There was a knock on for a hit up off our kick off that was missed.
That was clearer on replay than the offside.
So we aren't getting the luck, but improve the things we can control and the luck will come.
Confidence is a big problem, maybe the comeback with 12 men helps give them some confidence.

It was offside ODF.
Clearly.

And he's a professional rugby league player and former rep player playing in 2021 with video review, and I ABSOLUTELY expect him to get it right. If that is putting the knife into him, he can expect one from me every time he finds himself offside in that play. 

If he cant time his run, then he needs a reality check. It was not an ad-lib play. Flano didnt feign to kick. It was predetermined he was going to put a bomb up.

Our problem is, that we are offside pretty much with every Flano high kick. 

Stuff like that you cannot control. Its not something the video review system can help either.

But keeping yourself onside from a cross-field bomb is really schoolboy stuff. No excuses. Sorry.

The facts are winning requires talent.
Hasler go his best results in 2012 with a squad assembled by Moore.
But the end the juniors were a shambles, we were well of the pace in recruitment and retention.
The team has poor options in key spine positions and no idea how to attack.
The salary cap was a mess, the facts are Hasler and Dib are 100% responsible for that shambles.

Last few years we were sorting out the cap, there was a price to pay.
Dean Pay didn't stand much chance, he didn't have the players.

Baz has a slightly better squad this year, some of the recruitment in particular Flanagan isn't going well.
There is a lot to fix the team was poorly coached 2016-2020, there is no instant fix.
The Cows were not much better than us.

Marki, I can't agree. There was no way Cotric was "clearly" offside, mate there was a cvnt hair in it. I saw a lot of calls in that game that were gifted to the cows that we couldn't buy. That's Rugby League I guess. BTW it wasn't Cotric I was referring you to knifing it's our entire team,  you seem to recieve great pleasure into letting everyone know what a pile of sh!t the Dogs really are. Hey I'm very patient  and will bleed blue and white no matter what, after all it's just a game, but be rest assured we will be back brother and not too far into the future.

I said the same thing last week.... Get rid of Floppa, Napa, Waddell & Katoa for a start!

If Hetherington gets suspended, at least we’ll get to see Ava Seumafangai next week

Give Roumanos the flick/pay him out/release him, promote Schoupp. I couldn’t care less if Schoupp misses 20 tackles, at least he’ll be having a go unlike Floppa

So you’re saying Dib put his position above the good of the club by making a decision to sack Des based on a push from voting members???...
Did the all powerful fans also force Dib&co to engage Pay???....
Did the mighty fans force Dib&co to ratify several back ended contracts that impacted our ability to purchase decent players up last year for this year???...

Ray if you’re out the please send Micko a link to your only fans page... cos I think we’ve found your only fan...

Where do u come up with this stuff???...

Facts are many advised Baz not to take the job, that is becuase there was a lot of childish in fighting at our club last year.

If Baz couldn't come we would only have attracted a rookie coach, I doubt experienced coaches were queuing up for the gig.

Baz has taken on an enormous task, I hope he is up to it.
If he needs to make a few mistakes to learn and become a better coach that is part of the process.

Villi taught me all I know.

So is the team improving?

Topine and Thompson have imoroved the side.

DWZ is going better at fullback, Allan seems better suited to the centres, Averillo is improving, the winger Katoa has a good attitude.

Most other players are not improving, but our poor kicking game is putting a lot of pressure on other parts of our game.

Sometimes it takes a while for players to get the message, but maybe Baz himself is a work in progress. 

Extra minutes for Renouf today.... he should be starting each week... In fact, I’d have him starting on the edge instead of Waddell

I thought the same. That’s what we were told by the new board. And we are still being told that. 

Fair call. My point was more that the fans clearly no nothing and shouldn’t have a say in the running of a club. Clearly appointing the Anderson board was a mistake?

We have always done best when we develop our own talent including scouting and recruiting young talent.

All the stronger clubs are beating us on scouting and player development.

We have mostly been importing talent becuase we have none.

Now we have Averillo, Wakeham, Topine, Doorey, Okunbor, Atoni, Jsckdon, Elliott,T. Katoa in the top 30, we will go better if at least 15 of the top 30 are locals.

Seems to me already many of better players are locals.

Many of the players that don't cut it IMO are imports, Hoppa, S. Katoa, Napa,  Wardell, Flanagan, Stimson, Britt.

Some of those imports might improve, but we have had a lot of overpriced dud imports in recent years and let a lot of quality local players go, many of them when Des and Dib were running the show.

Yes, sometimes imports are our better players, Thompson is, Burton and the Fox will be.
We are never going to recruit 17 quality NRL players and stay under the cap.

In terms of cheating the cap we made a total hash of it last time, over playing a lot of average players like the Hughes brothers, documenting all on paper and leaving when a journalist could find it.

Seems to me that Burton and the Fox are coming, other quality players will be interested.
But we need to develop and keep our own talent, even with a lot of cheating it is hard to buy a comp winning team.

Cotric is an example of what can happen with imports. In a strong team, with good combinations, he was a star. Now at the Dogs, he is sttuggling to build combinations with his new teammates our attack is disorganised and he has a lot of defence to do. Already both sides are realising the move isn't going to bring instant results.

When our team is going better Cotric will get quality ball at the right time.

The Panthers side all played lower grades together for many years and it shows.
Even the Roosters develop some of their players these days.

The fans don’t have a say in running the club... members have a say in who, and then the board runs it, or listens to their cronies...
As for a mistake???... There was no alternative board or alternate choice... The other mob had to go if only for what they’d done with the cap... let alone everything else...

Lynne and co layed it all bare for us... we all knew this was the first year we could even buy a couple of players... they never promised 2 premierships or rockstar fullbacks...

I made a post about a week or 2 ago about how the knights rebuilt their team to go from wooden spoon to top 8 team.

It was the key acquisition players and removal of all the junk. Ponga and Pearce were the big ones. Only 4 players from their previous spoon team were kept.

They have now brought through their better reserve graders in Best, Hoy etc.

That is what will be key to our revival. It will be the key signings (hopefully it is JAC and Burton) but alot will depend on whether we get rid of the junk.

Unlike Knights, we have already discovered some home grown talent in Averillo, Doorey and Topine. The mistake will be to not make them permanent first graders in favour of older players.

Guys like Hoppa, Napa, Jacko have hit the end of the road with us. Cut them loose.

Dman, I have a lovely set of steak knives just ready for your throwing arm....

Just tell me when to courier them out to you.

I remember Nancy wanted Holbrook around the time we signed Pay.
A very talented Titans side got thrashed this week end, Grif and Brown have been sacked from coaching jobs.

No coach is perfect and a coach deserves time.

Perhaps even Moore deserved one more season with the squad he had built.

When we are the bottom of the pile, every attempted shortcut tends to blow up in our face.
There is no substitute for patience, perseverance, hardwork and evidence based decision making.
There is no substitute for quality talent in key positions.
Being impatient and looking for a quick fix rarely solves a lack of talent.

I hope Baz is up to the task, but it isn't just down to Baz the whole club needs to do their bit.
He is the coach we have and needs to get a decent chance.

Our recruitment still needs improving, Flanagan and Allan were last minute pragmatic decisions.
Hetherington a good recruit that will work out.
Waddell and Cotric are the recruits I question and why we didn't target an experienced 9 or centre or promote Doorey to the NRL squad.

We can't afford too many more mistakes, when in doubt run with local talent or keep spots open.

100%

I very much agree.
It's very similar to what I told my son who is a centre back in soccer and is down on confidence. 

If the strikers make a mistake and miss their chance to score, everyone sighs at first, shrugs their shoulders and says "good effort". As soon as the backs make a mistake, it's like you killed someone's child!

That's the issue the club is faced atm. Mistakes in recruitment or retention or odd bad games here and then dont seem to matter when you're flying high but the minute you make them when you're a cellar dweller, your head is on the chopping block.

The key statement in your post is "evidence based decision making".

That statement is what Warburton was looking to ram home but seemed to get lost in his 2000 word essay as it could only focus on off-field stuff.

After a good 5 or 6 years of pain, the fans are looking for this evidence based decision making on the field. 

I feel Barrett is at the crossroads.
He can either play to this year's team strengths or implement his intended future gamestyle.

If he chooses the former he falls victim to the bad habits of many in our team with sole focus on getting them to play at 90% potential in the hope they get a win here and there and keep the heat off. This does nothing to improve the team for next year and beyond.

If he chooses the latter, he risks having a team that simply cannot execute the gameplan, loses nearly all games and feels the wrath of the fans.

I believe that is his hardest decision. 

This might sound stupid, but it would be good if Barrett could coach both the reserve grade team as well as first grade for afew weeks.

It would allow him to try to get reserve grade playing a gamestyle he wants first grade to play down the track. 

Later in the season, he could then swap the entire teams bar 5 or 6 players and see if that style can work at NRL level. 

Our formula of 1 or 2 new faces every year doesnt seem to work when we are bottom of table.

The evidence of 2001 and 2009 suggests we improve when about 5 or 6 new faces come into the team 

2001 was Patten, Vagana, Whippet and couple of others...

2009 was Goodwin, Jmoz, Kimmorley, Ennis, Stagg, Eastwood, Hannant

If we can add 2 more key signings to JAC and Burton, I think we are on track to replicate those transforming years.

I must say, with Flano being so poor this far, i wouldn't be ruling out a play to Adam Reynolds. I reckon he can single handedly transform the way we play. It's not ideal to think we need to look at halves again, but I reckon Topine and Dietz can handle hooker

I reckon Dman love would love this theory/hypothetical Doc.....

With recruitment we also need to decide if the player is fit to wear our jersey and will put in.
With a young kid like Topine you can see he is honoured to pull on the jersey.

Someone like Napa was either past it when he got here, or doesn't care.
Most of his career is in the rear view mirror.

We want to recruit older forwards, but they need to have the right attititude and something to prove.

The combination of off loading deadwood and getting in good players with the right attitude is all important.

I want to see how our halves go with Burton before signing anyone.

The exception is a young gun half who's NRL chance is blocked by an experienced player.
Apparently there is a young gun at Parra, let's talk to his manager, my bet is that he will not he happy playing reserve grade for 2-3 more seasons. Tell him, if you are good enough, the spot is there for the taking.

The issue with Flano is I can see why the Roosters offloaded him. He is a genuine half, but so was Cogger.
His passing is sometimes good, his kicking game well below par and his running game non-existent.
He can still improve and might one day be good but we don't want him learning on the job and mostly failing in the NRL for 3 years. He can learn on the job in reseve grade. Steve Mortimer was dropped by Wok, it happens to most players especially young halves. When the are confident and in form play them, a young half down on confidence and out of form is a liability.

Flano is either inexperienced, out of form and down on confidence, or he is a dud. In all 3 cases reserve grade is the answer. Dominate in reserves and he might come back a much better player.

Reserves and the NRL side can do a lot of joint training sessions. Reserve grade players should know the NRL system.

Impossible decision.

Players like Britt, Waddell, Stimpson, Katoa..... they offer nothing more than the players they’ve replaced!

Thats our biggest issue with our club right now, making sure the new blood coming to the club is an upgrade on what we’ve got.... Cotric, Allen & Flanagan definitely are, but the cattle around them makes them look & play pretty poorly

I just realised you altered some words in my original post, and I think I like it better! 

Thanks!

If we need a hooker, buy a hooker, if we want a prop buy a prop. With Cotric and JAC we buy stars in one position, pay a lot, and hope to convert them into  something  else. May or may not work