Dogzof95
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CANTERBURY sure is taking a strange approach for an organisation wanting to restore its reputation as the family club.
The Bulldogs finished 11th and, on-field woes aside, much of the blame for a dismal season has been directed at a poor culture within the walls at Belmore.
Former Bulldog Reni Maitua said coach Des Hasler doesn’t understand what it means to be part of Canterbury, and critics all year have suggested that attitude filtered down to players and spread across the rest of the club.
And the way Canterbury is going it will have one heck of a time trying to build that famous Dogs of war culture back up, especially because its mission will start without club icons James Graham and Josh Reynolds.
Reynolds has signed to play for the Tigers in 2018 and on Tuesday night Graham confirmed he had made a verbal agreement to join St George next year. Reynolds’ scrappy, fighting spirit personifies what Canterbury wants to be known for and Graham captained the club for three years, embracing what it means to wear the blue and white since arriving from England in 2012.
Cronulla veteran Luke Lewis put it perfectly when explaining just how big an impact Graham has had at his first NRL club.
James Graham will be wearing the Red V next time we see him on an NRL field.
“Every time I think of the Bulldogs I think of James Graham,” Lewis said on NRL 360.
“Every time we played against Canterbury the first person you’d talk of in the video was James Graham. He’s a superstar of Belmore for sure and the Bulldogs. It’s a massive loss for Canterbury.
“I don’t know where the Bulldogs go next to be honest. To lose a leader like Michael Ennis (after the 2014 season) then a leader like James Graham is a huge loss.”
Poor salary cap management meant the Bulldogs needed to shed players to accommodate new recruits Aaron Woods and Kieran Foran, and Graham is the latest high-profile victim of the club’s financial debacle.
Canterbury never wanted to lose Reynolds or Graham, shopping other players around first to make room in its salary cap but there were no takers. Ultimately the club needed to offer up bigger fish.
Canterbury has nobody to blame but itself, though. If it didn’t overspend in the first place it would never have needed to get rid of two players synonymous with the Bulldogs’ culture.
“The irony in all of this is one of the big talking points out of the Bulldogs has been, ‘We need to get back that Bulldogs culture’ and they’ve let go two of the blokes who typified that Bulldogs culture in Josh Reynolds and James Graham,” Matty Johns said on the Triple M Grill Team on Wednesday.
Josh Reynolds will be missed.
Graham didn’t want to leave but it became apparent the only way for his employer to dig itself out of a hole was to show him the door.
“It’s bittersweet but I think it’s the best move for myself and best move for both clubs too,” Graham said on NRL 360.
“Originally I wanted to be part of the solution and get the club back to where it should be, then realistically what it came down to was that being part of a solution to the problems at Canterbury was going to be me moving on.”
Adding further to the irony of the disastrous situation at Belmore is Wests prop Woods saying he signed with the club because he wanted to learn from Graham.
“I went there because I wanted to learn from him. He’s such a champion bloke and he’s one of those guys you need at the club,” Woods said on Sky Sports’ Big Sports Breakfast.
“Speaking to a couple of the blokes I know at the club they love him there and he’s a character ... he’ll be missed from what I’ve heard.”
The Bulldogs have a huge mountain to climb in 2018 and losing two key players isn’t going to make the journey any easier. Hasler’s future is up in the air despite signing a two-year contract extension this season and board elections early next year will only add to the distractions preventing Canterbury from getting on with the most important job of winning games.
The Bulldogs finished 11th and, on-field woes aside, much of the blame for a dismal season has been directed at a poor culture within the walls at Belmore.
Former Bulldog Reni Maitua said coach Des Hasler doesn’t understand what it means to be part of Canterbury, and critics all year have suggested that attitude filtered down to players and spread across the rest of the club.
And the way Canterbury is going it will have one heck of a time trying to build that famous Dogs of war culture back up, especially because its mission will start without club icons James Graham and Josh Reynolds.
Reynolds has signed to play for the Tigers in 2018 and on Tuesday night Graham confirmed he had made a verbal agreement to join St George next year. Reynolds’ scrappy, fighting spirit personifies what Canterbury wants to be known for and Graham captained the club for three years, embracing what it means to wear the blue and white since arriving from England in 2012.
Cronulla veteran Luke Lewis put it perfectly when explaining just how big an impact Graham has had at his first NRL club.
James Graham will be wearing the Red V next time we see him on an NRL field.
“Every time I think of the Bulldogs I think of James Graham,” Lewis said on NRL 360.
“Every time we played against Canterbury the first person you’d talk of in the video was James Graham. He’s a superstar of Belmore for sure and the Bulldogs. It’s a massive loss for Canterbury.
“I don’t know where the Bulldogs go next to be honest. To lose a leader like Michael Ennis (after the 2014 season) then a leader like James Graham is a huge loss.”
Poor salary cap management meant the Bulldogs needed to shed players to accommodate new recruits Aaron Woods and Kieran Foran, and Graham is the latest high-profile victim of the club’s financial debacle.
Canterbury never wanted to lose Reynolds or Graham, shopping other players around first to make room in its salary cap but there were no takers. Ultimately the club needed to offer up bigger fish.
Canterbury has nobody to blame but itself, though. If it didn’t overspend in the first place it would never have needed to get rid of two players synonymous with the Bulldogs’ culture.
“The irony in all of this is one of the big talking points out of the Bulldogs has been, ‘We need to get back that Bulldogs culture’ and they’ve let go two of the blokes who typified that Bulldogs culture in Josh Reynolds and James Graham,” Matty Johns said on the Triple M Grill Team on Wednesday.
Josh Reynolds will be missed.
Graham didn’t want to leave but it became apparent the only way for his employer to dig itself out of a hole was to show him the door.
“It’s bittersweet but I think it’s the best move for myself and best move for both clubs too,” Graham said on NRL 360.
“Originally I wanted to be part of the solution and get the club back to where it should be, then realistically what it came down to was that being part of a solution to the problems at Canterbury was going to be me moving on.”
Adding further to the irony of the disastrous situation at Belmore is Wests prop Woods saying he signed with the club because he wanted to learn from Graham.
“I went there because I wanted to learn from him. He’s such a champion bloke and he’s one of those guys you need at the club,” Woods said on Sky Sports’ Big Sports Breakfast.
“Speaking to a couple of the blokes I know at the club they love him there and he’s a character ... he’ll be missed from what I’ve heard.”
The Bulldogs have a huge mountain to climb in 2018 and losing two key players isn’t going to make the journey any easier. Hasler’s future is up in the air despite signing a two-year contract extension this season and board elections early next year will only add to the distractions preventing Canterbury from getting on with the most important job of winning games.
