Halfback is now the biggest issue, our middles will build fitness we have 2 good options for fullback. 

If it is essential to have a half who is a good defender try Hayward,  he might not have a long kick,  but I have seen many try's scored off his kicks. He also passes well.

I agree that Sexton deserves first shot.

CC seems to be getting most other team selections right. But Dman has a strong argument. 

Yeah.. they should've thrown it to Burto so he could take a settler and not be outplayed in the Mockstra half running game competition...

He wasnt on the right, he was in the centre of the field waiting for Salmon, Kitty or Curran to give him the ball at second receiver (like every other tome in the game) or have Mahoney give him the ball directly. 

After 3 nothing plays, Mahoney absolutely had to go left and he gets overiden by Critta wh calls for it on the right. There is no way Critta should be demanding the ball and no way Mahoney shoyld be listening to him. He is not Turbo, not Latrell, not Ponga, not Walsh, not Pappy.

FFS he is not even Taaffe.

Theres no guarantee we score by going left. But you simply can't go a whole set inside 20m with 2mins to go and find your HB on the last and your 5/8th doesn't even get a chance..

I won't even mention the left side of Kikau, Xerri and JAC that resulted in the only points for the team.

Ridiculous is not a good enough word to describe what happened there. Hope CC replays that set of 6 to death.

Why thank you...

The left side a more than adequate job to ight with Xerri, I have no issues at all with having Critter and Presto on the right to 'protect' a 7exy or TTAAFFEE at halfback...

He couldnt have been any worse...

One of the best efforts with the worst odds. We deserved to win more than Melbourne. Great game. We should beat the Knights easy with that effort 

Don’t change the team!!!!!!

IMO if we make our right side more dangerous that opens up the opportunity to shift back to the left.

The right only look dangerous with Taaffe at fullback , Tracey is too good to drop, Foxy, Xerri, Critter and Kiraz don't deserve to be dropped.  So team selection at fullback and halfback is tricky. 

Last season when we made Burton and Reed captain thier fom dropped off. This season Critter isn't in peak form, I think that he will come good, it doesn't matter what side he plays but Xerri looked good on his left.
,, 

You had to be right about something this season.. enjoy the moment...

Funny how you once mentioned that Lou Reed does too much or won't pass the right way cos he don't trust Burto (after like 2 games)... But same don't apply for Hutch after a month and a half of zero positive outcomes...

So tonight.. you've bagged Lou, Critter, Burton, Curran, Kitty, Kiraz... For one poor set... And praised or suggested we get the ball to Hutch... Are you sure you really WATCHED the Kayo mini???...

Wow... just wow...

I'm being Presto, King, and Mann straight back in if available...
And moving The Fish and Crutch to bench at best or Reggies...

*Bringing...

The other weird thing is that Patolo only played 15 minutes and we only used 6 interchanges.

Perhaps his injury flared up?

Yep definitely bringing those 3 straight back in.
I prefer Tracey at FB assuming that we can sort out half back and run some middles into form we have a strong 17.

Whatever happened to Milford?

He was a great player at the start of his career,  seems to be getting worse everytime he plays. 

My bad. Certainly happy to bring back injured players.

Massive game against Newcastle. We have to beat them. And beat them well

😉
Just playing some Supercoazh mind games mate... It's all ihave after my worst start ever... 
Villi and you are kicki.goals though... Which makes me a proud old driller...

Will be a tough game... KP is brilliant... They have the same issue we do re bullets in the foot...

It is a home game on the back of  a longer turnaround. 

After 2 intense games that should give the squad more time to recover and perhaps get a few guys carrying injuries over the line.

My expectation this season was that we would improve over the course of the season and would play our best footy at the backend, especially if few players were involved in SOO. 

I also think a few sides might flame out and die at the end of an intense season.

Initially I didn't think that we were any chance of winning the comp.  With each passing week a small flicker of hope is being lit.

I don't think we are any chance of winning the comp with Hutch at halfback. The Newcastle game is important in relation to staying in touch and being a contender.

Since we beat the Roosters with Hutch at halfback and nearly beat the Storm, he probably will not be the difference between winning and losing. 

Should we beat Newcastle, we should start to think think about having a crack at winning the comp. The bye gives a 2 week break to train with a new formation.

If we lose to Newcastle the main aim needs to be to keep the confidence and effort levels up. We can make up some ground over the back end of the season, but might have a place in the 8 slip from our grasp.

It is an even comp this season,  we can mix it with most sides, but most sides can also mix it with us.

I hope that the boys are pumped for the Newcastle game, we get good crowd support and we produce our best performance of the season.  That should get us a win.

Another thing, I hope that the wash up of the Hughes sin bin is only a fine not a suspension.

IMO it was more like an energetic facial than something that could cause injury. 

If it is a fine that is money well spent. 

To be clear I don't want to see Hughes do it again, but I think that it showed something positive about his mindset. 

Hughes was show the Storm player no respect, the intent of the action was saying, I am top dog on this field. 

Hughes also played more minutes. 

When I talk about the team improving over the course of the season what I want to see is Hughes, Patolo and Farmer capable of playing longer minutes. In combination with the King that being our prop rotation.  Curran playing some footy on the edge and Curran and Morrin interchanging with Hutch at lock.

If Sutton, Knight and Fifita come into the mix, even better.

I think Sutton will come back a much better player now that his injury is properly sorted. A good replacement for the King.

I am not so worried about forwards at this stage, halfback is the key problem to solve.

SuperCoach isn’t too hard. Problem is I don’t know who is injured half the time. 

I think we moved the ball better with Turpin and Bailey at lock. Maybe it’s because they didn’t take too much ball away from the halves. We do well against Melbourne no matter how we are playing. 

The Bulkdogs are finally back. That was a win despite the scoreboard and probably the most important game for us in a lvery ong time.

Well done to Ciraldo and Gould for turning the culture around. The only way is up now. The players believe in themselves but more Importantly in each other as a team. I'm excited that my son will get to experience what I experienced as a kid, a successful Bulldogs era. We still need a quality halfback though (Hutch will still be valuable as a 14) so hopefully the club can sort this out ASAP.

Mann is great at lock in attack and defence. 

I found it hard to split Bailey and Turpin, I've always liked Bailey so I am a bit biased. But Turpin made a lot of tackles. 

Turpin and Salmon are similar lots of good tackles but key misses in the 3 Storm tries.

I am slightly disappointed that we didn't stop all 3 Storm try's.

I imagine Morrin will come straight back in.  Taaffe will be unlucky if he is left out.

CC actually has selection headaches this week who to leave out. 

It’s so great that we spear to have some depth in this side. I think that’s what surprised me the most. The next man up mentality is obvious. Our lightweight forward pack is standing up and winning the battle. 

We have got some fairly big lads, Hughes,  Patolo, Farmer, King is a great blend with those guys.
Fifita definitely has size, but lacked the fitness and mobility in past NRL games.
We have a really good young big guy Issac M-B, Gus was hoping that he would progress. But he had a bad injury for more or less all of last season,  I am not sure he is even back on the paddock.  Will probably be lucky to even play reserve grade this season.

It hasn't escaped my attention that other clubs have some very fit young giants. We need 12 really big players, ideally an older player and a young gun.

Short term we need a bit more out of the right side attack. Hutch unfortunately is the pollar opposite of grub. Of the 2 I prefer Hutch but his lack of a running threat is an issue. Sides are backing off him and taking his runners. The injury to Presto hasn't helped.

I think that we need to work on this, the fullback is the main player that can help the right side attack.

Newcastle still have a good pack with a bit more size and power than the Storm,  but their halves are ordinary.  Even though we outplayed the Storm I am questioning if their pack is top 4.

If Hutch and Sexton don't work out  my plan C is Taaffe,  perhaps even Hutch starting and Taaffe coming off the bench. Taffee definitely has the attacking weapons. But his defence is suspect if only because I haven't seen him defend much at half in the NRL. We could do something funky like hide him on the wing. Teams have stopped doing that, if we look at the records we will probably find out why.

The other thing a small fast guy can do is come up fast on the opposition half.

SG Ball semi.
Dogs 42
Slimey lemon losers 10.

Jersey Flegg v undefeated Canberra in Canberra. 
Dogs 38
Faders 12.

Lower grades doing well is an important part of the rebuild. 

Harold Mathews are also a strong side, had this week off, playing semis next week. 

Dunno what Vossy and Ennis are looking at re Klem on Flange... It wasn't the shoulder... It wasn't initial contact with head.. the head contact wasn't forceful...

That was a poor game, Tigers in particular were crap.