We need to have good discipline and don't give away silly penalties (like we have been doing this year), particularly holding the tackled player down too long, flopping in on top or stealing the ball when more than one in a tackle I know there is a fine line with these and Manly usually gets the raw end of the stick but still we need to adapt to the ref and play to his rules.
DCE needs to improve his goal kicking (or give it to Lyon). He needs to make those pressure kicks out wide.
We need to lock the ball up when tackling them and not allow easy offloads and 2nd phase plays.
Pressuring Soward when he's attacking particularly when he's kicking the ball to try and unsettle him. And have our big forwards running at him in attack to wear him out.
When they are attacking from deep on their side and the dummy half (wingers and centres) is just running it back we need to be quick from marker and cut then down and don't allow easy metres. Then when we're taking it out from deep in our side we need to be a bit more creative and not just have the dummy half try to run it out. Many times last night the Dragons markers were quick to tackle the dummy half and the Bulldogs didn't gain many metres with the first few tackles of each set.
If we can be first to score a try, early in the match then that should unsettle the Dragons and show them we're not going to lie down easily.
The Bulldogs got on top of the Dragons in the 2nd half by playing it tight up the middle and hitting hard in defense. They managed to wear the Dragons down but because of the poor first half couldn't peg the gap back.
DCE needs to improve his goal kicking (or give it to Lyon). He needs to make those pressure kicks out wide.
We need to lock the ball up when tackling them and not allow easy offloads and 2nd phase plays.
Pressuring Soward when he's attacking particularly when he's kicking the ball to try and unsettle him. And have our big forwards running at him in attack to wear him out.
When they are attacking from deep on their side and the dummy half (wingers and centres) is just running it back we need to be quick from marker and cut then down and don't allow easy metres. Then when we're taking it out from deep in our side we need to be a bit more creative and not just have the dummy half try to run it out. Many times last night the Dragons markers were quick to tackle the dummy half and the Bulldogs didn't gain many metres with the first few tackles of each set.
If we can be first to score a try, early in the match then that should unsettle the Dragons and show them we're not going to lie down easily.
The Bulldogs got on top of the Dragons in the 2nd half by playing it tight up the middle and hitting hard in defense. They managed to wear the Dragons down but because of the poor first half couldn't peg the gap back.