Broncos missing the 8, or going out in week 1 would be karma...

They might not be able to run fast enough to catch him :)

Love the terminology..."legitimate forward pass"...I think half the calls come from the touchies and to be honest they may be too close to get the call right. Two great final passes last night from Lichaa and Martin. The enthusiasm last night was great. I reckon we may be even upping Martin's contract before the end of the comp. He seems to be improving every week. It would be great to see Brisbane miss the 8 completely given the level of refereeing support they have had this year. Darius Boyd's pooncey reaction when he didn't hold Remis Smith in a tackle was particularly good. Could our centres next year be Remis Smith and Lachlan Lewis? 

Tony...you should sing the new song "Lachie Lewis Hair" to the tune of the Kim Carnes' hit "Betty Davis Eyes"

Yes I think you are right that the touchies call the forward passes half the time. I think the girl touchie (and im not being sexist here) may have called that one. She also called the "out on full" kick off that somehow "missed" Reimis Smith's hands....

I know people are uptight about ref calls, but by gosh we got the rub of the green last night....

Here are some incidents that balance the argument...…
1) Dutchy supposedly didn't get a finger on the ball when Oates battered the ball back from the short drop out, leading directly to Jackson try
2) Sims elbow supposedly makes contact with ground on his 3rd try just before halftime - overturned as a double movement
3) Reimis Smith supposedly didn't make contact with the ball from the kick off
4) Same play as above but ball touched side line instead of bouncing just inside?


All above were 50/50 calls and they all went in favour of us. (1) and (2) led directly to points so we shouldn't complain too much.

I don't understand the fascination with trying to turn Lewis into a centre...

We have been craving for a decent half for many years (Brent Sherwin) and now that we found one and he has won us to games with MoM performances, we want to send him to the centres?

Why? So we don't have to pay him halves money?
He is the nephew of the King for goodness sakes. Simply fighting off the Broncos for his next signature will be a hard enough task with the King working overtime to get him across

4 into 2 won't go....

Reminds that the Referees are affiliated with the old Three Stooges Attorneys at Law..."Dewey, Cheatham and Howe"

We had no idea Lewis could play make and kick so well...

In those roles he is more impressive in the NRL than he was in the lower grades.

if you think Jamie Lyon/Brett Kenny, they were were skilful players who were just as good in the centres, but could play in the halves when their team needed that.

I'm now 50/50 on it, as having a centre who can kick, and has smarts, adds another dimension to a team...

I'm now thinking we can wait and see how Cogger comes up particularly in defence... Because it could be a team with Cogger, Foran & Lewis is more potent than a team with just 2 of them. And if Cogger doesn't pass muster we have a great plan B. 

Watch how Cogger plays, and tell me how many times you see a player not running on to his passes, him throwing a bad pass, a slow pass, or the wrong pass. Occasionally he passes  to Ponga or Watson under pressure, that is because the defence are sweating on those guys and Cogger needs to read the game a bit better. Apart from that all of the passes I've seen from him are top shelf.

So lets see what he has to offer...

Lewis in the centres might not happen, as we need to slot Hoppa in somewhere, and Meaney may be fullback... Lewis should definitely be in the starting 13 somewhere... 

We just don't know who might be inured, out of of form, next season but we have some good options...

Marki, every time you look for something to take the gloss off don't you. Anyway, expected. But....

All those calls may have been considered lucky but I'd say everyone of them correct. #1 yeah...maybe... but inconclusive and with the refs call on field, correct of the video to award it.

But why do you mention them without a word on our tough calls.

Why couldn't Morris take the quick tap and score when Boyd took one exactly the same (except for field position) and was allowed to play on late game?

The forward pass to Martin..... what forward pass?

You know, it's all right to not begrudge us a win. Take it, we smashed them, we deserved it. Luck had nothing to do with it.

Lewis, Cogger, Foran (if fit) are good problems to have.

I reckon Lewis will be eventually be #6... unless he turns out to be an even better center. And I think we'll have to make a decision on it in 2020.

But we won't next year. Next year just pick the best 17 and find spots for them. If Foran and Cogger are in the best 17, Lewis plays center. If either of the aforementioned aren't in the best 17, Lewis plays #6.

Don't complicate it.

2020 is when we'll have to have a career marked out for him (Lewis) because he'll probably want #6 and no doubt deserve #6 and no doubt have offers to play #6 Not that it means we have to have him playing #6 in 2020 but with Forans contract up he'd want to know he's #6 in '21 at least if not '20. And remember nobody else can offer him #6 before '21 either

I'd actually like to upgrade and extend him before Nov next year so he can't even start talking to anyone else.

It was refreshing to see that we got an even share of the 50/50 calls last night and let's be honest some of them were howlers, therefore, my concern is with the inconsistencies. Two poor decisions against us cost us another possible 12 points (Morris not being allowed to play on and the Martin forward pass) these are the sort of decisions that rob teams in close matches. Other than that, we may have upset the Broncs finals chances........... ain't karma a b!tch.

yeee haa the future is bright my friends 

wakeham will get a go in ISP tomorrow, lets see how he goes stepping up. Jersey Flegg won tonight without him :)

I'll never forgive Des for letting Cook go.
Never.
Ever.

New favourite player...hope we extend again cos in November he is on open market again. How good is it to 96% know we are gonna get the extra 2 points. Mobile and backs up the ball carrier. Defence needs work but he is around the ball most plays. 

https://www.bulldogs.com.au/news/2018/08/03/martin-its-great-to-get-the-two-points/

Re-read my post Zef. I was merely putting up an arguement for balancing of the calls in the game. We won some and lost some. The ones we won led directly to points. The ones we lost weren't really point related even though they got them wrong. Maybe JMoz would have scored 1 on 1 with only Jet in front of him. But I have seen many of those called back when very close to the 10m line. 

I am in no way downplaying the win. I'm very happy about it. But it gets silly on here when people just focus on the calls that dudded us yet turn a blind eye on th he calls that went in our favour 

That is very interesting.

He was called up to replace Frawley. And with Frawley and Cleeland leaving at seasons end there's your pointer of who will be ISP half next year. Which means NRL is pretty well up to him now. I'm not expecting to play NRL any time soon, but the pathway is now open. He should be aiming to play a game or two next year at minimum, and so should the club and I bet they all are.

So we certainly don't need to be buying any mediocre halves just for the sake of them being available. Thanks but no thanks to all your discards and failures. Thankfully the Elgey rumour seems dead if it ever had life because he'd just be deadwood in the way of new growth.

Long term we now have three competing for two spots and Lewis is making it more and more every game two competing for one spot. Let them sort it out, don't throw deadwood in their way.

Why is that silly..it is called being normal. Worst call of the entire season was the knock on by Isaaka in the first game against Brisbane. You are reading possibilities into your 50/50 calls...actualities a little different. The only call for mine that was lucky was the kick out on the full call.
 If we got an equal share of calls week in week out we probably wouldn't even be talking about it but then you contrast it with a team such as the Rorters If the ability to rate the 10 worst decisions of the year...and I have indicated number 1..at least 7 would be in favour of the Rorters and Brisbane.

They might decide to keep Frawley to partner Wakeham in ISP and as an option to play 14 in the NRL.

Or perhaps Bergamin might move to the halves to partner Wakeham, IMO Bergamin can play anywhere in the backline and do a good job.

I could even see 7 Cogger, 6 Lewis  9 JMK, 14 Foran while that seems bizarre. Foran's defence was shaky at times this season, that is probably due to carrying injuries... And that brings up the next option, Foran getting regular rests during the season and when he plays partnering Cogger or Lewis in rotation. We need minimal changes for the first 6-7 weeks to get early momentum.

I imagine Cleeland and Brown are definitely going, while I don't rate Frawley, he is better than Brown. He was good against the Broncos, that is what is pleasing about this season, most of our players seem to have improved over the course of the season. And the ones that haven't improved will not be here next season.

Frawley looks better when he doesn't have to do the last tackle kick. Lewis always appears to have time (I would compare him with Sezar in that respect) whereas Frawley never appears to have enough time. Frawley ran the ball quite well on Thursday but his was a subordinate role. 

Keep Frawley you guys are living in dreamland.  A big step up for Wakeham  hope he goes well.  Be good to win reserves to make it 3 grades two weeks in a row.

The game on Thursday made up for a lot this year for the few fans who actually turn up to the games.  All the pain is leading to more joy with a good end to this season and a more hopeful 2019.  Couldn't have a better person to be captain of this side and wasn't it good to see Pay singing the team song with the players.  Never happened with what's his name.  

He didn't even know the name of the team whose song they were singing.

Like this one...we def don't have spare money to waste on Corey Oates.

https://www.facebook.com/130419344307407/posts/211972962818711/

I actually got no problem paying Frawley Reggie money to play Reggies. I'd like a better option, but every club has to have professional Reggie players just like professional NRL players.

And for a half to come in and play 1-2 or so games per season covering injuries he's an option.

Mind you if there's someone coming through who's a better option I'd rather that.

I don't think a speech like this from the coach happened either from Despot.

Pay might not be that eloquent or Churchillian but it seemed so sincere that went over well. So much so that they put in for another win last Thursday.

https://www.bulldogs.com.au/news/2018/07/31/pays-post-game-speech/

In my opinion whichever of the halves kicks best then he is first picked. With Mbye and JR gone, Lewis is already the better kicker between him  Foran, JMK and Frawley. 
So right now I'd pick Lewis in the team before I even pick Foran. Dont know anything about Wakeham but he can apply pressure on Foran or Cogger or JMK.
Its healthy.

What is normal is that no rugby league game goes without ref mistakes. Part and parcel of the game. Everyone knows that. What you dont want is to cop a howler that leads to points and in particular when the game is in the balance or near the end.

We won the key calls. Yes the refs made errors, but we had the game in the bag. Save the ref abuse for a close game.

Your last paragraph is spot on. 
How refreshing is it to see players actually improve as the season goes on? The injection of youth, injuries and mid season transfers has helped, as has the fact that we had no finalacro play for - so pressure was off.
My preference for the halves would be Lewis-Frawley so I hope we keep Frawley. He is a classic halfback. Can't kick too well but neither can Foran so if Lewis continues his good kicking game then I'd prefer Frawley at half ahead of anyone else.