Why the Bulldogs are swinging (and missing) in the rain

Sydney Morning Herald

7 days ago

Last Sunday's scenes against the Tigers mostly centred on Bulldogs recruit Lachie Galvin losing against his former club. How Jarome Luai gave Galvin a facial and verbal spray. How the Tigers celebrated with the Arabic middle finger. And how everyone in rugby league was (eventually) introduced to the word 'khawd', and the various ways it is pronounced.
For a large number of Bulldogs fans, they would have been more concerned their team had failed to get the job done again on a heavy playing surface.
Maybe it is nothing more than a case of playing poorly on three separate occasions against sides who wanted it more?
The Dogs have completed at an average of 82 per cent this year, but that number dips to 69 per cent when you look at the three defeats in the slush.
Immortal Andrew Johns, said when asked about Canterbury and their wet-track record this week: 'I think it's because they rely on a lot of set plays. And when you do those set plays in the wet, it's hard to transfer the ball quickly, laterally, which means they are not putting pressure on key defenders to make a bad decision.'
Johns said Penrith also used to struggle in the slippery conditions because of the reliance on set plays, and recalled some of their classic defeats, including the World Club Challenge against St Helens, and shock loss to the Tigers one dreary Saturday night in Bathurst a couple of years ago.
This masthead asked several current and former players, commentators and coaches to give their thoughts on what it is the Dogs are doing – or not doing – in wet and wild conditions.
Everyone knows the Dogs have a smaller but mobile pack, how they pride themselves on getting three or four players into tackles, and having excellent line-speed in defence.
When they hunt in numbers, they put pressure on the opposition, and make it difficult for any side to roll downfield and build momentum.
On a slippery surface, however, the Dogs have needed to slow it down, or accept they risk getting wrong-footed and slipping over if they shoot out of the line too quickly.
Because the Dogs have to hang back that split second longer, teams have been able to move up field a little easier, and get themselves into a situation where they can isolate defenders.
As the rain bucketed down at Suncorp Stadium on a Friday night in April, the Broncos knew the Bulldogs pack would find it harder to move sideways and rush up in defence.
The likes of Payne Haas, Pat Carrigan and Xavier Willison are much bigger than Max King, Josh Curran and Jaeman Salmon, so the simple game plan was to play through the middle – and often. Halfback Adam Reynolds then had all the time in the world to work out what attacking kicks to pull out of his trick bag, which included a couple of chips for winger Deine Mariner to score in the right corner.
Reynolds also took the opportunity to kick early and kick to the corner. Bulldogs chief Phil Gould used to always tell his players, 'it's easier to defend down their end than attack out of your own end', which became an even more important rule in the wet, and one the Broncos executed beautifully.
The Dolphins clash in awful weather at Accor Stadium during the Origin period featured a Canterbury team that was missing nearly a dozen players through injury, suspension or Origin duty. But the Dolphins threw plenty of short passes, spent a lot of time charging up the centre of the park, and Isaiya Katoa produced a classy short-kicking game.
Some of his kicks made it a rare off night for Connor Tracey, arguably the Dogs' best player this year whose absence was sorely missed against the Tigers last weekend, and will be in the coming weeks.
Tigers No. 1 Jahream Bula said coach Benji Marshall pulled the spine aside last weekend when it became clear CommBank Stadium was going to be a mudheap.
'We discussed how we wanted to play, which was away from the sideline, and with a lot of 'drop plays', which is basically dropping a player back underneath you to come back through the middle,' Bula said.
'The Dogs forwards chase hard and like to put a lot of pressure on the ball player. Those drop plays help with holding them up. They have to take the drop player in a one-on-one tackle.
'We also wanted to look for early kicks.'
Adam Doueihi kicked a few times on the fourth tackle from inside his own 40m. Canterbury hooker Reed Mahoney did it once, while Bailey Hayward had the right idea on another occasion in the second half, only to shank it.
Storm legend Cameron Smith was the best when kicking early in the wet, and Mahoney and Hayward need to be doing just that if conditions deteriorate against the Warriors. They are both good kickers.
Performing in the wet can become a psychological thing. Ask any horse trainers, who have the luxury of scratching their horses from a race if the track becomes worse because of the rain, or is what they call 'downgraded'.