Canterbury Bulldogs prop James Graham has dismissed suggestions the loss of key players to State of Origin duty caused his team’s form slump in the middle of the NRL season.
Leading the competition heading into the Origin period, the Bulldogs have lost three of their past four games to drop to third on the ladder. Halfback Trent Hodkinson, five-eighth Josh Reynolds and centre Josh Morris were absent for the defeats because of Origin duty and injury.
The trio will again represent NSW as it chases a 3-0 clean sweep against Queensland in Brisbane next Wednesday. As a consequence of their call-ups, they will miss the Bulldogs’ match against ladder leader Manly at ANZ Stadium on Friday night. While he would love to have his teammates on deck, Graham said their absence wouldn’t excuse a poor Bulldogs performance.
“Sometimes in sport I think people over analyse things like that,” he said. “I think that’s just sports and that’s the way it is. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I think those games we lost, we just happened to come up against very good teams. We’d like them to be playing this week, but you can’t be selfish in that sense. We’re really proud of them. We’ll be backing them 100 per cent on Wednesday night.”
Canterbury and Manly last clashed a month ago, the Sea Eagles running out convincing 32-10 winners at a soggy Brookvale Oval. There’s always plenty of feeling when the sides meet on the field, with Bulldogs coach Des Hasler guiding Manly to two premierships before leaving to join Canterbury in 2012.
While Hasler’s defection is brought up every time the teams play, Graham insists his coach doesn’t treat the Sea Eagles differently to other opponents. “Every game is the same (for Hasler),” he said. “You don’t notice any difference in preparation. He leaves no stone unturned every other week and he won’t leave any stone unturned this week.”
