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Opinion
The Bulldogs look like a club without a soul. A team of mercenaries and cast-offs with very few players at the club because it was their first choice.
Much has been made of the fact they have completely overhauled their roster so much that no member of the current squad was at the club in 2021.
From the coach to the players, they give off the impression that they are only at the Bulldogs because they were tempted by a lucrative offer or their previous club deemed them surplus to requirements.
Cameron Ciraldo was initially reluctant 18 months ago to take up the offer to coach after previously knocking back a similarly tough rebuild opportunity with the Wests Tigers.
The lure of a five-year deal at a club armed with plenty of cash proved too hard to resist but if he had stayed another season as an assistant at Penrith, perhaps a more appealing job could have popped up.
Des Hasler and Shane Flanagan couldn’t get more than a three-year contract to take over the Titans and Dragons respectively and they’re premiership winners.
That’s not to question Ciraldo’s commitment – he has remained resolute in the face of the constant turmoil at Canterbury but his situation is emblematic of a club which used to build from within.
Bulldogs fans used to gleefully parade their “bred not bought” mantra, particularly after the Roosters raided their ranks in the late 2000s to sign Braith Anasta, Nate Myles and Willie Mason. Their fans even made up T-shirts to ruffle the Roosters’ feathers.
Now the Dogs are littered with players who came to the club for big dollars, not because it was their first choice or that they grew up dreaming of wearing the blue and white.
The Bulldogs look dejected during the round 1 loss to Parramatta. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
Stephen Crichton is the latest big name to lob at the Kennel, following former Panthers teammates Viliame Kikau and Matt Burton, Eels hooker Reed Mahoney and Storm speedster Josh Addo-Carr.
The rest of the roster contains a host of journeymen and solid players who struggled to cement a regular spot at their previous clubs.
There are just three local juniors in their NRL squad – Blake Wilson, Chris Patolo and Jacob Kiraz after previously letting him slip to Newcastle – following the surprising decision to allow young centre prospects Paul Alamoti and Jake Averillo to head elsewhere in the off-season.
Having home-grown products in your NRL side doesn’t mean you will have success and their importance is often overstated.
But when the 13 Bulldogs players are on the field together, they don’t have a shared history of coming through the club’s pathways together, no good times and bad from the lower grades that they went through … unless you count the ex-Panthers boys.
Putting aside the mythology of the famed Bulldogs DNA, the club’s great teams of yesteryear had a common theme of a family club which grew together.
They were a basket case in their foundation season of 1935 but the Canterbury-Bankstown “Country Bumpkins” quickly went from underdogs to top dogs to win a title in their fourth year and another in their eighth.
The Dogs were fortunate in the 1980s to have two sets of three brothers playing first grade together from the Hughes and Mortimer families as they matched Parramatta’s dynasty by also winning four premierships for the decade.
When they won the title in 1995 it was another team which carried an immense chip on their shoulder due to the divisions caused by the Super League war.
Jason Smith, Dean Pay and Jim Dymock were taking the club to court over a contract dispute at the same time as they were playing integral roles in the upset Grand Final win over Manly.
The most recent Bulldogs premiers of 2004 were tainted by the salary cap rorting revelations a couple of years beforehand but that team also was filled with players who had come through the club’s pathways.
Only four players – ex-Eels duo Andrew Ryan and Willie Tonga, Luke Patten (Illawarra), Tony Grimaldi (one game for St George) and Mark O’Meley (Norths) – from that side had made their debut for another team.
Even when Des Hasler took them close to a title twice a decade ago, the team was centred around ferocious competitors with relentless tenacity more so than talent like Josh Reynolds, James Graham and David Klemmer.
The Bulldogs’ mongrel pedigree has been lost.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Is anyone in the 2024 team a Canterbury blueblood or are they all just there because that’s their current place of employment?
And the fact that not one player remains from a little more than two years ago might sound like the club has been ruthless in cutting away the dead wood that has contributed to a seven-year playoff drought.
But it also raises questions about the club’s retention policy – Nick Meaney, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Jack Hetherington and Jeremy Marshall-King were part of that team and have all kicked on to greater heights elsewhere.
There was not much on display last Saturday in their 26-8 loss to the Eels to suggest Canterbury will break their playoff drought this year.
The season is in its infancy and when the tide turns for a team in the NRL it can happen in the blink of an eye.
But unless the Dogs can put up a decent showing against Cronulla at Shark Park on Friday night, their frustrated fans could be in for another season where the club’s spending spree does little to change the on-field results of a once mighty club which was renowned for its fighting spirit.