Bluey made a post about whether we are over the top in judging our current performance's based on where we are on the competition table.
Mmmmm. I think you are too pessimistic Bluey, and that's after my own tirade following the Canberra performance in Darwin.
I said at the time all I had left was hope - without a reason to support Ryles any further.
Hope is of course eternal, so nothing changes there. But I have seen a definte improvement in the teams performances and this can only be put down to Ryles and the strength of his perseverance.
So he has turned me around and am very comfortable being in that position than sitting on the sidelines and sniping him. We are also seeing some comforting vision of his assistants and the upsurge of our pathways, including the women as I believe a strong all round club is important at every level when it becomes to self belief.
Take the form lines between Dragons, Tigers and now Sharks and you could rationalise we could/would be competetive against any team in the comp. Throw in our game against the dogs and we are not far away, even if it turns out we have a middle of the road finishing position this year. I am even going to say we could have a big finish yet if injuries are kind to us.
If you add Lomax to that side on Friday, I have little doubt that we would have won. The Moses /Lomax combination has not been put in place yet and it is one of our weaknesses to say that we are not competitive chasing high kicks from Moses at present. It was a fluke that Russell kicked 3 out 3 on Friday night as well. When Lomax is playing that hope becomes delivered.
Finally, there is no doubt our forwards are our achillies heel at present. The short show that Samrani put on gives me some hope, while the exclusion of Cartright and Matterson is something I hope can be resolved. If those two were happy campers we would also be better.
So in general terms onward "Christian Soldiers" and don't write us off yet! If your not Christian don't worry, you will get over it! LOL
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ARNOLD needs to start with a taxonimist
A taxonomist is a scientist who specializes in classifying and naming living organisms, including both plants and animals. They study the similarities and differences between species to understand their biology and relationships, and they may also describe and name new species.
I had to look it up Randolph, but I am impressed just the same and I find it very interesting that we really don't know at this point of time whether Arnie is "plant or animal" Dr Fong maybe the go to man on this subject?
Personally I think somewhere between an Amoeba and a Champanzee is a likely outcome.
LOl...I should've looked it up myself, then i would've spelt it right
Good blog, Pops — as always. Things often aren’t as bleak as they seem, or as idealized as we hope.
What gives me hope is the club's internal alignment now - no matter the outside noise.
Importantly, the players seem to respond positively to Ryles both on-and-off the field, despite our young, inevitably, rebuilding roster and all the subsequent ups and downs that come with that.
We'll see a rollercoaster for some time, I suspect. And that will be reflected on here. I can see the Doomsdayers returning in full force soon - wanting the club sacked. As long as the club stay united internally.
I'm still in the "give it time" camp since the start of the season - hoping.
The next 12–24 months of R&R will be crucial, alongside inuries (Moses in particular) and mending fractured relationships from the club’s turbulent past.
Just remember — it took Gus 4-5 years to rebuild the Bulldogs with all his wily influence and sombrero-sugar-daddies. Arguably, we also had a worse starting point attitude-defence wise (they leaked 455-504 points a season 2017-2020 missing finals before Gus, we leaked over 700 last year over same amount of games). We're in year one. In Gus' first year (2021) it all got worse (last, over 700 points). Then, when Ciraldo came (2023) in the third year of the rebuild they were third last (leaking over 760 points). Moral of the story: It got worse before it got better and that's with sugar daddy help we don't have as much (yet). If we beat that timeline, it would be quite an acheivement.
PS: Last Friday’s presser was a classic. After saying he "didn’t have enough money to be honest" about the refs, and heaping praise on Moses a journo joked "You should get a room." Ryles fired back instantly: "You should get a new jacket." Lol
And in this weeks episode of Ploppas backpeddling. For a bloke who always claims he's in the right and everyone else is wrong, you sure do spend a lot of time flip flopping from one opinion to the other and being wrong.
How about grabbing an opinion and sticking to it for longer than a week or two and just maybe you'll come out the other side with it being correct. I highly doubt it , but hey , give it a try.
You spend so much time trying to align your opinions with the majority, and then you just go and change it a the drop of a hat.
For a bloke who always claims he's in the right and everyone else is wrong,
That could be either of us Wizzie but its not ......i have never claimed that and I don't think you have either, although you do like to tell us after the event how right you are. Always a problem for someone that has lived a life of dissatisfaction and low achievements by the standard your ego created for you.
Its not about you or me Wiz, its just giving opinions and trying to add value to a discussion. I believe you have a lot to offer once you get that chip of your shoulder.
You should note finally that someone who does change their mind as much I do is hardly someone who meets the criteria or criticism in this case of who claims he's in the right and everyone else is wrong, i.e you contradict yourself.....not for the first time of course.
My biggest thing the opening month that gave the moment of pause is I called out these errors early because week 1 I knew we had to have some sought of game that would be competitive against Melbourne.To which we got blown off the park.
Then to get smoked by the wooden spooners at home with errors still a plenty I was like ok how long can this continue we get a win to stop the bleeding then get smoked by the Raiders with a gritty performance against the Dogs amongst it.The first month was tough and myself I was getting my bearing as a fan.
The second month you can see improvement there especially defensively on the edge.With Moses now back we can be compete.We are far from the finished product and I can see improvements roster wise especially off the bench.
The biggest negatives are still there the errors and where we are making these errors really hurt us.We eliminate those and we will be even more so competitive.But make no mistake I don't see us competing for. Premiership for at least another 2 years.By this time JR has HIS roster and style of play engrained.I guess fans don't want to hear this but it's a wait nd see patience game but I do believe JR is on the right track.
Great to hear, Pops. Well said.
It's all well and good to see something (anything) in our last few weeks. Net result is we are still last at present. There is nothing to be positive about that.
Once we start winning a few games (2 in a row would be nice) and start to climb off the bottom, then I'll see the positives. Until then, we are simply a work in progress with a speck of light at the end of the tunnel.
Plenty of dark days ahead, I reckon.
MON needs to pull his head out of his arse and put the club back into the mix for a premiership, or fuck the hell off. He has literally done as good as job as anyone on this forum could have done. Coach says buy this guy, or retain this guy, MON gives said player any clauses and dollars their manager asks for. Job done!
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