There might have only been one try. There might have only been a kicking game and not much else from the two sides in attack. There might have been faulty captain’s challenges. But footy is finally back, and boy does it feel good to write that sentence.
Whatever your take on the issues confronting the world right now, footy gives you an excuse to sit down and forget about them for 80 minutes, plus ridiculous captain’s challenges and bunker time.
The season’s opening round never carries great expectations for amazing footy, but last night’s game was a slogfest, with the Parramatta Eels eventually toiling away to an 8-2 victory over the Canterbury Bulldogs.
The fact their only try came on the back of the biggest turning point the match had – a Blake Ferguson kick from the sideline that was unceremoniously dropped over the dead-ball line by Raymond Faitala-Mariner, before a Lachlan Lewis fumble allowed Reed Mahoney to scramble away with the crumbs – is worthy of its own point.
And for sure, plenty will be made of the Eels’ performance, but they looked nervous. Let’s wait a few weeks before ripping into a side who are dealing with weighty expectations of taking the blue and gold to the promised land for the first time in decades.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Let’s wait. The pieces are there. It’ll happen eventually, even if it looked a million miles away last night.
At this point of the season, as the saying goes, it’s about getting the two points, not how you get them.
No, instead of talking about those men with their big shiny stadium, their blue-and-gold jumpers, and now the holder of the first-ever failed captain’s challenge, let’s talk about expectations for the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2020.
Now, I can’t sit here and pretend to be a Canterbury fan. I don’t really know what the wider Bulldogs fan group think their team should be achieving in 2020.
But last night might have been about it for the neutral fan looking into their squad. A lack of experience, a lack of pace playing in the halves and spine, and a lack of imagination in their attack, to go with a hard-hitting, ruthless defence that will make every team they play work very hard to beat them.
The only problem for the blue and whites is they had that latter part of their game in check last season.
If you cast the mind back to the back end of 2019, some of their performances against the likes of the Sydney Roosters and Penrith Panthers at the defensive end of the park were simply phenomenal.
And it was again against Parramatta last night, even if the home side didn’t throw the kitchen sink at them all that often.
The Eels had opportunities to score early in the game, but they just couldn’t find a way to break down the scrambling defence of their opposition, who kept showing up for each other, their fans, and their coach time after time.
One of the problems for the blue and white in 2019 was the mere fact they finished 2018 playing a fairly similar level of footy, at least at the defensive end, but couldn’t replicate it for most of last season.
Expectations need to be realistic though, and while last night indicates they now have a side who are willing to work hard for each other, you have to wonder how long it’ll be able to last and glue together if Dean Pay’s attacking structures aren’t working.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
A grand total of zero tries, despite all the possession and territory they had in the season opener, just won’t be good enough moving forward if they want to be in contention for a top-eight berth.
Whether that’s realistic for Canterbury this year is another issue, but I tend to think their fans wouldn’t expect anything less, even taking into account the injury to Kieran Foran.
While rust and a slow start to the season in attack isn’t uncommon – just look at Parramatta – it was bad last night for the Bulldogs, and their rebuild clearly hasn’t come even close to full circle yet.
Lachlan Lewis’ kicking game has potential, as it always has, while Brandon Wakeham showed promise on the limited opportunities he was able to get involved, but the problem lies in the fact that there was no imagination.
Most of Canterbury’s sets, no matter where on the field they started from, were five hit-ups, followed by a Lewis bomb. It was hope-and-prayer stuff, rather than any actual solid foundation for how to score points in the best rugby league competition on the planet.
It leaves two questions. The first is what the hell has Dean Pay been doing during the off-season in attack? And the second is do the Bulldogs have the cattle to complete a rebuild with the squad they currently have?
I’m not going to pretend I have the answers to the first part of that. What Pay did during the off-season may not show for some weeks yet as things take time to gel, but there should have been better signs than what was on display last night.
(Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
It was same old, same old, even when they needed points at the back end of the game, rather than any actual difference in the way they were playing their footy.
As for the second part of the question, yes. Lachlan Lewis has lots of potential and ability, and so does Brandon Wakeham. They need him to be more involved, as they do with Jeremy Marshall-King, but the hardest factor will be changing the structure of their play to go above anything more than realistic expectations of where the rebuild is at this year.
But they need the forwards to take a back seat – that or get some more agile bodies who enjoy offloading and creating time and space for the backs, rather than just carting it forward.
This is where Corey Harawira-Naera would have been invaluable last night, had he not been suspended. More worrying was the start Joe Stimson made at his new club, hitting the ground and not running, but barely crawling.
At the moment, those problems are wide and varied, and escaping the bottom four without scoring points on a regular basis will take a mighty effort.
The promise is there for the future, but the future can’t come soon enough for the blue and white, who could have heads start rolling if things don’t work this season.
Unfortunately, being realistic about the current state of the club, those expectations just aren’t realistic, and for them to fail, it could be back to square one all over again.
This could be another long winter at Belmore.
Kanggas2
Roar Rookie
The bulldogs defended like Athletico Madrid , but attached with nothing , neither did parra , was a festival of the bomb with neither team having much in attack.’ Let’s see how they both develop after a few weeks
kk
Roar Pro
Birdy, I take the CC with a pinch of salt, like a gimmicky guarantee from an old Parramatta Road used car yard and accept it as comic confusion. Tip on retirement. Buy an exercise machine and use it every day. I use a cross trainer and find the dry towel massage of the body an excellent aid to circulation. We now grow our greens. Nothing like a home grown .
Pickett
Roar Rookie
I thought the Bulldogs were very impressive.
Birdy
Roar Rookie
Hi kk, I think the refs should be seen and not heard. :happy: The longer the captains challenge goes the more we will appreciate how good our refs are. So far refs 2 captains nil. Less control over the refs the better they will shine. Saw your first article the other day looks good still haven't really read it yet, I'm still learning how to retire. Whoever said you have too much time on your hands when you retire either hasn't retired yet or they are single. :happy:
Chris.P.Bacon
Guest
...haha....absolutely!
souvalis
Roar Rookie
For sure, lots of tries are the reward for good defence and the dogs had Sivo outnumbered on Hopoates side at crucial moments late in the second half begging to be capitalized on, yet the reward went begging.
Tight-Head
Roar Rookie
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Albo
Roar Rookie
How good would that be, Crispy ! Imagine the bullet like cut out passes !
Superspud
Roar Rookie
I get concerned when coaches start talking about how proud they are of the brave effort. This is professional sport and it was a loss. It's no good being happy and proud because you didn't get flogged.
kk
Roar Pro
Birdy, You had better be sitting down for this one. I actually enjoyed the refereeing last night. I had elevated Grant Atkins to #1 last season and thought he deserved the GF whistle. Peter Gough continues to improve. With a panel of 7 now allocating games we should see improvement.
Birdy
Roar Rookie
Can't sort the paragraphs out on my new phone. Frustrating
Birdy
Roar Rookie
Not the most entertaining game to watch but exciting to see the first battle for 2 points of the year. Parra looking to have another hot and cold year depending on the mood Moses is in. Loosly quoting Joey. Doggies are in for another tight defensive campaign until Pay lets them cut loose. I really don't see how anyone can underestimate Lewis while he is playing to plan. Playing alongside Foran he cut loose a few times last year and looked good. If the doggies are a bottom 4 team this year the rest of the pack definately have no easy games. Looking at the draw the Tigers have them in Rd 24. No doubt Foran will be firing on all 8 cylinders ,they'll be throwing the ball around and they will cause us to miss the 8 again.
The Barry
Roar Guru
I thought Lewis controlled the game well too Is a good point about god running game... the defence knows he’s going to pass 99% and are already drifting If he can show and go or step back inside and put them in two minds occasionally he’ll be better for it
The Barry
Roar Guru
Fair points. Agree about the defence... Adam Elliott in particular, he led the line and put on some crunching tackles They looked super fit and no question about their defence or commitment But that’s only half the game. I’d be far more forgiving of the two points scored if there was even a glimmer of something more clever in attack but there was just nothing for 80 minutes Great effort and I’m proud of it but it’s going to be a long season for them putting their bodies on the line like that if they can’t work our ways to break the line, stop making fundamental errors and do it a bit easier Early days
The Barry
Roar Guru
I had that same disconnected feeling like is this someone’s idea of a joke? Who does stuff that? Advanced through the seven stages pretty quickly
catcat
Roar Rookie
Let me put my blue and white glasses on. ok now... Top 4 team vs bottom 4 team -looked a lot closer than that. Its true the dogs have limited attacking options remember there two best options are in the outhouse- okunbor for kick returns and his height on cross field kicks and CHN is an attacking second rower. Wakeham put in a beautiful grubber and Lewis did most of the rest of the kicking. With time I think the kicking will balance out a little more between the two. With Wakeham eventually becoming the better one for setting up some attacking kicks. I went to rd 1 last year in NZ- the dogs were blown off the park by the warriors (it was men vs boys). Our defence is miles better in this round 1 2020. If we get a settled side and less disruptions our attack will improve. How good was Adam Elliot? Now where that glass half full....Go Dogs!
RM
Guest
Just re-read this, and want to point out that I'm in no way suggesting Hopoate was one of the players letting Lewis down - he did brilliantly to keep the opportunity initially created by Lewis alive, only for Crichton to stuff it up both times.
Gareth
Guest
“Lachlan Lewis’ kicking game has potential, as it always “Lachlan Lewis has lots of potential and ability” I’ve heard this for two years now. Scott this young fella is not a first grade half. Never will be
RM
Guest
It feel strange saying this, considering he was halfback in a team that scored no tries in 80 minutes and duly lost the game, but I thought Lewis played pretty well last night and was badly let down by a few team-mates - namely Crichton. A beautiful cutout pass to Hopoate created a linebreak - Hopoate then drew the last defender and looked inside for his winger who would have had a 30m run to the line with no one in front of him...except Crichton was two steps behind, only seeming to realise the opportunity was there when it suddenly wasn't. Then a pinpoint bomb to (again) Hoppa who does well to catch and pass to (again) Crichton who is 5m from the tryline with another back unmarked outside him. Crichton for some reason stops, props and heads infield, into the teeth of the cover defence rushing across. Lovely inside ball after taking it to the line puts DWZ into a hole, only for DWZ to throw an absolute nightmare of a pass and lose possession. Good grubber after taking the ball to the line gets a ricochet into the path of Tolman 2m from the tryline, only for the big prop to panic and let Gutherson dive on the ball in front of him. And that's just from the 2nd half. I agree that Lewis really needs to work on his running game, as he doesn't offer much threat to the defensive line on his own with ball in hand, but he was creating opportunities last night. Put him at 7 in the Storm, for instance, and at least one if not two of those result in tries and we're all talking about what a good game he had.
Chris.P.Bacon
Guest
Wouldn't mind a Patrick Mahomes type of play-maker to be honest Albo!