Veteran rugby league reporter Phil Rothfield believes the Bulldogs are “out of excuses” after yet one more flogging by the hands of the Knights in Round 24.
Cameron Ciraldo’s facet trailed 30-0 at halftime and managed to maintain their Newcastle opponents to solely 12 second-half factors to lose 42-6 at McDonald Jones Stadium.
The Bulldogs boasted a close to full-strength facet that included star low season recruit Viliame Kikau in addition to winger Josh Addo-Carr and gun playmaker Matt Burton.
But nonetheless, they had been no match for the red-hot Knights who additionally put 66-points on the Belmore-based membership in Round 18.
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Rothfield labelled the Bulldogs “disgraceful” and highlighted their lack of an organising playmaker, with mid-season recruit Toby Sexton not residing as much as expectation in his eyes.
“Did you watch them yesterday? They are running out of excuses, they have Kikau, Burton, Addo-Carr, Mahoney, Pangai Junior, Luke Thompson their English international,”
“They were disgraceful, they were blown off the park and what worries me is Gus said recently they are making progress.
“I cannot see any progress whatsoever, Luke Thompson missed eight tackle yesterday, that defence in the middle was just appalling.
“What worries me about next year, and I know Stephen Crichton is coming, they have blown it up on these big names but they don’t have a halfback.
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“Toby Sexton was a second-grader on the Gold Coast, had one run for six metres yesterday, missed six tackles. I don’t think he is the answer.
“Before he signed they were very close to getting Jayden Sullivan, but he baulked when Sexton signed there.”
Rothfield believes as an alternative of creating big-money signings outdoors of their backbone, the Bulldogs should hit the open market to discover a halfback.
Their choices are slim although, with Jamal Fogarty free to barter for 2025 come November 1, whereas Adam Clune, Adam Clune and Drew Hutchison are with out contracts for 2024.
“To run a football side with the talent they’ve got they need a stronger halfback, someone who can steer this side around the park,” Rothfield stated.
“All this money has been spent, but they don’t have the playmaker. I don’t know what they are going to do next year, I can’t see the way forward.
“Even with all this talent, we saw the way they played yesterday with no one steering them around the park.
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“There’s a lot of work ahead before this side becomes a premiership threat… they should not be getting wiped by the Knights in the manner they did yesterday.”
Rothfield additionally questioned why the membership paid a hefty switch free to get former Broncos younger gun Karl Oloapu out of his contract, who’s now being thought-about a lock.
He additionally revealed that famous person halfback Ben Hunt gained’t be leaving the Dragons earlier than his contract ends.
“They paid a $500,000 transfer fee to get him out of the Broncos, but they’ve now said he is a lock forward,” Rothfield stated.
“Gus and Cameron Ciraldo were banging on the door of Ben Hunt when that story first emerged that he was so disgruntled.
“I spoke to people over the weekend and Ben Hunt has fully recommitted to the Dragons, he had a couple of meeting with Shane Flanagan.”
Source web site: www.foxsports.com.au
