Bulldogs fan’s rage: ‘A steaming pile that keeps getting bigger’

THEIR season has been ripped apart and the future looks bleak. Now, one diehard Canterbury supporter has finally had enough. FIONA BOLLEN rips into the trainwreck the once-proud Bulldogs dynasty has become.

Des Hasler has copped a lot of blame for the state the Bulldogs are in today.

HOW many times can you pick up your phone, read a headline and let four-letter words fly before you decide to break the cycle for the sake of your own sanity?

As a Bulldogs fan, I wondered that when it was finally announced Aaron Woods would be going to the Sharks. And he could play for them this bloody Friday night.

This on top of Moses Mbye moving to the Tigers two weeks ago. And Kieran Foran being ruled out for the season.

I never held high hopes for 2018, but this is just embarrassing. It was a bad season in 2008 when we finished last, but I had hope every week that we may just pull an upset. Because I’m a diehard.

But this year isn’t just about playing poorly. This is about a club that has ripped apart from the inside. The players are suffering because of that.

When the Woods move was confirmed I fired off an angry text to my sister.

My family are all Bulldogs fans, my sister and I were raised on them. She still has a pint-sized no.7 jersey with Mortimer on the back, which she wore as a bobbling blonde-haired toddler tearing around the hill at Belmore in the early ‘80s.

Des Hasler has copped a lot of blame for the state the Bulldogs are in today.

We’re all feeling the pain.

“We’re not going to have a f****** team to play out the rest of the season. We’ve lost three key players in a F****** WEEK,’ read my text.

A few weeks ago she would have responded with the same amount of rage. Her response yesterday: an ‘unamused face’.

It’s a grieving process it seems.

Stage one. Shock and denial — at the start of the year there was some hope we may be competitibe despite reports of the club’s dire situation.

Pain and guilt. Have you seen them play? It is painful.

Anger and bargaining. Here I am.

Angry. Angry at everyone at Canterbury who allowed it to reach this point. I have hit boiling point with Des Hasler, whom I feel shoulders most of the responsibility.

The future seemed so bright in 2012. A hugely successful, multiple-premiership winning coach had been poached by us. A number of his staff followed him. Good signs. We made the grand final that year. Amazing. Finals the next year. Grand final again the year after.

The Bulldogs have been reeling from bad to worse in 2018 and there is not much hope in sight. Picture: AAP

On the surface it all looked great. But this was where I was unhappy. I wanted Hasler gone when we lost to Souths in the 2014 grand final. I was told I was a whingeing Bulldogs fans, never happy. Some Manly fans even offered to take him back.

Because Manly was in trouble.

Des Hasler left a contractual mess at Brookvale. Back-ended contracts forced out long-serving players as the salary cap pressure built to where it was crippling.

It was there for all to see.

So why, (WHY?!), did the Bulldogs’ board and management allow it to happen too?

It is absolutely mind-boggling. Completely infuriating.

The moment Des Hasler walked in the doors at Belmore he took control of the club. He was allowed to do what he wanted. He was given full reign in the quest for a premiership.

Non-Bulldogs people will say, “But if he won a premiership you wouldn’t be whingeing.”

No I wouldn’t. But he didn’t.

No one remembers second and there are no prizes for almost getting there twice.

All we have is a club in tatters.

Three key players gone in two weeks, but the roster problems started years ago.

Bulldogs fans haven’t had much to cheer for in 2018... and probably won’t in years to come. Picture: AAP

That 2014 grand final? Michael Ennis left the club the next year to make way for Michael Lichaa, a talent on the rise who the Bulldogs forked out for big time. He wasn’t ready for first grade but was brought in at the expense of an experienced hooker who was captain of the club.

Ennis didn’t play in that grand final, but in his place was Damien Cook. He held his own on the biggest stage in rugby league. He has held his own ever since. But he’s gone too, now tearing it up for South Sydney and even still having his moments in blue — the blue of New South Wales.

Josh Reynolds, who could only be more Bulldogs if his last name was Moore or Mortimer, is gone. James Graham (another club captain) gone. Sam Kasiano gone. Moses Mbye is gone. Woods gone. Kieran Foran gone.

Woods, our big signing for 2018, played just half a season before the Sharks picked him up because the Dogs needed the relief in their cap. That we will be paying him for the next two-and-a-half years is bloody hard to take.

Foran is out for the season with a toe injury. That one of the game’s most injury-prone players who hadn’t played a decent season for years because of personal and physical baggage was a key recruit this season makes you wonder who was involved in approving this signing? And for how much?

Bulldogs coach Dean Pay has been lumped with a club destroyed from the inside-out. Picture: Alix Sweeney

I feel for Dean Pay. He was a coach looking for a break in first grade and he’s been lumped with this steaming pile that keeps getting bigger. It’s rank.

He deserves a contract extension already because he needs at least three years to ride out this mess and three more to start building his own team.

There may be some comfort in the final stages of grief. Next there’s depression, reflection, loneliness (I think my sister is here). Then the upward turn; reconstruction and working through; and acceptance and hope.

I know the club will come out of this one day and I will still be there when they do. I don’t believe in second teams so jumping on board with someone else just isn’t an option.

I’ll just have to crack out the classic game DVDs for the kids in the meantime to show them what the Bulldogs are capable of because they’re certainly not going to see anything in real life for a while.

Originally published as Bulldogs fan’s rage: ‘A steaming pile that keeps getting bigger’