Round 19: Bulldogs vs Gold Coast Titans

[teke]

Cartright has wanted Mead in at centres for a while so I will say he is one of the long term centres which is a good move. Tomane might be the other but time will tell. Delaneys defence would be better than Walkers but Chris is a natural attacker and gives good early ball to his winger which is something that lacks in Delaneys game.

Geez I hate the dogs

[Rage]

wat does 2010 matter atm, we need to find a winning side for 09 and i feel walker to the centre offers more in attack, delaney is a great player, but he can do wat his doing now of the bench as a 2nd rower.
as for 2010, u find prob rogers to centre or mead and tomane swaping around

yeah but Carty hardly moves players around. That's why I can only see changes being made in 2010 when the players have actually left.

[helcam4]

just wont to throw something out there,is prince trying to hard or having a little form slump? don`t get me wrong i`m not bagging him. just seems since he missed origin one his form has gone a little off. then tonite ennis got to him within the 1st 5 mins and they where toe to toe in back play and he just seemed pissed off and frustrated all 1st half. is anyone else seeing the same or is it just me?

[GCT_89]

i have seen a form slump from prince, but also dont forget, her isn't playing the same game he was last year.......this year he isnt the only play maker with Rogers, Presto, and Friend all picking up on that work load......

time will tell......i think its mainly the missed tackles that make him stand out.....


but good 2nd half from the boys, they really dug deep, and came SO close to sealing the deal....look forward to next week..............

[Rage]

just wont to throw something out there,is prince trying to hard or having a little form slump? don`t get me wrong i`m not bagging him. just seems since he missed origin one his form has gone a little off. then tonite ennis got to him within the 1st 5 mins and they where toe to toe in back play and he just seemed pissed off and frustrated all 1st half. is anyone else seeing the same or is it just me?

He mentioned in an interview that he's had to change his own style of play due to the added roles of Friend, ,Presto and Rogers.
He hasn't been as dominant and I think that reflects in the differences btween this year and last year's stats. Last year, we were one of the top teams to score within the opposition 10 but not so much this year.

[Paul]

just wont to throw something out there,is prince trying to hard or having a little form slump? don`t get me wrong i`m not bagging him. just seems since he missed origin one his form has gone a little off. then tonite ennis got to him within the 1st 5 mins and they where toe to toe in back play and he just seemed pissed off and frustrated all 1st half. is anyone else seeing the same or is it just me?

I think his form is ok in general and don't think he's playing bad,It's his kicking game which is atrocious at the moment and has been for a while.We never get to put pressure on teams or get repeat sets because Princey either a) kicks the ball dead or b) kicks it down the throat of the fullback/winger. There is no variety. On Monday night V the eels we were all standing there looking at Luke Burt up in the line and then over to David Mead who didn't have anybody within 40 metres of him yet the kick went straight down the guts and dead,If he kicked it anywhere in meads vacinity it would have been 4 points.This happened more than once and was glaringly obvious.

Last night Prince tried a little chip and chase and nearly pulled it off,why doesn't he do instinctive things like this more often?I can't remember his last chip and chase.Rogers may have scored from a Prince kick last night but I don't think it justifies the 100 "nothing" kicks that are before and after it.If prince varied his kicks,defences would crap themselves to bits as our outside backs are the fastest in the NRL and can all jump and catch a ball well,Prince and Preston are unstoppable when they use their instinct and little chips/grubbers around the ruck when the opposition forwards are tired would be perfect for our little fast men

Variety is the key,It's all too predictable at the moment,try a crossfield kick for our two flying wingers,try a chip and chase or grubber for yourself or someone like preston/zillman,Bomb the crap out of someone who isn't steady under the high ball.....and a 40/20 attempt every now and again would be nice

A couple of things from the game...
The 1st Dogs try to Morris should've gone upstairs as i'm sure he was offside,

Exactly,I would have even gone and had a look at Idris's try as well as the ball an arm hit the deck before he rolled over and put the ball down,It was probably a try anyways but worth a look at least,I notice though as soon as Matty put the ball down Maxwell couldn't wait to get his hand signals up for a replay.It annoys me how blatantly obvious some of these refs agendas are.

A deserved win for the dogs though,They came out and blindsided us right at the start before we woke up and by then it was almost too late.Kimmorley and Ennis both played really well considering they played in origin 2 days prior

[Steelers]

Bulldogs are all class. It's obviously now a battle between us and them for the minor premiership, with the Titans looking like being the best of the rest.

[Paul]

Bulldogs are all class. It's obviously now a battle between us and them for the minor premiership, with the Titans looking like being the best of the rest.

I'm happy where we're sitting atm, dragons and bulldogs have all the pressure and expectations. We are yet to peak, when it all clicks for us hopefully it'll be around finals time. The dragons/dogs haven't had a form slump yet so while they are both the benchmarks so far this season is far from a two horse race

bring it on

[Steelers]

I'm happy where we're sitting atm, dragons and bulldogs have all the pressure and expectations. We are yet to peak, when it all clicks for us hopefully it'll be around finals time. The dragons/dogs haven't had a form slump yet so while they are both the benchmarks so far this season is far from a two horse race

bring it on

Melbourne went 3 years without a form slump. I agree though, all it takes is one narrow loss in September and the race is wide open

[Steve]

Considering we were playing probably the form team in the competition, we did okay.

That late penalty against Mathews probably put the nail in the coffin, which always sucks when it's a dodgy call like that. If we got that set and scored, it's a whole new game.

I think Prince hasn't been at his best all year. Whether it's a change in style or just a bit of a form slump, we're still doing okay because even an out of form Prince is better than most of the halfbacks in the game. Come finals time we need Prince wearing his best player in the game mantle.

[karnage]

I am really surprised that people aren't more upbeat about that performance of ours. The Dogs are well drilled, big and have that bit of class that stamps them as genuine Premiership contenders.

With 5 to go we were in the match up to our eyeballs and got the rough end of the pineapple from the ref. These things happen. That was the performance of a team that we can say are good enough to finish top 4.

I said a few weeks ago that even though we have beaten both the Dogs and the Dragons that we are off the pace with them a bit and I think that was proven last night - but we are not that for off that we should be hitting the panic button and making mass changes.

Why think about 2010 right now?!?!?!? We are 8 weeks from our 1st finals appearance, we improved 100% from out last lacklustre start and you want to start worrying about next year... I think there is plenty to happen (including having a red hot crack at this years Grand Final) before we start worrying about 2010.

As for Princey I agree that he has been down on form but he was back to his best last night. His long kicks found the turf more often than not, his attacking kicks (2 of which led to tries and 1 in the first half went painfully close) were pinpoint and his passing was crisp. Not to mention that he was willing to attack the line more. He is the victim of high expectations.

Gordon should be in line for Rookie of the year. What a SUPERSTAR!!

Fire up for next week and get behind the boys cos if we played like we did last night we will ice the Broncos and get our top 4 aspirations back on track.

[teke]

I am really surprised that people aren't more upbeat about that performance of ours. The Dogs are well drilled, big and have that bit of class that stamps them as genuine Premiership contenders.

Im prety upbeat about the performance, Im even more excited to see what happens if Titans draw them in the semis. Titans are well in this years flag.

[GCT_07]

Got to agree..... Prince was fired up last night. After the dogs scored i think it was their second try.... he we in there rippin it in. Which is what you would expect from a captain.

As for last night.... The dogs came out on fire. It was a brilliant display of football and certainly at a much higher level than I have seen at club games in ages. To their credit the boys matched it with them in the second half and the fire and spirit they showed after 60 minutes of a d@mn hard game was outstanding.

Last week they played less than ordanary and won. This week they played well and lost. Next week............. next week they better kick some donky ass........... cause I dont want to leave that stadium with a loss agaist the them.....that would be just a tad to much to deal with.....

So hopefully we will be on our game (as in fans) next week as well and cheering them on big time, letting them know we are right behind them.

By the way... finally got to watch at least part of Talking Titans where they were highlighting the eels game.... even up the far end those drums were loud and clear.

[amaline]

Preston's use of the goal post to get out on the in goal area was awesome.

[Paul]

I'm really looking forward to the donkey game this Friday. We've been waiting all season for us to really click in both attack and defence and hammer a team, could this be the night?

Would be amazing to smash the donkeys, embarass them and knock them out of the eigh