Dogs 3 2 1s

[Valheru]

Well fair to say that went better than the first time we played. Very tidy performance that one and I thought we were the far better team the whole night. Last time we had a chance to enter the top 4 we bottled it so pleasing we got the job done on this occasion.

I thought we played the conditions very well and our forwards were excellent bashing theirs all night. Defensively it was MUCH better with only two tries conceded with one being length of the field off that kick. Special mentions to Dom and sitilli on their tries who put themselves in positions to stop them when they had every right not not be there. They weren't able to stop them but that's the type of effort we want.

Dogs hung in there well and their defence will get them to the 8 this year but we had enough class in attack to break it down and score 4 tries.

I thought I was a very nice return from cheese culminating in that 40/29 that led directly to a try.

Very pleasing night all round

3 May - what an 80 minute effort
2 JWH - big dog set the tone early and forced tat error for our first try
1 Walker - have to reward four try assists

Could have easily given points to teddy, keary, cheese, butcher and radley as well.

In the top 4 now (but shhhh we still suck) with best attack and 3rd best defence. Importantly, we have a bye in hand on the rest of the top 7 as well. We Need to consolidate that now with home games against wests and dragons leading in to a bye. After that there is a tricky little period with games away to Melbourne, home to manly and away to dolphins (Perth) followed by another bye and then a user friendly run home of parra at home, titans away, raiders at home then souths away to finish

 

[Captain Apollo]

3 points: Jared Warea-Hargreaves. May have played less game time than Terrell May, but his time on the field was telling. He forced the error from the Bulldogs with his great, mid-riff tackle which ultimately Young scored from. He hit hard, and ran with vigour too. Consider his match stats - 15 runs for 150 metres, 62 post contact metres, 30 tackles, and 4 tackle busts.

2 points: Terrell May. A great 80 minute performance. 1 try, 3 offloads, 26 runs for 216 metres, 65 post contact metres, and 30 tackles with 0 misses. He had a great game, but for mine Jared's impact was bigger on the outcome, but Terrell was not far behind him.

1 point: Sam Walker. despite the stupid foul which got him binned, and the dumb high tackle in the first half, his 4 try assists and 4 line break assists for mine see him deserve the final point. Was mostly calm and level headed. Helped the side play to the conditions.

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

A great team effort to back up a gutsy win against Parra last week. I get nervous on wet days as we’re not a wet weather footy side given how much we like to throw the ball around and shy of a grind. We still got that yesterday of course but a lot of the passes stuck. Thought the hands in the first try was a sight to behold given poor weather.

I’m pleased to see the Cheese come back from the criticisms of the past two weeks. Shows he does care. Great 40/20 which led to a try. Also loving the vigour we’re getting from Jaz and Manu dangerous as always. Shoutout to the whole team actually. Not too bothered by the Pauga tackle. It was bad but no malice, very clumsy. Kid will rightly get punished and hopefully learn from it.

Our defence looked way better and you could’ve forgiven them for falling off tackles given the conditions. Hoping they keep up the intensity to consolidate top four before hopefully a rails-run for top two at season’s end. Not impossible given our ‘for and against’.

I’m giving Sammy my MOM. Kid was involved in everything and he played the game I was hoping to see from him (especially with stars missing) in that he’s capable of taking the reins when his more experienced halves partner finally retires. Kicked beautifully and developing into a decent goal kicker too.

3. Sammy
2. May
1. Teddy

2 games against Dogs this year in wet weather. 2 sinbins, 2 send offs, twice 13 versus 11. As a mate of mine once said, “it’s a funny ol’ game, cricket”.

 

[Headless Chook]

3. Walker
2. May
1. JWH

Very much in agreement with what has been said.

What’s the deal with the Cheese? It’s like all and sundry in the media are death riding him out of the joint to the point they are salivating at the prospect of him being punted. Maybe there’s something to it but hoping it’s just click bait nonsense.

 

[Captain Apollo]

.....

What’s the deal with the Cheese? It’s like all and sundry in the media are death riding him out of the joint to the point they are salivating at the prospect of him being punted. Maybe there’s something to it but hoping it’s just click bait nonsense.

In relation to Smith, its the old "2+2 = Orange" when it comes to the mnedia. Him "leaving to Souths" all started with speculation on NRL 360 by James Hooper. When he raised it, Hooper said it was pure speculation on his part as he'd heard nothing about it happening.

One thing that has been said is he has been dealing with some quite serious personal issues/problems. Even the News Ltd guys know about it but won't say more than that about it, as they have said that on NRL 360 themselves, whilst the SMH reportrs have reported it similarly.

 

[H.H]

3 - May
2 - Jared
1 - Walker

Thought Radley and Ted were great too.

Good point Val on the Sitili and Young chases. The other indicator was when we had 12 and then 11 players. They really put in during that time to stop any further tries and it was a great sign to me.

Tigers will be flying high after yesterday and with Olam, Klemmer and possibly Bateman back, we'll need to be on early to combat giving them any momentum and us having of of 'those' games.