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Something stinks out Belmore way, and unless things change at the Bulldogs, Thursday night’s inept display in their loss to the Penrith Panthers will become the norm for a club who have been one of the more consistent teams over the last decade, with grand final appearances in 2012 and 2014.
They had the slimmest of chances to make the finals this season, needing to win all six of their remaining games and rely on other results going their way, but their performance against the Panthers lacked desperation, passion and desire, the only try coming from a simple Josh Reynolds effort close to the line.
Neither side deserves to play finals football, but the Bulldogs’ effort was particularly poor.
They lacked spark in attack, and Josh Reynolds has always had limited attacking skills, while Matt Frawley has shown what he is capable of in patches but is not an NRL standard playmaker at this stage of his career.
My team, the Dragons, used to make scoring points painful to watch, but thankfully they’ve passed the baton on to the Dogs, who have scored just 260 points in 19 games, ranking their attack dead last, a full 34 points behind the Knights.
I feel sorry for the Dogs fans who must sit through a painful 80-minute performance week in, week out, as their side offers nothing with the ball and these last five weeks will be torture for them.
A look to 2018 and it’s hard to see them improving a great deal.
Aaron Woods offers little through the middle, while Kieran Foran has hardly set the world on fire at the Warriors, and their only other significant signing, Fa’amanu Brown has spent most of his time plying his trade in reserve grade.
They have struggled at hooker for some time, and really need to cut Michael Lichaa. He came to the club with plenty of hype but has fizzled out, playing just eight minutes off the bench on Thursday and has been overtaken by Moses Mbye – who normally plays in the halves – as starting hooker.
I’m not sure of the circumstances surrounding Damian Cook’s departure but that was a massive blunder from the club’s recruitment, as Cook’s speed out of dummy half would be just what the Dogs need right now.
There are some positives though. Winger Marcello Montoya has shown plenty of promise, while Willie Mason 2.0 – otherwise known as Raymond Faitala-Mariner looks likely.
There has been talks about Des Hasler finishing up at the end of the season, but it’s likely he will survive the axe to coach them in 2018 – anything less than a finals appearance next year will see Hasler’s reign come to an end at Belmore, and it may be the only way forward for the battling Bulldogs.
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