New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nOnce regarded as the best defensive unit in the competition, the Bulldogs last week missed almost double the number of tackles as the Panthers, who recorded just 31 in their do-or-die encounter against the Warriors in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
The numbers don\u2019t lie. Over the last five games, the Bulldogs have missed 43 more tackles than the Panthers. This gap would have been even wider if Canterbury hadn\u2019t faced a severely understrength Penrith side in their Round 26 triumph, which featured only a handful of regular NRL players.<\/p>\n
While the spotlight has been firmly fixed on the Bulldogs\u2019 attack after Lachlan Galvin\u2019s mid-season transfer sparked a spine overhaul, the statistics suggest the gamble that pushed Toby Sexton and Reed Mahoney to the outer has turned the club\u2019s brick wall defence into a sandcastle.<\/p>\n
Bailey Hayward \u2013 the player who replaced Mahoney at No. 9 \u2013 missed a jaw-dropping 15 tackles last week alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players around Galvin are having to work a little harder because teams are sending traffic his way,\u201d said former Bulldog Brad Morrin. \u201cThey are having to offer him some protection. It is causing fatigue and has a real snowball effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morrin suggested that the absence of Mahoney was the key to their defensive frailties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you really notice what someone does as soon as they are not around,\u201d Morrin said. \u201cHe is a very good defensive player and does all the little things well. He probably gets up and down the field 100 times in a match and helps cover up all those little things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mahoney returns to the Bulldogs\u2019 line-up today but has been controversially named on the bench behind Hayward \u2013 the man who missed 15 tackles last week. The return of Bronson Xerri is also expected to add some much-needed defensive starch to the edge.<\/p>\n
TALE OF THE TAPE: THE LEAKY \u2018DOGS<\/p>\n
Bulldogs Missed Tackles (Last 5 Rounds):<\/p>\n
\u2014 vs Storm: 61<\/p>\n
\u2014 Sharks: 35<\/p>\n
\u2014 Panthers: 31<\/p>\n
\u2014 Storm: 29<\/p>\n
\u2014Roosters: 37<\/p>\n
Total: 193 missed tackles<\/p>\n
Panthers Missed Tackles (Last 5 Rounds)<\/p>\n
\u2014 Warriors: 31<\/p>\n
\u2014 Dragons: 21<\/p>\n
\u2014 Dogs: 44\u2014s Storm: 22<\/p>\n
\u2014 Knights: 32<\/p>\n
Total: 150<\/p>\n
Originally published as \u2018Snowball effect\u2019: Brutal Galvin truth Bulldogs won\u2019t admit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the damning statistic that could torpedo the Bulldogs\u2019 premiership dreams. Forget Lachlan Galvin and the team\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-159318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}