Well I don't know about well-respected, but certainly a Bulldogs fan!
I can certainly confirm the connections that "Diggity" claims... And not just to the Bulldogs, but to a number of clubs in the competition, so I certainly respect his comments.
Now, while I would like to whole-heartedly protest that his prediction about the next few years is false and without foundation, there is certainly the potential for the Dogs to lose a lot of players post June-30.
As a fan, I like to think that it won't make a difference. Pragmatically, I know it probably will. We lost Pricey and it hurt us. Losing other high profile players may have the same effect. If we were to lose, for example, Asotasi, Maitua and Tonga, to name but a few, it won't have a positive effect - thats for sure. We unfortunately don't have the depth in our PL and Flegg side to bring a lot of youngsters up into the top grade. Like I said before, some of our better players from the lower grades are Phelps and Cutler, and they haven't exactly set the world on fire.
This year, again, as a fan I like to remain optimistic about our chances. However... Realistically, at the business end of the season, if players like Joey, Kimmorley, Orford, Gower, Thurston, Benji are on their game, we are going to really struggle. A lot of our season has been built on other teams not playing well. I think the exception is the Knights game, where we played well as a team. And our forwards have performed throughout the season - but as a team we just haven't been playing good footy. And the main reason is that we are lacking in the backs.
Sherwin is a very good player, but his form this year is unproven. He was awful at the end of last year, and that form carried through to the beginning of this - lets not forget he is coming back from an injury sustained while he was dropped to PL by Folksey. DJ will be an asset in the future, but he is inexperienced and prone to making mistakes - which is to be expected. I don't think he has the same level of natural talent as someone like, say, Joey or our own Sonny Bill (who has more natural talent, but is unfortunately capable of the same stupidity). The trouble is that we might be opened up towards the end of the year. I think thats where Diggity is coming from.