Chairman Ray Dib has made a concentrated bid to return the Bulldogs to the halcyon days of a family club set up by Peter Moore in the late sixties to mid eighties.
This year has seen a host of key Bulldogs personnel head for the exit door – CEO Raelene Castle, the coach Des Hasler, the captain James Graham, Belmore’s favourite son Josh Reynolds, and senior player Sam Kasiano.
Never in the history of the NRL has there been such carnage at the one club.
Was it timely, or will it prove to be terminal?
Castle became the first female CEO in the NRL when she took over from Todd Greenberg. Previously, Castle was a very successful CEO of Netball New Zealand, and there are rumours she’s in the running to head for the St Leonards bunker to replace Bill Pulver at the ARU.
I can’t recall an NRL coach being sacked after reaching five finals series in six seasons, but that’s what happened to Hasler. There’s only the NSW Origin and Titans coaching spots vacant, so his future is cloudy at best.
Englishman Graham has been a passionate Dog for six years, three as captain, in playing 135 games, but he’ll be wearing the big red V next season.
Reynolds has one blue eye and one white – nobody has been more passionate in his 137 games for the Bulldogs, but he’s heading for Tiger country in 2018.
While Kasiano has loved every minute with the Bulldogs in his 139 games, he’ll celebrate his 27th birthday today before heading south to the Storm.
It will be interesting to see how the two new boys on the Belmore block in Aaron Woods and Kieran Foran react to Hasler’s sacking.
Both signed when – and possibly even because – Hasler was the coach.
(AAP Image/David Rowland)
So who will be the new coach?
Dean Pay has to be a shoe-in as a former Bulldog who played 108 games from 1989 to 1995. Currently, he’s Ricky Stuart’s off-sider at the Raiders, but Pay has coached the NSW under-20s Origin side to three successive series wins.
The 48-year-old fits in snugly with the new Ray Dib overall plan.
It’s worth recalling how the Peter Moore family club era was so hugely successful, reaching 20 finals series in 26 years.
The catalyst was solely Moore, reverently known as “Bullfrog”, one of the all-time great blokes who was always a pleasure to interview.
He and his lovely wife Marie had nine kids, it doesn’t get much bigger than that in the family sense, with two of his daughters marrying two Bulldog legends – Chris Anderson and Steve Folkes.
The two of them shared premiership honours in 1980 and 1984, with Folkes adding the 1985 and 1988 premierships to his CV.
Both went on to coach the Dogs – Anderson winning the 1995 premiership, Folkes the 2004 one.
Between them they played 475 games for the Bulldogs and coached 469, bearing down on 1000 games in blue and white.
The other prime example of the “Bullfrog” era were the Mortimer and Hughes brothers – three of each.
Between 1974 and 1988, the six of them – Steve, Chris, and Peter Mortimer, plus Garry, Mark, and Graeme Hughes played an extraordinary 1024 games.
It was a family club alright, and if Ray Dib can be half as successful as “Bullfrog” he would have made the carnage worthwhile.
But if he doesn’t, he knows only too well where the exit door is.
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