JayBee
Kennel Legend
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Relative merits power Bulldogs revival
March 6, 2010
Coach Kevin Moore, son of 'Bullfrog' Moore, knows the value of being a family club, writes Greg Prichard.
After taking over as Bulldogs coach before the start of last season, Kevin Moore laid down the law to his players.
''I said, 'It's got to be about the club first, the team second, and the individual will get rewards out of that,''' Moore recalled yesterday. The son of the Bulldogs patriarch, the late Peter ''Bullfrog'' Moore, has provided an excellent demonstration of abiding by that law himself recently.
Moore's mother, Marie, died last month after a series of strokes. He had prepared himself for the inevitable, but still had to deal with the gut-wrenching reality of an early-morning phone call from the hospital that told him she had gone. Yet, after going in to see her, and saying his final goodbyes, he went straight to a scheduled Bulldogs training session and ran the team. The morning after her funeral, he went to Dubbo to join his players in preparation for a trial game. That is what you call commitment, and anyone who knew Moore's parents would know they wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
''My brothers and sisters and I had pretty much said our goodbyes already, because Mum had been basically unresponsive for about 10 days,'' Moore says. ''We'd all had the chance to tell her what she meant to us. I said goodbye with some other members of the family that morning, and went off to training after that.
''I told a few of the players straight away, mainly 'Bobcat' [Andrew Ryan] and 'General' [Luke Patten], and it pretty much got around, but I told them all at the end of training. The support I've had from the players has been tremendous. They're decent blokes and good friends. They took up the slack for me for a few days while I was a bit rattled with it. But you've got to get back to business.
''It's very sad, and it's obviously been a tough time, but we're a big family. I'm one of nine kids, so each of us has got the support of eight brothers and sisters. But that's not all of what helps you get through. There are 22 grandkids and one great-grandkid, so it's a pretty good legacy Mum and Dad have left. We tried to make the funeral a celebration of what Mum had done.''
The Bulldogs have since had their season launch, and in a move typical of the club, the parents of the players were invited. Moore looked on as mothers presented their sons with their team jumpers on stage, and the players presented their mothers with flowers. He was delighted with what he regarded as a glowing example of the club's strength.
''It's what the club tries to be all about,'' he says. ''We probably got a bit sidetracked from it for a while, because of a few things that happened, but we certainly didn't lose sight of who we were. We just refocused ourselves, and if your players and staff are happy and comfortable at the club, you're much more inclined to get positive performances from them.
''I've seen, right through the off-season, the players turning up happy. They look forward to training, and they're excited about the season ahead. There's lots of laughs, and that's a good sign everyone's getting on well. It's not a guarantee of a good performance, but it's an indication everyone's in a good place.''
The rebuilt Bulldogs finished the regular season in second position, and won their opening play-off game, against Newcastle. They were subsequently eliminated by Parramatta in front of 74,549 people at ANZ Stadium - a record crowd for a finals match outside a grand final - and Moore was big enough to put aside his disappointment at losing and acknowledge the importance of the spectacle to the game. ''It was one of the great nights of rugby league, and being involved in something like that, with such a huge crowd, was fantastic,'' he says.
''Losing was hard to take, but you've got to look at the positives. We lost to a side that was on a roll, and I don't think anyone could disagree the luck was with them on the night, given the injuries we had to key players.''
As far as this season goes, Moore says some finetuning, coupled with the improvement that is anticipated from younger players with a finals campaign behind them, should put the team in the mix again. ''The consistency we delivered last year was something we've got to aim to achieve again,'' he says. ''Our defence, we can work on a bit, and we need to improve our discipline. [But] our attack's in pretty good shape, and can get better.''
March 6, 2010
Coach Kevin Moore, son of 'Bullfrog' Moore, knows the value of being a family club, writes Greg Prichard.
After taking over as Bulldogs coach before the start of last season, Kevin Moore laid down the law to his players.
''I said, 'It's got to be about the club first, the team second, and the individual will get rewards out of that,''' Moore recalled yesterday. The son of the Bulldogs patriarch, the late Peter ''Bullfrog'' Moore, has provided an excellent demonstration of abiding by that law himself recently.
Moore's mother, Marie, died last month after a series of strokes. He had prepared himself for the inevitable, but still had to deal with the gut-wrenching reality of an early-morning phone call from the hospital that told him she had gone. Yet, after going in to see her, and saying his final goodbyes, he went straight to a scheduled Bulldogs training session and ran the team. The morning after her funeral, he went to Dubbo to join his players in preparation for a trial game. That is what you call commitment, and anyone who knew Moore's parents would know they wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
''My brothers and sisters and I had pretty much said our goodbyes already, because Mum had been basically unresponsive for about 10 days,'' Moore says. ''We'd all had the chance to tell her what she meant to us. I said goodbye with some other members of the family that morning, and went off to training after that.
''I told a few of the players straight away, mainly 'Bobcat' [Andrew Ryan] and 'General' [Luke Patten], and it pretty much got around, but I told them all at the end of training. The support I've had from the players has been tremendous. They're decent blokes and good friends. They took up the slack for me for a few days while I was a bit rattled with it. But you've got to get back to business.
''It's very sad, and it's obviously been a tough time, but we're a big family. I'm one of nine kids, so each of us has got the support of eight brothers and sisters. But that's not all of what helps you get through. There are 22 grandkids and one great-grandkid, so it's a pretty good legacy Mum and Dad have left. We tried to make the funeral a celebration of what Mum had done.''
The Bulldogs have since had their season launch, and in a move typical of the club, the parents of the players were invited. Moore looked on as mothers presented their sons with their team jumpers on stage, and the players presented their mothers with flowers. He was delighted with what he regarded as a glowing example of the club's strength.
''It's what the club tries to be all about,'' he says. ''We probably got a bit sidetracked from it for a while, because of a few things that happened, but we certainly didn't lose sight of who we were. We just refocused ourselves, and if your players and staff are happy and comfortable at the club, you're much more inclined to get positive performances from them.
''I've seen, right through the off-season, the players turning up happy. They look forward to training, and they're excited about the season ahead. There's lots of laughs, and that's a good sign everyone's getting on well. It's not a guarantee of a good performance, but it's an indication everyone's in a good place.''
The rebuilt Bulldogs finished the regular season in second position, and won their opening play-off game, against Newcastle. They were subsequently eliminated by Parramatta in front of 74,549 people at ANZ Stadium - a record crowd for a finals match outside a grand final - and Moore was big enough to put aside his disappointment at losing and acknowledge the importance of the spectacle to the game. ''It was one of the great nights of rugby league, and being involved in something like that, with such a huge crowd, was fantastic,'' he says.
''Losing was hard to take, but you've got to look at the positives. We lost to a side that was on a roll, and I don't think anyone could disagree the luck was with them on the night, given the injuries we had to key players.''
As far as this season goes, Moore says some finetuning, coupled with the improvement that is anticipated from younger players with a finals campaign behind them, should put the team in the mix again. ''The consistency we delivered last year was something we've got to aim to achieve again,'' he says. ''Our defence, we can work on a bit, and we need to improve our discipline. [But] our attack's in pretty good shape, and can get better.''
