Castle won’t be missed at Belmore

[Vlasnik]

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/

 

[EXPLORER]

What a good read
But very poorly written

Did auto correct fuck up the phrasing?

Punctuation anyone?

 

[Bob dog]

Refuses to look at the big picture.

 

[timetopisshasleroff]

The only time its worth looking into the past is to work out where the mistakes were made and to correct them going ahead.

 

[Alan79]

What a good read
But very poorly written

Did auto correct fuck up the phrasing?

Punctuation anyone?

Interesting take on things. I don't really know how accurate it all is. And at the end of the day it is just another opinion piece. I really don't get whether its meant to be highly critical of Castle or not.

From a financial point of view the nines jerseys were a flop. I'm not sure if that was all on Castle though. I don't know how in the loop the reporter is there. But I'd definitely not be chasing up any of those jerseys.

Fans were very excited about the thought of returning to Belmore and again Castle wasn't on the field to lose the games, nor did she order wet weather. Assuming that for games in the future there the weather is good it's nice that there are two games per year there because ideally if it sells out in fair weather, two scheduled games there gives people that might unfortunately miss being able to relive some of the glory they experienced there in the past a second chance to get a ticket they missed in one game. A couple of my nephews that were too young to see it before have been now and said it was great to feel what is like to have a home ground where it feels intense to have people near you cheering.

Overall we will replace castle with someone else thats capable. I think Castle did ok for what is worth. I'd on field success the fans crave and for that we need stability off field which she contributed to.

 

[Dingo]

Looking forward to seeing her leave

 

[Baseball Furies]

Did Mr I write this piece?

 

[Delta]

For all feminists out there, this is an example of the difference between males and females. Previous Bulldogs CEO's have been strong men like Greenberg and Bullforg. The article is very good, it describes how Castle (a woman) has been out Ceo'd in every aspect of her male predecessors. I hope the next CEO will be like GreenBerg.

 

[Wolfmother]

For all feminists out there, this is an example of the difference between males and females. Previous Bulldogs CEO's have been strong men like Greenberg and Bullforg. The article is very good, it describes how Castle (a woman) has been out Ceo'd in every aspect of her male predecessors. I hope the next CEO will be like GreenBerg.

I don't see it. What has her gender got to do with it?

 

[c-b-b]

I don't know what's worse, our CEO or this article.

 

[Bob dog]

When men go to war, men are in charge, at least she tried.

 

[Alan79]

For all feminists out there, this is an example of the difference between males and females. Previous Bulldogs CEO's have been strong men like Greenberg and Bullforg. The article is very good, it describes how Castle (a woman) has been out Ceo'd in every aspect of her male predecessors. I hope the next CEO will be like GreenBerg.

I'd take Castle 8 days a week over Malcolm Noad. The club was a shambles to my way of thinking after he left. For those with short memories, Greenburg had also lost fans on this forum before he took up his gig with the NRL. Castles only failure as a CEO was that she lost money for the club one year and failing to win over all the fans. A large part of those fans are sexist too.

 

[belmore_utd]

I'd take Castle 8 days a week over Malcolm Noad. The club was a shambles to my way of thinking after he left. For those with short memories, Greenburg had also lost fans on this forum before he took up his gig with the NRL. Castles only failure as a CEO was that she lost money for the club one year and failing to win over all the fans. A large part of those fans are sexist too.

Pretty certain her 'resignation' has more to do with a few bungled high profile player signings and retention.

There was an article about Castle re-signing a player without notifying the board. Dib has also stated he negotiated Forans contract without her knowledge.

 

[Mr Invisible]

Pretty certain her 'resignation' has more to do with a few bungled high profile player signings and retention.

There was an article about Castle re-signing a player without notifying the board. Dib has also stated he negotiated Forans contract without her knowledge.

This.

and passing the buck..

Ask anything to be done and it'll guaranteed get passed onto someone else. If they forget about it, meh who cares.

 

[dogluva]

For what it is worth, I shall have my two cents in all of this, and not because I myself am a woman. Whatever I say will probably be interpreted as making excuses and being a feminist pushing the barrow for women everywhere; but I reckon that had she been a he there would not have been the same amount of discontent and non acceptance by many. Gender should not be a principal consideration in either congratulating or castigating a person, that is what I believe anyway. I throw myself to the mercy of the kennel knowing my comments may not be well received but hoping it is still okay to voice an opinion.


She was the CEO of the club...just what is that?? Apply it to a footy club situation which is far different to say that of the CEO of a bank or a Telecommunications company and as far as I can see she did pretty much the job she was paid to do. The board of directors of our club have a great deal of clout and showed this with the way they conducted themselves in various situations and the coach did what some would say was "as he liked".

A chief executive officer (CEO) may be the highest-ranking executive in a company, with certain responsibilities that include making major corporate decisions, managing the overall operations and resources of a company, and acting as the main point of communication between the board of directors and corporate operations. From reports from various sources was she truly allowed to fulfill her role in that exact way? Does not mean she is weak or inept, but many would see it that way. She tried to engage the fans with ( okay not everyone's cup of tea) blogging with the boss, giant jersey reveal etc. and garnered some very good sponsorship deals for the club in her time here. Nothing is perfect in this world, would be lovely if it was but I thought she did okay.

What are the women bashers going to do now she is leaving at the end of the year? Will be back to the boys club so everything should be real sweet there I imagine. Those comments are probably pretty controversial but it is the way I am looking at it at the moment.

Was she the deciding vote in keeping the coach at the club for another two? Heard it was more so the deciding vote of one R Dib that did that.


Who was it that invited Des to be our coach? Hasler joined the Bulldogs on 14 November 2011 as head coach for the 2012 year. Castle joined in July 2013.

Did she create the tactics and encourage the players to follow them? Thought that was the coach and his assistants.

Did she sign Foran? I suppose if that goes pear shaped she will be held accountable for it as well, even though indicators were that she had nothing to do with getting him to the club and was made to look a fool when she told the Warriors boss Doyle that we had not looked at signing Foran. The reason for that... she was kept out of the loop and the head honcho of the board Dib negotiated instead.

So many things not working well at Belmore but really is she to blame for it all???

Well she is gone and will not be there next year..let's see what happens shall we before we solely remember her as being the only one in our great club to have had a detrimental effect.

 

[gibbobulldog]

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/

We just beat dragons without Reynolds moron

 

[Baby Blues]

For what it is worth, I shall have my two cents in all of this, and not because I myself am a woman. Whatever I say will probably be interpreted as making excuses and being a feminist pushing the barrow for women everywhere; but I reckon that had she been a he there would not have been the same amount of discontent and non acceptance by many. Gender should not be a principal consideration in either congratulating or castigating a person, that is what I believe anyway. I throw myself to the mercy of the kennel knowing my comments may not be well received but hoping it is still okay to voice an opinion.


She was the CEO of the club...just what is that?? Apply it to a footy club situation which is far different to say that of the CEO of a bank or a Telecommunications company and as far as I can see she did pretty much the job she was paid to do. The board of directors of our club have a great deal of clout and showed this with the way they conducted themselves in various situations and the coach did what some would say was "as he liked".

A chief executive officer (CEO) may be the highest-ranking executive in a company, with certain responsibilities that include making major corporate decisions, managing the overall operations and resources of a company, and acting as the main point of communication between the board of directors and corporate operations. From reports from various sources was she truly allowed to fulfill her role in that exact way? Does not mean she is weak or inept, but many would see it that way. She tried to engage the fans with ( okay not everyone's cup of tea) blogging with the boss, giant jersey reveal etc. and garnered some very good sponsorship deals for the club in her time here. Nothing is perfect in this world, would be lovely if it was but I thought she did okay.

What are the women bashers going to do now she is leaving at the end of the year? Will be back to the boys club so everything should be real sweet there I imagine. Those comments are probably pretty controversial but it is the way I am looking at it at the moment.

Was she the deciding vote in keeping the coach at the club for another two? Heard it was more so the deciding vote of one R Dib that did that.


Who was it that invited Des to be our coach? Hasler joined the Bulldogs on 14 November 2011 as head coach for the 2012 year. Castle joined in July 2013.

Did she create the tactics and encourage the players to follow them? Thought that was the coach and his assistants.

Did she sign Foran? I suppose if that goes pear shaped she will be held accountable for it as well, even though indicators were that she had nothing to do with getting him to the club and was made to look a fool when she told the Warriors boss Doyle that we had not looked at signing Foran. The reason for that... she was kept out of the loop and the head honcho of the board Dib negotiated instead.

So many things not working well at Belmore but really is she to blame for it all???

Well she is gone and will not be there next year..let's see what happens shall we before we solely remember her as being the only one in our great club to have had a detrimental effect.

I find it confusing where Castle's role finishes and where Dib's starts. It seems like he injects himself wherever he sees fit. Is Castle responsible for player retention and recruitment? You'd think she would be more involved in the operations of the club. Who re-signed Des was it Castle or Dib? She shouldn't be dictating to the coach how they play. Bulldogs fans will come back in droves if the team starts winning more games

 

[Izzy Forreal]

I'll kick this off by saying I'm by no way a sexist. My wife's a woman, I'm a bloke and we're very much in love. So there.

But to be honest, I would prefer the Bulldogs next CEO to be a man. My reason is that I want a CEO who played for the Bulldogs and "lives and breathes" the Bulldogs culture.

IMO that's the only way our club can be lifted from the downward spiral it has fallen into.

 

[dogluva]

I'll kick this off by saying I'm by no way a feminist. My wife's a woman, I'm a bloke and we're very much in love. So there.

But to be honest, I would prefer the Bulldogs next CEO to be a man. My reason is that I want a CEO who played for the Bulldogs and "lives and breathes" the Bulldogs culture.

IMO that's the only way our club can be lifted from the downward spiral it has fallen into.

Nice input. I don't disagree with your point of view as it is written because it is in no way a disrespectful one . It is honest and shows that you are just someone who wants the best for the club. What I am not a fan of is the comments that pretty much say just because a woman has been in charge that is why we are in such a mess. Club DNA needs to be returned to where it once was that much is certain. Who will eventually be the new CEO is anyone's guess and if it is an ex player so be it.

 

[EXPLORER]

For what it is worth, I shall have my two cents in all of this, and not because I myself am a woman. Whatever I say will probably be interpreted as making excuses and being a feminist pushing the barrow for women everywhere; but I reckon that had she been a he there would not have been the same amount of discontent and non acceptance by many. Gender should not be a principal consideration in either congratulating or castigating a person, that is what I believe anyway. I throw myself to the mercy of the kennel knowing my comments may not be well received but hoping it is still okay to voice an opinion.


She was the CEO of the club...just what is that?? Apply it to a footy club situation which is far different to say that of the CEO of a bank or a Telecommunications company and as far as I can see she did pretty much the job she was paid to do. The board of directors of our club have a great deal of clout and showed this with the way they conducted themselves in various situations and the coach did what some would say was "as he liked".

A chief executive officer (CEO) may be the highest-ranking executive in a company, with certain responsibilities that include making major corporate decisions, managing the overall operations and resources of a company, and acting as the main point of communication between the board of directors and corporate operations. From reports from various sources was she truly allowed to fulfill her role in that exact way? Does not mean she is weak or inept, but many would see it that way. She tried to engage the fans with ( okay not everyone's cup of tea) blogging with the boss, giant jersey reveal etc. and garnered some very good sponsorship deals for the club in her time here. Nothing is perfect in this world, would be lovely if it was but I thought she did okay.

What are the women bashers going to do now she is leaving at the end of the year? Will be back to the boys club so everything should be real sweet there I imagine. Those comments are probably pretty controversial but it is the way I am looking at it at the moment.

Was she the deciding vote in keeping the coach at the club for another two? Heard it was more so the deciding vote of one R Dib that did that.


Who was it that invited Des to be our coach? Hasler joined the Bulldogs on 14 November 2011 as head coach for the 2012 year. Castle joined in July 2013.

Did she create the tactics and encourage the players to follow them? Thought that was the coach and his assistants.

Did she sign Foran? I suppose if that goes pear shaped she will be held accountable for it as well, even though indicators were that she had nothing to do with getting him to the club and was made to look a fool when she told the Warriors boss Doyle that we had not looked at signing Foran. The reason for that... she was kept out of the loop and the head honcho of the board Dib negotiated instead.

So many things not working well at Belmore but really is she to blame for it all???

Well she is gone and will not be there next year..let's see what happens shall we before we solely remember her as being the only one in our great club to have had a detrimental effect.

SHE was shit
Not because she is a SHE
but because she is shit