CANTERBURY great Terry Lamb has questioned coach Des Hasler’s understanding of the Bulldogs’ legendary club culture in the wake of the team’s disappointing loss to archrivals Parramatta on Friday night.
Following the club’s fourth loss of the season, Lamb believes the Bulldogs under Hasler are lacking the famous “Dogs of War” character.
Lamb also said the Bulldogs are playing nowhere near good enough to feature in the finals.
“Des doesn’t know what the culture is about and that’s just what it is,” Lamb told The Sunday Telegraph.
“He played against the Bulldogs and he knew what our club was about, but it’s hard to distribute that when you haven’t played for the club itself.
“That’s not a fault of Dessie either. He is a mate of mine and he has done a great job with what he has got, but it’s the same for players who come into the club.
“You can read about it, you can talk about it, but once you live it for 13 years it’s pretty hard to let it not go through your veins.
“When Des first came to us he introduced all this new stuff and I thought it was fantastic. He had won two grand finals in three years (at Manly).
“But sometimes you can over coach and I’m not saying he does that because I don’t watch his training sessions, but for me boys need to be boys sometimes.”
Lamb, who works at the club in an ambassador and corporate hospitality role, said he would like to see a greater emphasis placed on Canterbury’s premiership-winning past from the 1980s when the Blue and Whites won four grand finals.
“We’ve got to create that atmosphere within the club again,” said Lamb, who captained the Bulldogs to a title in 1995.
“No one can replace Peter Moore (ex-club secretary) or Barry Nelson (ex-club president) — it’s impossible to do.
“The people who are at the club at the moment I think are doing a great job. But you’ve got to remember years ago we had a few local juniors in the team, players played for each other and players didn’t move clubs as much.
“That’s when you get a combination going.”
Lamb spoke passionately about Canterbury’s inconsistent form on the Fox Sports program ‘Sterlo’ during the week. During his interview with host Peter Sterling, he said Friday’s match against Parramatta would determine if the Bulldogs made the finals.
He also called for the players to get together and “start fighting for the club”.
Asked if his view had changed in the aftermath of Friday’s loss against Parramatta, Lamb said: “We’ve got the team to make the finals, but we are not playing good enough.
“We made a statement at the beginning of the year that we want to win the grand final in the next two years and we want more local juniors to come through our precinct, so yes we do need results.
“Canterbury is a successful club and the only way you need to be successful on the football field is win a comp. We want results because we’ve got a team there that can win the comp — trouble is we are not playing good football.”
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/teams/bulldogs/bulldogs-great-terry-lamb-says-coach-des-hasler-doesnt-get-the-canterbury-club-culture/news-story/01c93d1927b4a62324b9cfde3b7cf4cc?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed: dailytelegraphnrlndm (Daily Telegraph | NRL)
I rest my case! On my mark release the dogs amongst the pigeons.....GO!!!
