One bad week was all it took to turn fans and experts off us...

I don't expect a repeat, but if it does happen we are probably cooked. 

More likely Cirro backed off the intensity at training for a week to get us peaking at the right time and the players just found it hard to get up for the Manly game. 

The reason for the drop in intensity is the lack of a bye and a series of intense games with a lot of travel. Cirro alluded to this in the Presser. If was a calculated gamble and not the only reason why we were down on energy.

This week it is a while since we have travelled,  training should have been normal intensity, coaches would be drumming in the need to start with energy.  The loss and the absence of Burton will focus players minds.

I expect Kiks and Critter to lead the way,  others just need to follow their example.

Critta should get us over the line in this one. But we will miss Burto and Xeri. Lots of our points come off those two. I hope Skelton has his game face on this week, he is off to the Tigpies so this could be his first and last finals series. 

Critta will be pushing it... Skelton and Fox have been ruled out, replaced by Johnathan Sua and Eli Clark.
That means if we are beaten by the Cows and the Dolphins make the 8 then it becomes a Queensland Derby in Queensland and us v manly in Sydney.
Will sutton "allow" such a lucritive opportunity for his masters to pass by and gifting the NRLol the nod of approval north of the border.
You gotta love a good conspiracy theory.

Some god awful footy being played in the spoon bowl...

Stop blaming the refs. If we are good enough we win. No matter what the ref does. If we lose it’s on us. That’s the only way you create a winning mentality. Exactly what Ciro has been doing all year. 

Great game to watch though. So glad we are not playing like that anymore. 

Promoting the game was a bad idea, both teams tried hard to prove that they deserved the spoon.

Tigers particularly disappointing, the only time that they were not shooting themselves in the foot was when they were attempting to reload and kept dropping the ammo.

We don't lose much with Clark and Sua.

How the hell did we get Sutton, that is like starting the game on -12?

Well I suppose that we might get the penalties and 6-agsins, or the whole crowd nodding off to sleep might cause Sutton to swallow the whistle. 

If you haven’t seen much of Sitili Teuponua (my spelling may be poor) he is killing it tonight for the Chooks. Fantastic signing for next year. 

I have always rated him.can play backrow, in the middle or centre. Fast and fit, a competitor. 

Pretty much the exact mould we are going for. I’m confident he will be one of our best signings. 

The problem with that theory is while week 2 is guaranteed a QLD team as well as the week 1 derby, you would think giving 2 QLD teams a chance to progress to week 2 would be more favourable and more chance of one of them making a prelim.

Agree. 
No point blaming refs all the time. Sometimes they make mistakes and instead of admitting the error and not repeat it, they double down for thecsaje of consistency. It just digs the hole deeper for them.

However, Sutton is a bad ref who typically blows a lot of 6-agains and penalties,  resulting in a stop  / start game.

That doesn't suit a smaller side or our style,  it also doesn't suit the Cows or make the game an attractive contest.

I don't think that he intends to favour and side and a lot of the obscure highly technical penalties seem to be correct.

In preparation we should study the types of penalties he gives and try to avoid them, our players also need to be disciplined in interacting with him.

And maybe the crowd can get us >50% of the penalties 6-agains. 

Why! If thy did their job without bias there wouldn't be any complaints.
Having said that, the rules of the game need to be reviewed and re-written to align them with the modern game. They also need to be written as to remove any opportunity for interpretation. At present they are more guidelines than rules..... no wonder the officiating is in a shambles.

The system can be improved,  but it is more or less the same for all teams.

I am confident about what the Dogs will bring today, I expect our best and that should be good enough. 

It has been an enjoyable and entertaining footy season all around.

The spoon bowl was an ordinary game with both sides playing poorly, not many games like that this year. Most teams have registered the odd entertaining win, even the Tigers managed a few.

Overall the game is in great shape and the Dogs are in great shape, most enjoyable footy season in years.

I am glad that the club is back where it should be,  because now my fan experience is back where it should be. The whole point of being a footy fan is to enjoy the ride.

We are still an outside shot at winning the comp,  but I will not be disappointed if we don't.  Realistic expectations are one part of enjoying the fan experience.

Just seeing Clark and Sua debut means that today is great, win, lose or draw.

Jett Cleary- clearly isn't good enough to beat the Dogs Flegg side in a semi-final.

#steppingTowardsTitle1of2in2024.

Hutch is costing us big time here.

As much as I loathe slagging a Bulldogs player, you are friggin right. All tries conceded have come from Hutch errors.  

Nightmare first half, our side has lots its mojo.

We have to atleast try playing some footy.

Good on ya Sexton . His first try for us . We need a good finish to go in confident next week .. 

Wow we are being handed a lesson . Cowboys stepped  up gear .  Hopefully CC can get the team up for next week . . 

Everything the Cows touched turned to gold and a polar opposite for us. Everything we touched turned to shit. Ciraldo's biggest mistake tonight was playing Hutchison.
The Cows too big too strong and they tore our middle to shreds. There will be a lot of soul searching for us during the week and if we don't regain our mojo we will be bundled out in week 1.

Hopefully they give it a good go . Womanly are going to be hard to beat . Been a good year compared to what the clubs been through the  last 8 years .. Maybe need a couple of extra big boppers  next year. 

Last 2 weeks have been our worst performances for a long time. 

There is a trend of the side sliding downhill since Curran and  Mann got injured.

Unfortunately Cirro is inexperienced at coaching this time of the season, we may have got the squad rotation wrong over the last 6 weeks. 

We need a miracle, but this game is a reality check. Stranger things have happened, 

We lost because we played like shit for the second week in a row. Coach has got to take a massive hiding from management. Unlucky if he isn’t sacked if we go out next week. 

I don’t disagree. But it’s almost impossible to do so and have no complaints. 

We seem to drop the ball more playing aimless one out footy.

We need to stand deeper and shift the ball, 

We can't rely on trying to beat good sides with defence when our attack throws nothing at them.

Inexperienced at this time of the year and running out of cattle. 

The selection of Hutch cost us any chance of winning, but Cirro wasn't to know Hutch would be that bad.

When coaches try to play it safe it rarely works out.

Hutch was the prime offender, but most of our side played bad, Marhoney,  Sexton and Tracey all had poor games.

Kiks must be injured,  long time since he has been a dominant force on the field. 

The coach got us this far, now he needs to work out how to take the next step.