Penrith Panthers V the lot that stole our song, & claimed it as their own (bulldogs)

[OldPanther]

No worries Old Panther. I'm angry too. Mainly angry that we hired Ivan back when we could have had Hasler, Bennett, Sheens or Maguire. All coaches with a better record than Dave's mate. Todays game was a perfect wikipedia entry for "Dave's Mate's Coaching Style" and "N Cleary's halfback prowess". Put the two together and you get sh%t on a stick.

The fact we could've had Bennett is just disgusting. We'd probably be top 4 lol.

 

[herbert henry1908]

This idea that Cleary is just going to step up and be an attacking half when Maloney is out the door is fanciful.

I honestly can’t see how anyone could arrive at that view.

 

[Pomoz]

With ten minutes to go in the second half and after we had another fruitless repeat set inside the Bulldogs 20, I came to the conclusion that the entire Bulldogs team including the bench, could actually be put in the sin bin and we would still fail score.

 

[age.s]

What a pedestrian performance. We made the Dogs look like Melbourne.

Nathan will get (and deserve) crap for offering absolutely nothing, but honestly next to no aspects of our attack look good. We crab all the time. We never have players in motion when spreading it. Opponents never have to make difficult decisions on who to tackle because we just send guys one out to be easily covered. Players like To'o and Edwards are quick and bring the ball back strongly but are invisible whenever our forwards get their hands free. I don't really rate Nathan but there's a much larger team structure issue here.

Naden looks like he's going to be a guy who can bomb a try out of nothing as often as he scores one. Great pickup for our only try but follows it up with an atrocious miss. Keep it simple ffs.

Luai on the bench is still stupid. Neither hooker had a great game but I've no idea how they're supposed to get any rhythm when they're being rotated so much. We went, Kenny > Egan > Luai > Kenny. Did I miss an injury or two?

Our middle was strong as usual. Outside backs got the job done coming out of our own end. The platform is being laid time and time again.

RCG had a very good game. I'm sure that's completely unrelated to the fact that he's suddenly in the shop window...

And yes, their first try was off a blatantly forward pass, but we had enough ball in attacking areas to win several games.

 

[GongPanther]

Last week's loss was tolerable. This loss was more than a loss IMO. I'll give the reason why tomorrow.

 

[OldPanther]

Last week's loss was tolerable. This loss was more than a loss IMO. I'll give the reason why tomorrow.

Great now I'm curious haha. The suspense!

 

[age.s]

This idea that Cleary is just going to step up and be an attacking half when Maloney is out the door is fanciful.

I honestly can’t see how anyone could arrive at that view.

It needs to be Luai.

I could see it happening. With a team running straight and bending the line he could be deadly. He has outstanding feet/agility. Like Johnson prior to his injuries.

He needs more game time though. Full 80 minutes games where he needs to produce the twinkle toes and close a game after tackling for 75 minutes. Do it week in, week out.

 

[OldPanther]

It needs to be Luai.

I could see it happening. With a team running straight and bending the line he could be deadly. He has outstanding feet/agility. Like Johnson prior to his injuries.

He needs more game time though. Full 80 minutes games where he needs to produce the twinkle toes and close a game after tackling for 75 minutes. Do it week in, week out.

Yeah being on the bench is killing him

 

[lsta5838]

Really dissapointing loss, but would rather drop a few now and build again for run in finals. Very interesting comment from DWZ about people that will listen to him while at fullback in defense.

 

[mxlegend99]

This idea that Cleary is just going to step up and be an attacking half when Maloney is out the door is fanciful.

I honestly can’t see how anyone could arrive at that view.

Our side hasnt improved since Jimmy arrived. It won't get any worse when he leaves either.

Nathan survived a couple of years with Carty, May, Moylan and TMM changing in the halves. No half before him has had a better finals success rate. Well when we missout this year that could change I suppose. But people are acting as though we wont be a top 8 team without Jimmy. Yet we were arguably better before he arrived. 2016 is still thepeak of our attack in the past 5 seasons.

 

[Vicpanther]

Sharks just ended our season.

 

[age.s]

Did anyone else catch Hopoate slamming the head of a player without the ball (Edwards) violently into the ground a few seconds after he f**ked up by passing to one of our players? He's got enough of his father in him. Grub.

Does that count as a 'late hit' NRL?

 

[franklin2323]

Playing whats in fron of you works when you have a stud like Moylan or 2016 Jimmy but that guy is LONG gone

Or Bryce or Peachey. Worked in 2014 and 2016 for that reason but now it just doesn't work. Not sure it will going forward either

 

[franklin2323]

Sharks just ended our season.

We brought it on ourselves

 

[franklin2323]

Maloney has glaring weaknesses in his game but the fact is even at the end of his career Maloney is a better attacking half and it’s not close, I think Maloney has been up and down for us during his time here but at least he tries to do something every week, it’s a shame we never got him earlier on but it is what it is.

That is it. One we have for 4 more years one for 5 more games. Neither is performing

 

[herbert henry1908]

Our side hasnt improved since Jimmy arrived. It won't get any worse when he leaves either.

Nathan survived a couple of years with Carty, May, Moylan and TMM changing in the halves. No half before him has had a better finals success rate. Well when we missout this year that could change I suppose. But people are acting as though we wont be a top 8 team without Jimmy. Yet we were arguably better before he arrived. 2016 is still thepeak of our attack in the past 5 seasons.

2016 was almost all Moylan. He had 20+ try assists that year.

Im not saying we can’t make the 8 next year, I’m simply saying Nathan won’t all of a sudden switch on and start regularly creating tries. It’s not in his game.

 

[franklin2323]

The fact we could've had Bennett is just disgusting. We'd probably be top 4 lol.

No we wouldn't yet but would be next year. We will get the spoon next year unless big changes happen

 

[Vicpanther]

Did anyone else catch Hopoate slamming the head of a player without the ball (Edwards) violently into the ground a few seconds after he f**ked up by passing to one of our players? He's got enough of his father in him. Grub.

Does that count as a 'late hit' NRL?

I mentioned that earlier. Ref was looking right at it too.

 

[kinghippo]

Sharks just ended our season.

That will be next week

 

[maple_69]

If Maloney can’t bring any sort of structure to this footy side in attack then no half is going to. It’s a coaching issue. Cleary will be fine if we address that and put a dynamic half/fullback outside/out the back. If we don’t we’ll stay towards the bottom of the 8, too talented to fall much but not good enough to break down good defensive units.

Hopefully someone makes the hard calls and not only brings in the right people to address our rubbish attack but the right marquee signings.