Juicydog
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- Oct 8, 2016
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DES Hasler is a coach defeated.
The grand master of twisting himself into knots in interviews to avoid revealing his simplest thoughts on an upcoming contest, Hasler now tells you everything without really having to say anything at a post-game media conference.
He doesn’t even have the energy to have a crack at the referees. Mark it down as a victory for Voldemort.
Those shots of him in the coach’s box that punctuate the television coverage tell you an awful lot, also.
Gone is the nervous running of fingers through hair, the awkward shift in the seat and the readjustment of the headset and glasses.
A dejected Bulldogs group after losing to South Sydney.Source:AAP
After going down to the Eels in round 22, Hasler offered as much when he said, “You don’t have to be a football wiz to work out that we made it pretty easy for them in the first half”.
That’s one-part reflection and two-parts a message to the players. He may as well have said, ‘How inept can we be?’.
It’s one thing to point out to the dressing room that the decision-making and execution required to be competitive is well below where it needs to be, but it’s something else again when you tell the players that, in your opinion, they were guilty of sport’s greatest crime — not having a go.
Again, Hasler didn’t say those exact words following the dismal loss to the Rabbitohs, but he didn’t have to. The barely-coded message was there for all to see and hear.
“I’ve gotta say, I thought we were a bit flat”, the coach said, and with the air of a man trying to make the understatement of the decade.
They didn’t turn up. Didn’t come ready to play. Didn’t want to get into the arm wrestle.
Pick your favourite footy cliché for giving it less than your best effort, but that’s where Des Hasler thinks the playing group had sunk to against South Sydney. There in body, but not a lot of spirit.
There are many theories as to how the Bulldogs reached this predicament, all of them with merit, but whether they took the highway or the backstreets matters little at this point. The Dogs have long been done for 2017.
The bigger question now is, is the coach done as well?
Forget the salary cap time-bomb that’s ticking at Belmore. Don’t worry about the post-season arrival of Kieran Foran and Aaron Woods.
And don’t begin to try and factor in the Bulldogs annual general meeting in February that gives the football club members the chance to truly effect their club’s direction.
The only thing that matters right now is whether the Bulldogs’ board of directors can make the sort of calm, considered decision that separates them from the Wests Tigers.
You remember. The Tigers board that went weak at the knees three rounds into the season, sacking Jason Taylor either too early — if you believe in setting the course and staying with it — or removing him too late, if the goal was to retain the club’s three biggest stars for the prime of their careers.
The Bulldogs have made a few mistakes in recent times, but the one mistake they can’t make now is waiting to see how the team performs over the first few months of the 2018 season.
If you can’t guarantee, right now, that the coach survives even if the team starts next season with two wins and five losses, then you can’t let him take the players into the pre-season.
Going with a ‘wait and see’ approach is a risk they can’t take. If the team struggles – and it’s hard to be convinced that the downward spiral of the past three seasons is on the verge of being turned around – then you’ve written off 12 months and you’ll be back to square one for 2019 with a new coach trying implement fresh ideas and patterns of play.
The Tigers board didn’t want to confront that reality and it’s cost them more than just a wasted season.
Taylor should have either been locked in to see out the job he and the board commenced two seasons earlier, or he should have been thanked for his time and effort the day after the 2016 season finished.
The remaining two years on Des Hasler’s contract won’t be an impediment to his removal. Yes, it would involve a little ‘loss of face’ for the Bulldogs board of directors, but when you’re cashed up like the Dogs are you can remedy a problem quicker than most.
They won’t like it, but they can do it.
Or they can stick solid with the coach who took them to two grand finals in his first three years at the club. It’s one or the other.
This isn’t a time for hedging bets, especially at a rugby league club where actions have always been more highly regarded than words.
The grand master of twisting himself into knots in interviews to avoid revealing his simplest thoughts on an upcoming contest, Hasler now tells you everything without really having to say anything at a post-game media conference.
He doesn’t even have the energy to have a crack at the referees. Mark it down as a victory for Voldemort.
Those shots of him in the coach’s box that punctuate the television coverage tell you an awful lot, also.
Gone is the nervous running of fingers through hair, the awkward shift in the seat and the readjustment of the headset and glasses.
A dejected Bulldogs group after losing to South Sydney.Source:AAP
After going down to the Eels in round 22, Hasler offered as much when he said, “You don’t have to be a football wiz to work out that we made it pretty easy for them in the first half”.
That’s one-part reflection and two-parts a message to the players. He may as well have said, ‘How inept can we be?’.
It’s one thing to point out to the dressing room that the decision-making and execution required to be competitive is well below where it needs to be, but it’s something else again when you tell the players that, in your opinion, they were guilty of sport’s greatest crime — not having a go.
Again, Hasler didn’t say those exact words following the dismal loss to the Rabbitohs, but he didn’t have to. The barely-coded message was there for all to see and hear.
“I’ve gotta say, I thought we were a bit flat”, the coach said, and with the air of a man trying to make the understatement of the decade.
They didn’t turn up. Didn’t come ready to play. Didn’t want to get into the arm wrestle.
Pick your favourite footy cliché for giving it less than your best effort, but that’s where Des Hasler thinks the playing group had sunk to against South Sydney. There in body, but not a lot of spirit.
There are many theories as to how the Bulldogs reached this predicament, all of them with merit, but whether they took the highway or the backstreets matters little at this point. The Dogs have long been done for 2017.
The bigger question now is, is the coach done as well?
Forget the salary cap time-bomb that’s ticking at Belmore. Don’t worry about the post-season arrival of Kieran Foran and Aaron Woods.
And don’t begin to try and factor in the Bulldogs annual general meeting in February that gives the football club members the chance to truly effect their club’s direction.
The only thing that matters right now is whether the Bulldogs’ board of directors can make the sort of calm, considered decision that separates them from the Wests Tigers.
You remember. The Tigers board that went weak at the knees three rounds into the season, sacking Jason Taylor either too early — if you believe in setting the course and staying with it — or removing him too late, if the goal was to retain the club’s three biggest stars for the prime of their careers.
The Bulldogs have made a few mistakes in recent times, but the one mistake they can’t make now is waiting to see how the team performs over the first few months of the 2018 season.
If you can’t guarantee, right now, that the coach survives even if the team starts next season with two wins and five losses, then you can’t let him take the players into the pre-season.
Going with a ‘wait and see’ approach is a risk they can’t take. If the team struggles – and it’s hard to be convinced that the downward spiral of the past three seasons is on the verge of being turned around – then you’ve written off 12 months and you’ll be back to square one for 2019 with a new coach trying implement fresh ideas and patterns of play.
The Tigers board didn’t want to confront that reality and it’s cost them more than just a wasted season.
Taylor should have either been locked in to see out the job he and the board commenced two seasons earlier, or he should have been thanked for his time and effort the day after the 2016 season finished.
The remaining two years on Des Hasler’s contract won’t be an impediment to his removal. Yes, it would involve a little ‘loss of face’ for the Bulldogs board of directors, but when you’re cashed up like the Dogs are you can remedy a problem quicker than most.
They won’t like it, but they can do it.
Or they can stick solid with the coach who took them to two grand finals in his first three years at the club. It’s one or the other.
This isn’t a time for hedging bets, especially at a rugby league club where actions have always been more highly regarded than words.
