“We want to really test ourselves against these guys,” Jason Ryles told the media on the eve of battle.
And what a test it’ll be — a blockbuster clash in front of an expected 70,000 crowd, as the high-flying Bulldogs take on the second-last Eels. That’s 20,000 more than turned out for Origin One at Suncorp, and just 10,000 shy of last year’s Grand Final at Accor.
The Bulldogs, coming off a bye and still smarting from their Round 12 44-8 shellacking at the hands of the Dolphins, will be fired up — desperate to bite back.
The Eels, near full-strength and resilient despite an 18-10 loss to the Panthers last week, are looking for redemption.
The Dogs, second-favorites for the premiership behind the Storm, have led the competition since Round 4. A loss drops them to second. The Eels, stuck near the bottom most of the season, could slide back to last with a heavy defeat.
The Dogs haven’t won three straight over the Eels in a decade — will that change today? Or will the Eels pull off one of the upsets of the season?
Team Lists
Monday 4:00pm AEST, 9 June 2025, Bulldogs vs Eels, Accor Stadium
Weather: Cool around 16˚C, cloudy with a chance of rain, humidity 43%, 11-20km/h winds
Ground: Expected to be fine
Sportsbet: $1.42 Dogs, $2.89 Eels
Referees: Gerard Sutton (on-field), Chris Sutton (touch judge), Matt Noyen (touch judge), Grant Atkins (senior review official, bunker). The Eels have the third-worst record against Sutton and Atkins (both 37.8%, 45 games) from all existing NRL officials.
Bulldogs: 1. Connor Tracey 2. Jacob Kiraz 3. Bronson Xerri 4. Stephen Crichton 5. Marcelo Montoya 6. Matt Burton 7. Toby Sexton 8. Max King 9. Reed Mahoney 10. Daniel Suluka-Fifita 11. Viliame Kikau 12. Josh Curran 13. Kurt Mann
Bench: 14. Bailey Hayward 15. Harry Hayes 16. Lipoi Hopoi 23. Lachlan Galvin
18th man: 17. Kurtis Morrin 20. Blake Wilson
Cut: 19. Jake Turpin 21. Samuel Hughes 22. Blake Taaffe
Head Coach: Cameron Gould Ciraldo
Eels: 1. Isaiah Iongi 2. Zac Lomax 3. Viliami Penisini 4. Sean Russell 5. Josh Addo-Carr 6. Dylan Brown 7. Mitchell Moses 8. Jack Williams 9. Ryley Smith 10. Junior Paulo 11. Kelma Tuilagi 12. Kitione Kautoga 13. J’maine Hopgood
Bench: 14. Dylan Walker 16. Ryan Matterson 17. Jordan Samrani 19. Matt Doorey
Extended Bench/18th man: 18. Joash Papali’i 20. Joey Lussick
Cut: 15. Luca Moretti 21. Dean Hawkins 22. Samuel Loizou
Head Coach: Jason Ryles
Key Ins and Outs
The Dogs welcome back a small army. Three Origin reps – King, Crichton, and Mann – along with Kiraz and Fifita returning from injuries. And the man of the moment, Lachlan Galvin, makes his debut for the club off the bench.
The Eels lose Moretti but regain Penisini, pushing Samrani to the bench and Papali’i to the extended reserves.
Injuries/Suspensions
Dogs - Jacob Preston (R15, suspension), Jack Todd (R16, arm), Jaemon Salmon (R20, ankle). Kiraz returns weeks ahead of schedule.
Eels - Bailey Simonsson, Sam Tuivaiti (R19, ankle), Dan Keir (R18, hamstring).
History Leans Dogs
The Eels have lost 2 of the last 3 against the Dogs, and lost last year’s King’s Birthday game, 22-18.
The Dogs have edged the Eels in their last two, by 4 and 8 points. Will we see another nail-biter?
Dogs Own Mondays
Eels have lost 4 of 5 Monday clashes with the Bulldogs. Can the Eels break the hoodoo?
Their only Monday win against the Dogs came in 2023, a year both teams struggled (Eels 10th, Bulldogs 15th).
Since 2021, the Eels have only won 2 from their last 8 at Accor.
Recent results reverse a seven-year trend (2016-2021) where the Eels dominated winning 8 of 9 at Accor against the Dogs.
What is great about Accor?
The Flying Fox
Josh Addo-Carr has scored 23 tries in 26 games at Accor Stadium. He worked his magic again last week - despite the Eels' short kicking game focused on Lomax's edge.
The Galvin Gamble
The Galvin Circus has sparked a butterfly effect — forcing future reshuffles and potentially pushing several Dogs out. Nevertheless, all eyes will be on the young rockstar as he appears to make his sudden and dramatic Dog's debut.
Image (getty): Toby Sexton's future is up in the air with Galvin potentially taking over at seven - despite Gus Gould claiming Galvin was not in their plans a few weeks ago. This had been foreshadowed for months, with Sexton's delayed re-signing — and arguably for over a year with Luke Vella’s promotion (Galvin's mentor), which coincided with Galvin’s growing discontent at the Tigers.
“Toby knows he’s the master of his own destiny,” Ciraldo said earlier in the week. If he’s playing his best footy and he’s the best option for us to win games then he’ll be in that No.7 jersey.” Perhaps, but to outsiders he appears a dead man walking, playing for a contract elsewhere. Will he put on a show today?
On Galvin, Ciraldo told us earlier in the week, “The first two sessions he’d had here he’s impressed us all with his attitude and his work ethic and if he continues that then he’ll be in the team before long.”
Seems it wasn't long at all. When it comes to the Galvin Show and all its moving pieces, the Dogs' actions talk louder.
Ryles was philosophical about "the game away from the game" yesterday, implying the drama was "good for the game."
“It’s funny how things work out," Ryles summed it up mirrorring Gus' often-used quipp, "Rugby League is a funny game."
Ryley and Reed
Image (getty): Swings and Roundabouts.
Reed Mahoney is another who looks set to be pushed out of the kennel, despite being a key figure in the Dogs' revival in recent years.
The former Eels' grand final rake and former Dogs' captain is up against the Eels' heir apparent Ryley Smith who has been impressive in his debut year.
Kicking Kings
With cool, slippery conditions expected, territory will be king — and that means a blockbuster kicking battle between Matt Burton’s booming left boot and Mitchell Moses’ precision game.
Both playmakers will look to control the tempo, pin the opposition deep, and force errors through pressure and aggressive kick chases.
Centurion Milestone Men
Image (Getty): A quiet achiever in a reshuffled backline, Connor Tracey brings up his 100th NRL game — and the Dogs will be out to make it a milestone to remember.
Tracey’s versatility and reliability have become an asset, and he’ll need to be sharp under the high ball with Josh Addo-Carr and Zac Lomax lurking on Parramatta’s flanks.
Image (Getty): It's the 100th NRL game Dylan Brown and Mitchell Moses have played together in the halves.
A Season of Two Halves
Dogs R1–7: 1st place
Scored: 26 ppg (5th)/ Conceded: 9.7 ppg (1st)
Form: WWWWWW-Bye (Won 6 of 6)
Dogs R8–13: Still 1st
Scored: 24 ppg (7th)/ Conceded: 28.8 ppg (15th)
Form: WLWWWL (Won 4 of 6)
Form: LLLLWL (Won 1 of 6)
Form: W-Bye-LLWWL (Won 3 of 6)
The Dogs started on fire, but have dipped. Over the last six weeks (since R8), the Dogs have conceded almost 29 points per game (15th ranked defence).
Still, they keep finding ways to win — the hallmark of a good team.
Final Word
The high-flying Bulldogs haven’t lost back-to-back games all season. They will seek to make a statement — reasserting themselves at the top.
The Eels are quietly becoming one of the NRL’s stingiest defences since Round 7, but they continue to shoot themselves in the foot at crucial moments.
Ryles called last week’s Panthers loss “self-inflicted” — highlighted by bombed chances and crucial errors they didn't defend. More urgent, aggressive kick chases — like the Panthers delivered — could make a world of difference. These have been recurrent issues for the young, rebuilding side.
“The consistency we had at training is starting to come onto the field. We just need to get that scoreboard to tick over our way. It’s all part of the journey," Ryles concluded.
As they rebuild, they have little left to lose this season but pride. Can the Eels finally cash in on their form? Worse still, will their momentum unravel after almost two months of steady improvement?
Let’s Get Ready to Rumble.
Replies
Do you and Wiz honestly think if Galvin was playing for us this afternoon it would have been a different result.....delusional as a matter of fact!
The reality is we were simply not good enough, the Bulldogs smashed us in the forwards, they were relentless and we did a remarkable job in defence up to 20 minutes to go, but the writing was on the wall before Galvin came on.
Brown and Moses were the whipping boys, strange that the halves get blamed when the forwards get dominated.
Wiz thinks that he is only allowed to criticise, he cannot tell them what they should do but is great at blame. Matter of fact you can all most feel the glory in his gleam when he can load up on the players he loves to hate.
Brown probably saved 2/3 tries and his attacking options were smothered. Moses should take some blame based on the "sameness" of his game, he is the playmaker just the same. My critcism was the lack of variation in his kicking game. Lomax actually tried a couple of short kicks and had them thinking. Brown did as well, errors tell the real story notwithstanding.
No today was a wake up call in what we need to be, but the dogs showed they are the real deal. Low error rate, strong discipline and a commitment to stick to a plan.
We will get there but I am sure there are plenty on here that won't go the distance.
I will I have been a supporter a long time, and wiill be for some time yet! LOL
Oh look , here's one now Bluey , like clockwork .
Ploppa I didn't bother reading past the first line so I'll just reply to that .
Nobody said we'd have won with him , although I reckon he and Moses would've been quite the more formidable opponent then Doofus Brown ( another one of your legendary calls. Fuck I'd go as far as saying Galvin probably would've carried Moses today .
The point made was that Galvin would've went quite well in our squad . Let's just try to forget you were claiming he's shit a few days ago by positing a bunch of long winded rants about whatever the fuck your harping on about .
One day you're going to realise you're coming up with a doughnut every time champion .
Not saying you said that Bluey , but if you go back over the 20 " Galvin to Dogs " threads you'll see the legends claiming he's shit and our astute recruiters knew not to go too silly over him yada yada yada
Shame.
Again we stand our ground but just can't keep making mistakes and inviting pressure for 40 minutes. No team can.
Also execution in attack needs to improve.
We are like 5% away, but this 5% is the difference between winning 7 games a year or 15.
The dogs' big boys came today too. Burton was sensational.
Great effort against top of the table dogs. Set restarts and errors drained us.
Yeah the Lomax drop on the quick tap hurt badly, we just couldn't get up the other end at all. Great defensive effort from the lads but
No it wasn't it was a dog shit performance riddled with errors which they capitalized on and ran us ragged which tired us out.
Ref didn't help with his leg ups to the dogs but we didn't help ourselves either.
God some of our fans have to wake up. Too many fans giving our team passes because we are supposedly improving or going through a rebuild or we have a new coach, and or the ref is ripping us off..
'Thats just a smoke screen.
We made mistakes at will, Completed at only 70%, missed nearly 40 tackles and on top another 30 ineffective tackles.
We had ball in hand for only 22 minutes of the game with possession just over 40%.
Nah 4 wins from14 rounds is keeping us firmly on the bottom of the ladder, and too many fans are accepting of the inept displays. Certain players and certain management figures should have the blow torch applied, they are letting us down.
Dead right BE in spots in the game where we were brave but we were never ever seriously in the running to win it never.
The Dogs are miles ahead of us miles.
As for losing a 2 horse race for Galvin fark me our fans have rocks in there head he's going to be a good one without a doubt.Look at that he's had a few training runs and there was no mis timing of passes none.
Oh Galvin,s positional play, his sublime and timing in his passes. He is or will be the real deal. Management have really let us fans down in missing out on him. Next year we are without Brown without a capable replacement I fear we will go backwards.
Yep we were gallant at times, played with heart at times, unfortunately the skill level is not up to first grade standards.
Management and fans need a real win in the recruitment area and soon. Why if we are not, throwing coin at Payne Hass or Selwynn Cobbo, Katoni Staggs, or Sandon Smith is confusing.But we settle for upgrading Penisni is also confusing. Rewarding average players with upgrades and missing out on real talent.
We are wasting the talent of Moses, Lomax and Addo Carr. Go forward average, centres that couldnt set up a stripper for bucks party, mistakes at will.
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