Yes. Which comes back to the point, if you look at the names: Hannant, McGuire, Gillett, Glenn, Tasi, Kennedy, Thaiday, Parker, McCullough....the only weak link is really McCullough (and he's not THAT bad). I mean, apart from McGuire, Tasi, Kennedy and Macca, they're all current Origin or Test players, and McGuire and Kennedy are within a whisker of Origin honours. On paper it's fair to say it's a damn good pack.
Bulldogs, as good as they were last year, their names aren't that great. Graham, Eastwood, Pritchard, Ennis aside, they're not superstars. Even Tolman is only a City-Country rep, which is nothing to be excited about. Kasiano played 1 test and he's really been a bit crap this year.
Point being, form of previous year and quality of names on paper is pretty meaningless.