Star signing Aaron Woods says Bulldogs attack will click into gear

DESPITE an overhaul of their attacking structures under new coach Dean Pay, the Bulldogs have scored less points to open their 2018 campaign over the same period under Des Hasler last year.

Bulldogs Kieran Foran kicks during the Round 7 NRL match between the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and the Sydney Roosters at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Thursday, April 19, 2018. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

THE statistics tell one story, the scoreboard tells another.

The stats — tackled 52 times in the opposition red zone, 58 per cent possession, 77 per cent completion rate and 16 offloads.

The scoreboard — zero.

The Bulldogs found it impossible to penetrate the Roosters line.

In fact, it was the first time they haven’t registered a linebreak in a match since the 2014 grand final.

Star signing Aaron Woods concedes his side needed to be better with the ball in hand and lacked creativity against a Chooks outfit that refused to yield.

“The frustrating thing was we got ourselves in a good position to score points but weren’t good enough,” he said.

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Aaron Woods is tackled by James Tedesco.

“We’ve got to throw a lot more questions. We went one out and were trying to solve it ourselves. That’s probably been our issue this year.

“The times we’ve played the footy we know we can play we’re good, but when we play simple footy we’re not asking questions of the defensive line.

“We should be scoring a fair few tries there. We’ve got to keep working hard, we’re improving each week but need to be getting the wins.”

The Blues big man says a late change to the halves combination - with Jeremy Marshall-King favoured over Matt Frawley as Kieran Foran’s halves partner by coach Dean Pay - is still a work in progress.

“We just need a little bit of finetuning. I think the hardest thing for us is the whole preseason we worked with Matt Frawley and Kieran Foran out in the halves and you know we made a change there,” he said.

“Jeremy’s [Marshall-King] a young kid but I think he’s done a really good job so far. We just need to take more control in the halves.”

Kieran Foran in action against the Roosters.

Lock forward Adam Elliott insists the inability to find the line is not a lasting legacy from Des Hasler’s time as coach but rather a matter of execution.

“I think there is a lot more fluidity in our attack rather than focusing on playing structures at teams every set, Elloitt said.

“So that’s a big difference of focus for us this year.

“I don’t think it’s a problem. We’ve shown in patches we can be free flowing and we need to execute a bit better and do it on a regular basis.”

Under Hasler’s tuition in 2017, the Bulldogs managed only 4.2 points in the first half over the first 20 round of the season.

This year they’ve been kept scoreless in the opening stanza three times from seven games.

Alarmingly, Canterbury have scored only 103 points to open their 2018 campaign which is actually less than what they scored over the same period last year with Hasler at the helm.

This despite an overhaul of their attacking structures by Pay.

Adam Elliott takes on the Roosters defence. Picture. Phil Hillyard

But Woods is confident the Bulldogs’ lifeless attack will come to life sooner rather later.

“Us big boys need to get some quicker play the balls for them [playmakers], play the kind of footy they can play off the back of,” he said.

“Sometimes we might be carrying too much and we need to get them more involved in the games.

“I don’t think it’s too far around the corner.