Des Hasler declined new jobs to stay at Bulldogs, court hears

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no1bulldog

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SACKED Bulldogs coach Des Hasler wants the club to payout his multimillion-dollar two-year contract and damages saying he rejected other coaching jobs because he thought he would be at Canterbury until 2019, the NSW Supreme Court has heard.

Hasler has launched legal action in the NSW Supreme Court after the Bulldogs dumped him in September, rescinding on a heads-of-agreement document which would see Hasler paid an estimated $2.4 million in a two-year contract.

His lawyer John Ireland told Justice David Hammerschlag the issue would be about the binding nature of the agreement.

“We are going to say that they dragged us in on the afternoon this was negotiated then announced it at a press conference the next day patting us on the back — congratulations we have re-signed you for two seasons and then said no it is not binding,” Mr Ireland said.


Sacked Bulldogs coach Des Hasler has taken his former club to court. Picture: John Grainger
“We rejected other offers of coaching engagement for the next year or so.”

Judge Hammerschlag told the parties to come up with a list of agreed issues and return to court next Friday.

Club chairman Ray Dib said Canterbury would defend the matter saying Hasler never signed a contract extension so the original expiration date of October remained valid.

Canterbury promoted Hasler’s two-year contract extension in April with a press release but dumped him after the Bulldogs dismal performance in the 2017 season.

Soon after his sacking Hasler recruited lawyer Daniel McGirr who indicated in September that the coach would take legal action.

“Our client’s position is clear, in April 2017 Mr Hasler entered into a binding and enforceable contract, being a Heads of Agreement, with the Canterbury Football Club,’’ McGirr said.

“We have obtained advice from a QC who has confirmed that position.

“In light of the recent unprompted statements made by the club we have notified the club of our client’s position and have advised them that we will be instituting proceedings in the Supreme Court to seek damages should this matter not be resolved quickly.

“This would of course be regrettable but our client, it seems, is left with no alternative.’’

Hasler is the first NRL coach to sue a club since Tim Sheens took out a lawsuit against the West Tigers five years ago.
 

Haddaway

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I hope Dib gets the boot next year. I can only comment.on what has been in the papers. But they announced it to is lol. We all raged at the time and asked why really sign him? Now we find out it didn't count and it was like a do over lol. Sounds like a dog act to me. But Des is gone, good, and hopefully this mess will get that fat smug pick out too.
 

Papa Emeritus

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This whole situation is shady as fuck and Ray Dib is 100% to blame. He clearly realised he should have never re-signed Des then weasled his way out of it in a really dodgy manner. Even if our lawyers can argue in our favour, this should have never have happened.

Honestly I see us settling this out of court for a very large sum.

Dib should definitely be falling on his sword here.
 

bricktamland

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Heard on radio that dib himself and his family are all high profile lawyers but the club is still paying all legal fees regardless of result.. so basically this ass will cost the club Upwards if 1 million alone in legal fees according to abc radio
 

Vlasnik

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There are more ramifications to this than Hasler getting a pay out or Dib trying to implement damage control. Watching this situation with great interest is Andrew Fifita, his management and, more importantly, his legal team. Fifita had a four-year, $3.2 million deal with the Bulldogs. It was a heads of agreement signed by Fifita, Dib and Bulldogs chief executive Raelene Castle.
 

Wahesh

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Heard on radio that dib himself and his family are all high profile lawyers but the club is still paying all legal fees regardless of result.. so basically this ass will cost the club Upwards if 1 million alone in legal fees according to abc radio
Then we loose and have to pay Des another $2,000,000 - that's over $3,000,000.

Goodbye Dib.
 

Nasheed

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This just goes to show there is a real tragic human betrayal to all this;

Clearly Rat Zibs plan was to try and technically weasal out of the deal and at worst, offer a settlement out of court that will be cheaper.
Des, for all his faults as a coach, was betrayed and humiliated by the club, and I hope he fleeces the club for everything
 

LFC Bulldogs

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2 dodgy characters (Hasler and Dib) fighting it out in court under the Bulldogs banner.
One has rightfully been booted from the club , one down and one to go. Dib needs to go also.
Dib is to blame for this mess. He could have waited and kept his mouth shut until the end of the season but the moron couldn’t help himself announcing Hasler will continue after we beat Brisbane.
 
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speedy2460

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Legal people always say, that a verbal contract is not worth the paper it is written on. Hasler has not signed.
 

Wahesh

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This just goes to show there is a real tragic human betrayal to all this;

Clearly Rat Zibs plan was to try and technically weasal out of the deal and at worst, offer a settlement out of court that will be cheaper.
Des, for all his faults as a coach, was betrayed and humiliated by the club, and I hope he fleeces the club for everything
Mate, DES is to blame here. He signed a M.O.U. that was not legally binding and most likely did not get his lawyers to run over it with a fine tooth comb. I'm in no way saying the club is innocent, however in my opinion, Des is the idiot here. I've been through the same thing before, and I'm an idiot for not acting on something similar in one of my previous jobs. The blame lied with me then, the blame lies with Des now.
 

boggie23

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I think I get technically it wasn’t a contract. And I get that Hasler is suing for loss of other potential employment.

If dib didn’t keep on parading around like he just signed Jesus all season then maybe he could say it was a extension that would have been finalised post season. But he kept on saying Hasler is here until 2019. Even a few weeks before the season was over. Even when they were asking about pay and what not. If he has said we are working towards an agreement with Hasler for a 2 year extension, but nothing signed at this point, then you have a leg to stand on.

But I think his intention was to keep him and was happy to do it. But after he saw our poor season and the possibility of him losing his seat at the board he jumped into action to save his ass. This not a contract thing is him trying to wezel out of what happened (maybe in an attempt to get a settlement). I’m sure Foran, woods and any other player this year where even told Hasler would be the coach. So you can’t say he wasn’t renewed.
 

Wolfmother

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Legal people always say, that a verbal contract is not worth the paper it is written on. Hasler has not signed.
Verbal agreements can be binding if processes took place such as
1. offer and acceptance (publically announced)

2. Terms and conditions agreed too.. 2.4 million dollars over 2 years to 'continue' coaching the bulldogs (announced in April also)


3. Intention to be legally bound (board announced this offer and acceptance to the public .

4. If he received any paperwork with regards to this he's home n hosed.

Interestingly I was unable to find anything on the internet to state that Haslers contract would be extended till 2019!
.
 

dogsballs

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There is no doubt Dib planned this so he could look like the hero either way, we make it deep into the finals and he looks like he made a good decision or we fail and and he can be a hero who dumps Hasler. That rival ticket mentioned how we are not treating people with respect anymore and in turn we aren’t getting any shown back to us. This is what they were talking about. Everyone was happy des got sacked but this wasn’t the way to do it, it’s the cowards way Dib needed to back his decision either way and live by the outcome not be a dirty weasel.
 

flamebouyant

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The first question I’d be asking McGirr was what were the offers he received from other clubs and evidence of them
Exactly. Who would have offered him a contract while he was thought to have been re signed by us??? More to the point, who would want to sign him after watchingbus play football???!!!!
 

Dognacious

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If u lose a court case u pay the opponents legal fees. So double the fees. And i think Des wins at least part of the contract. So we pay legal fees. Wont be cheap for us.

Whether Des gets the full amount or not, should have played out like it does with players who are dumped in my opinion. If Des gets picked up as a coach any time, we pay the difference each year for the 2 years. If hes unemployed the whole time, then we pay the full amount. Nobody is going to pay him $1.2 million a year again any time soon (maybe in England though), so we would be likely to at least have to top his wages up for 2 years. If it was done like it is for players.
 

Vlasnik

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Exactly. Who would have offered him a contract while he was thought to have been re signed by us??? More to the point, who would want to sign him after watchingbus play football???!!!!
Correction, who would want to sign him after watching us play Desball??? It was only till the last 3 rounds of the regular season that we actually started playing football.
 
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