News Should Dean or the players Pay?

On Sunday evening, the Bulldogs redefined mediocrity in an inept performance against the Wests Tigers at Bankwest Stadium.

It wasn’t as though there was little at stake. A chance to pole vault themselves off the bottom of the ladder was real, with the Broncos, Warriors and Titans all within for and against reach should the two points be secured.

Instead, Canterbury put in potentially the worst performance of any NRL club to this point of the season, in a 34-6 drubbing at the hands of an enthusiastic and committed Tigers team.

It was a drubbing in the true sense of the word and began when Will Hopoate left the field after just four minutes with a lower leg injury.

That event took one of the Bulldogs’ best out of action for the night and despite scoring the opening try in the 17th minute, the Tigers eventually put the peddle to the metal and ground the blue and whites into the dirt.

Three first half tries had the Tigers in front at the break. Four more sealed the deal in the second and rarely has a Bulldogs side looked to have completely lost interest and thrown the dummy from the proverbial cot so categorically.


Canterbury missed 32 tackles on the night, with another 24 proving to be ineffective. They made 13 errors and averaged just over 35 metres per attacking set, as Wests picked them off with ease.

The worst kept secret in the game was confirmed in the days leading up to the fixture, when the Bulldog’s board confirmed that moving on coach Dean Pay and looking in a new direction was definitely an option.


Pay was given a month to produce some green shoots of hope. Sadly, his charges produced nothing more than their worst performance of the season.

Recent turmoil at the Bulldogs has been well documented. Former coach Des Hasler drove the club to grand finals in 2012 and 2014, yet found himself jettisoned when the ramifications of the financial decisions he and the then board had made became clear.


In short, the Bulldogs were living in back-ended contract hell and subsequently saw a host of talented players leave the club in what appeared to be a “two steps back-three steps forward” strategy taken on by the new board.

With players such as Dale Finucane, James Graham, Sean Lane, Josh Reynolds and Damien Cook foolishly cut loose prior to Pay’s arrival, it left the rookie coach in a bind – soon to be also without names like Josh Morris, Brett Morris, David Klemmer and Aaron Woods.


What remained was a young squad with no proven halves and a willing yet underdeveloped forward pack. Captain Josh Jackson, Aiden Tolman and Hopoate kept the ship above water for the first two seasons of Pay’s reign, with late season wins potentially saving the coach’s skin in both 2018 and 2019.

With a seemingly permanently busted Kieran Foran providing little or no value throughout that period, Pay became a man likely to fail.

The question for Bulldog fans and the source of much debate in their social media interactions, is exactly who should carry the can for what already looks like a doomed 2020 NRL season.

In truth, the Belmore based club has the most wafer thin squad in the NRL. There is no creativity in the play-making stocks, a distinct lack of skill in reading attacking waves on the edge of the ruck and nothing more than honest, hard-working toilers in the middle of the field.


Combined, this translates to an average of 10.8 points per game, a scary figure considering 22 of those were scored in their lone win against the Dragons.

For those in the “sack the coach” brigade, 19 wins from 55 matches at a winning percentage of 35 provides plenty of weight to your argument. Pay has been far from a success in what is a results driven business.

Alternatively, those questioning the effort and skill of the squad at Pay’s disposal have an equally solid argument to present. It is difficult to find any Bulldog player, perhaps aside from Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Jackson and Hopoate, whose form would see them selected in any NRL squad after seven weeks of play.

Watching the team drop their heads during the second half against the Tigers was alarming and while there is no doubt that Pay does not have a roster capable of playing finals football in 2020, it is still his job to maintain their level of enthusiasm and foster morale for the better days to come.

I guess, in summary, it is both Dean Pay and the players’ fault. He appears to have lost their trust and they are currently producing rubbish. Strangely, when push comes to shove in a few weeks’ time, I’m pretty sure I know who will fall on their sword.

 

Coach first, players second if you want an order, the coach although not on the field playing needs to instil confidence and a type of culture/feeling in the boys as a playing group, it’s Clearly not working. Which in turn the results speaks for itself...

yes we may not have the cattle etc, but it goes a little more beyond that.!!! That’s a fact , many things for all involved and there are many problems from top to bottom that need addressing ASAP.

 

Who wrote this garbage?
It was without a doubt a terrible performance after the first 15-20 minutes but doesn't come anywhere near what the broncos have dished up. Journalism at its prime ROFL.

 

"For those in the “sack the coach” brigade, 19 wins from 55 matches at a winning percentage of 35 provides plenty of weight to your argument."

It really isn't when you put some context into it.

1. Past board - reason why our salary cap is scuffed, lost all of our best players and we don't have a competitive roster.
2. Players - not a competitive roster (for e.g. we're completely F'd without Hopoate and he's a solid player), no x-factor.
3. Current board - they're worrying me with how long they've taken to get into the transfer market, they've also missed out on multiple hookers because they're penny pinching when everyone knows we have to pay overs to attract players (according to reports we paid overs for Thompson), Grant's a massive miss, if they don't nail recruitment for next year they'll move up the list.
4. Coach - met expectations so far (even tho they might be low - for good reason), Pay doesn't have a competitive roster and doesn't have much say in recruitment, assuming we recruit well for next year (which is on the board/recruitment team) expectations will be higher and if he doesn't meet them he'll move up the list.

 

You all know the one about polishing a turd....Pay was brave to even offer his services for this job considering how bog average the team is, it’s a shot duck, cans in so many positions. I even miss a guy like Kasiano...at least he was exciting to watch.

I hate to rag on the team but this team...no coach could get this group of players winning more than 20% if that this year. They are just not up to the standard.

We need some serious talent signings more than anything and we need winners, guys with a decent ball sack!!!

 

Coach should go cause any coach with half a brain wouldn't resign 80%of that squad we currently have

 

Nice play on words clever heading but try and keep your posts to the point instead of writing an essay

 

I posted my opinion which is based on my expectations.

 

A better coach would've laid better foundations and had the boys focusing on the 1%ers instead of this "run hard, tackle hard" nonsense. Our fitness and conditioning is disgusting.

 

Based on this weeks team, definitely the coach first

 

Fuck you dribble the same bullshit day in day out. No one with any idea regarding footy or our proud club and fan base agrees with you! Time to stop being a dickhead! Grow up twelvie !

 

He has a terrible team no-one is arguing that fact. The other facts are that he IS a Coach and HAS a team. It is his role to bring the best out of any team he is given. That does not mean that they have to be a top 8 team because that is unrealistic. That does mean that if he is doing his job and the players are doing there's then all of them should be doing there best within their talent.

That is not happening and both sides are responsible for it and both sides must Pay the price. This is a results based billion dollar sport now and time for amateur hour was up years ago.

Pay and a whole bunch of players need to be shown the door and a assessment done on all support elements of the club moving forward.

In short this rebuild is starting to stagnate and the hard yet easy decisions need to be made or Lynne and her mob need to move on.

 

A coach that doesn't know how to use his cattle after 3 seasons is a a coach that shouldn't be the one in charge. Cudos to Payfor what he has done rather wish he was an assistant.

Holbrook, Dymock, Pay would have been a good combo...

 

In 1995 those tactics work but exactly the games 1% ers are the difference

 

Dean. Pay. 100%.

 

Us fans pay for both pays and the players bullshit.

 

He's damaged goods Dean... He must pay for his poor record and fall on his sword just like Nathan Brown

 

He needs to realise he hasn’t been able to meet expectations, his time is up, and he should just do the right thing and walk away instead of waiting for the club to sack him and more losses to stack up in his name.

it hasn’t worked, the solution is change. And change is needed now.!!!