Come back when you know the meaning of the word fanciful…

Forward pass should be able to be ruled on by the video ref. There are enough cameras to make a fairer call than most other things the bunker gets involved in. Ripped off. 

Perham is just waiting to have his jersey taken away next year by Crichton. Then he will be an adequate back up. He definitely is a reserve grader. 

His link play stinks.
Badly.

It's been poor all season and from what I saw today, it won't improve quickly enough for my liking. Can't wait for Crighton to take his spot.

It's for that pure reason I can't understand why CC persists with him. He is warming the seat FFS. 

Oops. My bad.
I guess I meant more fancied. 

Yes I agree 100%.
The field refs only get 1 look at it live and are probably not in the best position to make the right call. 

There is NO WAY the video ref can't make a better judgement call or spot a clanger.

Why should they, it'll only make the game fairer and we can't have that. The call for the "I'm not going to let the Bulldogs score and win" forward pass was the best decision money could buy.

Several replies later you finally got there… Funny thing is… fanciful was 100% correct when it comes to your self proclaimed coaching prowess and status as leagues self proclaimed greatest mind…
The fvcking hide of you coming in here watching less than half a game and making comment…

Rd 1 2024 Rd 1 3 minutes in…
Mockstradamus “Critter is shit, bring back Hayze or we get the spoon”…

The reason is that CC wants to play Averillo in the centres.

The alternative fullbacks are Willson. Rajab and Papalii.

Willson and Papalii are gun players.

Papalii is still very young, you don't rush elite talent, that kid could be anything.

We can see that Wilson and Rajab are being eased into the NRL, one of them taking the spot from Perham would not surprise, probably Wilson.

Guys like Patolo, Kiraz and Pele might come back into the side, plenty of potential improvement in us. 

When Perham but Foxy away for his first try that was good centre play.

IMO he is a pretty good centre who can also fill in at wing and fullback, perhaps even at lock for some minutes.

We have enough centres. 

One thing tgat I’d not the answer… long term… is putting Avo or  Burto to centre… for this year, next, or beyond… either. If thise guys changing positions is a shit strategy… it ain’t gonna help us make the finals this year, or get a win if we do.,,
Only a shit coach with next weeks/27 rounds  result in mind would consider it…

One thing that is not not*

We need depth, and sometimes  the SC is an issue.

I hope that we extend Burns, talented player with a good attitude.

Xeri will be here next season, may take a while to get up to ddpped but fullback and centre are the likely positions.

Critter probably fullbsck with Wilson, Xeri and Papalii as backup.

Not sue on Casey I wasn't impressed i  recent NRL performances, also not sure on Skelton.

We also don't know how long Xeri will take to get up to speed and how good he will be.

Okubor has made a permanent move to the forwards.

Edwards, Morrin, Wilson and Rajab likely to be top 30 next season, Xeri and Critter joining.

Out of Perham, Casey, Grub, Burns and Skelton, at least 3 are probably going, if they don't have a contract for 2024.
I would keep Burns and Perham.

Burto himself mentioned in the presser that he needs to be more involved in steering the team, especially at critical times.

When he gets involved good things happen.

At times he doesn't know whether to organise or run, because we are lacking running options. 

It is probably just a matter of growing into the role and running at the right times.

Exactly. Young kid learning in a team that has had a terrible run with injuries, lack talent in many areas and hasn’t been consistent in years. 

It seems dipstick's hated player this year is Perham so all the more reason to keep him. He couldn't get a run at Parramatta because Gutherson was there and for mine Gutherson is a fantastic player, the real strength of Parramatta. Perham is generally safe at the back and appears to be good at shouting defence tactics. The set up of the Fox try was outstanding. We were incredibly unlucky. I have no doubt had Reed Mahoney not been injured we would have won easily. Okunbur is going better than I thought but the defence up the middle was poor after Reed left. Edwards did a fair job at dummy half but was slow to pass the ball. all in all it was a good performance. They talk up Tedesco in the reports but Keary is the strength of the Rorters...a great player.

As much as it is that we are not seeing results ATM, what I do see is that we are improving and we are not being lapped week after week. I'm being patient and positive and by the end of this season we will be making inroads, genuine inroads. Next year will not be the fizzer we have witnessed in the past.

You are certainly right in that we are improving but what I once thought of our club being better than most other clubs was our ability to bounce back into premiership contention after only 1 or 2 bad seasons. That thought and admiration has been eroded in the last decade.

We have been on a horrible decline for a decade now and whilst we thought the nadir (look it up if you have to) was 5 years ago, unfortunately it wasn't.

This is technically the first year of rebuild with Gus at the helm and the inclusion of players that can resurrect the team. 

It's just a kick in the guts that this season didn't come in 2019 or 20 when it should have. 

The Bulldogs I remember would have recovered within 2-3 poor years even with the spoon.

Just finished watching a replay.
I was initially critical at 25-24 with 8 or so minutes to go thinking Burton went to Perham on 4th tackle but we actually had 6 again so it was 1st tackle.

Psss was poor but still catchable and Perham spilled it on the Roosters 40m. 

Next set, we have them held on 4th tackle 40m out and Waddle makes a play at the ball which gifts Roosters a full set with 6mins left. They work it to 20m out in only 3 tackles and slot the FG.

We then gift them easy metres from a long kick-off and they finish on our 20m line. 

On replay, that final pass from Perham to Avo was actually forward. I originally felt it floated forward after being thrown back but looking at it again on the Sony Bravia and I reckon Perham actually throws it forward.

And so in the end, it comes down to 3 plays that gives the Roosters the win.
1) JAC not getting into defensive line and trying to play ref, which gifts them the final try
2) Perham spilling the Burton poor pass
3) Waddell unecessaringly playing at the ball late in the tackle and 40m out

All 3 are little errors although JAC's was directly responsible 

I'll name a bigger one...Sualii raising his knees into Reed Mahoney. If Reed stays on we win easily. Sualii suspended for 3 games. Should have been sin binned.

No question that we are improving and fairly rapidly this season.

They needed to sort out the the club management, scouting and development, lower grade coaches, salary cap, head coach etc.

Apart from getting a lot of help from former players itbis almost like starting a new club.

The things we are doing now are things we did in the 70s and 80s, most of the 90s and some of our development, standards and culture hung on into early 2000s.

Mostly the club from 2007 to 2018 wasn't the Bulldogs, sometime around 2007, the 3 Stooges and the Marx brothers started running the club.

All true fans regret that lost decade and the earlier SC and oasis debacles had something to do with it. I was relieved when we won the 2004 comp, what followed afterwards wasn't a complete surprise. I don't even know how things got so badly off the rails by 2017.

I don't blame Des, a strong well run club would have handled him professionally, including tell him he wasn't involved in scouting, juniors, recruitment and salary cap. We give him the best possible team, and he can coach it. If it isn't working out move him on.

I am glad we are now on the right track, this is the most confidence I have had in management and the coach since 1995.

1974-1995 were some of the best years of my dogs supporting life, 2001-2005  also good.
I am just glad we are back on track.

I agree with you here, it was little things like this, also a few defensive decisions, some dud  kicks and a few poor attacking options.

If Reed stays on, maybe he passes the ball to where we had the numbers. Him going off was a factor.

Even without Reed we mostly lost due to our own inexperience and decision making. While that sucks, it is sometimes how young players learn.

JAC is a professional, but no one is perfect.

Wardell and Perham simply are not good enough and need to be better if they want to play regular NRL in future.

I also noticed that on the second Teddy try the kick from Allan came off or was kicked by a Dogs player, perhaps Wardell. We can say it was a lucky deflection similar to our first try. But if he was trying to kick it, then boot the bloody ball all the way to Newcastle or try to trap it.

There are lots of little areas like that where indecision cost us. At this stage I'm looking for improvement rather than perfection and if we somehow make the 8 thus year, it will be a pleasant surprise.

I don't think that is the last game where inexperience and attention to detail costs us.

Marki, if that pass was forward then you would have noticed the almost gridiron performance from the chooks that were "conveniently" missed. That pass to Averillo was never forward and I will argue that one to the death. In 2021 we did have a war chest to spend unfortunately we had the wrong board in place to spend it wisely, as they were looking for a quick fix and instant success. Before that we had a coach that was either clueless or he had an agenda to sabotage the club, PLUS, someone in a position of power failed to ensure the junior ranks were kept healthy and we ground to a standstill due to overpaid, ineffective, imported flops sucking our non existant salary cap into oblivion. Board members of the past never gave the club a chance to recover. So our "rebuild" has only recently begun.

I am going to watch a replay and take a second look at the pass.

Update- ok I watched it, 50/50 far from the worst I have seen. The wind was behind us, it was probably flat and floated forward in the wind, because it was was too soft. Pretty poor pass from Perham made it look more forward than it was, Chooks defender on him, but still enough time for an NRL player to get it right. If Perham passes it a bit harder it gets to Averillo quicker and looks better.

I am sure worse has been allowed including one in a critical try Souths scored against us.

But the game is gone now, we had opportunities to win it and made some bad mistakes, we should never have been in a position where we needed that try.

Chooks also seemed better than recent weeks. In spite of the loss a lot of positives for us.

It does highlight how much better our side would be with a good fullback, guys like Averillo and Fox only need a metre to work in.Just get them in a small gap, or give them some space they do the rest.

For the drop off the Burton pass Perham was too deep and too slow getting there, the timing was off on that play. A more switched on or faster fullback might have caught it.

It also wasn't clear why Wardell knocked the ball fown before the Roosters field goal, I would have to watch that closely to work it out. It may have been an inside pass to a ball runner, but even then, our tap might have had him covered.

Short inside pass in traffic?

Would love nothing more than Romy losing his origin spot cos Cleary is out… 
As for who does play, the pundits are calling for the wrong Reynolds… Only Grub can save NSWRL now…

Although the above was a big blow to us, it's the key plays or decisions in the last 10 or so minutes where game management was needed that I felt we lost the game. 

Hopefully our players can learn from that and cut out those kind of errors as they close out games.

Correct. Shouldn't have been in that position chasing points and yes, that pass should have been better executed so it wouldn't have caught the eye of the ref.

It's a possible 4 point swing if we are there thereabouts for Top 8 later in the year. I don't think we will make it but it will hurt if we miss out by 2 points