early errors blew that strategy out of the water and the scoreline indicates how optimistic it was. We did look a bit better with Hayward on the field. 

I also think that a coach needs to know when to throw fresh defenders on, if we get a run of early posession against us we need to burn through more interchanges. 

A week might not be long enough to fix everything that needs to be fixed but no harm in trying.  I want to be happy that we have given the next game our best shot.

It doesn't look like we have the cattle to go all the way and I don't want to be lapped in a semi, the last 2 weeks was bad enough. 

Whatever went wrong with the spine that game it wasn't Burto's fault. Burto not being there was a problem.  We need to go set for set with high completions,  Burto's kicking game is essential. 

Go Sharts!! 

Home final looks good. Just one more win from
the Dogs. Let’s knock Manly out. 

I am glad that we are not playing any of the top 4 or the Cows.

Manly close to our best chance of  win, we need to improve, but it seems like we might be a chance.

Go Fins.... and  beat the Cows.... next week. 

Dogs / Fins GF  :)

So glad the team and fans get a home semi final.

With bulldogs membership early booking, does anyone know ow ticket price and will it be usual section for the Kennel? From memory you can't choose rows/seats as stupid  Tiketck booking engine just gives you best avail in particular category unless there is another way?