Gould on Bulldogs Game

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Canteen Worker

First Grader
Dogs set to snarl all the way to semis
By Phil Gould
June 27, 2005
Page Tools

If I sounded a mini-warning last week about the defending premiers being on their way back into contention for the 2005 NRL crown, then today I am offering you a full-scale alert. Here come the Bulldogs.

Their emphatic victory over Manly yesterday looked full of intent to me. The Dogs appear to have recaptured their bite.

Seven times this year teams have travelled to Fortress Brookvale to take on the Sea Eagles and on every occasion they have left with nothing to show for their efforts.

The Dogs love this sort of challenge. Playing a team undefeated at home and seven points clear of them on the premiership table represents fun for the Bulldogs, rather than something to fear.

Yesterday the Dogs strode where others had feared to tread, and in belting the home team they sounded a warning to the rugby league world that they are not about to relinquish their trophy just yet.

The most impressive part of the win was that the Sea Eagles were definitely up for the contest and at times played as well as I have seen them play all season.

It was a case of Manly, a team looking forward to playing in their first finals series for a long time, up against the Bulldogs, a team that has been there and done it so many times before. They were just too good.

Manly began with tremendous energy and every player made it his personal goal to finish over the top of his opponent in every collision. They introduced some new plays, too, and, on a couple of occasions, caught the Bulldogs asleep on the edges of the ruck with intelligent decoy running and slick ball movement.

Manly forced the pace in every aspect early on. Half Michael Monaghan was driving the ball deep with kicks that looked as though they had been fired out of a cannon. His teammates supported this with enthusiastic chase and crunching defence.

The Bulldogs ran into a strong breeze and at times containing the Manly forwards was like trying to ride a wild bull that had been hit on the rump with a white-hot branding iron. But they refused to panic and took each Manly raid in their stride.

They kept their cool and played down the edges of the field with short passes, driving Manly backwards on every play, until five-eighth Braith Anasta injected a clever kicking game of his own.

The Dogs played with the patience of a championship team. They allowed Manly to burn themselves out in 10-minute spurts of intense energy, and as soon as they stopped to look for a second wind, the Bulldogs would strike with a score of their own.


When the Dogs are at their very best they score tries with their defence. Such an attitude has been missing this season but yesterday two great defensive plays produced tries that took the wind out of Manly.

Firstly, Anasta and Andrew Ryan smashed Manly centre Terry Hill, forcing the ball loose. The Dogs swooped to swing it wide to Jamaal Lolesi to score.

In the second half, promising young forward Dallas McIlwain did it all himself when his solid tackle forced an error and he sprinted 20 metres to score.

Mind you, not all the Bulldogs tries came from brute force.

The skill from Anasta to produce Andrew Ryan's try just after half-time took the breath away. It was one of those amazing feats of skill whereby he chipped for himself, gathered after one bounce, summed up the situation before grubber kicking again for Ryan to chase and touch down.

Even the Manly fans had to stand and clap. Like crap we did. I booed more Phil!

Late in the game the body language was telling. The Dogs were back into their groove and Manly started to play with the panic of a team that had given its best, only to learn it was nowhere near good enough.

They started to crumble into a fumbling mess and the Dogs rammed home their superiority. Their last six tackles in the game were brutal. It was like they had rediscovered what made them great in the past. It looked like they didn't want the game to end.

Don't fret, Doggies. There's another game on next week. Enjoy your run to the finals. You are back.
 

Volley

Bencher
Nowhere near good enough? We were right in it until that fieldgoal was kicked, whenever that was, 10-15 to go.
 

Manly4Ever

Reserve Grader
72min I think it was. We killed our selves in that game watch the replay on Fox and see how much ball we turn over, we made it way too easy for them.
 

ManlyBacker

Winging it
He's turned into Gush Gould, pontificating on everything. I love his efforts on Ch 9 where every point is rammed home about three times, just in case the unwashed didn't pick it up the first time. No doubt he knows the game but his thoughts usually state the "bleedin' obvious'.
 

KaZa

Bencher
Manly began with tremendous energy and every player made it his personal goal to finish over the top of his opponent in every collision. They introduced some new plays, too, and, on a couple of occasions, caught the Bulldogs asleep on the edges of the ruck with intelligent decoy running and slick ball movement.

Manly forced the pace in every aspect early on. Half Michael Monaghan was driving the ball deep with kicks that looked as though they had been fired out of a cannon. His teammates supported this with enthusiastic chase and crunching defence.

Huh.. finally some sense on these forums... someone who can see Monas is awesome. His kicking game was awesome in the first half. Kicking game = field avantage. Our forwards didnt do anything.. Monas was kicking from his 30 to their 20 or 10 at times! Great chase and we kept them down there.

Slick passing and movements? Meh.. Forwards did this as well?
 

DVS Matt

Bencher
just as i thought, manly weren't bad and we shouldn't be sh!tting ourselves about friday nights game.

we'll go ok
 

PEPSI

Bencher
not many have bagged monaghs kicking, some critique his creativeness with ball in hand.

"Awesome " Kaza ? you may have a few people who debate that.
 

byso

First Grader
Well it was a fair write up. The doggies played there best footy all year and we were with them bar a shocking 15 mins of catch up.
 

KaZa

Bencher
not many have bagged monaghs kicking, some critique his creativeness with ball in hand.

\"Awesome \" Kaza ? you may have a few people who debate that.

Well his defence and his kicking is awesome. Hes not as creative as a few other half backs.. but i think he plays really well when the team hold the ball. Especially against Souths and Newcastle where we were making too many errors Monas didnt even touch the ball as we dropped it in tackle 1 or 2...

Hes great at busting the line and taking the line on as he has great strength. Ive seen him give some great balls to our centres and they cannot bust the line.. we lack penetrative centres. Maybe we should move Hicks to centre again.. with Taylor on the wing.

I just find it amazing how 94 people who voted Monas to blame against the Dogs. The team dropped too many ball and missed too many tackles towards the end. They all lost their cool. Its a stupid poll. Wonder who came up with it.. to try and shift more blame on the skipper. :doh:
 

Volley

Bencher
There is no way that all those 94 votes are legit. I saw it at around 15 one night, the next day it was 70 odd. Something is not right.
 

Volley

Bencher
Why were we struggling against a PL bulldogs side?

Good Premier League side. Patten, El Masri, Lolesi, Utai, Anasta, Sherwin, Hughes, Asotasi, O'Meley, Ryan, Grimaldi. Just because they had a few players out doesn't mean their side is ****.

Why do you always blame the halfback after a loss, and give all the credit to the forwards after a win?
 

fLIP

UFO Hunter
Amen guys. Amen. I can't wait to play them at full strenght then.

We can see how moan as goes under that pressure hey.

The only blokes in our team who work in attack is the forwards. Monzies through a pass to hick which should have been thrown by a half back? But where was he?

Probably getting up after being caught with the ball again.
 

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