Halves make difference for Bulldogs

Ha ha true mate-love your work TB!

Tom, Problem goes further than that, Arthur is flat out finding players that are still able to play in the top grade that aren't injured. After reading what Arthur said through the week regarding not releasing him was that he saw Sandow as playing a role in the clug for the rest of the season. Also mentioned is at this stage of the season they cannot sign/register a new one either owing to the june 30th deadline. With the reshuffle.restructure since Seward left, Arthur & Anderson are in joint control of the player situation & both have said no more players will be released with the club paying for them to play elsewhere, which is something I applaud. In the past & still happening the club is paying for too many who are playing elsewhere & it affects their salary cap. If Sandow & his manager agree to letting him go without the club paying towards him heading to England, then I say let him go, will see how long he lasts there, but I & many others will wish him well, & he will be missed especially when we remember what he can do. To me, Sandow does not deserve any score out of this, rather the other 16 players who turned up on Friday night.

After all that has happened between Arthur and Sandow the guy must have rocks in his head if he thought that selecting him in his current frame of mind was going to get a positive outcome. His statement earlier in the week about not paying players to play elsewhere was I'll timed and poorly judged. I am betting there will be a change of heart on releasing him now.. Score Sandow 1 Arthur nil

Dogs have had a very disrupted season so far and are finally getting their best team on the park. Despite all the injuries, suspensions and rep commitments they're sitting equal fourth at the moment despite rarely having played at their best. 6-7 weeks to fine tune will have them cherry ripe come semi final time and I wouldn't be at all surprised at another grand final appearance and a whole bunch of nuffies scratching their heads wondering how that happened.

He has no choice. The Eels salary cap is sorely stuffed for this year and their only objective is to avoid a breach (and subsequent penalties due to previous infractions), honestly it's a write off year for them now.

I feel sorry for Parramatta fans, it must be terrible supporting a club that either doesn't have a brain or has several competing brains pulling in different directions both on and off the field. The Bulldogs looked a bit unimpressive early on but vastly more controlled and less panicky than some other recent games, Hodkinson running the ball effectively again is a good sign.

How often has Arthur blamed Sandow or other individual players for their efforts in a game. While he has said that the team needs to lift & other aspects of their game, it has been a team focus. Sandow has had tremendous support from the club since his move from Souths, as he has been let go back to Cherboug to clear his head on several occassions, his time back at Wenty, were really for his benefit to escape the media & again to get his play back in order. The club offered him a contract extension, but not good enough, & as I understand it, negotiations were still going on, until Sandow hit the presses & bagged Arthur & pretty well demanding that he, the #7 should play how he wanted to play, as his team mates all said it should have been discussed with Arthur, no other player at the club has bagged Arthur, yet Sandow thinks he can get away with it. At what point of time did other clubs drop their interest in him also? No NRL wanted him, now he wants out to go to England,. If that clubs coach saw the effort last night, then he would be nuts to recruit him. If Arthur is a failure, then I would suggest there are few others around & they lay with teams under Parra.

Whilst you don't like to see anyone not trying, after Brad Arthur hanging all his failures as a coach on Sandow, I don't exactly blame him.

The title super coach to Arthur is something that others put on him in the same way as supporting a petchelant child in his actions to spit dummies in order to get his own way. Arthur at no time has criticised any of his players in the way that Sandow did regarding his own abilities to do it his way rather than the team. Even when Sandow wanted out, & the club looked at it, why let him go & still have to pay him money for doing nothing, yet he showed last night he (Sandow) is perfectly happy to take money for doing nothing. What I think would be interesting is for Tony Smith the coach of the English side who is interesting in Sandow to sit down & watch Sandows performance or lack of it last night. Arthur has said that he sees a role for Sandow for the rest of the year, that way Sandow could go out with some dignity & showing Sydney fans who love his attributes as a player, what they will be missing, that is what a player of perhaps a bit lesser natural flair & ability in Trent Hodkinson has, in the way he played last night, even though he was not wanted at the dogs & has signed with Newcastle. That shows who is the player & the man, & speaks heaps about their individuality as human beings. PS. In the past I have supported Sandow & said I would have loved to have seen him stay at Parra, now I think his place is back in the park, (although will he let them down as well?) Now, the team risks having him in the team, & perhaps there is a way that the club could sack him for tanking, so a talk to the NRL would not hurt, so that a younger player could be brought up into the team, who is prepared to run around the field in support rather than walk, & if the ball comes his way try something other than what Sandow did last year, stop, look around & then pass the ball when the defence had marked them all. In something like 45 years of watching RL in many grades, I have never seen a player put in such a dead & nothing performance like I saw displayed by Chris Sandow last night. The score was bad enough, & thankfully no worse, but had Chris put in, it would not have hurt so much, as my attention was focussed on him as a non event rather than the team in both halves but more especially the 2nd. Poor show of the highest unsportsmen like displays in RL may be his swansong.

Parras last play of the game where he intentionally kicked it dead wouldnt have won him any friends..send him back lower than Wenty..Rooty Hill RSL got a team ? Dont understand these Dog performances,no ones fired up..the right side with Lafai and Perret is now a dead spot..if anything is going to happen its down the left..more Shaun Lane please Dessie..

I very rarely, if ever, accuse any rugby league player of not trying. The game's just so demanding that, quite frankly, I salute every player who makes it at NRL level. But there's a first time for everything. Chris Sandow, a player I usually like watching play, gave up. If he ever started trying in this game, he stopped trying some time during it. It was embarrassing to watch. As for the coach, nothing he's said or done thus far indicates to me that he's the man to set Parramatta on the road to success. I fail to see the charisma that some players appear to have seen in him. Indeed, he comes across as utterly charmless. The Eels, on and off the field, are in a terrible mess.

Ordinary game. Two very ordinary sides. Looks like the dogs could do with a gluten free diet. Portliness aplenty...

SuperCoach Arthurs decision to force a half back to play hat doesn't want to be there and doesn't like him is really a master stroke. It certainly paid a huge dividend last night. He must have advanced PR skills though, all the commentators have bought into the crap that if he gets enough quality players to mix in with the current crop of exciting juniors will guarantee success... pure genius! First coach sacked in 2016