Premiership window?
I think we can only start to think premiership window when we become a top 4 team.

I don't believe the Bulldogs can have a "window" for more than 5 years let alone 10. Even our GF appearance teams or Premiership teams have shocking seasons the following year. It's usually a mass exodus that follows or we tend to finally win the thing at the end of our window.

93-95 window (96 disaster)
02-04 window (05 disaster)
12-14 window (15 start of disaster)

Other than the 80's, we've struggled to keep any decent team together. In fact we are more likely to win the premiership out of nowhere than have 4 or 5 seasons in the top 4.

A few points I agree with. 

02-04 we definitely had the football team to win a few, but the managment team were reserve graders.

12-14 we had a shot in 12,  but we were a bit one dimensional. After that I think we slowly slid off the pace.

The young spine I nominated below is potentially our best spine since 04.

Once Thurston and Sherwin left we lacked quality in the halves. I think even Hutch and Sexton are an upgrade on most of the halves we had 05-22.

Winning starts in the office 

We have got Patolo who I rate and Sutton to come back, plus Curran can play in the middle or even as a prop. 

Knight is simply trying too hard, but he had those errors in his game before he got here. He simply has to calm down, take his runs and make his tackles, don't worry about offloading until we are chasing a score late.

I reckon O'Neil is going to be hard to top, best half since Thurston maybe not as dangerous running the ball, but seems very mature and composed 

The only player that could potentially top him is Wwids.

We also have a very good young prop who was injured most of last season, long road back for him.

I can see why the Flegg team won the comp, lots of good players. 

Unfortunately it sounds like both Patolo and Sutton are on the injury list. 

Woods will be even better by the looks of it. But O’Neill is a freak. 

I am hoping that we can play both as a haves pair,

This shows the value of development, 4 quality spine players 3 of which have played a lot of lower grades together. 

It is hard to achieve via recruitment. 

For this season I will settle for being competitive 
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"Hutch is obviously first choice halfback. Experience wins over Sexy here."
You sure yu aren't Marki ??

Not a great opening for ex Dogs in Super league...Thompson ...concussion so out of match v Penrith...Pele sent off....Okunbor is the most pathetic defender in history. 

I think that guys who were below average defenders was a big part of our problem last season, fitness, decision making, execution and I have a list.

TPJ, Pele, Okunbor, Wardell, Averillo,  Alamotti, Casey...

Rajab too, but he was young and may improve...

Then we look at guys who make mistakes,  dropped balls, dumb passes,penalties etc. And I have a list...

TPJ, Okunbor, Wardell, Casey, Knight, Grub...

The list of halves who were not up to the task...

Flanno, Grub, Averillo 

List of fullbacks not up to the task...

Perham,.

Then there are the injuries which are too many to list.

But no surprise that if a team misses tackles, drops  balls, gives away penalties, has a lack of direction and execution in attack and has a lot if injuries they don't win many games.

What is different this year?

Well the list of names for starters...

Grub always had great passion and energy, but his decision making typically varied between poor and abysmal. Sometimes it takes more than passion and energy.

I am not surprised that Hutch is pushing Sexton for the round 1 starting position. 

He didn't come here to make up the numbers, he probably has a point to prove and he probably admits that he didn't perform up to his true potential early in his career.

Last season he helped keep the Chooks on the rails when they were struggling and was solid, at the business end of the season the Chooks want a bit more creativity and had a young player who could deliver that.

Generally he is improving with experience and seems to be currently playing some of his better footy.

The real question is if this is his ceiling or he has more improvement in him.

I think we will have a definite answer by round 10, if he keeps improving, he will probably play NRL and we will notice the improvement. If it doesn't happen now, this is probably his ceiling..

For Sexton I would give him another 12-18 months perhaps longer. Time in reserve grade might even improve his game. Once he edges out Hutch, he will be hard to shift.

So the ball is really in Hutch's court initially, play well and keep improving, he will be hard to edge out.

Lol - can't be.
I'm wanting Hutch at 6 and Sexy at 7
He wants Hutch at 7 at the expense of Sexy.....

Not a bad summation although I think you're abit harsh on Averillo and Alamoti. They were good for most of the season. Averillo was close to (if not) our highest try scorer.

The main issue last year was our guys not able to defend mistakes. In fact, they were pretty good at compounding them.

You look at the top teams, they also might make a mistake but they really behind that player and look to make up for it, or at least defend it. We would often crumble like a deck of cards.

This year, I'm hoping for both less errors, but more importantly, the ability to defend them. Do that, and you are on your way to finals footy.

Averillo was definitely our best attacker.

In defence he was good at times, but could not sustain that for 80.

However, defending in the centres in the 2023 dogs side wasn't easy. Josh Morris could do it and Critter could do it, Glen Mortimer or Andrew Farrar could have done it.

Out of players that left Averillo is one I would have liked to keep.

But I will take an Averillo + Allamotti swap for Critter and Xerri every day of the week.

If we kept Averillo it would have been as a fullback and I think that is his best position and defence is less of an issue.

I have mixed feelings on Averillo v Taaffe, but I think Papalli is a better long term fullback option.

We are going to lose some players we would like to keep, that is how it goes.

25 man squad against the Sharks named no real surprises. 

Hutch starting, Sexton listed as a reserve rather than interchange.

I guess Hutch might get more minutes.

Even though I rate him, I am happy that O'Neil is left out, let's give him some reserve grade experience. 

Sharks have named a strong side, big test for us and we do find them hard to handle.

Just so we are clear, Sexy has more experience as a starting 7 in NRLol than Hutch…. Though Hitch has more games under his belt…
Either way if pans out the bloke picked will have deserved it in the coaches eyes, and will be most likely to deliver on the game plan,  which is the way it should be…

Yes it will be a close contest, the named squad may be a smoke screen or the coach might change his mind.

I forgot to mention that Knight isn't in the top 25, his last game didn't help.

I think this trail will give us a better read on where we are at. Many of our problems last season were exposed against the Sharks. I am not worried about the result, I just want us to be competitive and in the game deep into the second half.

Equally I will get some confidence from a win, the opposition are a reasonable benchmark. 

lol. Im pretty sure.

Given both teams will likely start with their best 13, I want us to really compete and try to win the first half.

Second half, I'm not too fussed as im sure the experiments will start. 

The more I think about Salmon at lock the more I don’t like it. He is there to play similar to Yeo at Penrith but doesn’t have the hard running meters in his game. 

Wow. Thats even more negative than one of my posts!

I can see the logic in the Salmon vs Curran argument. My logic in the discussion is that if Burton is 5/8th (likely) then we absolutely need Salmon starting at lock. His ball playing would be vital to make up for the Burton passing abilities.

I also don't think Chrichton would get to the ball at FB better than Taaffe. As to running it up, Taaffe once again runs it back hard, but you can argue that Chrichton might make more metres in tackles or at least not get pushed back as often. I still favour Taaffe as he far better at link play during attack.

Both positions IMO are dictated by the lack of creativity by Burton at 5/8th. If this doesn't improve, CC will have to make the tough call, or as you say, if we are at the foot of the ladder, his own head could be on the chopping block.

If he hasn't already, CC should be getting into Burton's ear and earning him that if push comes to shove, he'll do what is best for the team and that might mean moving him out of the halves.

Warning him *

Don't read too much into the trial team or even the round 1 team.

Salmon at lock doesn't surprise me, he gets through a lot of defensive work, which was our primary problem last season.

Wilson is pretty good at making yards running the ball. 

The only thing that caused me to question Cirro was the selection of Perham at fullback.

Jason Taylor is apparently on board and contributing to our attack, it seems improved and players are just forming combinations.

Defence is mostly down to Cirro, it seems to be improved and I understand many of the recruitment and retention decisions.

However, that game against the Storm was more of a warm up and a chance to give some young guys more experience.

This next trial is the real deal.

Taaffe has work to do to cement the fullback position, he is a substantial upgrade from Perham.

Since most of the really good players at the Panthers came through their lower grades, they also didn't have instant success. Our really good young players are 1-2 season away from NRL and 3-5 years away from their peak.

This current team is transitional/rebuilding, much better so far than this time last season. But we still have more work to do and might need better options in a few positions .

At least with this year's squad if things are not working the coach has a few good options to pick from.
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Bloody hell… Steve’s conspiracy is panning out like most do.. 😂

Willow though small has the footwork to make metres returning the ball without needing power…

Gotta see what Curran brings ( he’s my preferred until further notice)… Manncrush and The Fish on the bench is not as dire as it may seem if we can get our kicking game right and play up tempo… with Max fit and the Farmer and Hughes meeting/exceeding expectations…

TTAAFFEE has more runs on the board at 1 than Critter for mine… Our edge defence desperately needs the likes of Critter… and I don’t see Tracey stiffening that D up…

I’ll start worrying about CC come round 10… we have points in us… CC allegedly the defensive guru at Panthers so if we get that bit right it will go a long way…

and never apologise… that’s the only lead out of the Mocks book you should take…

Yeah bloody Burto.. that bloke that in a injury ravaged side that had more TAs than Moses, Brown and Munster last year with only a couple more games… 

Im sure CC has said nothing to Burto… Burto is in charge…

I’m cool with nearly all of that except for “the next trial is the real deal”… it’s a trial… as a bush psychopath err psychologist I contend it ain’t even close to the real deal…

Fair point, we are just saving this trail is more of a test.

Only the first 40-50 minutes count, but I always like to win even when the game isn't important.

I agree with Gus Broncos and Panthers were well ahead of other clubs last season, that is a big gap to close.

We are aiming to make the 8 and positions 6-8 are fairly wide open. 

More importantly we just want to see good entertaining competitive footy and an improvement on last season. 

Strategy and style wise I like our recruitment and retention and game plan.

We couldn't get some big dynamic props, but we got the best that we could and backed you guys to improve.

The we added a lot of mobile high workrate competitive players, Curran, Salmon and Mann.

We added Hutch for a older more experienced head and a stronger defender at half.

We added Turpin for a good backup hooker option.

So the plan is to be a mobile high workmate team with good completions and to move the ball to move the opposition big guys around. It might always work but at least it is a plan.

Last season Reed had too much to do tried too hard and didn't get enough help in the middle.

This season Salmon, Mann and Curran can help Reed with some of the work in the middle. Mann, BBO or Hayward can come off the bench and give Reed a spell. We probably have the fitness and workrate to give Reed a spell.