Am I the only one on here who thinks he's our best 9?

Another NRL career  ended by the Mock...

Money has bought power since day dot...

There are good risks and bad risks.. when you panic, you are more likely to take a bad risk....

Not all fast players have a lot of off field baggage.... brains at 9 make the whole team faster,,

On that, its great to see villi off the bottom of the super coach league he created... 
Sure he's sitting on 100,000 overall in a comp where 50% of 120K have already given up... But he's having a crack...

Probably, you're generally own your own with most opinions re league... 
#leaguesgreatestmind....

Marki, if you think they are the only standout players we have ever produced then you haven't been following the Dogs for very long.

I would like to see him have a real chance.
The video from last week shoes that.
I couldn't believe it was him.
Could he be any worse??

Interesting with the head clash in the warm up between fainu and kapow... Wonder if HIA protocols apply pre game???...

JMK hasn't been bad other than one game... 
Considering were last though, nothing to lose giving Nu a crack....
He does have form making dumb decisions in 1st grade though...
Reggie's is light tears away from NRL, but he has put Hus hand up... Albiet only twice twice this year...

The magic round was undoubtedly financially beneficial to clubs moving their home games to Suncorp.  I'm not so sure it was a success crowd wise.  Around a K134 went through the turnstiles, but if you add up the crowds published for each game, the numbers add up to around K227.  This is <K17 a game through the turnstiles but >K28 a game on published crowd figures. The cost to fans is undoubtedly greater here than England where the teams are, in the main, more closely geographically grouped.  Maybe they could split the round between two venues and use Bankwest stadium for traditional Sydney rivalries and play the out of Sydney teams in Brisbane.

Sorry, I meant in the modern era of NRL.
2 if those I mentioned actually became great at other clubs and 2 of those left us unceremoniously.

It just goes to show that we don't really unearth many elite players. We do discover good team players now and then but I dont think this club or its fans can wait 5 years for a what-if.

What the club needs for the next 5 years is for fans to hang around. And for that, the club needs to keep the team interesting and give fans something to cheer for. Playing 1 out schit ain't going to cut it. 

Well I'm glad someone else also thinks he is worth a real try. 

I was a fan of JMK at first. Mainly coz of his defence but also his ability to play some ball when needed, or kick when needed. But this year I'm disappointed. I feel he runs far less and is becoming like Lichaa.

Brown looks to me as though he hasn't lost any instinct at dummy half. He sees broken down play and has a run. Same if the markers arent square.

These days your hooker needs to be the most reactive player on the field. Any premeditated hooker is a poor one. 

Did anyone attend the clubs board meating
@ the bulldogs leagues club last night
wondering what was said 

X2

I was originally happy when Brown came here as I thought he had potential ... but what has he ever done in the NRL to justify selection?

His last play in the NRL was a lame non-effort in defence leaving a team mate posted 1-on-1 with Ponga for an easy Newcastle try, after being on the field for 10-15 mins.

That game was set up for a good 14 to win us the game, our forwards were finishing over the top of Newcastle, Brown came on and I don't remember a lot of difference.

When he has come on at 14 most of the time he tries to force the play with dumb low percentage plays in attack, that waste tackles, or hand the ball over to the opposition. Occasionally he scorers from dummy half, like he does more regularly  in reserve grade, and occasionally he looks good ruining the ball.

But if he can't do the job regularly at 14 what makes you think he will be a good 9? 

If I had to rate our dummy halves as a percentage, I would go with JMK 75%, Lichaa 60% Brown 15%

Most NRL sides 9 >= 85% and 14 >= 75%, JMK is good enough to be a 14, otherwise all 3 offer nothing at 9, and we need to look for better options. 

I agree that we persist with JMK but without strike power elsewhere in the team, namely at centre, we need more from him or more from the hooker. 

The reason I want Nu Brown to be given a decent chance is that he offers variation in the role and keeps the defence guessing and they hesitate. This causes a slow down in their line defence which is the single biggest issue with our team at the moment. We concede too many metres when defending and struggle to make metres when attacking as a result of what appears to be slow dummy half play but real reason is that we are too predictable. 

I dont know how long it takes for retired players to become coaches, but id be chasing Cooper Cronk from this year or next. 

Whether its head coach role or assistant, I dont know, but my God he has the best philosophy abd understanding of the game its not funny. 

Andrew Johns is good, but Cooper is on another level. 

Putting it into perspective, I always want to be the last fan to conclude our club is run by a bunch of idiots, because if I'm last I'm almost certainly right, and I will not be unhappy for long. If I'm first I might be wrong, and I'll be unhappy for a long time.

I've seen enough so far to know our recruitment and retention is mostly right, but not enough to make a call either way on the coach.

In terms of a quick fix this season achieve an unexpected  miracle, it is more likely to come from a left field suggestion like playing Lewis and 9 and Crichton at 14. 

Being more realistic slow improvement of the side may come from promoting young players like Harper and Toomaga, picking the side on form and building momentum off a series of wins against weakened or out of form sides.

I'm happy to try for a miracle, but miracles rarely happen, and they never happen via recycling past mistakes.

If we could sign Billy Brittian to a 3 year contract by June 30, I would not hesitate.

A quality 9 could turn our season around. 

Your funny houndog
might as well sign billy nigiuini
no thanks no more fring players
look @ how our season is going

Have you seen him play Tony?

Rated by everyone as the best hooker in reserve grade, will not get a regular first grade gig at Souths because Cook is better.

At most other clubs he would be playing NRL, similar to Cam Smith, exactly what we need.

The Souths pack (in particular Tom Armone) might be making him look slightly better than he is...

In the NSW residents v QLD residents, Lloyd Perrett and the other starting prop basically lost  it for NSW, Billy at  least played 80 mins and while he wasn't the dominant player he normally is (usually best player on the park), mostly did his job.

Do you think the current players are up to the task? Or there is another player of similar quality who we could get?

We will not get him because Bennett will not let him go. He knows injury to Cook, and they can still win a comp with Brittian, Souths have the pack to play a style which suits him.

Tony Billy Ngwani may still be on the right side of 40 so I am all in favour. Makes or rather made Damien Cook look like a sloth...a 3 toed one.

Watching the highlights reel from Canterbury Cup may give a false impression of Gnu Brown's participation. I don't believe it was a s high as it appears on the highlights reel. Gnu reminds me a bit of Ben Roberts. Sometimes close but overall no cigar. As a dummy half he is a bit of a one trick pony with his burrowing from dummy half

Something weird for music fans . "Petra Haden sings The Who Sell Out". Daughter of jazz bassist Charlie Haden she literally sings the entire album complete with Radio London adverts as per the original. And the "backing" is her voice adapting the role of the instruments. Now ain't that strange. 

That was the exact point I was try to make.... If Brown racked up those kind of stats every week in reserve grade, he would be in our NRL side.
If he did anything like that in the NRL coming off the bench in 14, he would be in the NRL side.

So far, Pay has given no indication he sees that particular reserve grade game as justification for mass promotions, I still think Lewis, Renouf T or even Holland are more likely to get promoted, based on the highlights, other games and I seen and their performances in the NRL to date. 

That is something that would interest me, I'll try to check it out on Spotify..... (I hope)

Anyway Billy is playing NRL for Souths against the Eels tonight, I hope he plays well, as that should ensure the Eels lose.

He is off contract, and IMO will not hang around to play reserve grade at Souths.

You had me excited then hd...I thought you were talking about the great man Ngawani

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-0ueo0K5P8

The player to get is Brandon Smith (proven first grade hooker), Kurt Baptiste, or the hooker from warriors. These guys have filled the role in first grade and have proven they can handle it and do well.