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Friday’s game between the Bulldogs and Storm at Belmore was a terrific spectacle and raised a whole host of questions.
1. Can Hopoate go the distance?
On Friday night, Hoppa was rocks and diamonds in equal measure.
Twice, at least, he had the opportunity to effect a turning point for the Bulldogs.
At the 46th minute, he mistimed a harbour bridge pass to Brett Morris. At the 53rd minute, he failed to make good on a beautiful Sam Kasiano offload.
He probably had some bad luck in both cases, but a gun fullback should be able to make their own luck.
2. What will it take for Reynolds to find consistency?
Despite bringing in the first try of the season for Canterbury-Bankstown, the game’s most mercurial five-eighth never quite managed to find his momentum.
Time and again, the Dogs seemed poised for a comeback against the Storm, and time and again Josh Reynolds was at the centre of that drive.
At the 61st minute he intercepted the Steeden and ran the length of the field before being grounded by Josh Ado-Carr; at the 65th minute he nearly managed a second try, only for the ball to go missing at the last minute.
He clearly has the potential, but what will it take for him to consistently apply it?
3. How can the Dogs refine their kicking game?
Going up against the Storm always forces a team to face their shortcomings with the boot.
From the moment Cooper Cronk trapped Hoppa in-goal with a perfectly placed kick, it was clear that the Dogs needed to respond in kind.
Kerrod Holland converted Reynolds’ solitary try although didn’t get another chance to prove his aptitude with the boot.
Yet Reynolds himself frequently fell short, especially with a misjudged crossfield bomb at the 38th minute that should have been an opportunity for the Bulldogs to cruise into halftime off a repeat set.
4. Has Sam Kasiano ever opened a season this well?
From the moment Big Sam appeared towards the end of the first half, the Bulldogs played with a new sense of purpose.
All of a sudden the Storm seemed less assured, with two Melbourne penalties providing the Dogs with repeat sets.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kasiano this pumped in Round 1.
Yet the Dogs felt his absence after altercations with Will Chambers saw him sin-binned.
5. Is the Kasiano-Chambers feud going to be a season-long thing?
Let’s hope so, since this was pure football entertainment.
I haven’t seen two players with such crazy eyes in a long time.
You could cut the suspense with a knife when Kasiano and Chambers were sent off the field at the same time.
Everyone watched with bated breath, wondering if the fight the referee had barely been able to contain on the field would break out again once they had left it.
6. Is Chambers trying on a new persona?
Make no mistake, Chambers is one of the game’s premium hard men.
Yet he’s never struck me as quite this rough.
Ever since returning from the Reds, he’s seemed to have a kind of detachment on the field – most of the time – that I associate with union.
On Friday night, however, it was a new story, with the burly backliner playing more like a personality prop.
7. Has the Storm moved beyond the Big Three?
That partly depends on whether you think Billy Slater will return.
On Friday, Munster put in a pretty good job, managing offloads with dexterity, even if a bundle of Bulldogs defenders did manage to drag him over the sideline in the second half.
Even with Slater out of the picture, though, it feels as if the Storm are searching for a new identity and personality.
At moments that produced great connections and combinations; at others, you could see the anxiety creeping onto Cronk and Smith’s faces.
8. Can Suliasi Vunivalu do no wrong?
The Fijian winger didn’t put a foot wrong the entire night.
Even after the Steeden slipped from his hands in the sodden final five minutes, he managed to slide through the air after it, knocking Moses Mbye out of his way.
Like Chambers, Vunivalu also seemed to have discovered a new attitude and aggression.
After running straight into Josh Jackson and Josh Reynolds at the twentieth minute, he got among it and started the second fight in as many minutes.
9. Why can’t the Dogs win at Belmore?
You’d think Canterbury-Bankstown would have a better chance of winning at their home ground.
Granted, their last two games there have been against strong teams in soaking conditions.
Still, what is it that makes 1300SMILES so galvanising and Belmore so unreliable? It can’t just be a matter of Townsville being more isolated.
It may be that the Dogs need to play more games at Belmore for them to really claim it like the Cowboys do their home turf, or the Storm do AAMI Park.
10. Was this the best wet weather footy of Round 1?
While Round 1 still isn’t over, it’d be hard to beat the drenched conditions of Belmore for pure spectacle.
So bad was the weather that the footage momentarily cut out in the second stanza.
As the Dogs’ desperation escalated, the rain grew more and more opaque, until it was like seeing all their weaknesses smashing down on them.
Certainly, there will be no better example of sturdy defence under wet weather conditions than the Storm’s – no pun intended – pummelling, grinding efforts over the zero-point second half.
Next week, both teams have a new challenge, with the Dogs taking on the Roosters after a solid win over the Titans and the Storm travelling to New Zealand to take on the Warriors at Mt. Smart.
It’ll be interesting to see which of these questions are clarified then – and what new questions are raised.
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