Dogs v Vikings

[Dog forever]

Looking forward to this one.  Gonna be a tight one with both teams in form. 

Dogs   20 

Vikings 19

[phildog]

Agree on it being tight; TomG being out is a massive plus for us but probably balanced out by us being without Meadows. It might come down to which player of either side takes the game by the scruff. They have Owens and Craven capable of it, better attacking threats than we can match so we'll have to be on our game spotting, cutting them out and hoping our forwards match theirs. Watch that no12 and we'll come out on the right side of the scoreboard, to quote a certain Mr. Kear!!

[Blind side johnny]

14 hours ago, phildog said:

Agree on it being tight; TomG being out is a massive plus for us but probably balanced out by us being without Meadows. It might come down to which player of either side takes the game by the scruff. They have Owens and Craven capable of it, better attacking threats than we can match so we'll have to be on our game spotting, cutting them out and hoping our forwards match theirs. Watch that no12 and we'll come out on the right side of the scoreboard, to quote a certain Mr. Kear!!

TomG is no loss to them as he has been out all season - they never got used to playing with him in the first instance. Craven is the one to watch, otherwise you know what sort of game you will get from a JK coached team.

It will be close, I reckon. You should try to tempt a few Rams fans across given we have a blank weekend. 

[distantdog]

I agree with the above, but think we are getting there and might grind out a win. It depends how we can cover Meadow's absence. Am not so concerned about no Manning as Flynn performed really well against Keighley, in fact he is very consistent generally.

[Bill H]

It will disrupt our usual gameplan with White not free to to move to "hooker" during the course of the game and Leak out of course.  It will be interesting to see how Lingard plays it.

[colinb]

3 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

TomG is no loss to them as he has been out all season - they never got used to playing with him in the first instance. Craven is the one to watch, otherwise you know what sort of game you will get from a JK coached team.

It will be close, I reckon. You should try to tempt a few Rams fans across given we have a blank weekend. 

Come on BSJ, £10 to watch a top level championship game....bargain

[BullyXL]

3 hours ago, Bill H said:

It will disrupt our usual gameplan with White not free to to move to "hooker" during the course of the game and Leak out of course.  It will be interesting to see how Lingard plays it.

Could do, but means that others might get longer minutes in the middle. As White normally goes to 9 then on to 13 to cover for middles. Could still happen if Hooley is available again though. If he is I'd leave McGowan at fullback, he has earned that spot, and use Hooley off the bench in the Meadows role. Also Morton deserves his place on form, he's outstanding on the wing. With Meadows out we still have accomplished goalkickers with Morton, Woods, White. Either way, dominant pack equals more time for halves/pivots to dictate play.

[Drigdog]

I think Kear could be used as the 3rd half back in the Meadows role.

[Sir Jekyll Stocking]

And if Hooley is available, I'd have him at fullback and have McGowan on the wing for his pace.

[BullyXL]

1 hour ago, Sir Jekyll Stocking said:

And if Hooley is available, I'd have him at fullback and have McGowan on the wing for his pace.

Only if Morton kept his wing spot. Would work if Kear was bench half back as mentioned earlier.

[Batley Bob]

And still no ones mentioning Oli Burton , who I think is a really good hooker  , rather play folk out of position 

[Blind side johnny]

23 hours ago, colinb said:

Come on BSJ, £10 to watch a top level championship game....bargain

No HW discount Colin?

[Keep The Faith]

2 hours ago, Batley Bob said:

And still no ones mentioning Oli Burton , who I think is a really good hooker  , rather play folk out of position 

He’s been playing for castleford 

[RogerT]

The reserves or first team.

[Batley Bob]

1 hour ago, Keep The Faith said:

He’s been playing for castleford 

Yes the reserves , he isn't on loan, we've been using dr

[phildog]

Batley Bob agree re Burton. Supposed to be out next big thing yet nowhere near the team.

[colinb]

3 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

No HW discount Colin?

£10 gives 33% off for Over 65's,  and 50% off those under, with u16s free. I'll  let you ask Kevin that 1 Blind Side .

[Batley Bob]

 

[phildog]

Some good comments re who'll cover who against Windynes. It looks unlikely we'll have Luke back; it would have been obvious by now. Had he been here yes we could have got away with Aiden on the wing, which would have meant dropping Morton or Kear. If he's not, and we did have to use Elliot as a back up half, who'd cover him the wing, we've sent Campbell away, Milthorpe is apparently unplayable? Boils down to this; we're at least a centre short in case of having to put one on the wing in emergency, a hooker not being considered whilst we make do (that phrase could be added to the club crest). Making do isn't helping Whitey either, he can't put a full shift in at 6 when he knows that after 20 minutes he'll have to play a different game when either BenK will drop back to 13 and he'll have half an hour at 9, or we go with 1 hooker and he'll be a 13 when replacements come on. Sometimes he'll cover 3 shirts in 1 game, does he do it because he wants to or has to and how does he prepare? I know, I know....the usual 'we can't afford', 'what do you expect'....'we don't like DR'....

[distantdog]

I agree with your first two quotes, but l am still delighted we aren't using DR and hope whatever happens, we never do.

[Keep The Faith]

Why would it be obvious that we have hooley back or not? Maybe he is maybe he isn’t… 

 

[bromleybulldog]

1 hour ago, Keep The Faith said:

Why would it be obvious that we have hooley back or not? Maybe he is maybe he isn’t… 

 

Well, he isn't in the Leeds 21 for their game this weekend.....

[phildog]

Could he be sent back to us and be ready in 3 days? Maybe, naybe not, maybe Leeds, like several others clubs, now think that Bradford's the team of choice!! (JOKE, b4 someone chimes in!). DD I agree in principal about DR but everybody is doing it (FAR too much in most cases) often just before they play us (is that cos they're windy about facing us?) and I'd rather us take advantage of it than end up bottom 2 for argument's sake. As said previously we seem to be running on the same players week after week, who knows who's playing on an injection for example and I just think it a bit (lot) unfair to expect 110% out of them every week.

[distantdog]

Sorry but l'll always disagree with you on DR! Just because everyone else is using it (and l don't think everyone is) doesn't mean we have to.

[Batley Bob]

On 01/05/2023 at 22:35, phildog said:

Agree on it being tight; TomG being out is a massive plus for us but probably balanced out by us being without Meadows. It might come down to which player of either side takes the game by the scruff. They have Owens and Craven capable of it, better attacking threats than we can match so we'll have to be on our game spotting, cutting them out and hoping our forwards match theirs. Watch that no12 and we'll come out on the right side of the scoreboard, to quote a certain Mr. Kear!!

Where do you get your info that Tom G is out