There’s something missing at the Bulldogs and former captain Michael Ennis believes the issue lies in the forward pack.
Speaking to foxsports.com.au ahead of Saturday’s game, Ennis declared the Bulldogs are “certainly short in the front row” and added: “That’s why that they’ve looked at Addin Fonua-Blake and Payne Haas over the last 12 or 18 months when they’ve been off contract.”
Ennis, who played 136 games for the Bulldogs and captained the club to two grand final appearances, recalled his experience as a player and how the DNA of teams was built on the tough forward packs.
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“If you look at the times when Canterbury have been successful, the pack that they had certainly through those 90s was something that was spoken about a lot to us back when I was playing,” he said.
“They spoke a lot about the fabric of the club and a lot of it was centred around the forward pack.
“You look at the 2000s sides… they always had brutal forward packs.
“Then you go to that 2004 side where you had guys like Willie Mason and Roy Asotasi and Reni Maitua when he was playing for Australia at the time.
“In 2012 to 2014 when they played in the grand finals you had James Graham, Aiden Tolman, Frank Pritchard, Greg Eastwood and David Stagg.”
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The current Bulldogs squad has one of the best second-rowers in the competition in Viliame Kikau and a superstar of the future in Jacob Preston on an edge too.
But up front they’re lacking size and power — which is a truth that could be exposed even more when they take on the Titans on Saturday at Belmore Sports Ground.
David Fifita may be out for the Titans, but there’s still Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Moeaki Fotuaika, while new recruit Keenan Palasia is a handy player to have the bench too.
Both teams are chasing their first win of the season and Des Hasler’s ploy to bring the team down to Sydney earlier than expected suggest the Titans are out for blood.
“Des Hasler is going back to Belmore,” Ennis said referencing the veteran coach’s six-year stint at the Bulldogs’ helm.
“I heard that the Titans have come down (on Thursday) for a Saturday game which is not normally the case,” he said.
“You would think that they would train Friday at home in the morning and then travel down in the afternoon to play on the Saturday…
“But Des got them down here early, so I think Des just got one sort of response he wants.”
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The Titans, who are coming off the Round 2 bye, were humiliated by the Dragons in a 28-4 loss on home soil.
Hasler and his players have had to sit and stew over the 44 missed tackles for two weeks and Ennis believes that’s the first thing the coach will be desperate to fix against the Bulldogs.
“It’s fascinating because the Titans were very poor defensively which would have burnt Des,” he said.
“That is an area that he prides himself on and it’s the area where the Titans — if you look at the Gold Coast consistently — it’s not an area that they’ve been great at for a long time.
“That’s the one area where I think Des will want to improve them in and.
“That second half collapse against the Dragons would have stung him for the last two weeks and it would have been a mighty tough few weeks for the Titans players.”
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As for the Bulldogs, defence was their Achilles heel last season — they leaked the most points of any side — but the first two rounds suggests that won’t be the case this year.
“There’s no sugar-coating the fact that defensively they were very, very poor last year… and I think there has been some improvements in the first two rounds,” Ennis said.
But with the leaky defence somewhat patched up, the blowtorch has been put on the Dogs’ attack after they scored just three tries in the first two rounds.
Ennis believes the Bulldogs need to lean more on their left edge of Matt Burton, Viliame Kikau, Stephen Crichton and Josh Addo-Carr, which if firing could be lethal.
“I thought definitely with their attack in that first game against Parramatta, I felt like they really could have used their left hand side more efficiently — and I did see there was an improvement last week against Cronulla,” he said.
“I thought Burton and Kikau and those guys were definitely more effective.
“Even if you look at that edge, Burton played Origin and Test Footy, Kikau is one of the best back-rowers in the competition and Crichton is arguably one of the best centres in the competition.
“Josh Addo-Carr is a NSW and Australian winger so that left edge has got to be the focal point of their attack.”
Source Agencies
