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Just three weeks ago, Bulldogs coach Des Hasler was in the hot seat, battling for his future at Canterbury.
The Dogs had started the year in less than scintillating fashion, and given the team’s poor finish to last season – and with his contract ending at the end of 2017 – there was plenty of speculation that Hasler’s time at the club was up.
There were even murmurs that he might be punted immediately, with the Dogs chasing the suddenly in-demand Ivan Cleary.
All the drama came to a head on a Thursday night match-up against the Brisbane Broncos, in what became a ‘must-win’ game for Des and the Dogs.
On that fateful night, the Bulldogs made the most of some very wet conditions at Homebush and secured themselves a hard-fought and tough 10-7 victory. The win didn’t give Hasler mere breathing space; he actually received a contract extension a few days later.
The Dogs then beat the Knights and the Rabbitohs, and now find themselves in the top eight, while once again being considered a finals football team. What a difference a few weeks can make, huh?
Dogs fans shouldn’t get too carried away with the winning streak. Beating Brisbane in the wet in a low-scoring game, then defeating last year’s wooden spooners, and then knocking off the Bunnies, isn’t exactly an impressive list of scalps. However, three wins is three wins, and the team is certainly trending in the right direction. Not just from a ladder perspective, but the way they’re playing.
Central to this has been a resurgent Josh Reynolds. The five-eighth will always be a polarising player due to his reputation as a niggler, along with his ‘unique’ skill-set. Reynolds lacks the ball-playing abilities you would expect from an elite-level number 6, but he attempts to make up for it with hustle, effort and a willingness to try and make things happen.
If that last point sounds ambiguous, regular rugby league viewers will know exactly what I mean. In any case, Reynolds has been back to his ‘busy’ self the last few weeks, and it is no accident the Dogs are bothering the win column again.
Yet it’s not just a case of Reynolds playing better. There is another layer to this particular onion, which has enabled the man they call ‘Grub’ to concentrate on the things he does well on a footy field. Namely, the introduction of young halfback Matt Frawley into the side.
In the aforementioned Brisbane game, regular halfback Moses Mbye was suspended, and Frawley was called up to first grade. He immediately provided the Dogs with something they’ve been missing for some time: well executed kicks on the fifth tackle, and a cool head. He looked comfortable at that level, and it presented Hasler with a headache of sorts at the selection table for the next game.
The amount of money a player is on should not dictate whether they start or not; performance should. Having said that, I don’t think the Dogs liked the thought of paying Mbye $750k a year to start on the bench, or not be playing first grade at all, and he immediately came back into the team the next week.
However, Frawley’s efforts against Brisbane were enough to see him retained in the team – on the bench – for the next game. Frawley backed us his Broncos performance with a very good match against Newcastle, then followed it with another solid outing against Souths.
Frawley’s ability to captilise on his forward pack’s momentum, along with good field position, have completely changed the way the Dogs look. They are now much more dangerous at the end of their set, because he often makes the right play, rather than squandering possession by kicking it dead or out on the full.
The flow-on effect from that is that Reynolds has been freed from a lot of the structured half play that was previously expected of him. He’s actually at his best when he’s allowed to be more of a free-wheeling, loose, position-less player. His skill-set doesn’t lend itself to traditional play, so he shouldn’t be used in a traditional way.
The problem is, when he plays like that, it means Mbye has to step into the role of organising half, and that’s the issue that has been haunting the Dogs: both Mbye and Reynolds have been asked to be something they’re not. The Dogs essentially have two mercurial and enigmatic five-eighths, and no halfback.
Enter Frawley.
His presence on the field, and his ability to do the things expected of a good halfback, allows the Dogs to have Mbye or Reynolds play their natural game.
However, it doesn’t take a genius to see what the conundrum is here. Three doesn’t go into two.
Mbye played in the centres against the Knights when Frawley came on for the injured Brad Abbey. Then Mbye slotted into hooker when Frawley entered the game against the Bunnies, with regular number 9 Michael Lichaa heading to the bench. Lichaa didn’t hit the field again, and I’m sorry to say that I think that’s the way the Dogs should start every game for the rest of the season: Mbye at 9, Frawley at 7, and Reynolds at 6.
Lichaa is a good footballer with potential, but he’s just not the right fit for the Dogs at the moment. I have no idea if the Storm would be interested, but he could do worse than move to Melbourne and be Cam Smith’s understudy, as the Australian captain enters the twilight of his career. Learning from the best hooker of all time, and perhaps spelling him for 20 or 30 minutes a game for a couple of seasons, might be the best thing for Lichaa’s career, long term.
As for Mbye, rather than a move to 9 being seen as a demotion, I actually thought he looked really good there against Souths. You could argue his unpredictability and running game is better suited to hooker than halfback.
There is also nothing to say that he, Reynolds and Frawley couldn’t all rotate through the three positions throughout a game anyway. It would certainly make scouting the Bulldogs a very tough job.
Irrespective of how Mbye feels, Des needs to do what is best for the team, because it always comes first, not a player’s preferred position.
Given that, it’s time for Des to move Mbye to hooker and Frawley to halfback fulltime, and continue that march up the NRL ladder.
It’s not a hard call, it’s an easy call.