Here we are again...

The end of the NRL regular season is three rounds from completion, but the finals hopes of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs ended months ago. We're not even going to see the late-season runs of 2017 and 2018 only to start the following season with two wins in nine games. Worse again, the Bulldogs only managed one win in that period in 2020. 

The attack is still dire. Their defence, while admirable at times, isn't good enough to withstand the punishment it does over the full 80 minutes. Dean Pay has left the building despite being handed a roster the club itself didn't believe could win games with Trent Barrett now tasked with dragging the Bulldogs out of the doldrums.

It's all feeling a little bit too familiar for the Bulldogs at the moment.

After highlighting how they could lay some foundations for the future before the season kicked off, they've instead stripped it all back further. Following back-to-back finishes of 12th on the ladder, the Bulldogs have one hand on the 2020 wooden spoon and will likely be the favourites to retain it to start 2021.

There is a lot of bad. It's all been fairly obvious for a few years yet alone just this season. But before getting to that, we will dig deep to find the positives in 2020.

The Good

The first good is also bad, so it's best to cover it first.

Kieran Foran.

With 10 try assists in 2019 and 12 in 2020, Foran has been the most consistent source of points for the Bulldogs over the last two seasons. While his injury issues are a problem and have limited him to just 14 games in each of the last two years, it also highlights how important he is to the side.

The 15.1 points per game the Bulldogs have scored in 2020 includes the 18 points in 38 minutes against the Dragons in Round 10 before Foran left the field. Up 18-10 at the time, the Bulldogs managed just two penalty goals without Foran to lose 28-22.

A healthy Foran is, without doubt, the best half at the club and one of the better halves in the whole competition. For better or worse, he still plays with a fearlessness that has him inside the Top 10 in line engagements with 5.4 per game. He's still an excellent footballer at 30-years old. One that, despite his injury concerns, and due to the fact he's receptive to taking a significant pay cut, the club should have tried harder to retain.

Foran has been one of Canterbury's best in 2020 (the good), but he won't be there to help dig themselves out of this hole in 2021 (the bad).

Perhaps the biggest loser of Foran's departure, Raymond Faitala-Mariner has been a standout in 2020. He's scored a career-high five tries in a career-high 17 games this season while running for 103 metres per game. The Foran/Faitala-Mariner combination has been Canterbury's best attacking weapon this season. A prime example of how they work so well together came against the Eels in Round 12:

Foran digs into the line deep enough to engage the four-defender and leave Faitala-Mariner one-on-one with a much smaller half. It's a simple play, but one that relies on the half's willingness to get hit and a backrower that can time his run. Foran and Faitala-Mariner have linked up well this season. It's an area the five-eighth for 2021 will need to develop quickly if the Bulldogs are to at least ensure they don't entirely lose their best pet play. 

With their attack at risk of taking another backward step in 2021, it's more important than ever for the Bulldogs to threaten in the middle of the field. It's there that incoming coach Trent Barrett can be somewhat confident when he arrives for pre-season training.

While Luke Thompson hasn't set the world on fire in his eight games for the club, don't rule him out of having a significant impact on the side next season. He's struggling to get settled in with the restrictions in place. His partner hasn't been able to join him in Australia either. If he can get himself comfortable by Round 1 in 2021, expect to see a different Thompson. Put Dylan Napa and Ofahiki Ogden on either side of Thompson, and the Bulldogs middle has potential. 

Napa hasn't been at his best in the yardage game this season. He's dropped from 130.4 running metres per game in 2019 to 115.9 in 2020. Although, his average metres per run has remained roughly the same at 8.8 metres. While Napa hasn't kept up his career-best yardage from last season, he's making over five more tackles per game (29.4) while missing over one fewer tackles. Entering his prime years to be 28 next season, Napa can be a valuable middle forward if he can produce 130 running metres and 30 tackles per game. 

Meanwhile, Ogden has been one of the shining lights in the middle of the field this season. After restarting the season coming off the bench, Ogden has started Canterbury's last five games to average 104.8 running metres per game. The Jeremy Marshall-King line break and Foran putdown made the highlights reel, but it was Ogden's powerful run and quick play-the-ball that created this opportunity for the Bulldogs little men in Round 16.

Out wide, the Bulldogs have Nick Cotric arriving for 2021. He's a risky signing at the rumoured price tag. Said to be signed as a centre, he's only played nine games there throughout his career. Somewhat worryingly, he's been named there just once despite form and injury issues making the right-side centre position available at the Raiders. Regardless of where Cotric plays, he will more than likely start the season as their most potent backline player.

While it hasn't been often enough, the likes of Reimis Smith and Jake Averillo have offered the odd glimpse of promise that can improve along with Cotric. Smith is undoubtedly an excellent finisher if the Bulldogs can put him in positions to score. Averillo has speed to burn and looks like he could become a quality first-grader with time.

Foran has been excellent in the time he's been able to spend on the field but he has played his last game for the club. With a promising middle and some talent on the edges, there are some positives to take from this season into the next. Getting the most out of it all requires a competent replacement in the halves, though. 

The Bad

Well, where do we start?

Attack? Defence? An overall lack of talent?

The Bulldogs have played with the worst defence in the competition for much of the season. They're 15th at the time of writing, 0.1 points per game ahead of the Broncos at 13.9 points per game. As already highlighted, it's often Foran or nothing for the Bulldogs. We've seen them explore the edges a little more in recent weeks. However, dump-offs into the middle or desperately working towards specific areas before completing a laboured shift are far too prevalent to be confident in a turn around anytime soon. Their top try-scorer, Nick Meaney, has just six tries; Charlie Staines, Adam Reynolds and Patrick Herbert have also scored six tries this season.

It has been four seasons now since the Bulldogs were even an NRL average attacking team. The signs from 2020 suggest that trend will remain much the same through 2021.

Defensively, the Bulldogs have had their moments. They kept the Eels to just 24 points in their two games this season. Holding the Knights to 12 points and Sharks to 20 also made for impressive efforts. However, their 34-20 loss to the Raiders in Round 15 offered too many examples of what goes wrong for the Bulldogs in the second half. Lazy defensive efforts, through the middle, in particular, saw the Bulldogs give up a 20-12 halftime lead.

Canterbury's struggles in attack translate into a poor defence. In conceding 24.4 points per game (4th-most in the NRL) and abllowing the opposition to score 2.8 tries in the second half (3rd-most), the Bulldogs too often ran out of gas. As a result, they give up the third-most missed tackles (31.8) and ineffective tackles (16.8) per game. 

When you're sending out one of the worst lists in the competition every week, they're going to come up short of playing the full 80 minutes more often than not. 

The Future

It's difficult to picture much of an improvement on the ladder for the Bulldogs in 2021. 

The process may improve, but the results will likely be similar.

Trent Barrett has a tough job turning this club around. He doesn't have the most reliable history to assume this turnaround happens any time soon either.

Barrett won't have an elite list to work with. Nor will he start the season with a proven half. Even if Blake Green can recover from his ruptured ACL, history isn't on the side of 34-year olds coming back from such an injury. The list isn't going to improve much over the next 12 months either.

Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Josh Jackson, Joe Stimson and Brandon Wakeham have all fallen short in 2020 and are on contracts that extend beyond 2021. Along with Foran, Aidan Tolman, Sauaso Sue, Marcelo Montoya, Tim Lafai, Jack Cogger and Kerrod Holland are the only players currently taking up space in the 17 somewhat regularly that the Bulldogs can offload over the summer. Players that can move the needle and change Canterbury's fortunes would have put pen to paper by now.

The Bulldogs will be going into next season with the majority of their changes coming in the coaches box. Those changes don't often translate into on-field improvements for a season or two. 

One spoon often leads to predictions of another the following year.

That looks to be the case for the Bulldogs in 2021. 

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