Goalkicking duties…Michael Ennis. Source: The Daily Telegraph - Tyson Otto

HOOKER Michael Ennis will have first crack at the Bulldogs’ goalkicking duties with Bryson Goodwin struggling to recover from a toe injury that has plagued the winger all pre-season.

Ennis, who has kicked 108 goals from 147 attempts at 74 per cent, was given the task of replacing goalkicking legend Hazem El Masri as the Dog’s conversion king when kicking coach Darryl Halligan gave him the nod ahead of Goodwin. The superboot coach and Ennis had a final kicking session yesterday at ANZ Stadium where it was confirmed Ennis will kick against the Knights at ANZ Stadium on Saturday.

Ennis’ endorsement casts further doubt on Goodwin’s likelihood to play in the Dogs season-opener after the Kiwi international was seen at a training session on Monday wearing a medical boot, which is used to keep all pressure off his toe.

Heka Nanai and Junior Tia Kilifi are on standby to replace Goodwin and wear the Bulldogs No. 5 jumper on Saturday.

However, once Goodwin returns to full fitness the battle to be the Dogs’ No. 1 goalkicker will heat up with Halligan saying he could not split Ennis and Goodwin and adding that coach Kevin Moore would have to make the tough decision.

“Michael had a good session yesterday but, saying that, Ben Barba and Steve Turner also kicked well today,” Halligan said.

Pain game … Parramatta star Jarryd Hayne will have to ignore the discomfort of a sternum injury when he lines up for the Eels. Source: The Daily Telegraph

PARRAMATTA fullback Jarryd Hayne has warned the rest of the NRL he will be fitter and faster in 2010, despite having to start the new season playing in pain from a sternum injury.

The Dally M Medallist, who enjoyed a stunning second half to the 2009 campaign, suffered the injury in last month’s NRL All Stars game, and aggravated it further during a trial match with Penrith.

And the 22-year-old said he had not yet fully recovered from the problem.

“It’s an injury that’s going to be around for a while, and I’ve just got to get to used to playing with it,” Hayne said.

“It’s one of those aggravating injuries that you don’t really realise it’s still sore until pretty much you get hit on it.”

Hayne said he wasn’t worried about opposition players targeting his sternum but accepted he’d have to put up with pain.

“No, it’s just getting tackled, that’s what does it,” he said.

“And I’m obviously going to get tackled.”

The NSW and Kangaroos star said he has deliberately lost 2kg in the off-season in an effort to be even quicker.

“I want to be fitter and a bit lighter on my feet,” he said.

“I feel a bit faster, but I think you take away the strength with the weight.

“If you want to gain something, you’ve gotta lose something.”

Hayne said he would try to be in the play for longer periods of time.

“I want to get involved with getting it out of our own end, [and] the support play, more than anything,” he said.

“Instead of just waiting until we’re in an attacking position, I’m going to try and get in there as much as I can.

“I did feel it [the weight] was holding me back from being more involved.”

Good on you Chief Todd. We love Sonny Bill, but we don’t want him to play somewhere else until he pays.

Dean Ritchie

CANTERBURY chief executive Todd Greenberg yesterday dramatically bumped up his compensation price for Sonny Bill Williams to $2.5 million, with the club’s fans and former greats split over whether the former Bulldogs star should be allowed to play at another NRL club.

The Daily Telegraph yesterday revealed the Bulldogs wanted $1 million from the New Zealand Warriors should the Auckland club sign Williams, who is off contract with French rugby club Toulon in June.

But Greenberg yesterday revised his payout figure, saying his club wanted $2.5 million to let Williams – under contract at Belmore until 2013 – play elsewhere in the NRL.

Asked was $1 million a fair compensation amount, Greenberg said: “I assume you are talking about $1 million for each year? We don’t have a set figure in mind but no doubt it would be significant. How long is a piece of a string?”

Steve Mortimer, Canterbury’s top dog, reckons that Williams should be forgiven for having walked out on the Bulldogs.

“I think he should be able to play [elsewhere] if the Dogs are compensated,” Mortimer said.

“I think what he did will be hurting Sonny more than anyone else.

“Hopefully this has been a lesson in life for Sonny Bill. And I hope he has learnt from it.

“If he had hung in there and toughed it out, he would have got the rewards last year when the Bulldogs went so well.

“As I said, as long as the Bulldogs are paid, I would let him play.

“The door is always open.”

Canterbury fans made their thoughts known in a Daily Telegraph online poll yesterday, with more than 75 per cent of respondents voting against allowing Williams back into the NRL.

Bulldogs Army supporters club member Darren Barrett was also against seeing Williams sign with the Warriors.

“I want him to come back to the Bulldogs – but only if he apologised to the club, the fans, teammates and sponsors for doing his midnight run,” Barrett said.

“If he doesn’t come here, then he shouldn’t be allowed to go anywhere else.

“There was a lot of pain for Bulldogs fans when he walked out. When the going got tough, he simply said: ‘I’ve had enough’.

“We weren’t winning that year so he just left us.”

Another Dogs fan to call the Telegraph yesterday said: “We have moved on – if we get the money then we should take it.”

One blogger wrote online yesterday: “Don’t do it Greenberg. Stuff the cash.”

Another added: “I wouldn’t let this brat even enter Australia.”

The Warriors have stated that Williams would “put bums on seats” at their matches.

Master, apprentice … Ennis practises under Halligan’s eye. Brett Costello

Bulldogs’ Michael Ennis not phased about picking up goal-kicking duties – By Ben Horne

For 16-straight years, rugby league’s top goalkickers have been wearing Bulldogs colours, and now hooker Michael Ennis has been given the task of continuing the legacy.

Daryl Halligan began at Belmore in 1994 and booted the ball through the posts so often he was considered by many as the best ever.

Then when he retired in 2000, Hazem El Masri was thrown the tee, and before his retirement last year, ‘El Magic’ made short work of virtually every goal-kicking record in the game.

Securing the extra two points after a try or a penalty kick has been assumed at the Bulldogs for the best part of two decades, but now the Halligan-El Masri dynasty is over.

Ennis is first in line to take over duties this season and can’t wait for the challenge.

Figuratively speaking, Ennis has a huge pair of boots to fill, after El Masri last year broke the NRL’s all-time point-scoring record in 2009.

But Ennis, who has already kicked more than 100 goals in his first grade career at Newcastle Knights, St George Illawarra, Brisbane Broncos and the Bulldogs, doesn’t believe his job comes with any added expectations.

“A lot of people ask me about the pressures that are coming on the back of the Halligan, El Masri era, but to me it’s just something where I’ll enjoy the challenge and embrace it,” Ennis said.

“I’ll continue to work hard and see how I go and it’s something I’m looking forward to more than anything.

“Hopefully with trials around the corner in a few weeks I can put a few over. I think it’s fortunate that I’ve got that base of kicking regularly at St George and then obviously in Brisbane when I was on the field.

“Hazem was a wonderful goal kicker and certainly just being a spectator in rugby league, I used to enjoy watching him kick his goals from everywhere, as did Halligan.

“It’s nice being able to sit back and work with those guys but at the end of the day it’s about me being comfortable in the routines that I’ve got and I’m pretty sure I’ve got that in place. Hopefully I can have a good year with the boot.”

Ennis says he enjoys the challenge and the “mental break” goal kicking offers within a game.

Halligan, who is the goal-kicking coach for Ennis and Bulldogs’ back-ups Bryson Goodwin and Steve Turner, believes the NSW Origin hooker is ready for the job.

“The thing with Mick is he actually wants to do it. Mick being Mick, he probably wanted to kick while Hazem was still there as well … so that’s a good attribute to have,” Halligan said.

“Bryson has kicked for the Kiwis as well, so certainly while it’s a void to fill, there’s plenty of good candidates to do it.”

AAP

Phil Rothfield – Daily Telegraph

NARROW-minded NRL club officials have again chosen to short-change rugby league fans in next year’s finals.

The annual chief executives conference voted to lock out a potential 100,000 fans from the first weekend of the finals to keep games at home venues, some of which can accommodate only 18,000 people.

In doing so, it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential gate-takings to a cash-strapped game that is faced with a $100 million AFL invasion into its western Sydney heartland.

The finals venue issue came to a head this year when the NRL refused to move the blockbuster Dragons-Eels game from Kogarah, robbing 30,000 fans and stopping schoolchildren with free passes from attending the game.

A week later the huge drawing power of finals football was there for all to see when more than 70,000 fans turned up to the Parramatta-Bulldogs blockbuster at ANZ Stadium. But NRL boss David Gallop supported the decision last night, claiming clubs deserved the home ground advantage.

“The clear view from the meeting today was that you can’t deprive players and fans of home ground advantage in that first weekend of the finals,” Gallop said.

“To give the non-Sydney teams a home game in week one but force the Sydney clubs out of their grounds would create an unfairness that money can’t compensate. We are a $150 million dollar business and there may be a chance to make more money if you move a game, but running a fair competition is more important.

“Nothing will stop a club making the decision to move a home finals match if they choose. However, the idea of the NRL telling members and players that ‘you have spent 26 weeks to win the right to a home final, but we are simply going to take it off you’ is not something that we believe the NRL should do.”

Clubs also confirmed that the McIntyre finals system would be retained in its current form for 2010. There was some discussion as to whether the minor premiers should retain the home ground advantage if they lost in the first week of the finals. But the decision was made to stick with the same system.

“The years of the McIntyre system have coincided with some of the best finals series in the game’s history,” Gallop said. “There are always points of debate but sometimes you have to stand back and look at the whole picture and the system has served rugby league well.

“Until we reach a point where demand is such that we move away from home finals in week one completely, and that is clearly not the case at the moment, I don’t believe we can target some clubs, their players and fans, and not others.”