'11 | R10 | Fri | Bulldogs 10-15 Dragons | ANZ

[Gaba]

I still cant believe their first try was allowed

what about the forward pass for the dogs first try how did the refs miss that i dont know

 

[Mong]

Maybe I'm not making any real point. I just thought that the composure and mental strength they have become known for was not there. Last year after rep games they still managed to maintain their defensive structure and composure for long periods of the game. That was the standard.

Wasn't it a little after rep games last year when Saints fell away a bit and you clowns jumped on the they are choking bandwagon?

The bitterness displayed by the likes of you and Danish makes the Dragons continuing success even more enjoyable

 

[Timmah]

IMO a spine of Keating, Hodgkinson and Ennis will not be able to score enough points against the top sides. The Bulldogs have little variety or spark in attack besides Barba and believe it or not Corey Payne's offloads.

Keating tries hard and is a wholehearted player but he doesn't have a creative bone in his body, while Hodgkinson does have a good kicking game but rarely runs to the line or puts the defense in two minds. Ennis, well enough has already been said about him, flat and one dimensional at best.

Something I noticed is that when Ennis went off vs Parramatta in R6, our attack exploded with Barba playing a bit of a hybrid role in hooker/5-8th. He's lethal in either of those positions and it showed that night.

 

[Jason Maher]

Lol@spanner. No idea at all.

Now I've had a chance to watch the game, the Dogs weren't as poor in the first half as the radio made it sound, and the same for us in the second. The Dogs simply had no ball in the first, and we were out on our feet in the second. High quality game all-round.

I said before the game that the Dogs hadn't aimed up against the better sides this year. Well they certainly did last night. A credit to them.

As for the contentious decisions, whether or not Scott was held is at the refs' discretion. He wasn't on the ground already, so the "place a hand on the player to effect a tackle" doesn't apply, and the arm and ball were elevated, so that doesn't apply either. Personally I think it was touch and go. I wouldn't have whinged if they called it up, and I'm certainly not going to whinge at my team being awarded a try. On the Keating try, I thought Payne's offload was forward, but you see so many let go every week, and it was such a brilliant effort fully deserving of a try, I don't care. Idris was onside and didn't lose control of it.

As for the 7 tackles to the dogs thing, the rule is a knock-back is not a zero tackle, but obviously the refs called it a knock-on. Hardly worth bringing up.

 

[jimmythehand]

it was a great game, but as for the dogs playing well, in my mind they were pretty much terrible. Their defensive structure was absolutely brilliant which kept them in the game, but so many negatives which leaves a lot of room for improvement

* Arm grabbing one on one instead of tackling lead to a lot of half breaks/offloads
* Eastwood is fat and unfit. If we get him primed our team is SO much better
* Complete stage fright when we got in the Dragons 20. Every time we went there it was wasted - Barba's double movement, forwards taking hit ups on the 4th tackle. Also we created an overlap once because Morris came in on Idris, but Barba still passed it to Idris instead of the unamrked winger. Our option taking was horrendous. We improve that we score more points. And there is a hell of a lot of improvement we will make in that area of the game
* Keating holding the ball at the wrong time instead of giving early ball out wide to the likes of Idris/Barba. I can understand people knocking Keating, but if/once he gets the balance right between running and passing i think he can be quite a gun - his running will be even more effective (since defence won't just assume he will run). Let's hope he can get this balance!

There is a lot of improvement left in this Doggies team. I really hope we can get better because apart from our defensive structure I thought that was a pretty poor effort.

 

[thommo4pm]

I still cant believe their first try was allowed

I agree, the offload from Payne to Keating was half a metre forward.

 

[thommo4pm]

Really, if the Dogs couldn't beat us last night, I don't know when they will in the near future.

A lot of our guys playing their 4th game in 12 days.
Our guys have played so much footy and travelled more than any other side.
The Dogs were coming off a bye, and were fresh.
They were always going to have fresher legs in the 2nd half.
Quite a lot of our blokes playing with some injuries, notably Stanley & Creagh.

The first 40, Saints were fresh and showed the true difference in the sides.
The 2nd half we were always going to tire out.

Throw Gasnier & Fien back in to the mix also, who are vital to our attack, especially Gaz, and the score in the first half would have been a lot bigger.
A few times in the first half Scott got some good ball in space, but he doesn't have Gaz's ability with the ball in hands.

I don't think the Dogs will make the top 4, and believe they will finish where they are now on the table.
Top 4-5 will be:
Saints
Melbourne
Manly
Cowboys
Brisbane/Tigers/Warriors

 

[[FKN-SIK]]

dogs dont have enough attacking options to worry the top teams

ennis, turner, j morris are absolute geniuss. keating good runner but nothing else, hodkinson not flashy enough

if its not from barba or payne they have nothing

Turner, Morris & Keating had no troubles against your mob in round 1 :sarcasm:

http://www.rleague.com/db/content/94000/94386.php

 

[Timmah]

J Morris absolute genius?

Didn't he score a 70 metre try completely on his own against your pissweak line?

 

[Hutty1986]

Epic game of footy, well played Doggies and what a courageous effort from the Saints. Super game