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The Canterbury Bulldogs were able to outlast the Parramatta Eels in Round 14 on the back of a crushing tidal wave of possession. While the Eels fought valiantly against one of the form teams of the competition, they were locked out of the contest in the second half as the Bulldogs set up camp in Parramatta’s half.
Sixties and Forty20 react to the 30-12 loss as they look at where it went wrong for Jason Ryles and his men, what was out of their control and what needs to happen as the club heads into a bye next week.
how the fuck do they get 6 again when gideon smashed the player and didnt touch ball
So frustrated we need to make a statement in the market and sign two origin class forwards and Sandon smith otherwise we be spoon contenders again next year.I think williams is great but him and Doorey are not frontrowers I repeat not frontrowers.
We have a warchest let’s get Tino Hass or carrigan even Nelson we definitely need the size and mongrel.
Brave effort. Mistakes in the second half by Hopgood, Lomax and Penisini led to a glut of possession and the inevitable tries. Williams dropped a pass when a break was on. But hey, lots of wonderful efforts from the players wearing blue and gold.
To be fair I thought Penisini regained control and it never hit Xerri.
That said, we spent the whole second half pinned in our red zone thanks to Sutton and our errors.
Agree re Penisini. He did lose control of the ball but probably regained it. One of those 50/50 moments.
As soon as the hopgood error happened I turned off the game
Came back later on to see a similar result as imagined
I know a loss is always hard, but hats off to the boys for showing a much improved defence
We are a different team now – add in some more players and a forward or two
We would look completely different
I’d be going to the market for:
A lock
A centre or two
One senior prop and one green prop
Two mid tier back rowers or one elite back rower
Muz it’s surprising to think 12 months ago, before his origin injury, everyone was talking up Hopgood as the clubs future and a captain. Now he looks like he needs 6 weeks in Cup to set himself right.
I’d be going for Tino or Carrigan. Fifita has too many red flags. Haas won’t leave the Broncos. Tapine is the other middle that would be great, but he’s presumably locked in at the Raiders.
Mick people debated me on this for weeks every time I mentioned Hopgood or wills form
But today was another clear cut example
I commented on our roster or needing cattle after todays game, then Jason Ryles indicated something similar in the post match presser
What you can see is there’s good things going on in our team but lack of quality cattle
Too many errors and our centres do not know how to set up their wingers
We’ve got close to the best wing combo in the comp and they can hardly get a sniff of quality ball
Tino does have options in his contract for every year. He is gettable, but if he hasn’t left the Titans now I doubt he ever will. Besides, expect the Bears to throw the Kalgoorlie Super Pit at him. I think we should just promote from within when it comes to middles. Tuivaiti, Moretti, Guymer, Saxon Pryke, Brock Parker, Will Latu, these guys are our future.
Muz, why develop our juniors to sign others.
With two new teams coming in we need to really develop and go with our juniors because the player market will go crazy.
A19 year old signed for $750000. Someone has no sense with money and how to make better use of it. We develop our juniors for the future and that’s now and get them while they are unknown.
Zero I like your theory,
But look at the bulldogs mate. In 3 years since Gus has been there..
They’ve essentially bought a first placed team, you can’t look at them and not be impressed.
They’ve looked better in just over two years under their new coach and buying players than we have looked since probably 2009.
They’ve signed more quality players in 2 years than we have in 10+.
Not suggesting our club has the man power in the front office to achieve what Gus is doing, but unless you are Penrith there’s no doubt you have to buy players you cannot just develop.
Look at who our best players are now almost every single week. There’s a 90% chance every week it’s Jason’s new recruits who are our hardest workers or best players.
We definitely need a mix of healthy development and external recruitment.
As Crickton said to Gus – keep signing everyone. It’s a money ball team. Our juniors – our good ones are our future and true we do need experienced players. But Ryles has gone for inexperienced youth and I can’t see him doing a u-turn. I been an Eels fan for over 65 years seen the bad and seen the good. It comes and goes – and what I found is you have to grow a team to be successful. The Panthers did this and so can the Eels. Why were the Eels so dominant from the mid seventies into the mid eighties? They looked after their juniors and kept the better ones.
I do agree you need to build a team and I think Jason’s doing a fine job so far on the new recruits and internal promotion of some younger players.
It’s definitely going to be a mix we need. You cannot only buy established players.
What in suggesting zero and I don’t think many could argue…
We haven’t produced many high level outside backs in recent times, and Jnr paulo is our only senior specialist prop in the top 30.
Will Peninsi and Sean are our best outside backs we’ve developed in recent years, and both in terms of attacking from sit at the bottom of the league in terms of quality if we compared our centres to other NRL teams.
We did really well with recruiting externally last year, with a mix of youth and experienced players, all of them have been stand outs in games this year at times, and hard working.
I’m not suggesting ignore our youth, I’m saying look at our best performers nearly every game this year.
It’s externally recruited players and internally promoted jnrs who are generally the stand outs.
It’s obviously worked last off season and we need to do that again – a few more Jack Williams’s & Iongi’s of various different positions (players who are guns but are blocked at their current clubs)…
And we get them and provide them with opportunities like Jason did with those players this year.
Even Kautoga has proven to be a great pick up for a guy who had only a few games experience.
Our jnrs in the halves and forwards look like they have potential.
But we definitely need better outside backs depth and a MINIMUM of one extra Snr specialist middle forward to partner Jnr.
Currently if paulo does down we don’t even have one specialist prop who can start.
We absolutely desperately need to recruit externally, keep in mind Jason will cut lose a bunch of players after this season, a lot of cap space will become available.
I thought we were full of heart and effort. Massive base for Ryles to work with.
At the moment we just don’t have the cattle.
I thought Moses tried hard to spark something but again, Dylan Brown became nothing more than a catch and pass man.
Yet another game where Dylan was just a shadow.
As for the young players coming through, if we have players turning 21 and they haven’t been able to play Cup then we need to accelerate them.
These days there is a plethora of 21 year Olds playing NRL and you just can’t wait until they are mid 20s for them to debut.
The Raiders are the blueprint of how to accelerate and play young players.
I honestly struggle to think of Dylan’s big games for us. He has had good games no doubt but it’s concerning to not recall a game where he stood up to take it over and get us home when we needed it.
Maybe I’ve forgotten a key game (eg I recall a game against manly when halves were Jake Arthur and Dylan in which he was very good but that’s a long time ago).
I feel like I’m a different world Dylan should have been our left centre and we grab a proper 5/8 like Galvin.
Surprise surprise Penisini and Hopgood were at it again. Whilst we can’t buy players to join the team this year, I sincerely hope Ryles gets into the marketplace to replace these two!! You can’t win a comp and make the errors these two do on a weekly basis. The hopgood knock on and then missed tackle was diabolical.
Keep up the good work otherwise.
I just saw the presser.
A couple of things.
Ryles made a point that we are actively looking at the roster, I feel that he is acutely aware that we require the cattle.
Secondly, did he say when he was leaving the table ” oh good, no questions about the referee “??
Classic.
Saw that I’m very sure that Ryles etc are looking at players if not already have a few in mind. He’s starting to show what he can do as coach and what he is building and I do think the club will attract the right players without needing to pay ridiculous overs.
Yer Hopgood is horribly out of form. I tend to agree his consistent errors are really hurting us and Players around him have to be getting really frustrated with him
I thought we really missed Moretti and/or Matterson – are they injured? Doorey was named in the Cup team list on TCT yesterday, but presumably didn’t play. I like Papalii, but our bench rotation looks too light on. HIAs in the forwards just wipe us out, and that leads to errors.
How is it that sides playing us have such incredibly low error rates? It’s been a consistent theme this year, the opposition having a really high completion rate. It’s not just our own errors costing us, it’s our failure to force errors – line speed to put them under pressure, a solid tackle on the top of the ball that knocks it free, etc. Our goal line defence was excellent until fatigue set in, but the next step is to attack with our defence all across the park. Until we can do that, we’ll continue to be on the wrong end of the scoreboard, despite a decent performance.
I do want to wrap Katonga. I did a lot of yelling at him in early rounds, but he’s winning the most improved award at this point. Sooner or later the attacking rewards for him will come.
Agreed. I’ve noted the lack of line speed/pressure we put on attacking defences to force errors. We scramble well
I was one person very critical of katongas defence and I’m happy he has developed to prove me wrong about his defensive frailty and lack of defensive understanding. He’s doing well. But his development also underscores how bad kelma is – he’s had years and still defends terribly with little development year on year
Mistakes for us will happen over 80 mins considering our junior FB and DH; but some of the other players made some silly errors which did hurt.
I feel we need our halves both playing well if we are to do well.
I was impressed with some of the rookies today and it is a shame we fell away in the last 20 mins. Hard to watch against a team I absolutely loathe / detest…..
O’Neill and co need to be in their scouting as we need some zest there somewhere. Pressure is on them tbh
The Doggies are top of the table for a reason. And giving them not just the possession but territory in the second half was going to take its toll. Yet the Eels showed a lot of fight especially in the first half. Yes, a few players short in some position but Ryles is building a great foundation. The loss is disappointing but I’m not that worried about where the Eels are heading.
A couple of thoughts;
Why did Ryles go with 3 backs on the bench?
No punch off the bench in 2nd half
10 mistakes in the second half is way too many; this resulted in zero field position in second half; if it wasn’t for for our great defence, the dogs would have scored 50
We need 80 mins performances v soon to lift us out of wooden spoon contention
Hand was abit forced with the bench, Moretti, tuivaiti and Patterson all ruled out for the top side, Mataele and Grieg were both missing from cup.
We had 2 Ron Massey players starting at prop for the cup side and I think ryles preferred running a hooker and second rower on the bench over a 3rd lock forward.
No live notes today, watched the game late.
I wanted to see how our young players handled the atmosphere, and I wanted to see our structures and middle defence continue to improve.
First 10 mins Smith and Iongi weren’t great. The intercept to Burton, I don’t know where that pass from Smith was going? Smith then threw another shocker to no one. Iongi gave away a dud set restart and his timing was off on several runs. But he came right back into it and was really good.
The Doorey HIA was a blessing in disguise. Junior’s second stint was outstanding.
Walker was good again as was Lomax. Russell actually looked decent in defence as well (offered nothing in attack) and Katonga has improved. Still not totally convinced though.
I was relieved to see Moses stretch out for the try after his hamstring issues last week. But for the second week in a row, he didn’t really challenge the defence much. Brown was average.
I wasn’t expecting a win, so overall happy with the way they played tough, understandably running out of gas late.
(Sutton’s wildly inconsistent ruck didn’t help)
Ryles gets credit for the development. A lot more ticks than crosses, especially given the squad he has been dealt.. BUT. It was really disappointing to see Penisini walk straight back into the side, telling him he is an automatic pick and he just shouldn’t be. First half he misses his assignment and Lomax has to knock a ball down. Two plays later Burton went back to the same spot and Penisini again took no one and it would t be the last time he was MIA. He has our two best players protecting him in defence and they simply have no room for error.
Brown is suspended next game for accident with referee today
Interesting to see who plays 5/8’?
Volkmans been playing good at cup level and digging into the line
Joash hasn’t looked great at 5/8 as he has had minimal experience there
Who should we use to replace brown? Hawkins is a specialist #7 not #6 …
I’d give Twidle a crack.
I thought there was a really solid effort today …. but it is very difficult to win with only 40% of possession.
The doggies were very good. Almost mistakeless. We needed to get better at that ourselves and better at applying some pressure to get repeat sets.
The experiment of using Joash as a second dummy half has yet to prove worthwhile. My problem with it is, that he is a potential match winner. So he needs to be somewhere where he gets the ball with an ounce of space … not dummy half … and not coming on with only 12 minutes (or whatever) to play. If Rylie needs a spell, and I can understand that, move Dylbags to d half and play Joash at 5/8 for the final ten + minutes of both halves Yes i know about the rotation problem
Sorry John and Craig! if you’ve been saying these same things on the Tip Sheet, my personal program has not yet allowed me to get to it.
Hopgood and Penisini have become frustrating liabilities in a side that can’t afford passengers.
Both are slow, one-dimensional players who consistently halt any momentum the team builds. Whether it’s Hopgood’s robotic hit-ups that go nowhere or Penisini’s clunky defensive reads and lack of spark in attack that seems to always gravitate to the sideline, they drain energy from the group.
Sadly they seem completely incapable of adapting or elevating their games when it matters. And both always seem to ruin momentum at crucial times. They both lack finesse in the fundamentals of the game.
Forty, i thought for a while it was me being one-eyed but when we get caned in the ruck I look for what the other team is doing and you rarely if ever see any real difference. And once or twice every game Crichton cons the ref for a penalty or six again by faking interference by the tackler, he did it today by moving with the tackler who was trying to roll away from him…B grade milking and I thought ‘Sutton won’t buy that’ but sure enough, he did. Crichton also continually walks forward off the mark. And the bunker..‘Kickau runs through shoulder to shoulder’ he did with the Eel on his left but Moses on his right gets pushed with both hands, no try scored so nobody cares about a penalty.
We just made too many second half errors versus a solid team being lousy about not returning the favour. Disappointing but you can see a foundation for better days.
We are really light on middles, we are constantly kicking from our 30m line, you can’t win footy doing that.
One criticism of our coaches (who are doing a good job but a few areas in im not sure about)..
Every time we take in a light bench and there’s no real middles besides just Paulo
We get absolutely smashed regarding field position and can’t make a dint it seems like
Billy slater also did the same thing as Ryles in origin 1 game
Lots of lighter backs and forwards all across the starting 17 and just got monstered up the middle
My understanding is that the trend of the game at the minute is speed alone is not more important than possession and power
Panthers have not had the fastest team in the comp but won the comp 4 X in a row – now the dogs coach looks to have duplicated the same systems and strategy’s at the dogs
The bulldogs and warriors play a very simple game plan they hold the ball and kick to corners + execute the best kick chase in the game
I understand & agree speeds important to be in the top 8 but the bulldogs have so much more to forward than us that it looked like we were stuck in the mud
We looked a lot better holding more forwards on the bench we can’t one our best back rower playing prop every week, and then not hold one other specialist prop on the bench either
The whole “defence wins games” things is true but you also need yardage and field position
We also need to consider starting Matto over Hopgood, Will Peninsi is also out of from in terms of errors, not sure what you do here but we literally collapse from the handling errors these blokes do every single game in bad parts of the field
If Ryles names these same players in the starting 13 next game + names another light bench with no go forward, I feel like you can guarantee we won’t win just by going off past results whenever we’ve done it
Our most impressive games were VS knights and manly, and in both of those games we carried additional middles on the bench, and coincidentally* will & Hopgood played minimal roles on those games
If the pattern is we lose or get dominated shortly will and Hopgood make errors, and we never win or look our best with a lighter bench?
Surely there’s a pattern here and Jason Ryles & co must address this. If majority of us arm chair spectaculars have identified this pattern, you would hope Jason is ready to make some tough adjustments
Billy slater said in a presser recently doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is stupidity more or less, then shortly after the news dropped DCE lost his origin jeresy
I know Jason’s got limited options in this roster but I honestly can’t see us progressing this season until we assess these few key areas that are literally costing us games almost every week
How can we win games if our bench is ultra light, we only have one real middle in the staring 17?
How can we win when our lock and centre knock on every game and we capitulate shortly after every afterwards?
Teams are noted as having their highest completion rates against us. This is not just due to soft tackling. It’s largely because teams game plan is to just hold the ball and get to the kick, wait for parramatta to self destruct with errors
I’ve literally heard post match analysis from players staying the plan is just to hold the ball. You don’t need to do trick shots on us … teams know a few of our players are good for a few knock ons or forward passes in our own half every game
If we don’t address this we keep on losing – a team with Dylan Brown and Mitch Moses should not be coming second last, cut out the errors in our own half and those guys deliver you wins
And Williams is going to waste NOT being on that edge, he is going to waste playing prop, our attack looks far better with Williams on a edge
Keep hearing Reed Mahoney will be playing somewhere else next season. Last night looked like he was auditioning for the NFL. How could a pass that forward not be picked up?
I’m tired of reading/listening about refereeing decisions but it seems we haven’t had a fair crack with officials since Kevin Roberts.
Watched the game a second time when my son got home late. Probably more impressed that we held the Doggies out for as long as we did in the second half than when I watched it live. As people have stated, we’re probably a player or three away from becoming a regular winning team.
I don’t understand what has happened to Hopgood, from Origin a little while back to now. Has that Origin injury affected him more than we thought. I don’t know but he has become a liability. He knows it too, you can see the look on his face when he knocks on again. Perhaps the confidence is shot. As soon as he knocked on last night all I thought about were Muz’s comments over the last wee while.
Finally, in a game like last night Josh is wasted coming on late and into dummy half. I’m not sure the best way to use him but that is not it. Doggies had so much ball the forwards weren’t really tired, meaning no gaps.
I could not keep listening to this after the first few minutes were all about the bad officiating.
We were horrible in so many aspects.
Hopgood needs a rest in nsw cup. His leg speed and missed tackles and general play mistakes are not first grade standard.
Kelma is not a 60 minute player let alone 80 and he looked gases before he was taken off and that was too late as he missed a bad tackle.
His leg speed and lateral movement is also only suited to the midddle not an edge.
Papalli defence is not ready for nrl yet and that has been shown in his nsw cup games when he played five eight.
Riley Smith 58 tackles in 66 minutes, incredible and our defensive line looked a lot worse when he came off.
Russel a very good game against Chrichton
We are two forwards and a centre off being a top 8 side.
Forty look in our own back yard before unloading on the refs it’s becoming a boring easy get out.
So the game was scripted by everyone including Fox commentators for the bulldogs to win???
So did the script make the eels have
38 missed tackles
29 ineffective tackles
16 errors
6 penalties
400 post contact metres compared to dogs 700
We blew this game with our own performance and mistakes and we as supporters should own that not blame it as a narrative that was being followed by the nrl community and officials
Nobody was beating the NRL narrative. The media set the scene, build up the game, hyped intro, hype the crowd, betting markets. One of superleagues favourite teams is on the rise. Couldn’t script it any better
Bulldogs played well for 80min.
We played well in the first half. Second half too many dumb errors. We knew the game was within reach but the harder you try….
Six-again-Sutton. Is this guy for real?
Dylan Brown suspended is a blessing in disguise. Brown is on $1.1 Million how hes got away with it makes Ronny Biggs look an amateur.
Brown and Russell have been good in defence but are ineffective with the ball. Last week the Panthers did the same thing with Russell. To’o rushed in on Russell because he can’t pass or step, doesnt break tackles and is easily wrapped up. Russell tries hard but IS NOT 1st grade with the ball but has improved in defence and now holds his own in defence. If you look at Farnworth, Best, Kris, Crichton, Iro, Staggs etc etc. There’s probably only 1 centre as bad with the ball and that’s Will..We need to face facts. When was the last time Will, Russell or Brown won us a game? I’m struggling to think of one?
Hopgood, we look better when he’s off and it’s clear he knows that. Something is wrong. He’s a gun player but he’s misfiring at the moment..
I feel Moses has been effected by playing 2nd fiddle to Cleary. It would naturally knock his confidence. But he’ll bounce back. He’s still been solid but not tearing it up. I’ll be glad when Origin is over.
What makes you think Brown is on 1.1m?
Gents, I love your work and appreciate all of the effort and quality content – just one request – please turn 40’s mic up or 60’s mic down – the levels are so far out that I listen with one hand on the volume button.
Forty’s volume button definitely needs to be turned up, its very difficult to hear Forty, in fact comes across muffled.
No need to go over the mistakes and missed tackles. We know who the players are that are not firing.
The problem is that these mistakes gave the Dogs the possession and us the fatigue that determined the score.
Being on the wrong side of the stats tells the story 47/52 v our 25/37. 399 tackles v 304, penalties 6-3 against.
Yet we were still in it on the scoreboard with 10 to go.
I knew we were ready to stand up and have a crack at them and the team didn’t disappoint there,
It would be nice to see fewer refereeing mistakes against us but even the Dogs had howlers go against them.
The forwards were beaten up by too much work but stuck to the task.
The missed tackle by Hopgood that got the Dogs a try in front proved to be the last straw.
The positives.
Ryley Smith is the form hooker in the comp at the moment.
Isaiah Iongi has become a great defender as well as a great runner. Now he needs to add playmaker to his list and he will be the complete player.
I’m confident that we win more than we lose from here on.
Two byes, Titans and Dragons before we play Penrith and we could be on 20 points.
That will be the test. Beat the Broncos and Newcastle and at least two of the Raiders, Storm, Cowboys, Warriors, Roosters and Rabbits and we could sneak into the finals.
After losing to the Bulldogs I am confident our season for the semis is over. They played well against the Doggies but you can’t win a game without the ball. That and some many handling errors kills the confidence of the team. Hopgood – needs a rest – I cannot recall a bloke dropping the ball so consistently. Oh, I can – Shaun Lane. They tried hard against the odds and their defence from the start of the year is really good. As for Sutton – I have watched him over the years and have wondered why he is so highly rated. Is it really just Parra the referees make do many howlers and they do. The referees have ruined the game for the fans. There is an obvious answer. Referees should take charge of the game like it’s an origin. What a difference that would make. We can’t always blame the referees but if only they could just be consistent
Good observations on Sutton.
He is an obsessive 6 again caller, where other referees are more discerning.
It seems to me there are obvious favourites in the appointments process.
Further to that the 6 again process was introduced to quicken the game rather than slow it down with penalties. Refs need to take a look at their decisions in hindsight and ask, would they have blown a penalty instead of the six again if there was no 6 again rule.
This goes further into the bunker where they are loathe to upset a “buddy” ref out on the field. Maybe we should have retired referees only in the bunker.
This whole process implies a poor level of management and if Abdo is scared to upset incumbents he should appoint an independant arbitrator who can keep the bastards honest.
How are our centres in pathways any one that can do better then Penisi
I forgot to add…
Dylan brown our “running 5/8” only had 3 runs that game
27 run meters
You can’t honestly expect to have a good game hens your clubs second highest paid player and spike member offered virtually zero in attack
The eels look their best when the halves are playing a running game and defenders have to tighten up around them which then creates opportunities and spaces outside of them
We have gone fully away from our halves running as part of the attacking systems
Is this the coaches? Or is this Dylan and Moses preserving themselves for different reasons?
Dylan’s not gone 110% since the knee injury, Moses also looks like he’s saving himself for origin
Maybe I’m wrong but they got out played by Matt Burton – imagine somebody telling you a year or two ago Matt Burton would be looking more effective as a half than Moses and brown
Howard the new coaches have Moses playing is not suiting his game either … is this a preservation strategy to limit chances of him being injured? (Like him losing goal kicking duties?) .,.
Either way it’s not like halves can dominate when the forwards get smashed and can’t gain meters
But I’m personally not a fan of the fact we have a top 3 (previously) halves combo who’s strong suit is running the ball … yet we see basically none of it
What’s happening there? I think there’s way more to consider here than just blame refs, lol 😅
Muz, agree I think Brown was worried about Galvin coming and him being shipped off. Brown, good in defence but has gone back into his shell. Brown is on $1.1Million and is playing like a rookie. That sends negatives into the team.
Moses a bit injured and also it would impact negatively being put into 6 and playing a back seat to Cleary when Moses lead NSW to a career defining win.
Our defence has improved generally. Our errors are mostly unforced errors and just dumb.
The Bulldogs were great.
Burton, Sexton were on notice with Galvin signing and they had their best games! That put Mahoney on the outer and he was subbed off. If you saw him in the sheds on his own he’s the odd man out and most likely go to Cowboys.
Six-again-Sutton is hopeless.
Russell and Will I like them but they aren’t good enough.
Brown suspended is good news. But I don’t think Laui was charged? I could be wrong he did the same thing and then patted the ref afterwards.
Pete good points you are probably right both of them playing hard because Galvin is sniffing down their necks for halves spot in that team
There’s no way in any shape or form is brown providing $1.2 million dollars worth of service as a spine player to the parramatta eels unfortunately
You are right though mate our defence has improved out of site
None of BA’s teams could defend the try line like that for so long
I’m convinced Jason and his assistants have not got our attack improved yet due to the errors we regularly see
But there’s clearly better defensive systems in place and the boys are a lot better condition than last year to grind it out against teams and stay in the fight
We had up amongst the best defence in the comp I think for the last 4-5 games in a row
Muz, you are overthinking the problem. You think it is a game of chess and all the players have predetermined roles.
The dogs forwards dominance combined with the errors made it impossible for the halves, Dyllan had no real opportunities…… the reason was the dogs coach, he saw what happened against Penrith the previous week where DB’s and MM’s passing speed cut up the Penrith backline defence. It genuinely surprised Cleary (coach) and he turned around and there for off at half time. You all saw the results!
Carildo was totally awake to it and he has the best defensive centre and game reader in the comp with Critter to help with his execution as well as the enormous advantage of Parra errors.
Its no coincidence that Carildo was singly responsible for developing Penrith’s defence.
He certainly worked us out.
Its not necessarily bad coaching on our part, but brilliant coaching from the dogs. Ryles possibly learnt a great deal from experience that sides may have been coasting against Parra and now realise that they are dangerous and be coached against that in recognition.
The fact is he had Moses long kicks worked out (no surprises there) and Moses needs to come up with some new kicking skills to combat it.
He also had Lomax marked out of every high ball, as did Cleary (coach) from the week before.
The success of Penrith and now shaping with the dogs is not the least being the strategic thinking of their respective coaches.
The number of times the Dogs harassed us out of wide ball movement was noticeable, including a good dose of split second foils, where the difference between success and failure was a nanosecond. Xerri is underrated and also makes good calls on hold or pass.
Clearly we need to give Wiremu Greig a run, starting. For some reason JR clearly lacks faith on him and he’s not agile on defence but he’s an old fashioned metre gainer, a dead set prop who loves the rough stuff. He’d allow Jack to start on the edge, where he’s outstanding, rather than in the centre, where he struggles. We should play Walker at 6 while Dylan’s out and think about leaving him there. We have Simonssen soon to return, which will stiffen the centres, and big Sam not too far off adding size to the bench. And Hawkins is way too good to be playing Cup.
You’re joking. He goes good for 5 minutes then the yellow warning light comes on.
Don’t know why he’s been here 4 or 5 seasons unbelievable
Noel he gets gassed after just running on to the field, lol 😅
He runs hard though
Luca Moretti is out for four weeks with some kind of problem Big lost
Luca Moretti is out for four weeks with some kind of leg problem, huge loss!!
That’s bad news!
Ray I think we really missed Moretti. We lacked his go forward.
If we are fair dinkum about winning a premiership in the next five years with Moses here we need to land a massive fish. I’d throw the absolute cheque book at Payne hass if he becomes available.
Two things I can’t understand
1. Jack Williams is our best right edge backrower by a mile and is a 80 minute player. Your backrowers need the ability to play 80 in the modern game. Kelma just outright battles to do that so why is he a starting option.
2. Dylan walker is the best 13 at the club. With Hopgood so out of form why can’t he be dropped and walker start. If walker needs a break use papali for 20 or so I think he would actually be dangerous there in attack with his straight out ball running with elite footwork. Kurt Mann opened the game up for the dogs yesterday when he came on
Out of our two 13’s at the moment only one of them is working