Gus gets things done’: Barrett believes Gould is Bulldogs’ best signing
By Adrian Proszenko, Danny Weidler and Christian Nicolussi
July 17, 2021 — 5.40pm
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Trent Barrett believes Phil Gould is the most significant signing that Canterbury have made during the rebuild of the club and predicts the former premiership-winning coach can spark a similar revival to the one he engineered at Penrith.
Gould will return to Belmore as the club’s general manager of football, a role not dissimilar to the one he held at the foot of the mountains. In order to take it up he was granted a release from the Warriors, where his work reshaping the junior pathways was severely hampered due to COVID travel restrictions.
Both of Gould’s former employers have no qualms about his latest position: the Panthers believe he won’t become a poaching threat, while he leaves with the blessing of the Warriors.
Gould himself says one of his first jobs will be to “ensure our current players, coaches and staff feel safe, happy and confident in their jobs”.
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“We will invest time, energy and money into the Canterbury junior league, to increase participation and enjoyment for girls and boys of all ages groups,” Gould said. “We will provide development pathways and coaching to graduate kids from junior league into the junior representative programs.
“And we will also provide opportunity for talented kids from all areas to come to the Bulldogs and work hard to realise their dreams of being NRL footballers.
“There has already been a lot of work done over the past 12 months. Chairman John Khoury and his board have worked tirelessly to lay important foundations. It’s a terrific starting point on which to build the future of the Bulldogs.”
The Bulldogs are struggling in last spot on the ladder, but there is optimism about their prospects in 2022 following the signings of Matt Burton, Josh Addo-Carr, Brent Naden and Matt Dufty. However, Barrett believes Gould’s signature could be the most important.
“It’s huge for the club,” Barrett said. “Gus’ track record speaks for itself and he’s one of the great administrators of the game.
“Gus knows Canterbury inside out. He’s extremely smart, he’s a good motivator and has a clear vision on how he wants to do things. The thing with Gus is he gets things done. He’s a doer and he doesn’t muck around when he does it.”
Barrett said Canterbury’s challenge was slightly different to the one he faced at Penrith due to the differences in demographics and junior pathways, but predicted a similar turnaround.
“John Khoury and [chief executive] Aaron [Warburton] have done a good job with this one, the board has been solid, there’s a clear picture of where we wanted to go – they got their man in the end,” Barrett said.
When Barrett was first approached about the Bulldogs coaching role, Gould warned him against it, labelling the culture “toxic”. Reminded of those comments, Barrett chuckled: “Me and Gus speak a lot. It will be good to be back together. He can attract players, he knows how to get them. He’s been around a long time and there are a lot of pluses that he brings.”
Star forward Viliame Kikau was lured to Penrith from North Queensland by Gould and looms as an obvious key signing target for the Bulldogs. Kikau, Api Koroisau and Dylan Edwards are the big-name Panthers off contract at the end of next season and Canterbury have the salary cap space to accommodate Kikau, who could command as much as $1 million a season.
However, Panthers chairman Dave O’Neill said the bulk of the club’s roster was locked away for next year and they were now in the position where players would take a little less money to play with the likes of Nathan Cleary and in a successful side.
“We’re not worried about any poaching because we’ve got 90 per cent of our roster locked in and we’re pretty secure,” O’Neill said.
“We’ve worked hard the last 18 months to get our cap and roster in order. We’re now in the position players might sign for a little less because they want to play with Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai, James Fisher-Harris and guys like that.
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“The same thing happened with Melbourne and those great Brisbane sides.
“I’m happy for Gus. It’s great to see him back at the Bulldogs. I’m sure he’ll do an excellent job rebuilding their pathways system. It can only be good for the league the Bulldogs are back concentrating on junior pathways and development.”
Warriors chief executive Cameron George was not upset with Gould – “in no way shape or form are we dark on Gus” – and said he was more frustrated with COVID making it difficult for his staff to complete their job.
“I rate Gus as a human so highly,” George said. “He goes with our blessing. Our loss to COVID is the Bulldogs’ gain. There is only one Phil Gould and you don’t try to replicate that.
Gus becomes a Bulldog again: Inside Canterbury’s stunning Gould coup
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“It would have been great to have Gus on the bus, so to speak, but those restrictions outweigh what we’re able to do.
“Don’t worry, we will try to beat him. I want him looking over his shoulder at the Warriors for the rest of his working career now.”
