NRL Round 5 - Bulldogs Vs Knights - Accor Stadium - 6:15pm Sunday 6th April

[Treadly]

So how long do we give Sharpe a pass at 6? Do we wait for the season to be done before we realise he isn’t a half?

OK CHAMP

He will be a half. The game plan has been made. He honestly has till a good chunk into 2026.

Your expectations are ridiculous. Are you blaming that loss on him or what? Yeah he had a poor game. But if you didn't think that could happen then I can't help you, and won't respond to you again.

 

[Billy]

Sharpe made 28 tackles.
Can you even imagine Ponga chasing work and making 28 tackles when he played 5/8?
When they first talked about Sharpe at 5/8 I thought that the thing that might not work out would be him having to make more than his usual 3 or 4 tackles and not being up to it.
He's now made 8, 21, 27 and 28 tackles in 4 games at just under 90% efficiency.
Some of his tackles are surprisingly strong on big forwards.

So anyway, his defence will improve to be as good as Crossland's in a year or two, and I'm very surprised by that, because I spent years thinking he was a pretty weak defender at fullback - but he was often playing 1 or 2 years up and 3 years up when he played in the Flegg grandfinal.

 

[slotmachine]

Can you even imagine Ponga chasing work and making 28 tackles when he played 5/8?

I remember the day he missed 10 against the Eels and Mitch Moses absolutely clowned him.

 

[krustykraz]

I hope this isn't true but,
Re-watching the Schiller injury and the way the blood came out, it's possible he burst his ear drum and will be out for a while needing surgery.

 

[Owey]

I hope this isn't true but,
Re-watching the Schiller injury and the way the blood came out, it's possible he burst his ear drum and will be out for a while needing surgery.

It was horrible to see live. I don't know what they showed on TV, but the bleeding from the ear was evident and he was holding his head like it needed to be held together. I feared it was a catastrophic fracture.

 

[Les Misérables]

I don’t think our pack their yardage metres are the problem to be honest. We definitely need another middle to replace Leo no doubt, but I think even injury depleted the last 2 weeks they’ve done their job. Our pack were also in the top 4 last year for post-contact running metres.

We’re getting into **** field position because we drop the ball ALL THE TIME, not because the forwards can’t make metres IMO. A lot of sets last night the Dogs were only getting 30ish metres themselves despite having all the energy from not needing to defend.

Honestly hold the ball and we’re a much better side all round.

Am I the only person who notices that we really, really struggle to work the ball out of our own end, particularly off our own line. You can trap the Sharks on their own try line and they'll be taking their 5th tackle kick from the halfway line. Us, we'll be taking it from the 30. It's just our outside backs taking one-out hit ups into 4 defenders, within a compressed D-line. We never think to spread it, ever, why not do that once early in the set just to stretch the D-line instead of running into 4 defenders. And we rarely find a hole in the D-line to get a quick play the ball. It's always a gruelling and disappointing set when working it off our line.

Without Marzhew it would be even worse.

 

[sherpa]

A very difficult game, every time we came out of our end we lost at least 20m to 30m in comparison to the Dogs who managed to steamroll their way down the field and put in an attacking kick on nearly every occasion. We couldn't hold them and they had no trouble halting us. The backs were always going to struggle when the forwards basically tried hard but couldn't match it with the Dogs.

 

[MattyM]

There's not much worth discussing because you're just going round in circles and saying the same thing again and again lol.

Circle is man’s favourite shape.

 

[Sarge]

Am I the only person who notices that we really, really struggle to work the ball out of our own end, particularly off our own line. You can trap the Sharks on their own try line and they'll be taking their 5th tackle kick from the halfway line. Us, we'll be taking it from the 30. It's just our outside backs taking one-out hit ups into 4 defenders, within a compressed D-line. We never think to spread it, ever, why not do that once early in the set just to stretch the D-line instead of running into 4 defenders. And we rarely find a hole in the D-line to get a quick play the ball. It's always a gruelling and disappointing set when working it off our line.

Without Marzhew it would be even worse.

We have had that problem for years , opposing teams get the ball from our rubbish kick on their forty , then tackle one on the halfway . Always then get to attacking kick .Rinse & repeat !

 

[Les Misérables]

We have had that problem for years , opposing teams get the ball from our rubbish kick on their forty , then tackle one on the halfway . Always then get to attacking kick .Rinse & repeat !

It's not the coaching surely

 

[OnTilt]

Yeah because you blokes have a cry when anyone says anything about Sharpe, but happy to bag everyone else on here. Is everyone from Cessnock on here lol

Because, crazy thought - you are the only one that thinks the problem with the team is Sharpe.

 

[jamesgould]

Am I the only person who notices that we really, really struggle to work the ball out of our own end, particularly off our own line. You can trap the Sharks on their own try line and they'll be taking their 5th tackle kick from the halfway line. Us, we'll be taking it from the 30. It's just our outside backs taking one-out hit ups into 4 defenders, within a compressed D-line. We never think to spread it, ever, why not do that once early in the set just to stretch the D-line instead of running into 4 defenders. And we rarely find a hole in the D-line to get a quick play the ball. It's always a gruelling and disappointing set when working it off our line.

Without Marzhew it would be even worse.

I dunno, we're averaging 1791 metres per game, which is second in the NRL.

Obviously yesterday was a struggle with all the injuries though. But generally I think we've been pretty good in that area so far this year.

 

[Les Misérables]

I dunno, we're averaging 1791 metres per game, which is second in the NRL.

Obviously yesterday was a struggle with all the injuries though. But generally I think we've been pretty good in that area so far this year.

Those metres are coming from our outside backs. And if there were some way to measure where those metres are made I'd be willing to wager good money that they aren't made coming off our own line.

Also, we've played the Dolphins, Tigers and Titans prior to the Dogs, so I'd expect us to be towards the top

 

[frankLauda]

This game should be no comparison to our form. We lost our frontline prop, and a winger in 2 mins. Most teams would have struggled with that adversity.

The only thing that could have helped was having a kicker with a big boot, like a Moses or DCE, etc. Cogger and Ponga don’t have that big boot.

We will be better at home against the Tigers. The outs we have are not ideal but they will all have a week to train knowing there roles.

If we have a bad game against the Tigers at home then there could start to be some concern.

 

[Chaister]

Am I the only person who notices that we really, really struggle to work the ball out of our own end, particularly off our own line. You can trap the Sharks on their own try line and they'll be taking their 5th tackle kick from the halfway line. Us, we'll be taking it from the 30. It's just our outside backs taking one-out hit ups into 4 defenders, within a compressed D-line. We never think to spread it, ever, why not do that once early in the set just to stretch the D-line instead of running into 4 defenders. And we rarely find a hole in the D-line to get a quick play the ball. It's always a gruelling and disappointing set when working it off our line.

Without Marzhew it would be even worse.

In the past we have definitely, but I don’t think that’s a huge issue at the moment. We’re making a lot of metres.

The getting the outside backs to take most of the hit ups is a strategy to conserve the forwards’ energy so they can defend. It’s being used a lot in the game now, something Penrith started.

If we want more metres out of our own end the forwards need to be taking more hit ups, but the downside to that is they’re going to get gassed quicker.

It’s not always best to try and “fix” something if creates a new problem.

 

[Defence wins games]

In the past we have definitely, but I don’t think that’s a huge issue at the moment. We’re making a lot of metres.

The getting the outside backs to take most of the hit ups is a strategy to conserve the forwards’ energy so they can defend. It’s being used a lot in the game now, something Penrith started.

If we want more metres out of our own end the forwards need to be taking more hit ups, but the downside to that is they’re going to get gassed quicker.

It’s not always best to try and “fix” something if creates a new problem.

Sometimes it has a lot to do with coming onto the ball with speed and in numbers, quick play the ball and go again, often catching the markers and retreating defence off guard. We have to be that team to match the real contenders.

 

[Kurriboy]

Sometimes it has a lot to do with coming onto the ball with speed and in numbers, quick play the ball and go again, often catching the markers and retreating defence off guard. We have to be that team to match the real contenders.

It's the fatigue. That game we had plenty of fatigue put in to us through bad luck and our own poor handling, which lead to long repeated sets of D. The dogs had a huge possession advantage and hardly any fatigue put in to them.

Dogs therefore had plenty of energy to rush up and hem us in, we just didn't have the energy to bring it out strong. Leads to us turning it over to the Dogs putting the dogs in good field position and we are back to working it out from our line again.

Our handling errors wrecked that game for us more than anything else.

 

[Beatell]

Those metres are coming from our outside backs. And if there were some way to measure where those metres are made I'd be willing to wager good money that they aren't made coming off our own line.

Also, we've played the Dolphins, Tigers and Titans prior to the Dogs, so I'd expect us to be towards the top

A heap of those metres will be Marz also.

 

[Die Hard]

Nothing wrong with Cessnock mate, that’s the town that created the best footballer to lace up a boot. The 8th.

Then I recommend you watch the most recent Freddie and the Eighth where they have Sharpe on and talk to him about his past and future. He played halves until around the age of 18 when he needed to change to a different position to cover someone in a higher grade due to injury. If the best footballer to lace up a boot believes in him and is a fan of Sharpe I would 100% rely on his most expertised opinion. I have no idea how you could say he isn't a half unless you're severely uninformed....

 

[PRESTON MANIA]

you guys genuinely werent even that bad lol, idk why you fans are being so negative. Good signs for you guys, defence looked strong attack just needed some work. To bad you were vsing the best team in the comp or mayybe you wouldve won. P.S. Bailey hayward is a good 5.8 to you muppets calling him sh*t. Has done more this year then that overpaid guy ponga.