Just watched some highlights of the Cowboys game... man, Val Holmes was damn good! 

In fairness, I do like Bryson Goodwin and I reckon he made Josh Morris look good back in '09 when Kimmorley would cut morris out with a pass to Goodwin who will then draw the fullback and send Morris over for a simple try. But this is now 11 years later, and he really isn't going to make a difference on the wing or at centre...

We also don't score enough tries to make his goal kicking worthwhile...

I don't say he's the answer but he coached up to near the end of 2018

I've heard him talk on a variety of footy shows and he comes across as knowing what he is talking about.

I like the idea. He is better than both Des and Pay.
Otherwise, I don't know what it would cost to get Cooper Cronk to the club in some sort of technical assistance role but he is the most amazing footy brain I have come across. More than anyone else.

He single handedly took the Roosters to 2 premierships and is probably the main reason why Storm have been so dominant for over a decade. 

Even if you just implement half the things he says, it would improve us massively. 

Marki, I wouldn't say Cronk single handed took the Rorters to two premierships. He may have been a major factor in the first one, but that second one there were many hands involved. Probably a dozen in the distribution of the brown paper bags alone!

I’m expecting Pay to stick with the same team today with the exception of Foran in/Cogger out. 

This is a real battle of the coaches...
I reckon whoever loses this game is probably gone. And rightly so. Both have been there long enough to have their teams playing better footy. In particular the Dragons who have a better roster with some current rep players and can win games on their own. 

The reality is, the Dragons can quite easily get it together and put 40 on us, yet I can only see us win in a 4 tries to 3 contest.

If Titans knock off the Tigers, one of these should coaches should be sacked.

Mary has more talent to work with, including some good young backs who can't make the side...

He is persisting with Dufty at fullback when he may have better options,,but Dufty at least has speed and might come good.

The halves are a big problem for the Dragons like us, but in this case Mary paid a lot of money for Hunt and Norman, we don't want him moving Hunt to hooker.
Hunt is a confidence player and mentally fragile, Norman can go missing and take dumb options, however both are flat track bullies... let them get on top and they will carve us up. Give Dufty a chance and he will carve us up..

Again what we need is energy and intensity, we need to get on top early and put the pressure on them, if we do that it is fairly likely that they will crack, I'm really hoping Mary keeps Hunt in the 7. Hunt is a talent and if the Dragons discard him, I would buy him to play hooker,but only hooker... at halfback there is too big a risk of a bad day ... and his bad days are some of the worst I've seen... Lewis did a reasonable impersonation against the Cowboys.. but needed to fluff all his kicks to be in the Hunt class.

Perhaps last throw of the dice for Pay and the team, I hope we make best use of it, 

Arrgh guys it's a poor show huh.

I'm been negative and critical of the coach/team/selections for a while lol....if it's not Des;  it's Dean, so was keeping off here to give you all a break.

I've been popping in every now and then to catch up and see how you all been travellin' through.

Sad to see that everyone of the same opinion as me...in a world of pain with our beloved Dogs.  (I always thought I was being realistic with my "constant complaining and whinging"  and Villi and I the most vocal with the need for change lol).

Circumstances have changed of late and I don't have the time I once had but good to be back guys. So good to see the usual good natured bagging, sensible constructive  ideas and critiscisms, still forthcoming and that unique sense of BDP humour still alive and competing....even if our team doesn't appear to be, to quite that extent atm :)

Torn on getting rid of Pay but he def needs to be called in by our ex-player Board and told to pick the best 17, in their correct or most experienced positions, given a time schedule of when to make bench rotations and full time halves/spine coaches.

https://twitter.com/UniverCurious/status/1267505882050560002

Here is a leak of our game plan against the Dragqueens...

The coins represent dragons players... Deano is getting soft...

We are all feeling much the same Dan... I wanted Pay to do well, and I like giving a coach every possible chance....
This was always going to be a critical season...
It isn't so much the loses and the manner of the last 2 losses, I was reasonably happy after the Parra game, with a bit of luck we could have won...
The big test for Pay this season was if we could start a season well, that is coming down to the next 2 games...

IMO with the right team selection, a fully committed effort  from the players and a bit of luck we can beat anyone..

While we still probably have close to the weakest squad in the comp it isn't that bad, there is no excuse for the effort against Manly from all involved.
I would single out JMK and Renouf T as to players who can be proud of their efforts against Manly, Sue, Jacko and a few others also put in...
Execution, decision making,  and defence from some of our other players left a lot to be desired.

Same team picked that got thrashed by manly only 
change Keiran Foran in for cooger im still @ a lost 
dean pay forgot 2 go 2 spect savers

Round 4 teams named Foran for cooger 

Well it is a big improvement... IMO we need a few more changes...

For sure. All the players picked out of their best positions have become liabilities atm and you can't feel confident they will come good. With so many in this situation, how can Pay keep overlooking this key issue?

Hope springs eternal they'll all play better and Pay gives them some tactics.

Out of position players that bother me are DWZ. Smith, and Meaney.

A simple reshuffle possibly solves all problems:-  Meaney-> Fullback, DWZ-> Centre, Smith -> Wing. 

They bother me in attack and defence... particularly in the opposition 20 fullback is critical in attack.
Cleaning up kicks, speed for a fullback is all important.
Defending at our end, centre and wing are important positions...

Being optimistic what we gain is Foz knows what to do in the opposition 20, that has been a big problem for us, and always goes better when he plays.. 

Defence worries me more than attack at present, even Pay glossed over it, sure our attack was pathetic, but so was the defence, Foz will improve the attack. he can't be everywhere in defence.... scoring some points might lift our energy levels...

But DWZ has been fumbling kicks all season, Smith makes some bad decisions in defence, Britt and Stimson have been ordinary in defence at times... Meaney has never been a great defender, that whole left side has been leaking tries all season...

Letting the Dragqueens score points will take the pressure off them... frustrate their attack and score some points, all the pressure is on them,... keep the Dragqueens under 10 points, we only need to score 16-20  points to win it.. that is a target we might be able to hit.

https://www.bulldogs.com.au/news/2020/06/02/dogs-scramble-to-deny-garrick/

It is worth watching how Tolman defends this play...

What is also noticeable is how ineffective Smith and Meaney were in defence, in spite of having plenty of pace, they never got close to even slowing a Manly player down...  mostly there were in the wrong place...or too slow to react.. Lewis also didn't help.... he should have marked Tom Turbo...
Anyway this is a good video to review at training... 

However, Manly had good depth in attack, which is something we should copy..

That might be part of the answer to our shaky left side defence, station Tolman 3 or 4 in and have the edge backrower defend in the middle..
We should possibly be playing Tols as an 80 minute lock...  on the edge he will still scramble and help out up the middle...

So I hope Pay also rethinks the forwards, again 1-2 positional changes for fine-tuning of roles might make a big difference.  

Forget madness... this is sheer insanity...

The one redeeming factor... If Deano can't or wont acknowledge the players need to be reshuffled into their proper position, then we only have to put up with it for 19 more games.

Britt, RFM and Elliott probably hit harder in defence.. and can defend up the middle...

Cmon Foz, stay fit, play both sides of ruck, straighten us up, earn that million!!!...

Didn't you like the passes to the cardboard players int he stands behind Meaney?

Some of those cardboards  have more pace than some of our backs..

Meany was so far infield all night I couldn’t see anything behind him,,,

Yeah he almost looks like a Winger who has played most of his career at Fullback.. :).

Leave the newsreader alone....

Why not... the blokes inside him did..:

Story breaking on the telescum

Senior Dogs approaches Dean Pay demanding changes to the backline... 4 senior players hit Deano up it reads. 

I wonder if one them senior players was HD?

the changes the 4 senior players asked for are exactly what HD has mentioned

As far as I can tell HD is both a senior and a player...

Senile and pr .... can't remember the rest.