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Is Des Hasler a good coach or a potentially great one? His record suggests testimony for both arguments.
2014 will clearly be a major influence on how history will perceive the former primary school teacher.
Two grand final wins in 13 years of NRL coaching is indeed a formidable record, especially when his foundation club the Manly Sea Eagles were struggling when he took over as head coach in 2004.
Hasler won two Premierships with Manly in 2008 and 2011 before joining the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2012, where he took them to the grand final in his first year at the club.
Every top class coach has special players and many of them leave, and it is the great coaches that ‘find a way’ to overcome that loss and not lose team momentum with the right succession plan.
Ben Barba was Hasler’s best player in 2012 and since notification of his defection to the Brisbane Broncos, the Bulldogs have gone backwards.
The succession plan, it seems, is veteran winger Sam Perrett, who dropped a simple bomb in Round 1 and cost his team heavily with Barba’s Broncos scoring a try shortly after.
The Bulldogs have been crying out for a top class fullback, some genuine organisation in the halves and some dash from dummy half.
But this week’s announcement that giant prop Andrew Fifita had been recruited for next season was a shocker.
Fifita is arguably the best statistical big forward in the world, but the Bulldogs have no shortage of top class big men.
Their forward line already includes James Graham, Frank Pritchard, Tony Williams, Tim Browne, David Klemmer, Dale Finucane, Pat O’Hanlon, Greg Eastwood, Aiden Tolman and Lachlan Burr.
In fact, the club has so much depth in that department that the promising young prop Lloyd Perrett is unlikely to even get a run this season.
The current Bulldogs forward pack is as competitive as any in the NRL, but the team is off the pace in other key positions.
Why are they investing millions into more forwards when they have just lost their star fullback?
A fair question supporters are asking no doubt.
With the exception of pivot Josh Reynolds, the other crucial positions of fullback, halfback and hooker remain a concern for the Bulldogs.
It is reassuring for supporters that the Bulldogs have also signed the Sharks’ gun young hooker Michael Lichaa, who already offers much more in attack than their current number nine and skipper Michael Ennis.
Hasler achieved his fame as a coach largely on the back of the best one, six and seven combination in the NRL at Manly.
Fullback Brett Stewart was breaking try scoring records, Keiran Foran became an international representative and Dally Cherry-Evans won the Rookie of the Year in 2011.
It seems that the Sharks are self-destructing by allowing many of their highly promising juniors to leave the club.
Tyson Frizell (Dragons), Tyrone Peachey (Panthers) and Chad Townsend (Warriors) have all gone.
So while the Bulldogs were grabbing Michael Lichaa, also from the Sharks, you would think that fullback Michael Gordon and half Todd Carney would have been a priority over yet another big man.
Maybe there is a method in Hasler’s madness; maybe that method is what separates the good from the great.
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