At the halfway point of the season, the Bulldogs are languishing at the bottom of the ladder, and having recently sacked coach Trent Barrett, season 2022 is essentially written off by the Bulldogs.
With no definitive direction or head coach for 2023, interim coach Mick Potter has a golden opportunity to explore some “what-ifs” and “maybes” in the Bulldogs' squad.
Traditionally, teams in similar positions have blooded rookies and dropped those not in future plans, with significant selection pressure motivating incumbents to work hard to earn their next contracts.
With general manager Phil Gould and Barrett having recently overhauled the roster and with major signings on the way next season, Potter has full control of a still relatively new squad, and should start making some creative changes, perhaps even enhancing his reputation as an NRL coach along the way, with the Bulldogs, Tigers and Warriors jobs still vacant.
In the modern game, a fullback being the dominant kicker is rare and valuable, freeing up the halves to pass and focus on short kicking as well as generally directing play.
Matt Burton’s long kicking game has been among the best in the NRL but has struggled with his short kicking game and with injecting himself into the game.
A potential Burton move to fullback could enhance his game, allowing him more time on the ball, the freedom to play on both sides of the field and giving him more opportunity to take advantage of his greatest strength: his running game.
There is no reason why he couldn’t continue to regularly kick from yardage as a fullback. With his best career football having been played at centre for the Panthers, Burton could combine his running game with his skills as a half to become one of the NRL’s most influential players.
Jake Averillo's best position is centre and Matt Dufty's woes at fullback in 2022, as well as his potential departure from the club at season's end, create a clear vacancy at the back for the Bulldogs for Matt Burton.
Isaah Yeo. Victor Radley. Cameron Murray. Jake Trbojevic. Reuben Cotter. The NRL’s best sides have skilful ball-playing locks, creating attacking shape by running deep into the line and alternating between run and pass options.
Quite frankly, Josh Jackson isn’t threatening enough running or passing to cut it as a modern-day lock and is better suited to a more workmanlike prop or second row role strengthening the Bulldogs’ defence.
By comparison, Tevita Pangai Junior could be the perfect lock, both a threat attracting defenders and using his passing game and through his ability to penetrate the line and find offloads.
TPJ’s considerable talents aren’t being used often enough and could become a nightmare for defences if the Dogs make this change.
However, his occasional defensive and attitude deficiencies as well as the trade-off between playing bigger minutes and having less impact may make Potter hesitant to make this change, regardless of the Bulldogs’ struggling attack.
With Burton's potential move to fullback opening up a spot in the halves, the easy choice for Potter could be to reinstate Brandon Wakeham or Jake Averillo in the halves, but Bailey Biondi-Odo is the future.
Despite my earlier statement that the Bulldogs should make some changes to their side, they need to pick and stick in the halves. The amount of Bulldogs halves having been dragged through the mud in recent years is astronomical, with Brandon Wakeham, Kyle Flanagan, Lachlan Lewis, Jake Averillo among the unfortunate casualty of Barrett's revolving door of halves.
Halves, particularly young and inexperienced halves, need time to develop and gather confidence in the top grade.
As a result, Bailey Biondi-Odo and Kyle Flanagan should be picked in Round 15 and stuck with for the rest of the season under Potter.
Bailey Biondi-Odo, in his short time in the top grade has been tremendous, creating opportunity with his speed and passing game.
He has recorded three tries, four try assists and 220 average kicking metres in just six games in NSW Cup level, playing 25 minutes or less off the bench in his NRL opportunities thus far. Blooding some youth in key positions could unlock the rest of the Bulldogs' attack.
Max King's improvement in season 2022 has been fantastic, rising from a fringe player at the Storm in 2019 and 2020, not playing an NRL game in 2021 to a big-minute middle forward at the Dogs, with his high work rate, tackle efficiency and offloading game allowing him to force his way into the starting side after the injury to Pangai Junior and recording strong statistics in that time.
By contrast, Paul Vaughan, likely on the final contract of his NRL career, seems stagnant, providing little go-forward, recording just 5 offloads in 14 games, an average of 1 tackle break and is contributing little in his 50 minutes per game.
Vaughan, at 31, has less than half a season left on his deal and isn't in the Bulldogs' future plans, so Potter should now prioritise the likely 2023 prop pairing - Max King and Luke Thompson.
King's impressive ability to offload with two or three in a tackle should give Burton at fullback an opportunity to make darting runs through the ruck much like Clint Gutherson off Ryan Matterson's offloads or Kalyn Ponga off David Klemmer's offloads.
Likewise, his strength in maintaining a high tackle efficiency despite playing big minutes will offset the defensive frailties of Pangai Junior (and potentially a new, inexperienced hooker) in the middle.
Jeremy Marshall-King has been one of the Bulldogs' best in 2022, with his darts out of dummy-half providing rare spark for the Belmore side.
However, with Marshall-King moving to the Dolphins in 2023 ahead of Reed Mahoney's arrival at Belmore, the Dogs should explore their bench utility options with players like Mitch Kenny, Reuben Cotter and Siliva Havili (able to fill in both at dummy-half and playing in the middle or back row) becoming vital to most NRL sides.
In 2022, the Bulldogs have primarily played halves players like Brandon Wakeham and Bailey Biondi-Odo off the bench, with the dummy-half service and middle defence suffering during Marshall-King's short rest period, with the Bulldogs getting blown out late on numerous occasions in 2022.
In the Bulldogs' NRL squad and playing 50-60 minutes per game in NSW Cup is Joshua Cook, who tackles at over 90%, has scored 3 tries in 12 appearances this season, and having worked closely with Australian rake Damien Cook at the Rabbitohs.
Likewise, Zach Dockar-Clay's utility value has been useful for the Bulldogs this season, having played in the halves, hooker and off the interchange for the Cup team, and as a bench hooker and forward in his limited opportunities for the NRL side.
For the second half of the season, Potter should start giving some greater opportunities to these two players at dummy-half, particularly as Jeremy Marshall-King's fatigue begins to become a factor.