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Phil Gould has lifted the lid on the depths of his club’s injury crisis by revealing he had to ask the NRL’s permission to name an uncontracted player this week.
The Bulldogs held off a fast-finishing Roosters outfit to win 30-26 in round five, but the victory came at a serious cost.
Chris Patolo and Harry Edwards both left the game injured, before young fullback Blake Taaffe was knocked out by an illegal high shot from Dom Young.
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Several other players managed to play through busted limbs – according to Gould – to help drag the Dogs across the line.
“Poor old Bulldogs had probably about eight or nine functioning players, they had a lot of players that under normal circumstances wouldn’t have been out there,” Gould told Wide World of Sports’ Six Tackles with Gus.
“They lost four players prior to the match, they lost Harry Edwards and Chris Patolo – they only played eight or nine minutes each – Connor Tracey couldn’t run because he strained a calf muscle, Max King broke a hand and shouldn’t have gone back out, Kurt Mann had broken a hand and shouldn’t have gone back out, (Viliame) Kikau was a passenger virtually in the last 20 minutes.
“They had to move (Matt) Burton to the centres to accommodate the 18th man, (Toby) Sexton, coming onto the field. Jaeman Salmon has been battling injury for a couple of weeks.
“I was particularly impressed with how the Bulldogs actually held on. It was promising signs. They are playing tough.
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“They are so much improved on what they showed last year, I’m very happy with them at the moment.”
Patolo, King, Tracey, and Kikau have all been named to play against Melbourne on Friday evening despite their niggles.
Mann and Taaffe have been unable to recover in time to take on the Storm at AAMI Park.
They join the likes of Jacob Preston (jaw), Ryan Sutton (knee), and Karl Oloapu (neck) in the club’s growing casualty ward.
Their situation is so dire, the Bulldogs had to call Harry Hayes into the squad this week.
“We had to seek exemption to sit young Harry Hayes on the bench because he’s not a top-30 player… he’s not even a development player,” Gould explained.
“We had to get permission to name him in the top 23.
“There are still a fair few walking wounded around there. I imagine they will give a number of players to the last minute (to prove their fitness before the game).
“Hopefully we can get through the next couple of weeks unscathed and then regroup again.”
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