We need to get back to defending well and matching teams in the forwards.

That is the style we traditionally played after Wok joined the team.

Even the earlier eras were built on team work and commitment in defence.

Averillo is clearly the best fullback at the club and our most dangerous attacking weapon by far.

We only tried him at fullback after he was leaving and when the season was gone. Worse still we persisted with Perham and Allamotti for far too long.

I hope CC has a good plan for fullback next season. He will look silly if we play the Dolphins and Averillo carves us up. Which will happen if the defence doesn't improve.

Gus is on the right track with being a development club. Forwards wise injuries have wrecked our season, but Preston stands out like a beacon, we need better forwards to even be competitive.

That is the key IMO, crawl before we try to run, recruit forwards who can fix the defence and make yards, not flashy players, hard workers.

I’m not as horribly down on us as I thought I might be…
Despite how awful we are, I see plenty of potential…
CC will grow as a coach, hopefully we sign a decent prop or two, Critter coming… a fit Kiks..  there’s the makings of a very good young team…

I  hope so, first 10 weeks I was pretty happy.

It isn't just props, we need centres and backrowers who are good defenders.

Critter is just about the best defensive centre in the comp. If we are playing him a fullback, we need another good defensive centre.

As for CC, I don't mind if a young coach makes a few mistakes. More important is the ability to learn from them. We can't change the coach and the football department each year. It is also the case that the players need to learn how the coach wants them to play and the coach has to work out how best to use each player.

I did think that Reynolds was very good for the Broncos and that he really carved us up. They had enough good ball runners to make us pay.

But the tries from dummy-half are very disappointing 

To be brutally honest, talent wise even this weakened Broncos team had us well covered. If we played better they were capable of stepping up. But we want to at least make the opposition earn the win.

I also think that it is a mistake to move too many players on. Work out who we can get, and move players on to make room for them. For talented lower graders who haven't played NRL this season, keep a couple of spots open in the top 30. But wait for trials and the early rounds before deciding.

Yep we should start planning for next season. In fact we might consider if guys playing with injuries should get an early start on rehab. We need the squad in good shape to start the season.

Like a version hottest 100 shitting all over every standard hottest 100 for at least a decade…

Very, very disappointed with today's effort, only because we were able to find holes in the Boncs line to score and I thought we'd turned the corner and finally found our Mojo. Well that was obviously an illusion. 
How many fekking penalties does Mahoney give a game? Is he getting a bonus for each penalty he concedes?  
Three things we do wrong every fukcing week:
1. Stupid penalties 
2. Stupid penalties
3. Stupid penalties 
Then after the penalty shit show we then can't defend our friggin line. Why? Why cant we defend our friggin line? Someone answer me please  because I've torn the last of my hair out.
Why does TPJ try an offload in our 10-20 end zone every friggin time? Why does Mahoney niggle in the tackle and concede another fcuking penalty?

Who farking teaches them defensive skills at training each week? I want names. I want heads to roll, I want my Doggies back....the Doggies that made me giddy with excitement everytime they rq  on the field.  This lot are imposters.....

Preston is playing well because he probably wants a much bigger contract than he currently has. It’s why signings like him are perfect. Unfortunately we don’t have enough signings like him and very few juniors that have stood out this year.

Big dollar signings are great when there is a strong work ethic and winning mentality in the team. When we lack that as we do now most big signings don’t work out. 

One reason the defence is a lot worse this season is the loss of Jacko, JMK and Tommo. Jacko and JMK in particular covered a lot of mistakes by others for 80 mins every week.

And in earlier eras Graham, Tolman, Lichaa, Finaccane, Stagg, Josh Morris and co were a big loss.

Josh Morris and JMK stand out as regularly contributing in attack and defence.

While the attack has improved this season defence has fallen down badly. IMO every squad needs 2-3 players who are are mainly in the team for their defence and can't afford to have more than 2-3 weak defenders on the field at anytime.

The bulk of the side needs to be able to attack and defend to a reasonable standard, that is harder for young players. A squad that is too young or too old is a mistake.

As well as needing some better defenders, we need older experienced players who can sustain good form week after week.

It is disappointing to see young guys like Morrin and Topine missing tackles becuase they have the one thing that you can't coach - desire.

Where the side is at, Sutton and King are contributing.

TPJ and our halves are not great defenders, but are in the side for their attack.

With Critter and Xeri coming we can afford to let a few outside backs go.

Improvement is going to come from adding the right players, IMO 2-3 experienced forwards who are good defenders, ideally 2 being props with some size at at least one occasionally capable of 80 minutes in the middle.

If we can manage to get our defence back to where it was 2-3 seasons ago, we will do a lot better becuase the attack is improved and should continue to improve.

I hope that we have 2 centres at the club who can defend well, Critter is one and I would play him in the centres. If Perham can defend well he is ok.

I hope that if Critter plays fullback we are not stuck with weak defenders in the centres.

I am a fully comitted Dogs fan for life.

When the good times return we have earned the right to enjoy them and I will be making the most of that.

I agree with Dman, things can look gloomy before the sun breaks through the clouds...

I'm Fn sick of clouds.

Walsh to serve only two games of his three game suspension cos he woulda been selected for origin…

Sharks v Warriors is some insight into what works in tne NRL.

Size matters and defence matters.

Most of the top teams have 1-2 big top quality props.

A guy like Moylan is always a target for the opposition attack. 

Add attitude… play hard… no consideration for self preservation… the absolute desire to get on top of your opposite number…

Good to see Parra have two in the bin at the same time… it should happen every week…

Ahhh the flat track bully… Going gets tough… he does fekk all…
Part of me hopers they miss the eight… another part of me hopes they make it to get their fans hopes up… then flat track it…

How many blokes can u run behind the play before setting  up a field goal????….

..and another clutch play by the so called flat track bully.

Look, our club had a chance to get him and we baulked at the price needed to get someone like that.

We made our bed with Burton and now we sleep on it.

There's no harm in being wrong Dman. 

Moses was not the answer to our situation. Notwithstanding he is the wrong recruit, his pricetag would have set our rebuild back another couple of years at least. We need 2 or 3 big, hard, defensive forwards and you'll see we didn't need Moses.

He kicked the field goal but played almost no role in getting them into a winning position… He spent the majority of the game getting in the refs face and whinging…

He was never leaving Parra…

I would just bin all the ugly guys in the Parra team for visual pollution.

Gutho will do fine as the only guy on the field, except for scrums and play the balls.

Anyone think that we are any chance against the Panthers?

Most expect that it could get ugly and if it does, we might be absolutely flogged by a record score.

A good scoreline will take our best performance in 5 years or the Panthers to have a very out of character performance.

Our chances are higher if Kicks plays, even though I don't expect him to be in form.

Their pack could destroy ours, to keep the score respectable we need to hold our own for at least 60 mins.

Not too worried about our backline, it can do a job in attack, defence might be a different story.

Well in that case, you do no harm everytime you post.

I don’t think they will get lapped like they did against the Knights . Last two weeks the guys have shown no problem scoring points .defence is a problem at the moment .. Hopefully Sexton stays in the full game .. 
Hoping Burton will pull the off a a1 performance against his old club . 

I read that Sexton was out.

No.
Burton had a had decent game against Souths reserves only 2 weeks ago. We need to wait another 4 games before that kind of performance happens again.

It's a real worry that we feel we might be in with a chance if 1.5 gamer Sexton plays, yet if he's out, we think we will likely get lapped.

Not exactly showing much confidence in Burton is there?

The analysis is simple...our forwards are too light and the bashing is catching up. Our attack was better than Brisbane when Sexton went off. Unfortunately the soft tries they scored were typical of the game and when Sexton left the attack went out the window, and I can't see that changing this week.. Okunbur is still the biggest problem for mine. He is simply unskilled in defence and in attack whilst built like Tarzan plays like Jane.. I really thought he'd be the player you'd hate in your annual "I hate " programme. But no...you hate Matt burton...the Moses who will lead us to the promised land. 

I would not single out an individual forward for criticism.

Collectively they were too small, too inexperienced, carrying too many injuries, lacking in fitness from previous injuries or worn down by playing above their weight / experience level for so long.

We are just lucky Preston stepped up big time this season.

Put 1-2 of our forwards in a top pack with the right rotation, they would look like much better players. Put any 3 of our forwards in a top side, we drag them down a bit.

We need better options and we need to work out who we should keep.

Okunbor trained as a winger last off season, I would give him a 1 year expension and see what he can do next season. Okunbor the forward is a new player, I don't blame him for Okunbor the winger.

I should add I don't hate any Bulldog player unlike Narcissus but do feel we are adding characteristics to Okunbur that he doesn't have. Max never played prop before he was thrust into it last year...and has done an admirable job.

This week Kicks and Foxy are back.
I would move Skelton to the bench. If we get an injury in the halves or at hooker we can move Averillo to the halves or have Edwards or Morrin fill in at hooker.

I would add Patolo to the side and start him at prop.

Lock is RFM or Wardell the guy that misses out is on the bench or 18th man.

Bench TPJ, Okunbor, Skelton - size. Wardell, or Edwards, or Morrin, or Topine - workrate

I have a feeling Morrin and Topine might need a spell.

I am going for more size in the hope that it keeps us in the contest for longer. If we can stop being easily rolled, then we don't need to be as fit.

The fix for the spine is get Sexton back, forwards have been our biggest problem, especially for the last 5-7 weeks.

King was always a forward.

Okunbor has size and makes an impact carrying the ball and contesting high balls.

His defence needs a lot of work, but size is an asset.

With the exception of Preston everyone of our forwards has had at least 1 bitterly disappointing game and has disappointing patches in most games.

Our defensive misses stand out becuase no other covers for the mistake.

Okunbor is a bit like Pele, they are hoping to turn the raw ingredients into a player. Neither one is ready to play regular NRL in the forwards. Depends on how many inexperienced and project players we can afford.

We are only lacking 2 quality props now that Kicks is back. If we need to move on Okunbor to sign one then that is what we should do.

I don't think you can underestimate the loss of Luke Thompson...not the biggest forward but very explosive and able to get quick play the ball. Would have been great working with Kikau, another we missed.,,,some hard to understand decisons too such as releasing Andrew Davey...not the most dynamic player but a good defender...look at Okunbur in the Brisbane chip over the top try, he doesn't do a thing. I'd love him to be good...Morrin is half his size but hits with twice as much force. If Okunbur could channel his energy it would be great but the more I see the less I think it will happen. Maybe needs a psychologist to help