Rumours are rife of Bulldogs coach Des Hasler being ousted from the club, which goes to show that players aren’t the only ones that can go stale at one club.
Hasler has been at Canterbury for five years now. Seems a bit odd when you think about it, right? He’s lead the team to the finals in each of those years and has reached two grand finals, unfortunately losing both.
The man has talent, and we know it. The problem is though, his style of game hasn’t changed.
‘Front Rower Footy’ was revolutionary back in 2012, but now, just like Des’ tenure at Canterbury, has become stale.
Turning forwards like James Graham and Sam Kasiano into ball players threw oppositions off and got them into the 2012 decider.
In the last few years however, the structures of the Bulldogs have become predictable. Effective to a point but ineffective when it matters.
Another example is Michael Maguire at the Rabbitohs. I love the man but it feels like he hasn’t yet found another option from the power game the team used to win their 2014 triumph.
With a big pack of mobile forwards it works brilliantly, but the squad has changed significantly since then, and so have the rules, most notably the ruck rules and interchange limit. Since their premiership victory, the Rabbitohs have finished seventh and 12th respectively.
Again, Trent Robinson at the Roosters has been highly scrutinised by his armchair critics for not employing more creative approaches to the team since he was hired in 2013. I know his critics aren’t experts, but hey they watch the Roosters play each week, so surely they notice a few things here and there.
You could argue that the likes of Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett have yet to be found out. I say they are the true outliers and geniuses.
Most of the current NRL coaching crop have only been around at their current club for about five years, Bennett included.
Perhaps it’s the best time for Hasler to move onto another club where he can not only reinvent the squad and style of play, but also his tactics as well. Things at Canterbury don’t look like changing anytime soon, however if there’s one person that can do it, it’s Hasler.
With the rapid growth of the game, perhaps it’s a time where not only players continually go on the move to different clubs more regularly, but coaches too.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
Hasler would want control. Fulton has that at Manly
Alex L
Roar Rookie
If he'd actually had 4x 125kg giants on the bench who were good, that idea would be pretty effective; problem is what he actually had was usually 2 big forwards, a smaller forward, and fourth player he didn't seem to like actually using...
Albo
Guest
Well I don't think the NRL coaches offer too much at all to a team's performance apart from identifying a preferred type of player they would like for their roster, providing some good "man management" and maintaining a "no dickhead" policy ! The rest of the team's season performance is managed by the on-field generals, that is , if your team is lucky enough to have one or two ! Hence the success of the likes of Bennett & Bellamy ( & Meninga !) for many years. They have had good on-field generals to run the games, whilst they have been keeping the locker room happy and the troublemakers away. But the key to any NRL team's performance is the quality of their on-field generals and the quality of their spine players. If you have that in place the results will come, and the coach just needs to maintain the good working environment for his team to perform. Hence we see the success of the Storm & Broncos ( & QLD) for so long and more recently the Cowboys ....its simple, .they have the best on-field generals & spines ! Around that you can build up any "tom, dick & harry" fringe types to join in the contract to succeed. The real problem for Des Hasler has been the lack of any real on-field generals and a poor spine. The Dogs 1,6,7, & 9 are average at best and poor on many occasions. The positives of a big powerful dominating pack are regularly lost through the lack of direction and ability to convert these strengths into scoring points and winning matches. Perhaps Des can be blamed for not finding some real on-field generals to direct the team into winning positions. But where do you find them ? There are only a handful in the NRL and all are well and truly tied up to their grateful clubs. Smith , Cronk, Thurston , and ?????? These are the only ones I would class as true on-field generals in recent times. I see a few budding generals just now emerging , but only a few I suspect will make it all the way to the level of the big 3 we have today...... Cleary, Moylan, Ash Taylor look the goods to me, whilst high hopes will be held for the likes of Milford , Hunt, Moses, Cherry-Evans, Adam Reynolds, Sezer , Shaun Johnson to finally develop the consistency to really run and control a team around the park. I see no such potential in the current Dogs squad. They have a couple of good running number 6's tasked with creating stuff, and a very creativity-limited 1 & 9 , but no generals. I'm not sure you can blame Des for not having an effective spine and on-field general ? He has achieved marvels for the Dogs in making the past 5 x finals & two grand finals with nothing in the team's creativity department, but for the odd Josh Reynolds kick & chase ! You can't be too critical of Des not finding the generals. My Panthers club has been in the directionless doldrums for twenty odd years trying to find a successor to Greg Alexander to come and run the team on the field, and they have a massive junior pool to develop them from. Only now with the emergence of Cleary & Moylan can the Panthers now get really excited about their future, and where the much maligned coach Anthony Griffen can potentially become the next "master coach" on the backs of his on field generals. If only Des stayed in Penrith !
HarryT
Guest
It is interesting that people want coaches to make players to change their game. It is very hard and takes time. Brad Fittler played his last game (336) of NRL footy pretty much the same as his first.
Gray-Hand
Guest
Very harsh of the Bulldogs board if things do go that way. Hasler had a winning formula based on big forwards which was optimised for the old interchange rules. It's a bit much to expect a coach or a team to be able to successfully change to a completely different style of play in one or two seasons when the team is full of players more suited to the old style who are locked into multi-year contracts. It takes years to change a roster.
Correct sometimes
Guest
Putting 4, 125kg Giants on the bench isn't a great idea ?
Kingcowboy
Guest
The Saints should go after Des if he does leave Belmore. Des is a winner and that is what the Saints need!
Hard Yards
Roar Rookie
My prediction is that Des is finished at the Dogs. Mortimer is the only one who has publicly unsheathed his sword but there are plenty of others with hands on their scabbards. This incestuous club is run by a few families who pull all the strings. Mortimer has shown the oligarchy's decision. I wonder if Manly might be having a chat with him now that Tim Cleary is officially due to start in December once he gets the school year out of the way at St Augustine's College, which is literally across the road from Brookie Oval, where he has been Principal for the last 15 years and built a massively respected school with a ferocious Rugby squad. Trent Barrett's not really a Manly sort of guy.