DEAN Pay has continued an impressive roster rebuild of the Bulldogs by signing rising Penrith star Corey Harawira-Naera.The 23-year-old Panthers backrower will depart the foot of the mountains after signing a four-year deal with Canterbury and securing an early release from Penrith with a year remaining on his current deal.

I'm actually starting to feel quite positive about next year. 

Same here, so far Pay seems to be getting a lot of things right.

The improvement in our game as the season progressed is mainly better defence, a better kicking game and a bit more purpose.

The return of Tolman and the promotion of a few young players also helped.

But if you look at our early season games, we were in a lot of games and we fell short in frustrating fashion due to a poor kicking game, a substandard rotation of  forwards off the bench and some bad luck with bounces of the ball and refs calls.

Guys like Jackson and Hoppa had a slow start to the season and Eastwood was well short of a run at the start.

If Hoppa starts in the centres he needs to improve some of his defensive reads. Meaney is the log term fullback, but I can make a case for starting Hoppa there just to start the season with a more experienced line up. 

With Lewis in the starting line up our kicking game should be better.

With the progression of some of our forwards, and with the forwards we have signed our bench should be better. In fact it is hard to pick our starting pack, there are 4-5 guys vying strongly for 2-3 positions.


 

Our bench is gonna be awesome. Between the new signings and incumbents Deano can really now ramp up the aggression after 20 mins. No more Danny Lolololol coming on to give the opposition a rest.

The intensity will go up.

Well said HD


He’s a great pick up, all but puts the Oates to the bulldogs rumour to bed.

There's talk he might play centre?

Hard to fit all those guys into fg and have JMK on the bench as well? 80 min hooker the plan?

I think coming thru the juniors he was a centre that’s just developed into a backrower....

Either way, he’s very versatile, great hands, an Attacking weapon on the edges.... I really like his signing

Def a good signing...going to be a very mobile pack if he is a 2ndrower signing for us...or versatile off the bench....things looking up.

I am not worried who they sign, there seems to be intent and purpose behind any signings the club makes and this is a very good indication that the board has things under control. I knew at the start of the season that this would be an enjoyable year and the team has certainly provided plenty of that, plus the wins under our belt has been a bonus. It's building to be another exciting year next year and I think there will be plenty of the top sides nervously looking over their shoulders.

My only concern is the length of the contract.
4 years is a risky investment on a player who whilst good this year, doesnt have much experience or shown consistent form over a couple of years and off seasons.

I assume the reason for the long contract is to entice the player by spreading his salary over a longer period. 

Any idea what his contract is worth?

I reckon the Panthers would be tipping in a few $$ for next year Marki

He’s not a fully fledged rep player, but a solid 1st grader.... I think his 3rd & 4th year would be close to 500k per season

Good signing. Powerhouse edge back rower.

I can see Corey HN starting the year in the centres for us with Hoppa at fullback.

Young guys like Meaney & Cogger might be told to initially push their case in reserve grade, with a view to bringing them into the NRL side a bit later on in the season.

I have to comment on the Souths/Tigers game as the Burgess boys absolutely destroyed the Tigers and this is still where games are won and lost, or more accurately where you can lose games badly. 

That is the worst possible kind of loss, sitting in the sheds after the game, knowing that when push came to shove, your team mates went missing, or didn't have it. 

There is no major problem with the Tiger spine or outside backs (appart from some shaky defence at times) but without Rusty Packer they were simply out gunned in the forwards.

We don't have to have what Souths have, but we need to be able to handle it. At present handling it is very dependent on Klem playing, and to some extent dependent on him being on the field.

I trust Pay is on the right track and knows what we need, but if he signs another middle forward with genuine authority (for a good price), I will not be disappointed.

This is simply the alternative view to those who think we need more centres/halves ASAP. Big and important games are nearly always won in the forwards.

The Tigers probably made Souths look better than they were. But let's face it, Souths are hard to handle, and if we want to win comps, we need to regularly beat teams like that. 

If Pay decides we need another halve/centre, again I will not be disappointed, that means he thinks our current pack can handle Souths.

You say he hasn't shown consident form over a couple of years...last year he was the Panthers' Rookie of the Year so I reckon he is 2 out of 2 in the consistency stakes. I think HD made be on to something when he says possible centre as we have backrowers RFM (who will welcome another 2-fer), JJ, Elliott and Martin (who you'd think would be there for goal kicking bonus)

hd, I agree Souffs did destroy the Tiges but, probably not to the extent the scoreline shows. The bunnies had a ton of possession, all the lucky breaks and the ref wasn't exactly unbiased either. This gassed the Tiges and the points came fairly easy late in the game. The game wasn't a true indication of how the bunnies are travelling and they may struggle against a more formidable opponent.

Im starting to think that after our experience with long term contract is that we are now using them to our advantage. 
A player is more likely to leave earlier if we tap them on the shoulder if they are stuck in a longer contract than a shorter one. 

I think it is kill or by killed against the Bunnies.

Tackle the Burgess boys all day and end up coming out of your end, only one result.

Throw plenty at them and tire out the Burgess boys, good chance of a win.

My point is you need to stop their momentum, so you get the chance to tire them out.

And now the warriors almost self implode. With that sort of effort they wont venture far into the semis.

This is outrageous.....
With the storm losing, it's now quite probable that with a Saints and Broncos win, the top 8 spots will be decided by 2 points. 

2 points between 1st and 8th!!!
Remarkable.

And last place Parra decide who gets to finish first & win the minor premiership, just by stopping the Rorters from beating them by 27+, otherwise the Storm wins it.

As for C'bury, they have to rely on Saints to beat Knights, then beat Cronulla themselves, if they're move up one last rung on the ladder for the year from 12th to 11th.
There's also the chance C'bury could drop a place to 13th if Nth Qld beat Titans & Cronulla win against C'bury, providing Nth Qld make up 43 points in 'for & against'.

On the top 8, when C'bury aren't in it, I've always gone for the traditional Syd teams over the superleague blow-ins.
So from who is there this year, I'd probably prefer Penrith out of that mob.

On the other end of the scale there is usually a number of teams with extra bad differentials...not really the case here...the closest competition ever? Maybe.
Incidentally great work by Christian Crichton to score what turned out to be the winning try. He dived to catch an intercept on his fingertips then got up and ran 60 or so metres to score...there is a certain Utai quality about him.

I would like the Warriors to win, the Panthers are my 2nd chioce.

A Warriors/Panthers GF would be great.

As for the other teams I hope they all get busted for salary cap breaches, and then flogged in the semis.

What I liked about the Crichton intercept was he quickly summed up the situation and made the smartest decision. That reminds me more of Hazem than Utai.
But Crichton also showed a willingness to run hard an play with little fear of self preservation, that reminded me of Utai.

I'm happy with all of our signings so far.

The NRL is a close comp with a high standard this year, we were not far off a few more wins.
So genuine improvement in 2019 should put us in the mix, other teams will also improve and the standard will get higher.

I think teams like the Dogs, Newcastle, Brisbane and (unfortunately) Parra have a lot of improvement in them and will be better in 2019.
I have no clue what will happen with Canberra and the Warriors, they will probably remain unpredictable and inconsistent. 
From what I have seen at the back end, teams like the Dragons and Tigers are almost certain to go backwards.
My sense is a lot of the other teams at at their peak now, and starting to slide..... #CancelTheOffSeaon #BringOn2019

If I had to pick one of the superleague teams as preference, normally I would've agreed with Warriors, but after one of their players deliberately stomped on another players hand during a 'play the ball' this year, suffice to say not the sort of player I'd want to see celebrating a Grand Final win.
If it was out of Storm & Broncos, Broncos have had a good run in previous years as have the Storm. Storm winning it would be less nauseating due to former C'bury players there. particularly Finucane who I thought didn't get a fair go by Des (unlike Trex).
With other former C'bury players across at Souths & Saints, again seeing those guys get some success would make it easier to stomach.
Cronulla are constantly in the news one way or another for the wrong reasons.
I like the club developments they've achieved out at Penrith during recent years, also doing really well with their juniors, that's why I concluded it wouldn't bother me if they won it.
I wont even comment much on Easts, just too many 'accidents' this year. Accidental elbow to RCG's jaw, accidental elbow to the neck of Josh Morris, the 2 Napa 'accidents' & so on.

Crichton really has short legs, looked weird running in that try. Seems to be able to motor though so who cares I guess.

But I think I'll call him Stumpy.

I want to give a wrap to the much maligned Aiden Tolman. Since he came back from injury there's only one prop playing better football than him in the whole comp, and that prop is Klem. I don't think it's any surprise at all that all our best performances includng and particularly this late season form is when Tolman's in the team, and also no surprise how much we struggles particularly defensively in the middle when he was injured. For all the hand wringing about losing Graham let me just say he's eating Graham alive in metres and tackles and leadership late season. I'll also note statistically this season is Grahams worst of his NRL career, only averaging 82m per game. Last weekend 3 runs for 27m, Tolman 26 for 200m

He's a f***in' rock. Yes I admit I wish he'd stop getting the ball on the 4th tackle but it'd also help if people stopped passing him the f***in' ball on the 4th tackle too. He's probably there thinking decoy and next thing he's got the ball in his hands.

He can be my prop forward any day of the week and I hope there's many, many more.

BUT, when nudey run comes at the end of the year (he's on if he don't score this weekend) -  they should make him do it on the 4th tackle.

I also was impressed with Crichton, very committed and I hope he stays that way. Has anyone seen how the other bloke from Pamfers is going, what's his name......... Corey Hairywhenhe's-Nearya.

I agree on Tolman, but I think we also need for want of another word a bit more size and presence in the middle at times.

We mostly need that when Klem is off the field, so it they players can come of the bench and Tolman can continue starting.

He can play the full 80, that really helps the team balance, especially if we cop an injury or 2.

I agree Tolman is part of the reason or results in recent weeks are better.

I think you need to add the words (after maligned) "in certain quarters" because there are a lot of Tolman fans herein and many still consider he would be the first bloke picked every week.

ODF...I meant to reply to your post from a few days ago...it says it all in a nutshell. But how many of those wrist slitting dills have stepped up and said they may have been wrong. They of course have brushed many of their delusional self pitying comments under the rug

I like watching Souths play mainly due to skill of Cody Walker. He makes a few errors as well but I still think on his day he is the best "footballer" in the whole competition. And yes their hooker (whose name and background escapes me) sure can motor. Still don't like the Burgesses. BUT in summation...anyone but Rorters