It is culture... but what culture exactly? No one elaborates, so I shall.
It's very simple. There's no doubt that the root cause of the bad performances are from within the club.
The problem is it's a chicken and egg. I've talked about this before.
The factors that are from outside the club, the little injustices, are now routinely ignored by our club.
Put it this way... why are Queensland the "perennial underdogs". It's absurd. Everyone knows it's absurd. But whatever one might do to eliminate the "meme", it will always exist. Because the effort to remove it, just reinforces it.
"Don't think about it" DOESN'T WORK! You are going to think about it.
Traditionally, whether we really got a fair go or not, there has always been an "us against the rest of the world" attitude to the club. Now, the PR wing of our club go out of their way to give of the impression "no, the Bulldogs club are not like that anymore. We are a humble group. We blame no one but ourselves. And we are 'community leaders'".
Ultimately my point is... everyone talks about the playing and coaching staff. Over the years, we've had a very capable playing group. What I believe they lacked was, something that was present at the club before, was a feeling that the club would defend them.
Would raise all hell for a judiciary outcome that was inconsistent with what other got. A fine for a coach for being honest about on field events, etc...
"Oh this is the new appealing face of the NRL". Fuck it. "The game is bigger than the club". Not to me. I can leave it. Fuck with the Bulldogs one more time "I dare you. I double dare you muthafucka", then I can leave it to a new breed of passionless fans.
The damage was done in events like muzzling Hasler from mentioning "Voldermort", etc.
So when you are trying to work out why the players seem to lack any care, it makes no sense "oh, they just don't feel an attachment to Ciraldo/Barrett/Pay/Hasler/..".
These are all copes... the last one is the clear example. It can't be coincidence that the decline started shortly after Hasler and the club copped shit for the 2014 GF, and that the NRL started to strong arm the club and the coaches and players to be complete conformists.
If you are the club with one of the biggest "us against them" culture, and then you attempt a 180... like fuck it's a culture problem. Embrace your role FFS!