Why the Bulldogs need Aaron Woods — and why they dont

Aaron Woods stalked the sideline, holding the interchange card in his hand, trying to get on the field in place of Clay Priest.

There were 25 minutes left to play. It was 16-all. If there was ever a time for an Australian, NSW and $850,000-per-season prop to come on and run over the top of the opposition, this was it.

Woods Bulldogs teammate and close friend, David Klemmer, had been doing it all afternoon, coming off the bench and rocking the Dragons pack onto its heels with every run.

Finally, a break in play came and Woods was on. He carted up the ball, made the tackles that needed to be made. He was good but not spectacular.

Ten minutes later, with the Dragons on the attack, the ball came to prop James Graham, who ran at the line and passed the ball. Woods hit him fractionally late after it left his hands …

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Penalty. Late tackle. Dragons captain Gareth Widdop kicked the penalty goal from in front to give his side an 18-16 lead they grimly held onto until fulltime.

As this was happening, Woods bemused head flashed on the big screen. He saw his own head on the big screen and looked even more bemused.

His arrival at Belmore squeezed Graham out of the club. Now hed given away a costly penalty by tackling him late.

“Sometimes you get them,” Bulldogs coach Dean Pay said of the penalty. “Sometimes you dont.”

It has been that sort of season for the Bulldogs, for Pay and especially for Woods, who could be playing for another club in a matter of weeks despite being only half a season into a four-year, $3.4 million deal at Belmore.

Whether he is worth keeping depends on who you talk to.

Woods doesnt hit the line like the freight train that is Klemmer. His strength is going arse-first into it. He then gets quickly to his feet for a fast play-the-ball or he gets a quality offload away to support players. We havent seen enough of either this season.

In the 18th minute, we did. He crashed into Graham, turned away from him and offloaded to halfback Matt Frawley, who sent lock Adam Elliott over for the try.

It halted the Dragons momentum in its tracks. Without it, they wouldve had this match stitched up before the half-time oranges.

These are the plays that have rival clubs sniffing around Woods, although Woods is adamant he doesnt want to play for anyone else — with the possible exception of his old club, Wests Tigers.

If he does go, his most likely destination is the Sharks, who believe they need to add a quality prop to their roster if theyre to push for this years premiership.

Woods can be that man: you dont fluke as many NSW and Australian jumpers as he has. Teams will never win premierships because of him — but they might win them off the back of what he can do.

Newcastle and Parramatta are said to be interested, at the right price, but you can run a big red line through the Roosters.

They were apoplectic on Friday when a report claimed they were now in the hunt. It was so wrong the erroneous story was promptly changed on-line.

Whether Woods goes anywhere depends on how much the Bulldogs are prepared to pay for him to play at another club.

The magic figure is said to be about $150,000 a season, meaning whichever club Woods moves to would need to cover the remaining $700,000 a season.

How many clubs would pay that for Aaron Woods right now? Youre right: none.

The Bulldogs know rival clubs want to take advantage of their salary cap mess but insist they wont be paying huge amounts for marquee players to play elsewhere.

Or against them.

Theyre paying for their former inspirational captain James Graham to be a current inspirational prop for the Dragons this season.

Graham needed a fresh start, just like the Bulldogs.

He took the ball from the kick-off, ran straight and Woods and kept running at him all afternoon.

“Its been a big week for him,” Dragons coach Paul McGregor said of Graham. “Hes been a big feature for what the Dogs have done in the past. Hes a man of good character and were fortunate to have him as a leader for us.”

Graham has been a player reborn since changing clubs but playing with a quality team certainly helps.

The Dragons had lost 12 of their last 13 matches against the Bulldogs but it looked like being nothing more than a training run after Euan Aitken scored with the match only three minutes old.

Woods didnt get a chance to make his first run until the 8th minute. It wasnt until the 15th minute that his side had the ball in the Dragons 20 metres, and it only came off the back of a penalty.

Yet they were in it right up until the last few seconds of the match.

These are hard days at Canterbury, as close as they keep coming to victory.

There is every chance fullback Moses Mbye will be released in coming days to join the Tigers, who have already signed a four-year deal with them starting next season.

Asked how confident he was about Mbye playing for him beyond June 30, Pay said: “At this stage, hes here.”

How about Woods?

“Hes here, too.”

Chief Sports Writer, The Sydney Morning Herald

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