The reality is we were simply not good enough.
The Bulldogs smashed us in the forwards. They were relentless.
We did a remarkable job in line defence up to 20 minutes to go, but the writing was on the wall well before Galvin came on.
The Delusion
Many on here were crying in their soup because we missed getting Galvin. Sure enough, the Doomsdayers were in force.
Image (getty): The Galvin Show reached a climax yesterday when the young rockstar scored; the cherry on top
Some believe he would have made a difference for us. BUT if the negotiations went the other way, we still would not have won that game with the errors we made. The fact that our halves were playing behind a completely dominated forward pack.
The Wake Up Call
Today was a wake up call we needed, while the dogs showed they are the real deal. Low error rate, strong discipline and a commitment to a plan.
Now that is complimentary to the Dogs and fair enough, but Muttman made the relevant point — it was always about "errors".
We made 15 v 5 errors (Foxlab). No team can win a game with the amount we made. And many were yardage errors coming out of our end in our red zone.
Image (getty): The Dogs' won the middle and the grind
The High-Speed Grind — Again
The Dogs, as the Panthers last week executed the high-speed Grind last — good go-forward (1999m v 1176m run metres), ball control (90% v 66% completions) and aggressive kick chases to reduce pressure in their defence and fatigue.
It increasingly tightened their dominance on the game as it wore on, as it gradually slipped from our hands.
The Dogs dominated field position, territory (58% 1st half, 68% 2nd half) and possession (55% 1st half, 64% 2nd half).
The Dogs had 47-6 tackles in our red zone. Incredibly, we had 0 opportunities in their red zone in the second half. Those stats are almost unheard of. Did they break any records?
The stats match the eye test. As the game wore on, the grind continued to tighten the noose around our necks.
Our resilience would eventually fail through shear exhaustion and lack of oxygen. It's very Panthers 2020-2024.
The referees certainly helped the Dogs' cause with possession and territory — set restarts and penalties were 12 v 6. We have historically one if the poorest long-term records against Atkins and Sutton. Whoever selected them for this game, didn't miss their mark. Nothing to see here, obviously.
How we stayed in the game at half-time and in the game for 60 odd minutes despite the Everest-like mountain of possession, officiating assistance and territory defies belief.
Is it Us, Them or both?
The real issues are two-fold.
One, did the "dogs" make us do them or was it just poor play and discipline and the lack of any imagination in our game plan?
Two, who is responsible for that? Whether it is Moses or Ryles is not the point. I am not looking for scapegoats. We have plenty on this site that will do that for me every day of the week 24/7 as a full-time profession.
Images (Getty): The longer the game wore on, the more Mitchell Moses was on the back foot — in Dylan and Moses' 100th game together.
Moses is a very good half. World class and essential to us — but he is not the superstar some may believe. I would drop him from the Origin side as he offers nothing to compliment that team. If Cleary was injured, I would have no problem with him stepping back in. But he is on a hiding to nothing playing 5/8 to Cleary.
The Final Word
The ongoing "tease" has now been exposed and it is up to Ryles now. He needs to recognise this in his match day plan and his selections. What happened to Matterson?
Personally, I think the wakeup call showed we were over-confident that everything we were doing was ok — on the right track. Sure, the "effort" was there as was the goal line resilience and defence. But, once again, the execution and polish— as it has been on many occasions this year — was poor.
What's next?
"We'll continue to work on our roster", Ryles added in addition to the theme of consistency and gradual improvement. Perhaps, Ryles hinted at it right there. The cattle he has has put in and showed resilience and unity beyond their experience levels — and we're a work in progress. How long until we cash in on that?
Replies
All good 👍 it's always interesting when others see it differently, and what they see different to myself. Always welcome others opinions.
Your a good man Bluey, that's why they name all those movies about you LOL
He was on there for 80 minutes, Richard. For a big part of that game ( more than 20 minutes ) we were in it as much as Canterbury were. 4 runs is shit. He shit his pants and fell away into the shadows in attack , as per usual. I'm convinced Dylan has imposter syndrome. It's a very real thing and common amongst young players. He's just been pumped up so much that hes never had to get over it .
"IMPOSTER SYNDROME" ......good one Wiz, another example of your "overblown" knowledge.
I love the fact that your convinced about something that doesn't exist.
I am convinced by the way that you suffer from renting the space in your jead about things you cannot control, your occupation with everything Dylan shows ups everywhere and anywhere. It would seem that you can only watch a game based on your obsessions.
Your hatred of him far outweighs anything else in the game.
Where do you go to Wizzy, when your alone in your bed, tell me the thoughts that surround you, I want to get out of your head.
Simply our drop balls are from either fatigue, lack of focus or desperation. Or a mixture of all three. Ryles is improving this squad but they need to improve on the completions as that is what kills us.
Skill level perhaps.
Ryles is improving the squad ? I'm just not so sure improved heart and effort is enough. The Australian Matilda's play with energy heart and effort but they don't have the skill for first grade NRL. I think some of our players fall into the same category. 4 Wins from 14 rounds, doesnt justify in my opinion being called an improved squad.
Im wondering if we are confusing the great on goal line defense and the effort in those times with the team is improving accross the park. I think our centres are going backwards and our forwards are not as dominate as last year. Whats happened to Matterson / Cartwright. Taking money under false pretences. What's happened to Lussick and Hands they have a kid that isn't even on a proper contract playing most minutes and is first choice hooker. How or why did they get an upgrade. Lane is on holidays, Dunster is on holidays. Nah something is a mess behind the scenes surely.
Ryles cannot be happy about what the club are doing behind the scenes, The coach has wanted a few players signed that we publicly know of and the recruitment team have come up with zero during negotiations..
'Nah there is more going on behind closed doors affecting the squad makeup and hurting our chances to sign skilled players that win games. Ryles appears to be keeping his head up but seriously why isn't the club actually sigining real first grade talent that can improve the side immediatley. I'm thinking Hass,Staggs, Cobbo, Smith, Ponga apparently has an exit clause, Tino from the titans has an exit clause. Their are some seriously talented players available under the right conditions. We are left standing with our D's in our hands whilst other good clubs continue sigining skilled players.
What no winning the collisions not important I mean the last coach praised that and got continually bagged for it.Now we are getting dominated in the middle and the big sexy sweeping ball movement is good enough anymore.
Get this term into your vocabularies 1EE URGENT ATHLETES if a player doesn't have that we don't want him.
Ok, Two of my unhappy friends.
I don't think I can offfer any more than i have in the blog. I was hardly complimentary.
Moses maybe world class, but there are a lot of world class halfbacks. Yes he is a good one, but the relevant points stand.
I think context in terms of errors, and there forward dominance is the only excuse.
Bluey, you are critical of us losing Galvin by the sound of it.
It's a dangerous game when we never had him to lose in the first place. The conspiracy of how he has ended up at the dogs is pretty well documented.
His time on the field was hardly relevant yesterday. We were shot at that point and the statistics summary of Brown is hardly fair. I reckon he saved a minimum of two tries and tell me a Parramatta player that made a line break?
Halves playing behind a pack being dominated hardly ever look good. Ask Cherry Evans?
I would maybe ask the question why our kick chase is so poor, Dogs ran it back 20 metres before our defence got there, when they kicked to us our receiver was always under pressure. Why is this so? happened previous weeks as well.
Maybe in this particular game we may need to be more complimentary to our opponents of being too good. Whilst it happens that all teams make some errors, it appeared yesterday that the Dogs hardly made any. The dominance of their possesion indicated that, i.e. limited errors from the dogs, plenty from us.
"I would maybe ask the question why our kick chase is so poor"
we were knackered defending and going one out.
Our knockons and intercept (though they probably saved potential tries) which gave them more possession tired us more.
When the dogs did make a mistake we threw the ball over the sideline or just couldn't execute
Isn't it funny how when someone else questions Moses they're haters and know nothing, and then all of a sudden when he sniffs one or two of his cool kids posters querying parts of Moses's game , he gets the courage to start to have a little negativity creep in.
Fast forward a few weeks and Moses plays a blinder on a flat track team , and it'll be back to " Silly Wiz even said Moses ain't perfect ...... and we all know he is " all over again 😂😂
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