The Canterbury Bulldogs have been up for regular discussion over the off-season.
There was a lot of talk from a lot of players to the effect that things were different this year: “We are confident,” “We back the coach,” “It was the players’ fault,” “We will fix it,” and “We back each other”.
What this does is create pressure, and looking at the draw, the Bulldogs could well be 0-5, with upcoming games against the Roosters away, the Warriors in what is technically a home game, Manly away and Brisbane at home.
At best they could maybe win against Manly, but the pressure they have created will end in either the coach going very early or players being dropped.
The Canterbury board, or at least Raelene Castle, seem to love Des Hasler and are looking at re-signing him, so this leaves a player reshuffle. A reshuffle this year would obviously mean using current players with a view to change in the 2018 season, which could come about quite quickly if there’s a slow start to this year.
Earlier in the season Mbye stated he wanted Johnathan Thurston’s Origin jersey, yet this dream couldn’t be further away from reality – he’ll be lucky to hold onto a first-grade spot, let alone an Origin jumper. His kicking game, organising skills and general halfback play is barely of first-grade standard
Josh Reynolds has been giving excuses and apologising, saying he would change for the last two seasons. Enough is enough, and it’s time for Canterbury to move in a different direction. Again, his kicking game is amongst the worst I’ve seen in the NRL, and his passing game isn’t up to first-grade standard.
The Bulldogs need to bring in young halves to start over. New blood could enjoy playing around in a somewhat dominant forward pack, and it could stop this Mbye-Reynolds experiment – or is Des too stubborn to say he might have got it wrong?
Matt Frawley is a young organising halfback who could come in with Josh Cleeland at five-eighth. These two couldn’t do any worse, and both are players who have come up through the grades as halves. These kids could work to a new game plan without having to teach old dogs new tricks
Josh Reynolds could play from the bench and Mbye could maybe play fullback. Maybe it will be reserve-grade, as it’s unlikely there would be much interest from other clubs trying to pick them up
It’s time for Des to bite the bullet and put his coaching record on the line and try something new.
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All the team list information for Round 9.
