Is there an alternate view on how we are going as a club?

[froggy]

Does anyone on here actually think the club is run well?

Taking personalities out of it how is the club being run and how is it positioned if a Sydney team needs to go?

Obviously we have money. But that is not through the hard work of the current administration. That is mainly through the fact that the Leagues club is bound to support the football club.

The playing roster has lots of deficiencies, this year has proven that.

The playing style and therefore the coaching is denegrated by most of the NRL media and fans.

Our crowds are dwindling. I won't get my moneys worth this year because I will struggle to see half the games for various reasons (scheduling and boring play)

Are we falling behind the other Sydney teams? Is our brand suffering?

Are we losing respect?

St George supporters generally fear our clash. Not this week, they are as confident as they have evr been. Do you blame them?

 

[Trafford10]

Let's not surrender just yet.

 

[DT]

I appreciate your question is about the club as a whole and i doubt many if any on here could answer that with anything other than we see and hear most weeks, the Football club if thats what you are referring to needs a big fat broom through the joint thats for sure.
The team environment feeds off the football club which leeches off the club ultimately and its the team set up that is so very wrong.
Im waffling on but im sure you know what im getting at.

Hasler cannot seriously command the money or respect for his achievements at Canterbury since 2012.
The team stinks big time and there appears to be ZERO pride by anyone other than perhaps Jackson and Klemmer (Reynolds of course but he is going!) in the place.

I am the first person to blame referees for dodgy calls and continually putting us on the back foot early in games but surely the players and coach are responsible to make this change. If you concede a penalty in a part of the field or at a certain time you will suffer somehow, fine, dropped, hooked whatever but nothing changes ever at the moment and it is groundhog day week after week.

I shake my head in disbelief that it has come to this where lifelong loyal fans become so disconnected.

I lived and breathed the Bulldogs every single day all my life and have defended them at every post, but this current state is indefensible imo.

I will say it yet again, Haslers position is now completely untenable.

I should add that if the state government ever introduced a serious gambling tax we would be completely screwed as a club and the walls would fall in.

 

[Oatley Dog]

I think it is easy to jump on the bandwagon when things are tough but if you look at the basic structure of the club it is fine. We had problems over a 4 year period with recruitment which filtered into some pretty ordinary retention decisions but Crusher's been punted and McDonnell who looked after the junior development of the Tigers is here this year. He is bound to make a huge difference in the next couple of years. One thing the Tigers have always had is plenty of good young talent pushing up. We can argue that the current playing group is not so good, but that is always a temporary thing lasting maybe 3 or 4 years. We have a stable board; a leagues club that is right behind us and we have a bagful of sponsors who are paying good money to sponsor us. Realistically if we were playing a more positive style of footy and winning a bit better than we have there would be nothing to talk about.

 

[GDR]

I can see what they were trying to achieve, however and unfortunately an excel spreadsheet cannot provide you all the information you require to make generally well rounded decision.. especially when it comes to success in the nrl

 

[Dawgfather]

I think it is easy to jump on the bandwagon when things are tough but if you look at the basic structure of the club it is fine.

The NRL team are third last and have arguably the worst and least positive attacking style in the comp.
The Board are under attack and the CEO has just resigned after recently securing a contract extension.
Crowds are down and members are calling for heads to roll.

We had problems over a 4 year period with recruitment which filtered into some pretty ordinary retention decisions but Crusher's been punted and McDonnell who looked after the junior development of the Tigers is here this year. He is bound to make a huge difference in the next couple of years.

So you are saying that we should just 'assume' or have blind faith that on the law of averages, things are going to get better? Without a shred of evidence to suggest that anything actually will?

We have a stable board; a leagues club that is right behind us and we have a bagful of sponsors who are paying good money to sponsor us.

The Board are arguably entirely unstable. CEO just resigned, and the Chairman has become so nervous and destabilised that he's taken to talking directly to players (a job that he pays our Head Coach millions to do).
Yes we have secured good sponsorship deals IN THE PAST. How many sponsors do you think will be lining up to pay good money to have their brand on our jersey, when we are running third last and have seen a huge drop in crowd numbers?

Realistically if we were playing a more positive style of footy and winning a bit better than we have there would be nothing to talk about.

The point is that we aren't. In addition, not only are we playing negative, poor football - there is no sign that any of this is going to change anytime soon.

 

[CaptainJackson]

At least there's one positive, Noel cleal is gone. He royally screwed us

 

[maltalian_dog]

I think comparatively among other clubs we are in great shape.. the big concern is our playing style which has been steadily on the decline over the past couple of years.

I have a good feeling about this week but beyond that I fear we have many losses to come.

If next year with the addition of Foz and woods and a couple others we don't have a better attacking structure Des will leave and probably on his own accord (doubtful)

 

[Punchbowl Dog]

I appreciate your question is about the club as a whole and i doubt many if any on here could answer that with anything other than we see and hear most weeks, the Football club if thats what you are referring to needs a big fat broom through the joint thats for sure.
The team environment feeds off the football club which leeches off the club ultimately and its the team set up that is so very wrong.
Im waffling on but im sure you know what im getting at.

Hasler cannot seriously command the money or respect for his achievements at Canterbury since 2012.
The team stinks big time and there appears to be ZERO pride by anyone other than perhaps Jackson and Klemmer (Reynolds of course but he is going!) in the place.

I am the first person to blame referees for dodgy calls and continually putting us on the back foot early in games but surely the players and coach are responsible to make this change. If you concede a penalty in a part of the field or at a certain time you will suffer somehow, fine, dropped, hooked whatever but nothing changes ever at the moment and it is groundhog day week after week.

I shake my head in disbelief that it has come to this where lifelong loyal fans become so disconnected.

I lived and breathed the Bulldogs every single day all my life and have defended them at every post, but this current state is indefensible imo.

I will say it yet again, Haslers position is now completely untenable.

I should add that if the state government ever introduced a serious gambling tax we would be completely screwed as a club and the walls would fall in.

• the football club doesn't leach off the leagues club, the club was formed with one purpose ie. to propagate rugby league in the district
• constitutionally the football club is the governing body over leagues club, however they work hand in hand
• The leagues club board must have 4 directors appointed by football club ie. football club directors
• Ray Dib is on both boards
• unlikely that a state govt would kill the goose re. poker taxes
• I too have lived and breathed bulldogs all my life since the days of kevin ryan etc and I am bitterly disappointed that dib extended hasler's contract, I suspect that among other reasons dib did not want to admit error and to wastage of massive dollars. I feel that hasler's position should be untenable but dib appears to be all powerful and will remain steadfast unless team performances get even worse. Along with many that post here I am a football club member but I feel that it is unlikely that any elections challengers will surface.

 

[Ahecee]

Administration and management wise, things don't look very good to me. Dib above anyone or anything else is a worry, doing interviews...... reportedly asking Des to leave the locker room so he can talk to the team, just his general regular contact with the media, none of that is what a chairman should be doing. Players report to their coach, the head coaches reports to the CEO, the CEO reports to the board which is headed up by the chairman, seems to me Dib ignoring that chain of command is no better or worse than when Mortimer ignored it. Sure, Mortimer ignored it to be negative and Dib ignores it to be positive, but thats only slightly relevant.

Mortimer got removed for publicly undermining a member of the club staff, and fair enough. Dib undermines members of the club staff on a increasingly frequent basis, so come the next board election.........

The board has to make decisions based on nothing but the factual data they have and recorded results, its hard to imagine Dib's ego doesn't get in the way of that given he is making himself the key face of the club (which is the role of the CEO, not the chairman) he is meant to remain a little detached from operations to prevent exactly that.

 

[ElMagicElMasri]

The problem was that "she who shall not be named", took over the club in a good financial and physical position.

She then proceeded to run it like a charity, and blow money left right and centre.

Do you have any examples/facts/figures of this?

 

[no1bulldog]

I think it is easy to jump on the bandwagon when things are tough but if you look at the basic structure of the club it is fine. We had problems over a 4 year period with recruitment which filtered into some pretty ordinary retention decisions but Crusher's been punted and McDonnell who looked after the junior development of the Tigers is here this year. He is bound to make a huge difference in the next couple of years. One thing the Tigers have always had is plenty of good young talent pushing up. We can argue that the current playing group is not so good, but that is always a temporary thing lasting maybe 3 or 4 years. We have a stable board; a leagues club that is right behind us and we have a bagful of sponsors who are paying good money to sponsor us. Realistically if we were playing a more positive style of footy and winning a bit better than we have there would be nothing to talk about.

well we've just found that caller from talkin sport

 

[Oatley Dog]

The NRL team are third last and have arguably the worst and least positive attacking style in the comp.
The Board are under attack and the CEO has just resigned after recently securing a contract extension.
Crowds are down and members are calling for heads to roll.

So you are saying that we should just 'assume' or have blind faith that on the law of averages, things are going to get better? Without a shred of evidence to suggest that anything actually will?


The Board are arguably entirely unstable. CEO just resigned, and the Chairman has become so nervous and destabilised that he's taken to talking directly to players (a job that he pays our Head Coach millions to do).
Yes we have secured good sponsorship deals IN THE PAST. How many sponsors do you think will be lining up to pay good money to have their brand on our jersey, when we are running third last and have seen a huge drop in crowd numbers?

The point is that we aren't. In addition, not only are we playing negative, poor football - there is no sign that any of this is going to change anytime soon.

OK so you want it dissected.
It seems to be your view that because at the halfway mark we are not in the top 4/8 that is a crisis. Well it isn't. The CEO has decided to go elsewhere - big deal. She's been here for 4 years. That's long enough and about as long as Todd was here. Crowds are down - yep across the entire NRL so I guess every club is in crisis. The same people have been calling for heads to roll for 3 years. They'll still be doing it in another 3 years.

McDonnells record speaks for itself. He was responsible for identifying and securing the wealth of talent that the Tigers have had for years and now (this year) we have him. I know one of his priorities is to develop talent in the juniors - so yes you should have faith in him based on his previous experience and his stated desire.

How is the board unstable? The CEO isn't a member of the board and the chairman has shown leadership in making sure there is no confusion in the messages between the board and the players. Hate him all you like but that makes sure everyone gets the same story and it is good business. No other member of the board has indicated they are unhappy with the way the board or the club operates. I'm sure like us they are unhappy with the performance, but that is a transient thing.

We only secured KIA this year, the biggest sponsorship in our history and one of the major global sporting sponsors. Have a look at all our sponsors. We have to knock them back.

I agree with you at least on one point and that is that our style won't change significantly any time soon, due to the type and skill level of the players we currently have. Next year we have a few new people coming who play differently and I would hope the signings haven't stopped.

So, are we angry about the teams performance - yes. Is the club in crisis - not even close.

 

[Oatley Dog]

well we've just found that caller from talkin sport

No champ. I have no need for the 15 seconds of fame. Sounds like something you crave though so feel free to ring in.

 

[Dognacious]

Most ppl here and the media call the club in crisis every time we have a form slump. It happened late last year and early this year, then miraculously no word of crisis when we won 4/5, and now we are in crisis again. If we win a few in a row u wont see us being in crisis anywhere, until we have another slump

 

[Alan79]

I think we are in good shape heading into next season. Yeah our team is out of form right now. We've had the same issues for a couple of years. It's come to a head for fans because we've been spoiled with success over a 20 year period. The club hasn't been sitting on their hands waiting for change to happen.

Last year we let go of quite a few players that were probably on decent coin but not outstanding. We didn't splash out with that money last year because quality players in our desired positions were thin on the ground and demanding big dollars. So instead we promoted some youth and bought in more young talent that who were probably joining for chances to step up to the big stage rather than just chasing big money. I'm pretty sure we changed around some back ended deals to front load players on big coin this year to give us room to attack the market with the contract renewals. We've attached the market.


For about 4 years people have been crying out for a top notch half. If Foran is over his mental health issues we've really done well to get him here. I wouldn't have chased Woods myself, but bringing him here will create one mega happy Klemmer and gives us a good forward who is getting towards his peak as far as props go. We missed out on Tedesco, but hopefully the extra playmaking talent of Foran means that all our backs her a few more scoring opportunities and his kicking game gives us the repeat sets too. I still want to snare a good hooker but we're probably low on cap source now so a creative one may be out of the price range, but we will improve if we just get someone that gives good service to our forwards and halves. Fingers crossed we are able to get someone while Woolford develops if he's not ready by next year.

Our juniors haven't made a huge splash in recent years either which has traditionally been one of the secrets of our success, but again we've picked up a guy that's been involved with developing some good talent in recent years. Hopefully we start to see dividends from that too.

Overall I'd say from the point of view of many fans we are in crisis, but it seems to me like we had a plan coming into this year and things will improve drastically. Hopefully this year doesn't get any worse. Four losses in a row isn't the eh ND of the world, but with all the media and the negativity of this forum people think it is. My opinion is that with Reynolds on his way out the side will lift for him and finish the season well.

 

[BlackDawg]

1. Dib's locker room speech means we have Des for 2 more years. Dib's ego will not budge on this decision.
2. Our junior pathways are diabolical. Do we have any team at the dogs even performing remotely well? This will take 3 to 5 years to regenerate only if immediate action is taken.
3. Whilst Dib is the root of all evil for our current situation Des is not changing his roster nor his style. Mbye & Lichaa in particular should not be in the 1st grade team yet he persists and we keep losing.
4. The fact we are at cap with an ordinary roster is further evidence of the cancer that is endemic at the dogs at the moment. We have recruited poorly and paid overs for duds and plods.
5. This year we resigned Eastwood, Tollman & Holland. Why?
6. The shopping of players behind the scene plus last week's result all point to an implosion in the playing group.
7. Des has had 6 seasons to shape the roster. IT IS HIS TEAM. Trex, mbye, lichaa are massive failures that sucked our cap yet he is rewarded with 2 more years.

2018 is not looking up whatsoever. When Dib & Des get punted then things might start heading north but I think in the meantime we are going to go further south.

 

[GDR]

• the football club doesn't leach off the leagues club, the club was formed with one purpose ie. to propagate rugby league in the district

That may have been the mission statement back in 1935 however I'm almost certain the land scape has changed for the league's club especially considering the demographic of patrons has also changed..

But thank you for the insight and welcome to the kennel..

 

[Minion]

I think it is easy to jump on the bandwagon when things are tough but if you look at the basic structure of the club it is fine. We had problems over a 4 year period with recruitment which filtered into some pretty ordinary retention decisions but Crusher's been punted and McDonnell who looked after the junior development of the Tigers is here this year. He is bound to make a huge difference in the next couple of years. One thing the Tigers have always had is plenty of good young talent pushing up. We can argue that the current playing group is not so good, but that is always a temporary thing lasting maybe 3 or 4 years. We have a stable board; a leagues club that is right behind us and we have a bagful of sponsors who are paying good money to sponsor us. Realistically if we were playing a more positive style of footy and winning a bit better than we have there would be nothing to talk about.

I totally agree. It's very hard to be positive when the playing style, roster and the results are all so negative. I have followed Canterbury for over 50 years and have never seen things get as low as they are at the moment.

 

[Oatley Dog]

I totally agree. It's very hard to be positive when the playing style, roster and the results are all so negative. I have followed Canterbury for over 50 years and have never seen things get as low as the are at the moment.

I've been with them just as long so I know how you feel. I think the big difference today is that we sit on a PC and hammer out debates/arguments/insults by the thousand that just gets everyone even more angry. In our day you had to wait for school/work/pub to have the discussion and by then you were a lot calmer. The immediacy of social media has made every little problem a crisis. Look at the Sharks. They have half a dozen former players suing them for effectively destroying their health and careers, they have just come off an almost complete club suspension, their CEO gets busted doing drugs as does a number of their players, they have a prop who openly supports murderers and a coach who was banned from the game for 12 months and no-one is talking about crisis over there. Here, we have a chairman who talks to the players and a coach who sticks with a game plan that isn't working and we are in crisis?? We've certainly got some short term problems but it is nothing that can't be corrected in the next couple of seasons. I'm not downplaying the anger that fans have, only pointing out that 30 years ago we wouldn't even know about half the stuff we hear about today. All of our inside sources on here would only have a circle of mates to talk to instead of TK.