Lucky you still agree with me....

No big deal, Curran is probably the most logical option. 

Young Todd played lock in reserve grade and props often do.

I prefer a Mann, KO, Hayward type of lock, someone who can set up tries.

I initially thought both Hayward and Taaffe on the bench was a wind-up.

If King is OK to play I still expect Hayward to drop out.

But after watching the CC presser, I agree with 2 points.

1. Taaffe might be a nightmare for tired defenders at the backend of the game.

2. Young Hayward seemed to make a support or decoy run on every attacking play, was often leading on kick chase and was often in the frame in defence. The coach would have marked him 10/10 for effort areas.

I have heard that the moon landing was on Mars and Martians let us borrow their footage of the moon in return for a screening of Mars Attacks which features some of their favourite actors.

Agreeing with you again champion. I’m worried. 

Love Hayward. But would be happy with him at halfback later in the year. 

Sorry no but. Just put him there

Our modo should be. Play like Melbourne 

Has anyone ever seen Cam Ciraldo’s injury he got playing for the Knights? You’ll find it on Youtube, just search “Cameron Ciraldo injury”.

It’s only about 10 seconds but you won’t forget it.

Foot at 90 deg angle. I’m surprised he can walk straight now.

Just watched it. Reading a comment on the video from 14 years ago suggests he returned to play 1 year later.

I was surprised how good the Storm were against the Chooks. 

Big NAS didn't add much, and was close to a liability at times.

So I am revising our form against the Storm upwards.

If we don't make the 8 this season, that will be one game we will regret losing.

Not underestimating the Knights but the Storm are a better side, especially in the halves. I want to see the same level of energy we had against the Storm with a bit more poliish and some better decision making in defence. 

Knights are going to be primed to stop Kiks, our right side defence has to stop Ponga. I hope one week of training will get Critter working well with Hutch, Salmon and Kiraz. Individually all 4 are good defenders, they just need to work together.

We can't afford to lose or we will definitely regret it, with the bye coming up, we can go all in.

Ha ha Parra, shame that the Fins didn't post 50.

Rorters, Slime loss... A Dog's win will make for happiest weekend in a loooong time ..

Huge game for the season. I said early on that if we are 3 wins before the bye that we have done very, very well. Very hard early draw and that was the best we could hope for. Fingers crossed we are. 

Will be happy enough with 3 wins pre bye... Keeps us in the hunt... 'Unlucky' not to have had 1 or 2 more...

I hope that we can score first in the second half and put them away.

Knights are gettingg a lions share of the calls. 3 or 4 6 agains so far, and knights try was very close to a forward pass. Go Dogs.

Yep those 6 agains are keeping them in the game. 

If we kick away thry will probably drop off. 

We also need to cut down the errors.

So far we are dropping more ball than they are, we need to tidy that up. 

Very pleasing effort...

The Hutch attempted trip probably the worst thing I've ever seen on the footy field and a 24 week suspension should be in order...

Only 24 weeks are you missing the trailing zero?

Great win shame about the last try.

Patolo probably out at least 3 months, ruptured MCL?

Good player but he can't stay on the field. 

Another good performance from Hayward, Tracey exceptional probably the best player on the field. 

The zero being for number of Try assists???...

24 games gets us through the GF....

I will virtually personally deliver a virtual carton of your choice of beer to the first person who can name the last time we had a positive f/a post round one of a season.

I reckon it’s somewhere before about…. 2016?

A virtual carton of beer awaits the correct answer. Good luck.

BTW. A positive f/a, which I’m confident this team can achieve, gets you in the semis every year bar one I believe in NRL history. Most times, very mostly most times, into the top six.

No prediction there, just saying where this team has the potential to achieve.

Tis a shame.... I blame77AAFFEE and Hutch should be 7 next match because of that try...

Gotta say Im loving that we have some mongrel in us...

It is the first time since 2011 that we won our first 3 home games.

So our losses were Parra away (ref normally favours Parra), Sharks away, Souths (home ground but away) Storm away.

Parra, Sharks and Storm are 3 tough away games. 

We improved each week, I think our round 7 team would have beaten Souths. 

Fairly unlucky not to have one more win.

Preston and Mann should be back after the bye.

Great effort again. Keeping the opposition to only one or two try’s is the key to success. It always has been and always will be. Great work again. Love the effort in defence by the whole team. Down a prop after a minute was huge from the team.

I feel for Patolo. He isn’t far off retirement through injury must likely. 

Patolo the long term injury last season was bone bruising. 

So it is different injuries, but when a player spends a lot of time out of the game it is amazing how often they get injury after injury on return.

We might extend him for one more season.

Sutton and Fifta are not far off a return, no reason to rush Patolo back.

If we do make the Semis, he might be handy at that time of year.

Let him have whatever time off. Sign him on minimum contract. Worth keeping. I’m still keen on us signing an experienced prop and half. But they must be willing to fit into the system. 

Great result.
Perfect in fact.

Ive always said we need to routinely go into games with the goal of scoring 4 or 5 tries and kerp the opposition to 2 or 3. It means you win the game by the 60-70th minute and the fans enjoy the game.

Tracey has been exceptional since going to FB. He pokes his nose and gets quick PTB from his returns, he is good at organising the defence, and confident enough to play in the in-goal. His link play is improving very well.

Burton also very good today, as was the Fox.

I wasnt impressed with the Kennel crowd cheering when the announcer mentioned Hutch coming off for Taaffe. Hutch has been important to the teams defensive patterns and execution and adequate enough at halfback. 

Our team is different to Penrith, Eels, Storm, etc in that our halves dont actually create our points. Our points generally come from individual plays most of the time.. This means we are less reliant on our halves to create things specifically.

This means, our halves just have to feed the ball to the danger players. On this basis, Hutch has been ok also. He does hog the ball once in a while but what that does is ensure the defence doesn't just slide off from him all game, so brings in variability.

Im not sure we can keep a bench of Hayward and Taaffe for too many games though. Losing Patolo early had our forwards working overtime from the outset. Against a top 4 team and in a game where we dont dominate field position, that can mean disaster. CC will need to rethink this strategy.

But all in all, a very pleasing performance and result. We can now rest with the BYE knowing another win or two would get us into the top 8 amd then who knows?


 

Reserve grade had a big win,Sexton, Skelton and Hello Kitty seemed to impress.

We  probably have Mann and Preston back after the bye. So team  selection for the next game will be interesting. 

I would probably replace Patolo and Taaffe with Mann and Preston., keep the defensive edge.

If Hutch is suspended, replace him with Sexton.