News Biggest regret of my time: The uprising that forced a Bulldogs revolution By Michael Chammas MARCH 6, 2022

[DinkumDog]

Dib's ego really got in the way.

"The Bulldogs paid the price for estimating the salary cap would rise to $10 million in 2018, despite being told to work off a figure that was $1 million less.

“We just kept saying to Raelene: you have salary cap problems coming,” Greenberg, who had been elevated to NRL chief executive at the time, recalls.

“Having seen how the salary caps work, I could see there was going to be a car crash at some point with some bad ramifications. I like Raelene, but I could always see problems coming with a salary cap, with the Bulldogs spend being significantly higher than what we had forecast.”"

^^ This is fucking criminal.

100% agree with this part of your post.
This is where the rot truly set in. Lots of mistakes, lots of egos and we’re still emerging from the rubble.

 

[habs]

Hasler and Raelene were a terrible combination.

 

[enoughsaid]

I’m so cut about how we treated Josh. He was the only one with the balls to tell Ray to get fucked. He was a bulldogs junior, born in the area and grew up there. He deserves a statue in belmore.

U dont get a statue for being the most useless No6 in our history

 

[bradyk]

U dont get a statue for being the most useless No6 in our history

Best 6 since I've supported the club.

 

[Malla]

I c

U dont get a statue for being the most useless No6 in our history

hekkeh ayri

 

[Bulldogsteve]

the problem with hasler, as rightly stated, is that he couldnt give a fuck about the juniors, all he was worried about was the top30 players.

 

[Kenya]

Great two articles.
Learned about the serious tension and disunity that we all saw in the game results.

Dean Pay was treated badly.

The Bulldogs brand took massive hits over the past few years and is still in recovery. 25m views dropping to 14m, Kia in for half as much - the huge cost of disunity. Gripping reality bites.

So here we are: Barett under enormous pressure - the Sharks trial was a disaster for him. My season expectations took a hit that day, maybe for a lot of us?

Barrett needs results fast.

Also Gould under pressure with a massive amount of faith in him and an equal amount of responsibility. There is so much money involved in this re-build.

We have our 9, we need a 7, we might need a centre - Schoupp & Naden? I’m not sure after seeing the sharks trial. We might need a coach. Tic-Tok.

 

[GrogDog]

History is written by the Victors!

Great read, both parts but I did pick up a couple of times where the parties involved said words to the affect of "I don't remember that OR I don't remember it that way". From Hasler and Dib. So clearly there is still scope in there for that article to be written a certain way depending upon who got the last quote in.

All of them have fault from what I can see from the very top down and possibly the biggest error was leaning more towards personal ego then what was good for the club. They all failed the club, the team and the fans!

The only massive thing I would have liked to have seen mentioned was how Hasler had shrunk our gameplan down in the last 2 seasons and how negative it became. Especially from a viewing stand point. Even after reading that I still don't understand why they paid that fuk out if all that info was correct.

 

[bradyk]

Great two articles.
Learned about the serious tension and disunity that we all could see in the game results.

Dean Pay was treated badly.

The Bulldogs brand took massive hits over the past few years and is still in recovery. 25m views dropping to 14m, Kia in for half as much - the huge cost of disunity. Gripping reality bites.

So here we are: Barett under enormous pressure - the Sharks trial was a disaster for him. My season expectations took a hit that day, maybe for a lot of us?

Barrett needs results fast.

Also Gould under pressure with a massive amount of faith in him and an equal amount of responsibility. There is so much money involved in this re-build.

We have our 9, we need a 7, we might need a centre - Schoupp & Naden? I’m not sure after seeing the sharks trial. We might need a coach. Tic-Tok.

Baz just needs to be ruthless. I don't want to see him keep picking players that are obviously not going to work, e.g. Waddell, Wakeham as a 14, Averillo at 7 if he continues to struggle, Schoupp at centre if we need more strike from our right edge (even if I do like him, just giving e.g.'s), Stimson some how on a team sheet, etc. If he isn't ruthless Gus (his reputation is everything to him) and the club will be. I think most people can see we have the talent to do a lot better than the bottom 4.

I defended Pay quite a bit due to the roster he had at his disposal (much worse than what Baz had last year, who also had much more say who to sign/let go). I truly believe he massively overachieved in 2019. If Pay got the sack for performance reasons (writing was on the wall regardless if Pay actually left himself or not) I can't really defend Baz for much longer if the results are terrible (even mediocre would be fine, and I'm pretty reasonable expectations wise) .

 

[Bazildog]

Best 6 since I've supported the club.

I don’t think he is even close to the best 6 we have had, but in almost 50 years of following the club I would put him in the top 5 of all time clubmen.

 

[Novdoggie]

And to think, I like many spent our hard earned dollars on memberships, merchandise, game tickets etc while all this toxic culture and infighting was going on in the background. Every single person in the organisation over those years should be ashamed of letting such a powerhouse club fall from grace while members and fans were living in hope that things will change when really it was never going to happen while they were all just in it for themselves. Shame on them all.

 

[dogwhisperer]

U dont get a statue for being the most useless No6 in our history

Most useless 6 in our history? Hahaha, yeh ok mate

 

[2144superman]

There’s some good context around Dib’s involvement here. Sure he made some mistakes but it was all in trying to get the club to a premiership. It also proves what a space cadet Castle was and how out of her depth she was as CEO of a club as big as the Dogs.

It does seem lessons have been learned especially by JK with the appointment of Gus. You need one big dog calling the shots as it just shows how much damage a power struggle can cause between a coach, CEO and chairman.

The players all batted for Dib. Both Josh Reynolds and Josh Morris have been quoted giving there support of Dib and Klemmer and James Graham were very loud about their support for Dib. Hasler and Castle fucked this club from its core being the junior system and the rot spread to the top. Interesting that there was a divide between the Polynesians and white boys …

 

[The DoggFather]

The players all batted for Dib. Both Josh Reynolds and Josh Morris have been quoted giving there support of Dib and Klemmer and James Graham were very loud about their support for Dib. Hasler and Castle fucked this club from its core being the junior system and the rot spread to the top. Interesting that there was a divide between the Polynesians and white boys …

You can't say "white boys", you have to say "pigmentless boys" lol

Otherwise some Karen **** will get triggered.

 

[Wayne Rooney]

One thing which is a certainty in today's game is, that there is sweet fucckk all of world class coaches and halfbacks

 

[2144superman]

You can't say "white boys", you have to say "pigmentless boys" lol

Otherwise some Karen **** will get triggered.

Apologies to the “pigmentless” LOL

 

[Hound Dog]

Josh should have retired with us.. damn shame how he was treated but it typified the mess we were in.
I can’t help but think Greenberg is the cause of all of this hey. He brought Des in, he gave him free reign to sign players to all those back ended deals, then he just ups and leaves and wants to tell Castle she has salary cap issues that he created lol but everyone is guilty of being a shit ****. Ray should never have walked into that dressing room, he’s all about $$$..like we give a fuck about the insurance policy that saved the club 300k lol

Josh should build up his coaching credentials, him or Ennis will be great coaches. Players will run through brick walls for them

 

[Hound Dog]

I’m so cut about how we treated Josh. He was the only one with the balls to tell Ray to get fucked. He was a bulldogs junior, born in the area and grew up there. He deserves a statue in belmore.

Love the fact he lived in the area and loves everything about the club and the fans reciprocate that love.

There's plenty of nice, safe, scenic, and 'poshy' areas I find it odd that a lot of our players choose to remain or live outside the area.

 

[Kempsey Dog]

Dib's ego really got in the way.

"The Bulldogs paid the price for estimating the salary cap would rise to $10 million in 2018, despite being told to work off a figure that was $1 million less.

“We just kept saying to Raelene: you have salary cap problems coming,” Greenberg, who had been elevated to NRL chief executive at the time, recalls.

“Having seen how the salary caps work, I could see there was going to be a car crash at some point with some bad ramifications. I like Raelene, but I could always see problems coming with a salary cap, with the Bulldogs spend being significantly higher than what we had forecast.”"

^^ This is fucking criminal.

I couldn't believe we let Ennis, Graham and Reynolds leave at the time (they all had at least 1 more extension in them imo). You can't recover culture wise losing players like this.

Des made plenty of mistakes but to get rid of him and replace him with Dean Pay??? We could of had a top coach through our rebuild. Dib and Castle left anyways.

I also didn't see the harm in re-signing Reynolds (or Foran for that matter later on) for 150k. It's literally nothing for what Reynolds would bring off the field (similar to Tigers when they re-signed Benji).

But Greenberg and the NRL signed off on the deals ... I get it we made our bed so lay in it. However surely the governing body should have refused to sign off on some deals

 

[Kempsey Dog]

Josh should build up his coaching credentials, him or Ennis will be great coaches. Players will run through brick walls for them

Wouldn't mind him running the water for the boys tbh be a pest like Alfie haha