Canterbury just three defeats away from record second-highest number of losses in club history

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TalDog

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JAMES PHELPS, The Daily Telegraph
an hour ago
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DES Hasler’s Bulldogs are just three defeats away from racking up the second-highest number of losses in the club’s proud 82-year history.

In a damning statistic that proves Canterbury is officially a club in crisis, there have only been three seasons worse than the Bulldogs of 2017 when it comes to the number of losses suffered.

Their loss on Thursday to South Sydney was their 14th of the year, making them the equal-fourth worst since the club was founded in 1935.


Despite fielding a team featuring eight players who have represented at Origin or Test level, they have finished on the wrong end of the scoreline as many times as the infamous foundation side of 1935 which still holds the unwanted record for the two heaviest defeats of all time — a 91-6 flogging at the hands of St George and an 87-7 thumping by the Roosters a week later.

They could even end up with the wooden spoon after cellar dwellers Newcastle upset Parramatta on Friday night.


The 2008 Bulldogs were the last Canterbury team to win the wooden spoon.
The Bulldogs must win at least one of their remaining three games to avoid dropping below the 1964 team’s second-worst mark of 16 defeats.

Only the diabolic Sonny Bill Williams walkout team of 2008 — who lost 19 games — will save them from suffering the most defeats in club history.

A Sunday Telegraph investigation has revealed that complicated match plans, controversial selection decisions and contract uncertainty can be blamed for the dramatic fall from grace that continued on Thursday night when Canterbury were thumped 28-14 by Souths at ANZ Stadium.

According to players, the club’s collapse began mid-season when Hasler responded to calls for his sacking by making a series of unconventional positional changes.

“We were going OK at the start of the year,’’ said a Canterbury NRL player.

“I mean, we weren’t winning a lot but we were in games and we thought it was only a matter of time until we clicked. We were confident. But then Dessy started making changes and we had a lot of blokes playing out of position. It was really disruptive.’’


The Bulldogs are anchored to the bottom of the ladder.
Hasler has gambled his coaching career with several controversial selections that include playing halfback Matt Frawley of the bench, moving regular No. 7 Moses Mbye to hooker, switching outside back Chase Stanley into the halves and dumping $700,000-a year Kiwi international Greg Eastwood to the NSW Cup.


Another club source suggested “complicated’’ and “overthought’’ game plans were to blame for the year from hell.

“At times there are 25 points scribbled on the whiteboard before a game,’’ said the insider.

“How are players supposed to take on that much instruction? They have gotten to a point where they are trying so hard to do these things that they have forgotten the fundamentals.’’

It is understood Hasler has fallen out with a number of players this year, including Melbourne-bound prop Sam Kasiano and Eastwood.


Canterbury can’t buy a win at the moment.
Hooker Michael Lichaa is also hunting a new club after being dumped from the NRL squad.

The free-fall accelerated when the club began shopping high-profile players to other clubs, including Josh and Brett Morris, James Graham, Aiden Tolman, and Mbye after making a salary cap miscalculation that has them facing a $1 million blowout.

The decision not to re-sign fan favourite Josh Reynolds was another blow.

“It is very much unwanted history,’’ said club stalwart Reni Maitua.

“And we had some things go against us in 2008. We lost our best player (Williams) to rugby union and Luke Patten was injured for the entire year. We also were still suffering the salary cap effects of winning the premiership in 2004.

“I don’t think the current side have too many excuses. They have had a reasonable run with injuries. Compared to 2008 it is a very contrasting set of circumstances. They aren’t two many reasons for them to not be successful this year.’’


Players now speaking out surely he is gone I reckon lichaa is spilling the beans
 
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OITENTA-E-NOVE

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We were going OK at the start of the year,’’ said a Canterbury NRL player.

I mean, we weren’t winning a lot but we were in games and we thought it was only a matter of time until we clicked. We were confident. But then Dessy started making changes and we had a lot of blokes playing out of position. It was really disruptive.’’

:tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy:
 

c-b-b

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I thought Eastwood was injured, the article says his playing NSW cup.

Something's got to happen on the player front. Some that have earnt good money from us need to do the right thing and move on if they aren't up to scratch.
 

OITENTA-E-NOVE

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I thought Eastwood was injured, the article says his playing NSW cup.

Something's got to happen on the player front. Some that have earnt good money from us need to do the right thing and move on if they aren't up to scratch.
hell no! keep collecting the money if they can
 

diddly

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Cant recall them making too many positional changes - Mbye to hooker - was about it but the rot had already set in by then.
 

Realist90

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Pretty disgusting. Another year like this I think I'll be done with the nrl. The only thing that attracted me to the nrl was the bulldogs type play. I grew up watching the late 90's early 2000's team and can't accept anything less really. I'm sorry I'm not a true supporter that will stay watching when the team is gonna be fighting for the spoon in future years if there's not a huge shake up.

As far as I'm concerned a lot of the players are playing purely for money and Hasler has lost the playing group and is a dumb **** and should leave with the fraudulent bulldog players. Keep klezmer and Jackson and build around them. Everyone else can fuck off.
 

oldpuppy

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Now imagine us loosing 2 games in a row 91-6 and then 87-7 this year.
Dib would say they improved and turned around the deficit from 85 to 80 points.
We trust in our coaches methods. He's second best to blah blah.
It's why we took our time re signing.the master coach. The once in a lifetime circus geek.
 

blueyedsamurai

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Reminder Hasler holds the records for Manlys biggest losses of all time.

Most points conceded 12-72 (72 pts) - Aug 7th, 2004 - vs. Penrith
Biggest loss 6-68 (62 pts) - Aug 21st, 2005 - vs. Cronulla
 

dogluva

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A Sunday Telegraph investigation has revealed that complicated match plans, controversial selection decisions and contract uncertainty can be blamed for the dramatic fall from grace that continued on Thursday night when Canterbury were thumped 28-14 by Souths at ANZ Stadium.

According to players, the club’s collapse began mid-season when Hasler responded to calls for his sacking by making a series of unconventional positional changes.

“We were going OK at the start of the year,’’ said a Canterbury NRL player.

“I mean, we weren’t winning a lot but we were in games and we thought it was only a matter of time until we clicked. We were confident. But then Dessy started making changes and we had a lot of blokes playing out of position. It was really disruptive.’’[/QUOTE]

Yeah, so the players are truly behind him and there is nothing funny at all about their continued past "voicing of support for the coach" who they have at times labelled a good bloke, a good coach...etc. etc. Lol at the comment " said a Canterbury NRL player". So one of the existing squad is talking out of school as it were .


“It is very much unwanted history,’’ said club stalwart Reni Maitua.

“And we had some things go against us in 2008. We lost our best player (Williams) to rugby union and Luke Patten was injured for the entire year. We also were still suffering the salary cap effects of winning the premiership in 2004.

“I don’t think the current side have too many excuses. They have had a reasonable run with injuries. Compared to 2008 it is a very contrasting set of circumstances. They aren’t two many reasons for them to not be successful this year.’’

Nope; Dib and co reckon that there is not a problem at the club,'judge us for the way we finish the season and stick solid' he has said a few times , but we have an ex player ( amongst many) who have made comments suggesting that all is not well. Reni, although himself at times a troubled soul has got it 100% right.

The roster that coach Hasler assembled is slowly falling apart and all because he sadly lacks the skill to get the best out of them. Most people would realise that keeping it simple is the best way to get a solid effort out of the squad rather than bombarding them with confusing and over complicated instructions. The tactics he does get them to play under are not working and have not worked for a long time. What do we see though..coach does not change and things get worse.. vicious cycle that we can only break by getting rid of the main problem.
 

dogluva

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Now imagine us loosing 2 games in a row 91-6 and then 87-7 this year.
Dib would say they improved and turned around the deficit from 85 to 80 points.
We trust in our coaches methods. He's second best to blah blah.
It's why we took our time re signing.the master coach. The once in a lifetime circus geek.


Well those scores were recorded in our very first year in the competition against the most powerful team in the league at that time the Roosters and another pretty handy side the Dragons. Dave Brown in the Roosters side was a mercurial player and his record speaks for itself; in the 87-7 victory he alone scored 45 of those points from 5 tries and fifteen goals. The Dragons beat the Canterbury side 91-6 the previous week scoring 19 tries and 17 goals to three goals for Canterbury.Don't forget that tries were only worth three points in those days, so translated to the present we would have seen scores of 110-6 and 106-8 respectively.

Still I reckon in the overall scheme of things the results back then were not so bad for a fledgling club that at least for the most part gave a pretty good account of themselves. They had an excuse for those type of results the present day squad does not. Within three years of establishment a competition was won , the first of the 8. The present mob over five years two Grand finals appearances for no wins.
 

Dogzof95

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You know the club, and I mean the whole club from top to bottom is in trouble when insiders start talking... Adversity always inspired us, never divided us! What a sad state we're in! One thing this club has been built on is it's ability to comeback better and stronger in a short amount of time. I hope next year is the year the voting members bring back this club to where it needs to be by voting Dib out!
 
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Mr Potato

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“We were going OK at the start of the year,’’ said a Canterbury NRL player. Honestly!!! Just be honest. We are shit and we are sorry.

Just a suggestion. We should all turn up at our last home game and throw lemons at these idiots. Perhaps not whole lemons as we dont want to cause injury or be banned from NRL games. Maybe quarter lemons to make a statement. Perhaps we can write deserving messages in black marker. Like "You Suck", "Des has expired", "Dib has BO issues", "Do your job" and so on. The much deserved insult. Just a thought.

But the thought of actually having to sit a watch a game live makes me want to puke so I don't know if I have the stamina to follow through...
 

Mr Invisible

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Anyone can make up a quote, and attribute it to a nameless person.

"There are no problems. The players enjoy playing for Des, and we are under the salary cap", a Bulldogs staff member told us.
 

Mr Potato

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Yes it is a sad state the club is in. The issue is at boiling point and in time the club will bounce back. I don't see Dib or des holding onto their jobs for to much longer. The other issue is the terrible signings and lack of juniors. Might take a few more years of patience before we reach Dogs of old and top 4 finals footy.
 

Indiandog

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According to players, the club’s collapse began mid-season when Hasler responded to calls for his sacking by making a series of unconventional positional changes.

“We were going OK at the start of the year,’’ said a Canterbury NRL player.

“I mean, we weren’t winning a lot but we were in games and we thought it was only a matter of time until we clicked. We were confident. But then Dessy started making changes and we had a lot of blokes playing out of position. It was really disruptive.’’

WTF?

players have been playing out of position for years now.

forwards playing as halves
backs playing as forwards
halves having no clue what their actual role is


that has been the norm for last 4 years.
 

finchie

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Said it all year;
Klemmer wants to play prop
Taking it first or second run

Eastwood wants to play lock
Not second row

Mbye doesn't want a bar of hooker

Players are off lichaa all year

Islander boys kas, east, rfm, brenko, tualao can't stand the prick (Hasler)

Chase Stanley and holland are the teachers pet

Players told not to offload, think klemmer all year not offloading even when he can.

Just a few points to ponder
 
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