Tough love between Folkes and Bulldogs

 
Alan Nicolea Roar Guru

By Alan Nicolea, 30 Aug 2008 Alan Nicolea is a Roar Guru

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Canterbury Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes should have had a happier ending. Instead, he will exit his tenure at the club on the back of the worst season he has ever experienced – both as a player and a mentor.

As Folkes approaches the end of his 30 year association with the Bulldogs, the 48 year-old has two games to go before he bids goodbye to the only club he has ever bled for.

Unfortunately, those two games will not decide a Minor Premiership. Nor will they decide who gets to walk the lap of honour come late September.

Instead, the two remaining matches in Folkes’ career as head coach of the Bulldogs will most likely decide whether Canterbury or North Queensland get the wooden spoon in league’s centenary year.

Although it seems like there is nothing to play for, Folkes knows, deep down, avoiding last position on the NRL ladder is of the utmost importance to him and the club.

This is because Folkes is not a loser. Far from it.

As a player and a coach, Folkes has carried the flag high for the blue and white army and his aura of respectability has grown with every passing year.

When he made his first grade debut for the Bulldogs back in 1978, he was a 78 kilogram forward – unheard of in this day and age.

Not that it stopped Folkes from claiming some of the game’s greatest honours.

Folkes would go on to play 245 games for his beloved Bulldogs, winning four of the six grand finals he played in between 1979 and 1988.

He also represented New South Wales on nine occasions in State of Origin football and he was a member of the 1986 Kangaroo Tour and played in five Tests between 1986 and 1988.

Folkes achieved all this despite playing in the pack with just 78 kilos of blood, sweat and tears to call upon.

In the end, that was all that was needed to become one of the Bulldogs, and Australian sports, greatest clubmen of all time.

After serving as reserve grade coach of the Bulldogs between 1996 and 1997, Folkes was appointed coach of the Bulldogs to succeed Chris Anderson.

In his first year at the helm, the Bulldogs made the 1998 grand final, where they lost to the Brisbane Broncos.

In 2002, Folkes and his army of Bulldogs were close to unstoppable.

They would go on a 17 match winning streak which was eventually tarnished after they were disqualified and had 37 premiership points stripped off them after a major salary cap breach was uncovered.

This breach would lead to a mass exodus of player talent at the club, which saw the likes of present superstars Johnathon Thurston and Nigel Vagana leave.

As the wall began to fall on the Bulldogs, Folkes stood firm and withstood the disappointment of 2002 to garner a premiership victory in 2004, beating out close rivals the Sydney Roosters.

That Premiership victory was made all the more special, after Folkes had to deal with a Coffs Harbour Scandal that threatened to destroy the Canterbury playing group as a hole.

After guiding the Bulldogs through thick and thin, it was worthy that Folkes would receive the Dally M coach of the year award in 2004 after guiding his controversial club from obscurity to success.

From then on, though, that was as good as it would ever get for the retiring Bulldogs coach.

Canterbury would go on to miss the finals in 2005, on the back of Steve Price’s defection to the Warriors a year earlier.

Although the Bulldogs would make the playoffs in 2006 and 2007, Folkes was starting to feel the aura of his club fade away.

As his 30 year association with the Bulldogs draws to a close, Folkes’ will always have a fond place in the hearts of the Canterbury faithful, spoon or no spoon.

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