The Bulldogs are letting the fans down

Look! If you like circuses and tricks, fine but not everyone does and if you do like the tricks you soon tire of the same act,hence the fall in patronage of the nines and the rush to brisbane. Des Hassler clearly doesn't like circuses and has let everyone know that fact for 4 years. Dog supporters don't expect their team to win the nines, they just hope the players come back healthy. Canterbury met the requirements of the competition, Hassler is paid to win the Grandfinal (unlikely, true) not a glorified game of touch. As coach it is his right to concentrate on his job the way he sees fit. No problem with this fan.

So if that's 12 of Souths 17, only five out of Inglis Surgess Gurgess Reynolds Sutton Farah Nielsen Clark Will be playing round 1. Really?

Make that 12 players, I left Angus Crichton out accidently.

Souths 9s squad this year had 11 players who will be in our best 17 for Rd 1 Plus Adam Reynolds pulled out with an injury and he also pulled out of the All-Stars proving that it was a real injury 1) Damien Cook 3) Bryson Goodwin 4) Aaron Gray 5) Zane Musgrove 12) Kyle Turner 13) Alex Johnston 16) Cody Walker 18) Hymel Hunt 21) Thomas Burgess 22) Robbie Rochow 88) Dave Tyrrell. The BullGrubs named only 4 or 5 players who will be in their 17 for Rd 1 but 2 of those didn't even get to play, they just got splinters in their ass! Did Reynolds and Klemmer get to play at all?

The Auckland nines are a joke, so treating them as such is completely fair.

I don't understand the "injury" excuse at all. Several years ago Mark Gasnier suffered a season ending injury getting out of Jason Ryles car and a few years later Kyle Stanley ruptured his ACL slipping in the shower.

Talk about being disrespectful. The Bulldogs weren't tanking. There's no suggestion they went out to deliberately lose. I come back to your props comment. You say you don't get value selecting props but then accuse the Dogs of tanking because they don't select their two biggest props for every game.

He did blood some younger players! The whole criticism here is that the Bulldogs didn't play their experienced NRL players.

The Dogs and Saints of all teams should be taking the Nines seriously as they are most desperately in need of flair/playmakers. Highly dull teams to watch and if Des thinks it's a waste of time instead of blooding some exciting Holden Cup players well that's his loss. Several teams gained great insight into attacking players this w/end. Can't see either team in the 8 this year.

Well there you go. Happy to accept I was wrong on that one. When you see Watene-Zelezniak you tend to think it can only be one guy. Haha. I guess where the line is drawn for me is that the Dogs sent the minimum number of top line guys that they had to (which a lot of clubs did and they're allowed to do) but then sat them on the sideline, which to me is not in the spirit of competition and some media suggested may be against the rules (but don't quote me on that). I'm not saying that the dogs deserve to be given the boot or fined or anything, but if they were my club I'd be annoyed that they went half-assed. Perhaps you misunderstand me on the props remark. I was using it to illustrate that props aren't the best at Nines, so sending the best "Nines team" isn't the same as sending your best 17.

I think the integrity committee is on to it....should get an answer by 2019 when the 9s are no more

They appeared...therefore are due their appearance money. Cant change the rules just to suit an anti Hasler feeling you have.

People made their way into the ground to see the advertised starters..Cowboy fans living in N.Z thrilled to see all their stars and get what they paid for...Dogs supporters over there hoping to see Grub,Klem and Big Kas on day one,should ask for their cash back on a false advertising pretence..running dead last at the 9's last year didn't make an iota of difference to their very ordinary season...even the kids that turned out for them yesterday didn't seem talented enough to be knocking on the door of 1st grade other than Lachlan Lewis..shame Des..

Jed Cartwright, not Bryce and Malakai W-Z, not Dallin. Penrith's squad had three first grade regulars from last year plus Tamou. Obviously I'm biased in this but it seems double standards that it's ok to send a 'substandard' squad if you win but not ok if you lose. The Dogs didn't break any of the NRL's rules. "it's not the sort of tournament where you get a lot of value running your props out" why is there outrage that the dogs props didn't play?

Hey Baz, We still managed to make the finals in 2015. We lost the first game, but if Maguire tried to blame an early exit in the finals on the Nines I'd be worried about his ability to be accountable for the team's performance. There's a difference between sending your top 17 and giving the tournament the respect it deserves. Souths would've had a pretty decent side if Adam Reynolds wasn't injured. They would've had their first string halves pairing, as well as experienced players to fill out the rest of the spine. Besides, it's not the sort of tournament where you get a lot of value out of running props out. Yeah Penrith came out and said they hate the Nines, but they still sent over Cleary, Tamou, Cartwright and Watene-Zelezniak and did their best to try and win it. The Bulldogs took over Reynolds, Klemmer, Kasiano and Lichaa and then sat them on the sideline for the entire first day. It really looked like a big middle finger to the tournament. But that's just my opinion...

Hey epiq How did that work out for Maguire and Souths in 2015? As a dogs fan, I'd love them to have a proper crack at the nines because I enjoy the tournament and a trophy is a trophy. But I don't feel disrespected in the slightest that they didn't send their best possible squad to the nines. And the Dogs aren't the only ones. Penrith's CEO and GM came out in the week before the tournament, bagging it and admitting to sending an understrength side. They made the final. The Roosters squad had a couple of top line players but was mostly made up of youngsters. They won it. This is a storm in a teacup. Souths squad this year was a long way from full strength. Do you feel disrespected because they didn't send Inglis or Surgess or Farah, etc? Maguire has given the NRL priority over the nines

It's not like the NRL to make up rules on the run... The Dogs abided by the selection rules the NRL set for their squad. Are the NRL going to withold money for following the rules now? If the current rules aren't delivering what the NRL wants for the tournament they should change the selection criteria until it does, not threaten teams that follow the rules the NRL put in place.

I honestly thought the Dogs would do well at the tournament when they named the team, especially with Kasiano the freak big man and Klemmer and J.Reynolds who are two very competitive types suitable for Nines. The then did not play Klemmer and Reynolds on the first day and I think only played them on the 2nd day under threat of losing match payments which kind of shows a blatant disregard for sticking by the rules. I honestly don't think that this is a very good strategy by team management because even if they regard the tournament as a joke they don't in the process devalue the importance of pulling on the doggies jersey and representing the club. I noted in the aftermatch interviews of 3 of the semi finalists - Panthers, Storm and Roosters that they talked about the importance of instilling in the young players taking the field the importance of the jersey that they were representing...little wonder they did well I don't think the players have the same pride when the head coach doesn't even turn up to watch and picks players who were only going to be spectators until forced to play.

In 2015 when Souths sent over a really solid squad and won the thing, Maguire was asked why he was sending over so many big names. He said something along the lines of "We're a football club and it's our goal to win games and take on any challenge that comes along with as much strength as we have. We owe it to the fans." I remember feeling really proud to be a Souths fan that day. To be supporting a club that wants to win all the time for their fans." By contrast, for the dogs to say they really only care about one trophy feels pretty disrespectful to their fans.