This sort of game is why I don't rate Sexton.

Didn't set up much with passes and kicks in the opposition red zone.

Burto made a few errors but offered plenty.

Tracey also mostly good.

Marhoney too many errors but the play for the try Turpin almost scored wasn't a bad effort. Pass was flat or forward but not the worst.

We were making plenty of dumb errors before the no try call.

We were short 2 quality middles and a centre.

In the wet it is hard to overcome losing the forwards battle.

Definitely was not a good day at the office , can't blame the team too much . The conditions and key players out a big factor tonight ..
Hopefully the bye will reset the team . Last two weeks might had taken a bit out of them ..

According to the stats Curran played 80 mins in the middle and made 60 tackles with 3 misses.

Curran started great, but understandably faded towards the end.

Critter, Kiraz, King, Mann and Preston are usually some of our better players, That is a lot of quality out of the side.

My initial thoughts are Curran, King and Hughes/Todd is our best starting middles rotation. In the wet I would have one more big body on the bench. Probably DSF.

Hayward has a passing tempo similar to Katoa and in dry conditions Taaffe might be a good 14.

We probably have the squad to finish top 4, winning the comp we still need to improve and a rainy night for a semi final will worry me.

The team look nervous about playing in the wet, we need a good win in the wet to put that to bed.

For atleast the first 65 mins the team tried hard, some parts of the last 15 mins were unacceptable and Cirro will not forget.

Credit to the Fins they played well and played tough, handled the conditions much better than we did.

I can see the Fins, Warriors, Canberra and Roosters all making the semis. Dogs, Sharks, Storm and Rabbits likely the other 4 sides.

Should that happen, it will be an intense high quality semi final series with hard to predict matches.

That also gives us an idea of how much improvement we need to find.

worst game i have ever seen Connor Tracey play in a bulldogs jersey.

We were so shit

Bring on Galvin. Great timing to sign him

Micko said:

Bring on Galvin. Great timing to sign him

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Yeah I have changed my mind on this assuming that we are going to play him at lock.

Hayward is potentially more valuable at hooker or in the halves and Mann will not be here forever. I also think that Galvin needs good coaching, he is a bit erratic.

Gus probably didn't need a reminder that we are not the finished product.

That was far from our top 17, but if was a reality check for fans and perhaps for some players.

Cirro was disappointed, not because he expected a win but because our standards slipped badly in the last 15 minutes.

Still are great start to the season, we haven't lost 2 in a row and after the Parra game we get some more players back.

Good time to review the season and we have plenty to work on.

Hounddog said:

Yeah I have changed my mind on this assuming that we are going to play him at lock.

Hayward is potentially more valuable at hooker or in the halves and Mann will not be here forever. I also think that Galvin needs good coaching, he is a bit erratic.

Gus probably didn't need a reminder that we are not the finished product.

That was far from our top 17, but if was a reality check for fans and perhaps for some players.

Cirro was disappointed, not because he expected a win but because our standards slipped badly in the last 15 minutes.

Still are great start to the season, we haven't lost 2 in a row and after the Parra game we get some more players back.

Good time to review the season and we have plenty to work on.

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Good time to bring Galvin in and get rid of Sexton. We need a top line fullback too. Maybe still a chance if getting Paps

Young Cochrane in reserve grade looks like a good fullback prospect.

My thoughts are Marhoney shouldn't be playing 80 mins each week, Hayward should play some dummy half.

Hayward could start at halfback and swing to both sides of the field. Tracey can fill in at first receiver on the right. Galvin, O'Neill or Woods could come on off the bench.

Sexton was good against the Sharks but he seems to have gone backwards since then. The fact that we haven't offered Sexton a contract extension might be messing with his head.

For some reason, Sexton doesn't seem to combine well with Burton, Hayward seems to.

I think Sexton might go a lot better at his next club, he has improved, but can't combine well with Burton or get involved enough at present.

Hooker/Half/Middles are where I think our biggest problems are.

Hounddog said:

Young Cochrane in reserve grade looks like a good fullback prospect.

My thoughts are Marhoney shouldn't be playing 80 mins each week, Hayward should play some dummy half.

Hayward could start at halfback and swing to both sides of the field. Tracey can fill in at first receiver on the right. Galvin, O'Neill or Woods could come on off the bench.

Sexton was good against the Sharks but he seems to have gone backwards since then. The fact that we haven't offered Sexton a contract extension might be messing with his head.

For some reason, Sexton doesn't seem to combine well with Burton, Hayward seems to.

I think Sexton might go a lot better at his next club, he has improved, but can't combine well with Burton or get involved enough at present.

Hooker/Half/Middles are where I think our biggest problems are.

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I think Sexton looks better in our team because our team is better. And our coach has got the best from him.

I don’t see where he improves. His speed and strength have always been his big issues. Short kicking game is good and he can draw and pass well. His defence has also improved.

But most halves can do that and have a much better running game. This year we could win the whole thing. Adding a much better half could be the missing piece. More importantly next year we should go to a higher level and we have to have a top flight halfback to continue to improve.

The key issue with Sexton is involvement and combination with Burton.

Watch the Fins game Katoa handled the ball more, played both sides of the field. The timing of his passes committed a lot of defenders and created a lot of try scoring opportunities.

Katoa also did most of the kicking.

It is tough for the spine when the opposition forwards are on top. But the only time Sexton played a similar role to Katoa was against the Sharks.

Hayward has great timing speed and execution on his passes, he plays the fast tempo as well as Katoa. Katoa is far ahead of most other halves at slow tempo.

Kleary and Moses rely on kicking, running game and smarts rather than tempo.

If Gus can swing Galvin and Latu for Sexton before June 30th, Gus is a genius and we might win the comp this year. Since it is down to us or Parra, I don't consider that to be stealing Galvin from the Tigers. And at the end of the day, I want to see premiership rings on Dog's players fingers.

I'm suggesting that the Dragons might swap Latu for Sexton before June 30th. Their young half is good, but they may want another experienced half.

Hayward and Galvin playing right and left gives us more energy and variety in attack. Kicking not as good as Sexton, but overall we come out ahead.

Sooner or later O'Neill or Woods plays right side with more left plays than Sexton.

Sexton needs high involvement next game if he wants to stay at the club. Some of that is just getting good ball to Burto at the right time and in the right place.

I don’t actually know anything, just putting 2+2 together and coming up with 5.

I think for this year we’ll have Galvin at seven. Him and Burton can win us the comp. As long as we have very few injuries or even better none we could really push to win it.

I am only going on media reports that we are trying to sign Galvin.

Should Galvin come Marhoney, Sexton, Hayward and Galvin are fighting for 3 positions.

I don’t think that Marhoney is completely out of the woods, because he made 2 game changing unforced errors against the Fins and Cirro was pissed off after the game.

Like Tracey, Marhoney came up with a couple of good plays whiich partially cancelled out his errors.

Long term O'Neill and Woods seem like classical high involvement halfbacks that would suit Burton.

For Burto's entire career at the Dogs he has had a 5/8, lock or fullback playing halfback, or the case of Sexton, a low involvement halfback.

I tend to agree with the theory that Galvin is a lock, probably the most creative and dangerous attacking lock we have seen for a while. He can play the role Hayward is playing and will be a more dangerous ball runner.

Hayward played hooker in the lower grades with O'Neill at halfback.

Maybe Galvin doesn't come to the Dogs. I'm not sold on the current spine being good enough to win a comp. Perhaps we make some changes even if he doesn't sign with us.

We had bugger all good middles against the Fins. But the game highlighted some issues that have been around since the Broncos game.

We make too many sloppy errors and the attack can lack execution, purpose and variety at times. 9 and 7 should be providing a lot of that execution, purpose and variety.

Tia played halfback in Flegg, Woods might be playing reserve grade.

If so, good test against a strong Warriors side.

Edit : O'Neill is playing... wrong again HD.

Is Woods going to get any game time?

Fucking stoked we just signed Galvin though. Best signing for years.

Micko said:

Is Woods going to get any game time?

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There is some strategy where we rest players.

Woods was apparently 19th man for the NRL last game.

I expected O'Neill to be out due to concussion issues.

Hughes played fairly big minutes in reserve grade, important player for us.

Everyone is trying to guess where Galvin will be playing. I've seen suggestions of Critter to fullback and Burton to centre. I don't expect that.

I would start Hayward at halfback and Galvin off the bench.

When O'Neill or Woods is ready to play halfback, I would move Hayward to starting hooker.

I would not rule out Galvin playing centre.

I doubt that a new player can come into the side and go straight to a starting spine position. After an offseason Galvin might start in the spine in 2026.

Can Xerri play wing? Galvin might play left centre but swap occasionally with Burton.

It seems official but not confirmed Galvin on the way . Feeling bit for Sexton the guy came when we needed him . Also Mahoney may go as well . He came also at a time when we were crap. I hope if they stay for the rest of this year and we can win the Comp for them . . Even Tracey gives it his all .
Looks like the plan is to keep Hayward and couple of up and coming juniors .
Hope Galvin shows passion for the Bulldogs. He will cop a lot of stick from opposition fans and players .