The Broncos are probably regretting offloading McCollough.....

There is this thing called tackling that you are required to do when you don't have the ball.

That is why the change to the game is great, a player like Steve Folkes now has a chance to complete, play makers have a chance to play...

If your team is set up with big lumbering line wrecking forwards, that side hard to handle if they have the majority of possession, but very vulnerable when they don't. 

Defence and a chance to move the ball were always part of the game, wrestle and conceding penalties to slow the attack are recent inventions..

Broncos have a lot of talented players, but in the side they picked against the Roosters they didn't have many reliable, mobile, high work-rate defenders.

Yes, the new rules mean high quality defence is required to combat high quality attack,  turn out with a weak defensive side and drop the ball, you get flogged, again look back in history, that was always the case, and no more than the Broncos deserved.

This change does help Robinson, Bellamy, Bennett, and similar defensive minded coaches, I know those teams have plenty of attack, but the team ethos is defence..

Other coaches / teams with high cohesion and motivation are also going to do well, more than anything the game needs to reward excellence.

The last 10 years of wrestle mania, chatting to refs and give deliberate penalties  is time in the wilderness IMO. We are finally back to real footy. And teams that can't pay real footy, need to accept the consequences.

I would not get overly excited about these opening rounds...

Some teams have the formula, others are working on it...

It is a marathon, not a sprint.
In our case if you drop off the back in a Marathon, there is no way back.
But for teams who stay in the pack (which could be us if we win the next game), we will find out who has the finishing sprint at the end of the season.

No mid-season rep footy really favours teams with a lot of rep players, or more accurately, the normal mid-season disadvantage has been removed. 

No crowds also changes the dynamics .. crowds help teams like Parra and the Broncos typically get a lot of calls on home games.

The new rules IMO dilute the influence of the ref on a game. but the refs practising with no crowds is great for when crowds return...

I'm fine with he ground advantage, on the margins, but I don't want it deciding too many games..

I can understand Marki's excitement...we all show similar when our team is doing well....I rate Rorters NO time premiers (but especially last year) because flagrant cheats are not legitimate title holders.

This season is ideal for Marki, Dogs struggling, Tolman getting in the way of clueless attack, Roosters flying.... we are all bagging the team and the coach....

Sure doesn't seem like this is Heaven, Parra are running last in Heaven..

What is the problem with the NRLol/V'RL and the Bulldogs. Several months ago Latrell Mitchell and Addo-Carr breached COVID rules bigtime and it was virtually swept under the rug, but woe betide Baa Lamb shakes hands with a few players and V'landys wants a full enquiry. This bloke us beginning to sound like TTT v2.0.

The main difference is all of our issues happen on 'club time'...

Some players, some staff,  some club leaders, and now ambassadors are all guilty of doing shit that is just plain dumb or doing nothing to stop dumb shit...

I doubt very much if Vlan the Impaler is publicly calling for a full enquiry, but the Covid rules agreed to by the Govts would... And a 'Bubble Breach' should be investigated.

TTT and Vlan the Impaler couldn't be any more different as leaders... If TTT and chestBeattie were still in charge the game wouldnt be being played...

I just realised both my beloved Bulldogs & Aston Villa are 2nd last on the ladder

Found the Jinx :)

However, West Ham are not doing much better...and I was optimistic at the start of the EPL...

In all 3 cases a win in the next game is huge, a loss is almost terminal.

I know nothing would change the result but why was a big unit like Haas continually running sideways.  why not straight up the middle, quick PTB and try to force a 6 again.

I'm not impressed with the Broncos coaching staff, it was pretty lame effort from the Broncos in attack and defence.

Haas is a great player I would love to have  guy like him at our club he is exactly what we are missing, provided he runs straight..

Some NRL coaches and players should watch some tapes of games from the 70s, 80s and 90s...

A lot of attack these days is slow sideways runs, and sideways passes... the better teams straighten up the attack, play faster and more direct.... running on to a pass is so much better than catching the ball flat footed

Only 73 metres, with only lock Cardigan 92m, and winger Haulin 109m making more... 

Rorters 7 players over 100m including a  240m off the bench from Collins...

Good point this one.

Terry Lamb is not aboriginal.
Huge difference

Wrong. 
A win on next game is just...... a win.
Has no bearing on whether it leads to more wins.
Just about all you can do is then say we are likely to win 1 in 4.

Only 7?
I guess it's probably right coz only the ball carrier is counted.

The key stat I would like to know of is the running tracker of all Roosters players eith or without the ball.

Coz I can tell you they had 2 or 3 players pushing up in support for every hit up. They would have run a marathon and the 7 players with the over 100m was probably the rest part of the night.

Boyd Cordner must have ran a decoy on at least 10 occassions that I saw. And he was very effective, although the first try was obstruction in my honest opinion.

Groooaaannn....

Well all in, the Rorters were very impressive.

The dummy half role has become even more important now....so too the fullback and spine and that means we are even further away from having a run of wins.

We need some good signings. 

How much will the fine be for Baa shaking hands. They can't take points. Will he serve jail time. Joke... but we should have known the seriousness of these protocols.

Negative points has happened before... 

A win is more than 2 points, it can give a team confidence and energy.

A sequence of losses saps confidence and energy, plus we are playing the Roosters next up, 0-4 heading into the Roosters isn't ideal,   0-5 is more or less dropping off the pack, it would take some turn around to make the season meaningful.

The 2 EPL teams are even more so under the pump, a win for them possibly means being in the EPL next season...

This is why a coach and team has to try to win every game, you need to be a strong side to rest players, and not go with your best 17 each week.

It is amazing how mentally fragile NRL players are you can tell when a players confidence is shot, or when a team is lacking spirit...
A win fixes a lot of problems, a loss makes them worse...

This is why I'm annoyed about our team selection against Manly. that was a winnable game with the right 17. The end result isn't just the loss of 2 competition points... confidence, team spirit, and trust are on the line each week. 

The spine was always important, look back on the last few seasons many of our wins included Foran...

IMO we are very lucky to have 2 talented young players in Wakeham and Averillo, we need to give them every chance.

The new rules give the halves more opportunity to ball play and run, so quality halves have even more impact on the result.

I'm hoping we identify our best 17 ASAP, then work out what positions we need to strengthen...

That is why I'm sort of hoping Pay gets sacked now, we need a new coach to try players in different positions and give the young guys more of a run.
It is amazing how stubborn coaches are in sticking with a formula that doesn't work, that is because it takes time to build combinations, but persist with the wrong line up, and you are not getting there.. It isn't an easy job, especially not coaching the current Dogs squad...

Why it is critical now is we are looking to build the squad for 2021, it has taken 3 years of hard graft to get to this position, we need to make it count. 

There ya go MDog, looks like you've inspired one if the germoulists that frequent the centre of excellence that is the BDP... though he failed to read my posts re form lines...

https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/06/04/new-rules-generate-incredible-numbers--and-huge-disparities/Amp/

https://www.bulldogs.com.au/news/2020/06/05/terry-lamb-cleared-after-covid-test/

COVID-19 last seen wimpering in a corner ... "Get that mad man BAA away from me, I'm on the next plane back to China" 

Do they show anywhere the number of tackles each team is in possession for.  

That would be the number of tackles their opposition make....

Or is it??? Is that total all tackles by all players...

Fox match centre has 'runs' roosters 197, tackles by broncos 323 tackles... 17 kicks which may not be included in runs though...

There are stats on sets, but no idea how many tackles. ..

Or you could guess 2 players in a tackle on average...

No doubt if team don't defend and they kick off the opposition gets possession...

If we want to even it up slightly make the last try scorer kick off..

The rule is based on the assumption kicking off is an advantage, it isn't if a team is gassed from defending the last set.

Give club an off season to prepare for these new rules, I think defences and fitness will improve...

If they are worried increase the interchange...

#BabyBathWater

No increase in interchange!!!... Form lines indicate the blow outs in general should be no surprise...