Following Friday nights board meeting I felt the need to email Raelene Castle and the Bulldogs to voice my concerns over the direction the club was headed.
The main points of my email were:
*My disappointment at the resignation of Steve Mortimer and the fact that he was so worried about the state of affairs he felt the need to speak out in the first place.
* My concern over the apparent neglect of our juniors and lower grades.
* Concerns over Haslers inability to adapt to the modern game.
* Concern over our recruitment and retention
To be totally honest I expected a stock standard email or no reply at all
Today I received a phone call from an unfamiliar mobile phone and was surprised to hear Raelene Castle to the end of the line. She said she wanted to discuss the email I sent and anted to explain the clubs position on a few issues and where we are headed.
Firstly she wanted to emphasise that Steve Mortimer broke protocol and resigned because he realised and acknowledged he had done the wrong thing. I said it sounded like he had no other option and he was forced out. Her reply was that Steve is a man of integrity who speaks from the heart and he willingly resigned so the club could move forward.
She stressed that his association with the club has not ended and he will be part of a mentor program who will work with the players and juniors to preserve the 'Bulldogs DNA or culture' that has been spoken about lately. Other players she mention were Terry Lamb, Brent Sherwin, and a few others who will probably come to me later.
In addressing the juniors she said the club will be creating a full time position to develop local talent and to guide them in the transition to u20's and so on. They will be working with Des and the new recruitment officer to also bring talent into the system from around Australia and NZ. When I questioned whether the club was happy with the decline of the U20's since Des arrived she said they definitely were not but they had made the decision to treat u20's as a stepping stone to nsw cup and 1st grade and to ensure each year they have 4 or 5 players who will be ready to do that. She said the divide between u20s and NRL is too great to expect players to step straight into NRL so they don't want to leave the best players there too long.
As far as recruitment goes. Don't expect to see Lolohea at the club next year. Reading in between the lines I would expect a backline similar to this:
1) Abbey
2) Bmoz
3) JMoz
4) Hoppa
5) Lee
6) Reynolds
7) Mbye
She said losing Brett Morris for the start of the year meant Hoppa went to fullback instead of being outside Moses. She hinted that this changed their playing style because Holland and Mbye are both inexperienced and Des wanted to take pressure off them.
She also said they had an aging roster at the time they let Ennis go and he was offered hundreds of thousands more than we could offer.
She said hooker is a vital position and they have Woolford coming next year which they are excited about. Wink wink.
All up we chatted for about 20 minutes. I was really impressed that she took the time to call. The pessimists here might say she's simply in damage control but it was the exact opposite of what you hear from her in the media. No bullshit, no dancing around issues she was real and she was forthright, she was honest and she was passionate about her job and her vision for the club. She was not trying to convince me to renew my membership because I'd told her I was going to regardless. All in all I was impressed with what she had to say.
I'm not saying I've totally changed my mind on the whole situation but I definitely feel better about 2017 now than I did yesterday.
