Jarryd Hanye in action during the Week 3 Playoff NRL match between the Bulldogs and the Parramatta Eels at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Friday, Sept. 25, 2009. AAP Image/Action Photographics, Grant Trouville
Last September, the Bulldogs and the Eels hauled in more than 70,000 fans to watch their semi-final at Homebush and both clubs felt that this season was to build on the foundations laid in the season past.
Something seems to have been lost in the translation.
The table speaks volumes, with both sides at 1-4. But few could argue with the scoreboard given their recent form.
Both sides look to be lacking that hunger and drive needed to win at NRL level. While both sides had plenty of focus put on their stars during the off-season, it now seems that the teams are constantly waiting on one of the big names to pull something out of the bag.
And that just ain’t happening.
The Bulldogs had the Warriors on the ropes last week and couldn’t land the knock-out blow, while the Eels just looked asleep at the wheel against the Raiders.
Interestingly this week, they both face teams who are starting to fulfill their pre-season hype in the Tigers and the Rabbitohs.
The Tigers have looked in good touch early on this season, and also looked to have added some real consistency to their game, which has been missing in seasons gone by.
While the Rabbitohs’ expensive off-season recruits look to be gelling and John Lang is working out how best to use them.
Neither are sides that a team looking to get a confidence boosting win would be keen to take on.
It is certainly early days, but I’ve always felt that after five rounds, who can look at the competition table and actually get something out of it.
It doesn’t lie and there is no doubt that the bottom five are in their position because of their own performance, rather than the luck of the draw.
NRL stats tell us no side has reached the Grand Final after starting the year on 1-5. Records are there to be broken, but as it stands, neither of the clubs in question would be happy playing finals football on their current form.
What is interesting for both clubs is that they have so many key players with contract negotiations hanging over their heads.
A new contract normally has players running through walls, but it certainly isn’t providing the magic bullet for these guys.
It’ll will be interesting to see if the hole has got much deeper on Monday morning, although thankfully we are still a few months of talk of ‘mathematical chances’.
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