Search results

56% possession and we are behind. Terrible

Can't argue with that although if he ran with Morrins motor his joints wouldn't last that long.

He's big willy 2.0+. Left the Dogs to pursue boxing only to return to play for a rival team. The only difference is that big willy left boxing before a single fight.

In terms of halves (and leaders) absolutely 100%. In terms of FB Barba 2012 was our last great FB, right up there with our greatest FBs Johns, Davies, McGrady, Potter and Brentnall. The latter 3 along with Barba all won either Dally M or Rothmans Player of the year.

Yes indeed. It was consistently a top 5 school in the state back in the day and we were one of the few schools who were taught to always give up our seats for adults on the bus and train.

Barba, Lamb and Mortimer had the footy smarts to regularly know when and where to attack as well as their physical prowess. We have not had any player of that calibre in the spine for over a decade.

It's the ref's self fulfilling prophecy. They expect the big name teams to win so when the game is close the underdogs must be breaking the rules so it's time for the "hero" ref to leave their mark on the game.

His whole career. He wasn't known as 3rd man Thaiday for nothing.

at least we won the 2nd half. i didn't see the match - just followed the score on the NRL and the comments on TK. Was it the riff playing too good or the dogs playing bad?

Spot on. I remember our entire forward pack was injured at various times in the first half of that season and when they returned our backline got injured. It was a spooky mirror of our defending premiership side in 81.

yes just like in 86 to stop us winning a three-peat.

Sadly it seems that over the last 2 decades a number of our best and most high profile charismatic players left on bad terms - Big Willie, SBW, Barba. Our current assistant coach was writing new articles back in 2012 that our blocks were illegal as well.

Barba was amazing that year. The top 4 individual years I've seen for the Dogs over 40 years was 1979 Mortimer, 1991 McGrady and Jonathan Davies and 2012 Barba. A shame that Melbourne contained him in the GF.

Agree. 2012 we were the best in the comp withe Barba on fire our attack was near unstoppable. 2014 without Barba our attack was clunky and we were reliant on defense, fighting spirit and field goals to get by a number of games. I felt we underachieved in 2012 and way overachieved in 2014.

2012 was one that got away for sure. The Dogs were the best team that year by far

Yes but in 79 we had the great Steve Mortimer at his peak who ran riot in the months leading into the play offs to get the Dogs into 5th place and then went up another gear in the finals. He scored two brilliant long range solo tries against Cronulla in the knock out semi and then another...

plus uncle nick has a spare ferrari for him off the books

3 - Kikau 2 - Kiraz 1 - Mahoney

>"more players have to be able to play that organising and creative role" Spot on. Our legendary entertainers of the late 70s to early 80s scored the majority of the tries with their backline. The whole team then knew how to support each other and look and pass. We should be focusing on...

Kurt Mann is in our top 17 comfortably

I agree with your comment on forwards like AFB, JFH or Haas and dominating halves being over-priced. We've only got 1 big middle forward in Hughes in our starting 13, King at 105kg is medium size for a prop. I never said the bench has to be 4 forwards and have said previously a utility player...

It gives Taffee a trial run at 7 off the bench and a way out for the coach. If he drops Taffee from first grade then he's admitting he got it wrong at FB in the pre season. If he replaces Hutch from the starting side so quickly he's admitting he got the HB wrong in the pre season.

We finally have a FB in Tracey that has acceleration and passing skills so we can attack early in the set in the opponents half rather than 5 hit ups, bomb on the last and hope for the best.

Halligan is more consistent and accurate and his misses are near misses. From memory he had a lower percentage before he came to the Dogs where he peaked. Hazem's kick has a bigger hook to it which results in more misses from the right touchline.

Mortimer and Lamb - I think the greatest halves combination in terms of strike rate statistically over the last 50 years. Played 5 years together, the team made 4 GF and won 3 premierships - 80% GF appearance, 60% GF win over their time together. By comparison Sterlo and Kenny played 13 years...

91 was a sensational backline considering Matt Ryan was the least decorated in that backline and he was a top class player and I think one of our best centre wingers of the last 50 years. Watch the highlights of Davies on youtube and it's staggering how quick and great he was - he looks like...

The term "human race" is a misnomer. There is only one human race - we are all humans, our only difference is our ethnicity. This simple fact should be taught at primary school and maybe that would go a long way to eliminate the "racist" elements in our society.

This generation is soft as. As an asian kid growing up here in the 70's and 80's I faced a lot of racism but I learnt quickly to stand up and defend myself when it was needed. It toughens you up mentally and physically and the bullies and rednecks soon learn not to mess around.

NRL players can learn about work ethics from 16 year old kids on minimal wage working in far more dangerous workplaces such as butcher shops and KFC kitchens. One slip in those work places and you can lose an arm, suffer serious burns and some have died.

I doubt this will be done in the NRL. They need an additional system external to the ball to track the players to detect when the ball was passed which then has to communicate with the sensor inside the ball. This means EVERY pass in the game has to be tracked, evaluated at real time and notify...

There is a big difference between tracking soccer balls and rugby league forward passes. The velocity of the soccer player is irrelevant. The velocity of the rugby league player IS relevant. How would the sensor know when the ball is being carried and when it is being passed? A lot of soccer...

I'm not complaining. Plenty of teams have scored against us with blatant forward passes over the last few years.

Connor did great on the weekend. He timed his runs and angles perfectly and threw the money ball to set up the Kiraz and Fox tries.

Well spotted. Watching it slow mo first time it's hard to see as the knights player obscures most of fox's left foot. Would have been better if we scored this try against NRL ref's favourites Manly and Brisbane.

They still need to track and record the velocity of the player who threw the ball and calculate it - all done at real time. Then there is the issue of tech related faults, bugs, outages etc and then relaying that info to the ref - all in real time. The game will become like NFL with all the...

The bunker will be guessing as the forward velocity of the player passing the ball needs to be calculated to determine if the pass was thrown forward. The most simple way to judge a forward pass is to get more linesmen so they can be in a better position to see if the throwing motion of the...

ti It evened out in this game. Mahoney's pass to Xerri's try was blatantly forward but it was about time we got lucky with the ref.

Is Teddy retiring?

Turbo and Fatrell will be the centres rather than Critta

Burton's big boot is a huge plus when we are stuck at our end but its at the other end in the attacking zone where he has often gone quiet.

at full strength with King, Hughes, Mahoney, Kikau, Preston, Mann and Curran on the bench that's a decent mobile pack. Just need a couple of decent consistent big boppers on the bench alongside Curran.

I remember when Taaffe was playing for Souths he tore our defence a number of times in that game.

all the matches are free on youtube the next day

Origin is a nothing burger but a cesspool for injuries - I only watch that PR machine for the biff these days and don't care who wins. The dogs army should start a riot so the NRL can ban the dogs from Origin for years to come.

Spot on as I called it last week on TK so I'm very happy he's on the bench. The coach would be a fool to replace Tracey with Taaffe. If Taaffe succeeds at 7 then the only possible long term role I see for Hutch in the team is to play the link man at lock like Radley and Yeo.

I was too young to see Reg as well but he was a famous old boy from my high school.

I think he'll be a top 5 centre in the comp and probably the fastest by the end of the year if he maintains motivation and stays injury free.

Which Gasnier? Mark or his immortal uncle? Xerri has more explosive acceleration than Mark

It's a global phenomenon. Those in power never want to admit they were wrong so they'll just double down aka "sunk cost fallacy". Just ask Netanyahu or comedian president Z.

Yes. The penny has finally dropped with CC. Blake to replace Hutch at 7 when CC realises there is next to no creativity there and the other side has been softened up.

No Sutton so we have a chance. Plus Tracy at FB and Taaffe on the banch like I hoped for. Maybe the penny has dropped for the coach and Taaffe comes on for Hutch.

Taffe can be a "utility" off the bench covering HB, 5/8 or FB

Starting Taafe at HB would be the better choice but most coaches if not all don't want to admit they got it wrong even though it was clear after a couple of games that Hutch wasn't up to it. So I think putting Taafe on the bench is an each way bet for the coach.

Tracey at FB The coach won't drop Hutch so Taaffe on the bench. When our attack stalls he can put Taaffe on to replace Hutch. If Taaffe outperforms Hutch as expected the coach can declare he's a genius and drop Hutch the next game.

Xerri is our best attacking centre by a mile

Tracey at FB and Taffe at HB

Kikau + Xerri + Fox. What a combination. If only we had NRL standard halves to consistently give them quality ball. If Xerri can kick on from where he left off he'll be our best attacking centre in a decade.

a big difference is Xerri is as quick as Howland but much bigger

Any idea why our supercoach put Xerri in reserve grade for the first few weeks when it was clear that he was the fastest centre in the club?

Taaffe is a better HB than Hutch.

yes we finally have a 7 that can run and pass. Plus keep Xerri in the centres and move Kiraz to the wing.

>"won both half of 40 min" explain how we won the 2nd half when they outscored us 26-4

The one that lost the election coz he couldn't explain what parts of a cake included his GST. Funny that a PhD in Economics got outsmarted by a school leaver in Keating.

Yep. The one that lost the unlosable election to Keating.

The dogs are the Dr Hewson of the NRL

He's never had explosive acceleration and top speed. I think his biggest strengths are his footy brain in reading the opposition that enables him to come up with big moments in big games, his positioning and his will to win.

coz our team is very shhhhiiiittee

Chooks scored 4 tries down a man and another try down 2 men. Disgrace.

Dr Hewson warming up his infamous trophy for the dogs

they could if it was against 11 women... but only just

the dogs to do a dr hewson

another year and our team is still shite. A 12 man team scores 20 unanswered point against us in 20 minutes. disgrace

You're right that Flanno is shite as I've been saying that before he came to the Dogs. However Burton has been given plenty of chances and he still hasn't aimed up. Last week against Souths he had plenty of chances in the red zone and came up with nothing. Sure we still don't have a good HB but...

This may be the only chance our halves have to score. If you can't score in Vegas.....

He should but most likely he'll last the full 5 seasons at this club unless Gus is willing to have egg on his face and sack him early and the club pays him out millions of $.

No. We need at least 2 big bopper props

True but the difference is our club have been paying those players to score or set up the points

Buzz is stating the obvious. Our attack in the red zone is crap. All of our halves options would struggle to score in a brothel.

Yes I think Tracey at FB, Taffe at HB. Hutch is far too slow does not have the creativity to setup the try Taffe did against Souths. Surely Xerri has to come in at centre and Kiraz switch to Tracey's wing spot.

NRL refs go the some training school as the WWE

>" Taaffe can also pass to a player, not throw the ball behind them" Spot on about the passing. Our team still cannot regularly throw clean spiral passes that land just in front of the player's chest.

The problem with our attack is the overuse of these predictable block plays which rarely works because our passing is so crap and slow. The best sides have clean spiral passes which land in front of the receiver while ours are wobbly, slow passes that prevents our receivers from catching them at...

I'm over this long overused block play decoy inside shoulder outside shoulder crap. The defence should haven't to put with decoy runners obscuring their vision and running into them. In every game I've seen players getting the ball on the inside shoulder behind the decoy and the ref does nothing...

They have the two dirtiest players in the comp - Fattrel and Cody Wanker

He rearranged Manu's face a few seasons ago in a similar way

Fattrel is a protected species - politically incorrect to send him off for foul play

What do these guys practice at training?

We've had the worst attack in the comp for over a decade. Nothing changes

Our attack in the red zone sucks

Sutton souths best player as usual

Typical dirty souths players

Tons of forward passes from dummy half and short forward passes are missed by the ref and the tv commentators each round. Mahoney threw one a metre forward in the play before he scored from dummy half in our last match - one of the very few times a blind ref call went our way.

Harry Grant learnt this from the master of them - Cameron Smith.

Sutton to win the bunnies man of the match award.

Titans have mastered desball already

If Sutton is the ref the real world odds for souths is 1.01

I don't think Johnson is as fast as what they say he is. I remember the game when he had a flying start and kicked the ball ahead of our FB BMoz who had to turn around and chase and he beat Johnson to the ball comfortably.

No you have missed the point of my OP. Wilson's "higher ceiling" you refer to is not a statement of fact but your opinion. The fact is no NRL club would choose Wilson over Fox on current ability and form and any other tangible measure. Fox if he returns from injury and remains healthy would be...

You are ignoring the reality of the situation. Fox and Wilson are on the current payroll and so it's obvious out of them who should be in the team first.

Fox at his current level is still far superior to Wilson. You want to debate that? Put it the test - if both were on the open market how many clubs would choose Wilson over Fox and offer him the same salary as Fox? The answer is obvious.