Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs

No Worries wrote:

Why is it amateur hour ? The guy started the year as an ISP player, would be on an ISP contract (not tier 1) why shouldn't he play in the finals ? What possible ruling could you bring in to stop this and why would you want to ? Minutes instead of games is going to make it unfair for big forwards, number of games + minutes could be unfair to an injured player who spends half the season on the sidelines. Then do you include dispensation requests so we can have the same bullshit with the NRL picking teams. Maybe the only reason it happened is that the rule is amateur. It's a club playing in 2 divisions. Everyone is eligible with a maximum X number of tier 1 contracted players able to play. Pretty sure that was the rule back in the president cup days that you could have x number of players over 21 to allow the flexibility but also some guidance for the younger guys.

becauase its pulling the absolute piss!!! thats why. It comes across as so unprofessional its not funny.

No Worries wrote:

Pieman wrote:

surely the NRL have to step in and stop shit like this happening. Fucking amateur hour. This kind of shit happens in local reserve grade rugby when coming up to the finals, it shouldn't be happening at elite level NRL.

Why is it amateur hour ? The guy started the year as an ISP player, would be on an ISP contract (not tier 1) why shouldn't he play in the finals ? What possible ruling could you bring in to stop this and why would you want to ? Minutes instead of games is going to make it unfair for big forwards, number of games + minutes could be unfair to an injured player who spends half the season on the sidelines. Then do you include dispensation requests so we can have the same bullshit with the NRL picking teams. Maybe the only reason it happened is that the rule is amateur. It's a club playing in 2 divisions. Everyone is eligible with a maximum X number of tier 1 contracted players able to play. Pretty sure that was the rule back in the president cup days that you could have x number of players over 21 to allow the flexibility but also some guidance for the younger guys.

Whether it's the fault of the governing body, or a club responding to the rules of the governing body, its deadest amateur hour either way and needs to be addressed.

i don't even get the thought process behind it, it's not like the Bulldogs first grade side is playing for anything and they had to know they would cop heat for it, even Rhys himself didn't seem overly pleased with the situation, they could have just sent him down for a week to play the game properly and no-one or nothing would've been effected, i wasn't even aware you could play the state comp and NRL on the same weekend unless an emergency required it... maybe that should be the rule moving forward?

Sometimes players who only have short stints in first grade early in the weekend back up and play ressies for game time later in the weekend when it works out


That type of rule change surmon is kind of exactly what I was talking about being silly just because we did this pretty retarded thing once

surmo13 wrote:i don't even get the thought process behind it, it's not like the Bulldogs first grade side is playing for anything and they had to know they would cop heat for it, even Rhys himself didn't seem overly pleased with the situation, they could have just sent him down for a week to play the game properly and no-one or nothing would've been effected, i wasn't even aware you could play the state comp and NRL on the same weekend unless an emergency required it... maybe that should be the rule moving forward?

yeah same, I thought that there was a rule like that already. If someone gets hurt in the warm up or something like that

leaguegod wrote:Sometimes players who only have short stints in first grade early in the weekend back up and play ressies for game time later in the weekend when it works out


That type of rule change surmon is kind of exactly what I was talking about being silly just because we did this pretty retarded thing once

I don't believe you're allowed to play lower grade if you started in NRL. If you come off the bench in NRL you can play lower grade. I'm not sure what the purpose of the rule is (I think its mainly to stop rorting of the system).

It happens alot with Broncos players this year (Staggs, Mago, etc), the guys who play small mins off bench will always play Q Cup later that weekend (well, when logistics suit)

my tv broke wrote:

I don't believe you're allowed to play lower grade if you started in NRL. If you come off the bench in NRL you can play lower grade. I'm not sure what the purpose of the rule is (I think its mainly to stop rorting of the system).

It happens alot with Broncos players this year (Staggs, Mago, etc), the guys who play small mins off bench will always play Q Cup later that weekend (well, when logistics suit)

i didn't know of that rule but for the dogs all the examples this year would have been players who started off the bench so you are probably right

yeah, I know the rule in local rugby is (and this goes for all season) if you start in a first grade game one week, you cant then start in a reserve grade game the next week. Sometimes that rule comes back to bite you in the ass e.g. when a first grade player is injured so a reserves player fills in for a week, then they cant play reserves the week later without a special clearance from the zone.

Duno what the rule is for NRL tho, I doubt it is that.

Pretty low on the list of things wrong with the game, but certainly something that should be addressed at some stage. Probably a bit of a tough one in that if someone progresses part way through the year to being a really good NRL player, you probably don't want them in the lower grades (think when Chris Sandow won ROTY after coming into NRL and playing about the last 13 games, but played the first half of the season in U20's), but by the same token if they played enough of the lower grade to be a reason why their team is in the finals, why shouldn't they play in the finals of the lower grade.

As much as most people want black and white rules, this is probably something that the NRL should invoke a "spirit of the game" type rule (although not retrospectively IMO). A panel should be able to review the incident and say "Hey you had him listed for NSW Cup and NRL on the same arvo, and played him for 3 seconds. Obviously you're taking the piss so we're not counting that as a game that qualifies him for the finals". The club then has the right of appeal if they think it was a genuine attempt and he went of precautionary after say 15 minutes or something like that.

As I type this I honestly don't know the right answer. Probably what I'd hate more is if the Bulldogs put an inferior player in the NRL so that Martin could play enough reggies games if the rule was different. NRL should always take precedence over lower grades. I don't care if it's say the round 25 match with no meaning between the Titans and Cowboys. Even that NRL match is more important than the Reggies Grand Final in my opinion. Maybe given it happens only once every couple of years, we just live with it as the lesser of two evils.

Martin did indeed get injured today so it might all be for nothing

But aside from that, what a positive result and god the team has been a lot more enjoyable to support since the bye(also when we lost woods and mbye aswell as foz getting ruled out)

Young players like smith, Martin and Lewis killing

Hoppa in brilliant form at fullback

Klem and Tolman playing awesomenevery week. Tolman clearly better with woods not there

Morris boys finishing their time here strong

Kerrod holland looks like a first grade player! What a time to be alive

leaguegod wrote: What a time to be alive

Got to be happy you might finish 11th.
That Lewis looks good, Martin has shown what he can do. Thinking you have a team that might threaten top 8 next year based on today's performance. Nothing to loose comes into it also.

Lol would have taken 15th 2 months ago

Up untill the bye, I was pretty certain we’d get the spoon. Just thought the eels would find somthing while we were unlikely to improve. But a few performing youngsters has certainly seen us improve and even play some good footy, we’ve been a boring side for years but have some scored some pretty nice tries in r cent weeks

leaguegod wrote:Lol would have taken 15th 2 months ago

Up untill the bye, I was pretty certain we’d get the spoon. Just thought the eels would find somthing while we were unlikely to improve. But a few performing youngsters has certainly seen us improve and even play some good footy, we’ve been a boring side for years but have some scored some pretty nice tries in r cent weeks

Holland and Smith in particular have been quite simply brilliant of late and nice to see the Dogs finish off strongly for poor old Dean Pay who looked like the weight of the world was on his shoulders part-way through the season.

At least the dogs avoided the spoon

Now find a way to ditch Foran and things will be looking very good

Another game without Mbye & Woods and another big win.

thoughts on the nude mad monday situation?

Did the guys damage the reputation of the game? I'd say no, they damaged their personal reputation only. $250K in total fines is crazy. I mean systematic cap cheating by the Storm and Eels only result in $500K & $1M fines respectively, and the Sharks were fined $1M for systematic drug cheating.

I'd probably fine the players about $2500 each for the stupidity of not realising the media would blow this way out of proportion, and the club $5K for not holding Mad Monday somewhere telescopic lens could see them.

I'll be damned if I'm lectured on morals by Red Cheek Rothfield or the Daily Telegraph.

It's actually more of a reflection on the club and the senior leadership team.

The family men were home with their family, they weren't there, but they should be advising these guys on how to prep a mad monday. The club should be making sure they are out of sight not in a public place. Every leagues club has an auditorium with a bar or a suburban home ground they can lock out. Then as night falls, bus them to a boat and get them out on the water away from prying eyes with strippers and hookers and plenty of blow. Home for a shower may be a couple of hours rest, then back into it. It's now Tuesday and the story has passed.

Or at leat that's what I think would be a good idea.

No Worries wrote:It's actually more of a reflection on the club and the senior leadership team.

The family men were home with their family, they weren't there, but they should be advising these guys on how to prep a mad monday. The club should be making sure they are out of sight not in a public place. Every leagues club has an auditorium with a bar or a suburban home ground they can lock out. Then as night falls, bus them to a boat and get them out on the water away from prying eyes with strippers and hookers and plenty of blow. Home for a shower may be a couple of hours rest, then back into it. It's now Tuesday and the story has passed.

Or at leat that's what I think would be a good idea.

Is that the plan for the next forum meet up? I'm in!