Opinion What are your unpopular opinions about the Bulldogs?

Berries

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With a more advanced tactical minded coach we get another couple of premierships in the early 2000’s.
I think we also ran into top tier teams.
Roosters / Panthers of 2002-2004 would cream every team in this years comp bar Melbourne easily.
 

blue & white blood

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Ben Barba was an attitude waiting to happen
Polly was very under rated
I wish Mason and SBW had been like long Bulldogs
No forward has captured the Belmore crowd like Robbo did
Klemmer was a fairytale gone wrong but I am happy he is gone
We have treated some of our club captains poorly over the years
Thurston could have been a bigger Canterbury legion than Turvey, Baa and the the Dr combined if he stayed with us.
I wish we signed Kimmorley and Foran 3 years earlier than we did
Matt Geyer ruined the Ricky Stuart/ Brad Clyde fairytale
Chris Anderson and Steve Gearin were the best wingers ever to play for the dogs
Marty Bella is a butter fingered crunt...
Do you mean Peter Mortimer?, Chris was a Center
 

blue & white blood

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the thread is asking for unpopular opinions and you agreed with all but one of my points... so I figure I am doing alright

for me, the 'Bankstown' bit makes the name of the club too long and too specific to a suburb in Sydney whereas Canterbury has a more general feel and I want the club to claim everything from Beverly Hills to Homebush to Bankstown to Liverpool
I love the name Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs it has a really great feel about it & I think it already covers the areas you mentioned and more, anyway that's the Origin of the club, I was really pissed off when they changed to Sydney City Bulldogs, Thank God sanity prevailed and we got our heritage back. 1607429245982.png
 

red-dog

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the thread is asking for unpopular opinions and you agreed with all but one of my points... so I figure I am doing alright

for me, the 'Bankstown' bit makes the name of the club too long and too specific to a suburb in Sydney whereas Canterbury has a more general feel and I want the club to claim everything from Beverly Hills to Homebush to Bankstown to Liverpool
I understand your point about Canterbury-Bankstown being specific but your logic about keeping it as just Canterbury is flawed; that's an even smaller area and actually limits us even more. How would Canterbury include suburbs like Liverpool when they're 25km away? If you wanted a name that encompassed a large area, you would go with something like 'Western Sydney Bulldogs' or 'South West Bulldogs'; both of which are disgusting. Both Canterbury and Bankstown are both heartlands of the Bullldogs.
 

alchemist

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I understand your point about Canterbury-Bankstown being specific but your logic about keeping it as just Canterbury is flawed; that's an even smaller area and actually limits us even more. How would Canterbury include suburbs like Liverpool when they're 25km away? If you wanted a name that encompassed a large area, you would go with something like 'Western Sydney Bulldogs' or 'South West Bulldogs'; both of which are disgusting. Both Canterbury and Bankstown are both heartlands of the Bullldogs.
I am not saying that the name has to be geographically specific or that I view Canterbury - a quiet south west Sydney suburb - as the true and sole heartland of the club... I just think that there is a certain allure to the name "Canterbury", to merry ol' England, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the sporting brand, the Super Rugby franchise, that we were previously known as the berries (which I assume is a play on bury from Canterbury) etc.
 

alchemist

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I love the name Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs it has a really great feel about it & I think it already covers the areas you mentioned and more, anyway that's the Origin of the club, I was really pissed off when they changed to Sydney City Bulldogs, Thank God sanity prevailed and we got our heritage back. View attachment 19138
we only became the "Bulldogs" in 1978
 

D.O.W.

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A one legged injury prone Kieran Foran was reportedly paid 1.2M a season.... a deal done by Hasler. A) How is it that a player with a game fixing question mark and prone to injury was earning as much as Jonathan Thurston? B) Some people have suggested Hasler potentially received a kick back from Foran for doing that deal or was it a favour from an “old mate” to get his life back on track
 

alchemist

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Yes I know, I was around when we were the " Berries" thank god they changed that to Bulldogs, I'm actually talking about The "Bankstown" part of the of the name.
just trying to explain that change is not necessarily a bad thing, even with certain core issues... and since it is opinion, no one is really right or wrong... just a bit of fun arguing it out

BTW, the deal breaker for me was/is merger and/or relocation... when they were talking about merging the club with Wests or Parramatta in the late 90's, I knew if that did happen I couldn't support the 'Dogs anymore

it was cool being a 'Dogs fan in the 80's
 

TwinTurbo

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A one legged injury prone Kieran Foran was reportedly paid 1.2M a season.... a deal done by Hasler. A) How is it that a player with a game fixing question mark and prone to injury was earning as much as Jonathan Thurston? B) Some people have suggested Hasler potentially received a kick back from Foran for doing that deal or was it a favour from an “old mate” to get his life back on track
Foran/s contract was reportedly $3m for 3 years, average $1m per season. In what was typical Hasler style that was back ended to something like $0.8m, $1.0m and $1.2m.

Go Dogs
 

Bazildog

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we only became the "Bulldogs" in 1978
Nah, I lived in Dewitt St Bankstown in the early 70’s when my Bulldog sickness began as the Canterbury Bankstown Berries.

The change to the Bulldogs was a cracker but it’s the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs.

Ask the beagle fans how they felt about the “northern eagles”... Fuck that.
 

Spoonman84

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I think the 2002 team would have shit the bed in the finals. We performed badly in the 2001 and 2003 final series and I’m not sure that team had an extra gear to go up in the finals.
 

youoboys

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a 'what if' XIII

1. Ben Barba - simply that he had taken his football and career with the 'Dogs more seriously and showed greater discipline... imagine his form in 2011 & 2012 stretched for 7-10 years... on a serious note, no excuse treating the mother of your children like that c*+#
2. Curtis Rona - that he stayed for more than 2 years... had most/all the attributes of a representative modern day winger
3. Karl McNichol - had he taken his career seriously and stayed with us (seriously who considered the Sharks a good/great development club then) I think he would have been at least the equal of Soliola
4. Willie Tonga - that he wasn't so injury prone... from memory he had 3 season ending injuries in the 5 years he was with us... his wiping the floor with a hair dyed Justin Hodges in 2004 was out of this world
5. Brett Morris - imagine we had signed him at the same time we signed his brother
6. Ewan McGrady - I do not remember exactly what led to the early end to McGrady's career besides him being introverted and not liking the city life (see the Rothmans Medal ceremony where he won) but a great running half, a game breaker
7. Johnathan Thurston - enough said
8. Justin Tsoulos - a name now forgotten but he really could have been great --> size with mobility... career cut short by injuries
9. Issac Luke - was in our juniors (as a half from memory) but never got a shot and moved on to the Rabbits
10. Roy Asotasi - due to salary cap restrictions and the likes of Mason, SBW and O'Meley still on the books, we lost Roy just as he was coming into his prime... on his day, best prop in the league
11. Nate Myles - perennial Origin player that could play as prop or in the second row that left for the Roosters at the end of the 2006 season for more FG opportunity with the irony being that within 18 months of him leaving, our team had been gutted and we were on our way to winning the spoon
12. Dale Finucane - I thought he would have a 'Steve Price' style career with us playing 10-12 seasons, captain for most of them, rep football, premiership(s) etc. but instead he achieved most of that with the Storm
13. Sonny Bill Williams - if he had spent his whole career or at least the majority of it with us and the club was properly managed, he would have gone close to being our greatest ever player... pity
Bulldogs fan here: does anyone still feel hurt by what SBW..... I can’t forgive , his apologies have been weak and to go to roosters is completed cursory wave of the middle finger. Jeez he was so much better at dogs that roosters. Ben barba was greedy !!
 

Jam

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1. Belmore is a myth. Terrible recent record and has only really been a fortress when we have had the gun sides of the 80s

2. Dogs of War is overused and keeps us playing a negative brand of football. Remember this style was pioneered by Warren Ryan and that was when the game was very different

3. We would have won the GF against Souths if Ennis was playing.

4. Moses Mbye is not a bad player he is just a utility who should never play in the starting lineup. He should always be a number 14 like Craig Wing.

5. Nasheed shouldn’t be banned because his posts are terrible he should be banned because a true Bulldog supporter does not support other clubs.
 

Bazildog

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I think the 2002 team would have shit the bed in the finals. We performed badly in the 2001 and 2003 final series and I’m not sure that team had an extra gear to go up in the finals.
I agree, we got caught up in the 17 in a row stuff but in hindsight we were a bit like Penrith 2020. It will be interesting to see if Cleary/Cleary can keep building to a win.
 

Family Guy

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1. Belmore is a myth. Terrible recent record and has only really been a fortress when we have had the gun sides of the 80s

2. Dogs of War is overused and keeps us playing a negative brand of football. Remember this style was pioneered by Warren Ryan and that was when the game was very different

3. We would have won the GF against Souths if Ennis was playing.

4. Moses Mbye is not a bad player he is just a utility who should never play in the starting lineup. He should always be a number 14 like Craig Wing.

5. Nasheed shouldn’t be banned because his posts are terrible he should be banned because a true Bulldog supporter does not support other clubs.
Nice post mate. I agree with everything you said. I would also add that Elliot isn't a bad player either.

Just regarding the GF, I think we could have won it even without Ennis. All we needed was either Hokko or Reynolds to be fully fit and we would have won that game. Hell, even with those 2 busted, with 20 minutes to go and the scores level at 6-6, TRex dropped the friggin ball over the line. If he scores, we likely would have defended our way to a gutsy win. We didn't deserve to be there but in the end we could have won that game.

Also agree with the Nasheed bit. For a fan to support 2 teams in the same code is ridiculous. I proudly hate every other club in the NRL...and that's the way it should be for a real Bulldogs fan
 
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