Johns: ‘There’s absolutely nothing in attack’
LEAGUE legend Andrew Johns has outlined just how far the Canterbury Bulldogs have fallen this season in the NRL.
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ANDREW Johns has not missed in his assessment of the Canterbury Bulldogs.
Parramatta playmaker Mitchell Moses was the star, the former Wests Tigers half orchestrating a 20-4 NRL victory for the Eels over the Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium on Thursday night.
Again Des Hasler’s side failed to fire anything of note at the Eels’ defence, throughout another poor 80-minute display.
Johns was critical of the Bulldogs’ inability to create second phase play and put any pressure on Parramatta’s defensive line.
“The Eels have offloaded 12 times to the Bulldogs’ five,” Johns said. “It’s an area of their game that they could improve. Just at the moment, there’s absolutely nothing in attack.
“If they can generate some offloads, when the offload comes off the back, they can get the ball to their strike players.
“The Morris twins have plenty of pace but they just don’t see any clean ball at all.
“There’s no science to the way they are playing.
“The worrying thing for the Bulldogs, if it was dry, the scoreboard could be anything.”
While the score never blew out in wet and wild conditions, the Bulldogs were wasteful in attack and at times embarrassing in defence as the Eels notched their sixth-straight win.
Brad Arthur’s side provisionally moved into the top four and are on the march with four regular rounds left, fuelling belief they can be a force in the finals.
Asked during the Network Nine commentary if they could compete with the best sides, Eels great Peter Sterling said: “I didn’t think so early in the season but if they finish in the top four, anything can happen. “You wouldn’t want to be playing Parramatta that last month.”
Moses set up two tries and turned in a masterful kicking game having discovered career-best form. In driving rain, the Eels forced nine goal line dropouts to two, strangling the Bulldogs out of the game.
Daniel Alvaro’s opening try set the tempo for the match as he carried James Graham and Aiden Tolman over the line.
The game was summed up when the Bulldogs finally got inside Parramatta’s 20m zone for the first time in the 24th minute, only to drop the ball during the next play.
In the next set of six tackles, Parramatta made their way upfield with Mitchell Moses punching through to send Bevan French over.
Moses toyed with the Bulldogs defence, running 20m across field before firing a spiral pass for Semi Radradra’s try which made it 16-0 at the break.
They were unlucky not to extend their lead after Corey Norman ran 60m to score only to be called back because of a knock-on. Replays showed he didn’t get a hand to the ball.
The game was marred in the second half when Eels prop Frank Pritchard suggested to the referee he had been bitten by David Klemmer, Pritchard did not make a formal allegation.
Canterbury’s third loss in a row will only fuel speculation about coach Des Hasler’s future.
Hasler rolled the dice by shifting centre Chase Stanley to halfback and dropping hooker Michael Lichaa however his side never had a chance after making 11 errors.
Johns’ was full of praise though for Parramatta Eels half Mitchell Moses.
Post-game Hasler said that everything will be up for review following another poor performance by his side.
“We made it pretty easy for them in the first half. In those conditions it’s just too hard to play catch up footy,” Hasler told reporters.
“For those conditions we were unbelievably undisciplined with the ball. They just ground us down.”
- with AAP
Quite sad seeing a once great club like @NRL_Bulldogs playing this soft #NRLBulldogsEels
— BUZZ ROTHFIELD (@BuzzRothfield) August 3, 2017
I feel sorry for the Bulldogs and their fans. Might as well just throw the Under 20s in #NRLBulldogsEels
— Joshua Wells (@joshuawells93) August 3, 2017
Ahahahahahaha. That set. Chase Stanley kick. It's a joke. A Benny Hill skit.#NRLBulldogsEels
— Tim Barrow (@TheBarrow) August 3, 2017
Originally published as Johns: ‘There’s absolutely nothing in attack’
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