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Raelene Castle came into a strong club and leaves it weaker than when she started.
by Scott Foreman
Jun 14, 2017Jun 14, 2017
Two weeks ago Bulldogs CEO Raelene Castle announced at seasons end she will be leaving the Bulldogs. A shock when it broke but with all the war happening at Belmore it looks like something had to budge and Castle was the one who left.
Castle joined the Bulldogs in 2013, replacing the current NRL CEO Todd Greenberg. Greenberg turned the Bulldogs club around with reputation and going back to the family club and was seen as one of the best club CEOs in the game. Castle took over as Greenberg left the club to join the NRL as Head of Football. Greenberg left the club with Des Hasler who joined the Bulldogs in 2012 when the won the Minor Premiership but lost the Grand Final to the Melbourne Storm.
The Good
Let’s start in 2014, Bulldogs had an up and down season and almost dropped out of the 8 when losing to the Gold Coast Titans, but lucky for the boys from Belmore they got all the results needed to stay in the top 8. Bulldogs marketed that final series as the team with their backs against the wall they sold shirts with “Dogs of War” having a nice touch on their history, everyone who supported Bulldogs bought into it and Bulldogs did the un thinkable by defeating the Melbourne Storm in Melbourne, beating Manly Sea Eagles at Allianz Stadium and beating Penrith Panthers at ANZ Stadium. But fell short to the South Sydney Rabbitohs who won their first premiership in 43 years. Despite the loss if felt the Bulldogs had their Dogs of war back and they took the other teams by shock. Little to know that feeling soon was to disappear and still haven’t found it today.
The Bulldogs in 2015 season announced that they will play two home games at their spiritual home grounds at Belmore Sports Ground. Belmore Sports Ground Capacity sits over 19,000 and the Bulldogs could only guarantee the game to full seasons members and the club moved up to 18,240 which was a 10% growth on the 2014 members count. Who could forget Monday when the Bulldogs ambushed the Storm to make the return perfect. A crowd of 16,764 screaming for REYNOLDS a Belmore junior. The next game didn’t go to plan for the Bulldogs losing to the Cronulla Sharks but with over 19,000 people there to watch Sunday afternoon Football it was a real flash back to the 1980’s. Bulldogs record at Belmore has been poor only winning one game there since 2015 and with a few wet weather games and not much cover we have not seen a crowd over 15,000 since 2015 seasons. Some may question is why the play two games a season where they could play 1 game a year at Belmore and make it a real massive event.
The upgraded of KIA sponsorship was an amazing achievement Castle could be proud of, being the biggest sponsorship deal in clubs’ history. But it seems when the good comes for Castle a bad always follows with the Bulldogs having KIA in red all over their jersey. KIA sponsor many sports team around the world and they were unable to get them to change the logo to Blue.
The Bad
Bulldogs jerseys with their first Auckland 9’s jersey with black and gold, how is that Bulldogs colours? We know branding is important, they also had an Auckland 9’s jersey with a Dog head yes I said it a Dog head. It looked like an idea from young children. The other jersey which annoys Bulldogs fans is their away jersey which is a black jersey with a Blue V. Since when did the Bulldogs wear black on their jersey? Bulldogs have Blue and White and they can do so much with that for an away jersey or 9’s but they struggle every year to make good ones.
Greenberg left the Bulldogs mid-way through 2013 season where the crowd average was at 21,572, and only once got a crowd average once over 20,000 and that was in 2015 when they had an average of 20,774 and 2016 their worst in recent years of 15,202 and this year they sit at 14,135 and that includes a good Friday match at home. They said if you can’t grow that seen as a failure going backwards is a massive fail. The reason I believe why they are going backwards is style of play Bulldogs are arguably the most boring NRL team to watch and play, they have very little attacking options and have to five eights in the side. Fans have screamed for Des Hasler’s head and yet he has been re-signed for a further two more seasons.
Bulldogs released a five-year plan under Castle in 2015, two Grand Finals by 2019, a top 4 finish in both NRL and Holden Cup every year and have failed on both, two grand finals by 2019 seems impossible especially the start to the season Bulldogs have had this year, and top 8 finish in the NSW Cup every which has been successful with. They also talked about getting a crowd average of 30,000 by 2020 which the Bulldogs are going backwards and 25,000 members which they have increased this every year expect this season. The Bulldogs need to realise they are in the entertainment business and there footy is fair from it.
The issue with the Bulldogs in the past few years is having players who look like they don’t want to be there, their style lacks passion part from the one and only Josh Reynolds. Reynolds is one of three Bulldogs juniors in the top-grade squad and has Bulldogs written all over him. Some say Bulldogs didn’t offer Josh anything or if they did they offered him very little. The man they call Grub s is fan favorite and will be missed, they haven’t won a game without Josh in 2017.
Some will call the signings of Kieran Foran and Aaron Woods a good signing but I believe could be bad for Bulldogs. Foran is a word class half one for Bulldogs are screaming for but has had plenty of off-field issues and has been bought into the side for the wrong player, and Woods is a meter eater and will run all day but the Bulldogs already have Aiden Tolman and James Graham. Des Hasler coaching career is on the shoulders of Foran. It is definitely interesting time at Belmore but changes are needed.
Castle came into a strong club and leaves it weaker then she started. Is it all her fault? definitely not, she didn’t have help from the board but her strong passion to keep Des Hasler has made many fans upset with her. The next CEO has a tough job. For Castle, she could work well in many different clubs.
Is losing Raelene Castle a good thing, or a negative for the Bulldogs?
https://realsport101.com/news/sports/rugby/rugby-league/castle-wont-be-missed-at-belmore/
by Scott Foreman
Jun 14, 2017Jun 14, 2017
Two weeks ago Bulldogs CEO Raelene Castle announced at seasons end she will be leaving the Bulldogs. A shock when it broke but with all the war happening at Belmore it looks like something had to budge and Castle was the one who left.
Castle joined the Bulldogs in 2013, replacing the current NRL CEO Todd Greenberg. Greenberg turned the Bulldogs club around with reputation and going back to the family club and was seen as one of the best club CEOs in the game. Castle took over as Greenberg left the club to join the NRL as Head of Football. Greenberg left the club with Des Hasler who joined the Bulldogs in 2012 when the won the Minor Premiership but lost the Grand Final to the Melbourne Storm.
The Good
Let’s start in 2014, Bulldogs had an up and down season and almost dropped out of the 8 when losing to the Gold Coast Titans, but lucky for the boys from Belmore they got all the results needed to stay in the top 8. Bulldogs marketed that final series as the team with their backs against the wall they sold shirts with “Dogs of War” having a nice touch on their history, everyone who supported Bulldogs bought into it and Bulldogs did the un thinkable by defeating the Melbourne Storm in Melbourne, beating Manly Sea Eagles at Allianz Stadium and beating Penrith Panthers at ANZ Stadium. But fell short to the South Sydney Rabbitohs who won their first premiership in 43 years. Despite the loss if felt the Bulldogs had their Dogs of war back and they took the other teams by shock. Little to know that feeling soon was to disappear and still haven’t found it today.
The Bulldogs in 2015 season announced that they will play two home games at their spiritual home grounds at Belmore Sports Ground. Belmore Sports Ground Capacity sits over 19,000 and the Bulldogs could only guarantee the game to full seasons members and the club moved up to 18,240 which was a 10% growth on the 2014 members count. Who could forget Monday when the Bulldogs ambushed the Storm to make the return perfect. A crowd of 16,764 screaming for REYNOLDS a Belmore junior. The next game didn’t go to plan for the Bulldogs losing to the Cronulla Sharks but with over 19,000 people there to watch Sunday afternoon Football it was a real flash back to the 1980’s. Bulldogs record at Belmore has been poor only winning one game there since 2015 and with a few wet weather games and not much cover we have not seen a crowd over 15,000 since 2015 seasons. Some may question is why the play two games a season where they could play 1 game a year at Belmore and make it a real massive event.
The upgraded of KIA sponsorship was an amazing achievement Castle could be proud of, being the biggest sponsorship deal in clubs’ history. But it seems when the good comes for Castle a bad always follows with the Bulldogs having KIA in red all over their jersey. KIA sponsor many sports team around the world and they were unable to get them to change the logo to Blue.
The Bad
Bulldogs jerseys with their first Auckland 9’s jersey with black and gold, how is that Bulldogs colours? We know branding is important, they also had an Auckland 9’s jersey with a Dog head yes I said it a Dog head. It looked like an idea from young children. The other jersey which annoys Bulldogs fans is their away jersey which is a black jersey with a Blue V. Since when did the Bulldogs wear black on their jersey? Bulldogs have Blue and White and they can do so much with that for an away jersey or 9’s but they struggle every year to make good ones.
Greenberg left the Bulldogs mid-way through 2013 season where the crowd average was at 21,572, and only once got a crowd average once over 20,000 and that was in 2015 when they had an average of 20,774 and 2016 their worst in recent years of 15,202 and this year they sit at 14,135 and that includes a good Friday match at home. They said if you can’t grow that seen as a failure going backwards is a massive fail. The reason I believe why they are going backwards is style of play Bulldogs are arguably the most boring NRL team to watch and play, they have very little attacking options and have to five eights in the side. Fans have screamed for Des Hasler’s head and yet he has been re-signed for a further two more seasons.
Bulldogs released a five-year plan under Castle in 2015, two Grand Finals by 2019, a top 4 finish in both NRL and Holden Cup every year and have failed on both, two grand finals by 2019 seems impossible especially the start to the season Bulldogs have had this year, and top 8 finish in the NSW Cup every which has been successful with. They also talked about getting a crowd average of 30,000 by 2020 which the Bulldogs are going backwards and 25,000 members which they have increased this every year expect this season. The Bulldogs need to realise they are in the entertainment business and there footy is fair from it.
The issue with the Bulldogs in the past few years is having players who look like they don’t want to be there, their style lacks passion part from the one and only Josh Reynolds. Reynolds is one of three Bulldogs juniors in the top-grade squad and has Bulldogs written all over him. Some say Bulldogs didn’t offer Josh anything or if they did they offered him very little. The man they call Grub s is fan favorite and will be missed, they haven’t won a game without Josh in 2017.
Some will call the signings of Kieran Foran and Aaron Woods a good signing but I believe could be bad for Bulldogs. Foran is a word class half one for Bulldogs are screaming for but has had plenty of off-field issues and has been bought into the side for the wrong player, and Woods is a meter eater and will run all day but the Bulldogs already have Aiden Tolman and James Graham. Des Hasler coaching career is on the shoulders of Foran. It is definitely interesting time at Belmore but changes are needed.
Castle came into a strong club and leaves it weaker then she started. Is it all her fault? definitely not, she didn’t have help from the board but her strong passion to keep Des Hasler has made many fans upset with her. The next CEO has a tough job. For Castle, she could work well in many different clubs.
Is losing Raelene Castle a good thing, or a negative for the Bulldogs?
https://realsport101.com/news/sports/rugby/rugby-league/castle-wont-be-missed-at-belmore/