Bulldogs working overtime to restore credibility to ‘family club’
THE Canterbury Bulldogs has appointed a woman to look after the welfare of the players and their wives and girlfriends in the hopes of highlighting family as a priority once again.
LAST week, Canterbury Bulldogs appointed a person to help out the NRL club’s WAGs.
Yvette Davey recently joined the Bulldogs football club staff as “player engagement co-ordinator’’, a job that requires her to look after the footballers, as well as wives, girlfriends and families.
Already, Davey has hosted a day with the top 30 players’ families that concluded with a dinner. Wives and girlfriends were also given a small present.
Her role is understood to include keeping the partners “all settled” on match day and one of her tasks is helping players and their families with housing.
Davey’s job is all about inclusiveness and welfare. Cementing that “family’’ club environment.
“Yvette’s role is to look after the welfare of players, staff and families in a more detailed way than the traditional welfare role,” Bulldogs CEO Andrew Hill says.
“As ‘the family club’, we believe in looking after our people and their families off the field and Yvette’s appointment was the next step in making sure we had created a role that catered for that.
“It’s important that we provide support from the time someone joins the Bulldogs all the way through until they leave the club; and to make sure that we can help them in any areas that will enhance their lives.”
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Davey declined to comment, but a Bulldogs spokesman said she wants to “stay in the background and go about her job quietly” though on the surface, her addition can only be viewed as a good move by the club after a turbulent time.
The spokesman was quick to point out that Davey’s role wasn’t born out of the Dogs’ Mad Monday scandal.
It’s a now notorious episode where Bulldogs players and officials partied hard, some stripping bare and vomiting. The NRL imposed a $250,000 fine on the club. That amount was later halved.
NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg labelled the incident “embarrassing for the game”. The Bulldogs madness came just a week after Greenberg had warned club chief executives about player behaviour during post-season drinking sessions.
There’s been financial repercussions since. Sponsors Jaycar and Wicked Sister didn’t renew their contracts with the club. But there has also been some good news in the weeks since.
Last month, the firm Ultimate Security signed up for a lucrative three-year deal to be Canterbury’s jersey sponsor.
Post-Mad Monday, there have also been meetings among the Bulldogs’ top officials to make sure the debauched day at the Harbour View Hotel “never ever” happens again.
Bulldogs director and club legend Steve Mortimer says club officials have met and made plans to ensure Mad Monday doesn’t evolve into chaos again.
Mortimer concedes the Mad Monday saga left him feeling “embarrassed” and thinking ‘‘why would you do something like that fellas’’?
He says: “This has got to never happen again. We will make sure this never happens again. I was embarrassed. I know the directors were embarrassed. I also know that a couple of the boys, that is just not them, anyway …
“But the players are now focused on their football and also on their profile — they are aware that their profile is important, that they need to show they are good sportsmen and people, and are humble.”
Mortimer adds the strong leadership of Bulldogs chair Lynne Anderson has steered the club through a difficult time.
“Lynne Anderson is the spit of her father Peter Moore, who was my mentor.
“Lynne is a great chairman and lady, we just couldn’t believe what we were talking about, but she’s been a great leader,” he says.
“We have a CEO who is a terrific bloke, a lot of new people on the board, basically, every year, when this happens (from now on), we sit down with the boys and just say ‘fellas, whatever you do there’s no stupidity whatsoever’.”
On the field, Mortimer points to the young talent coming through on the club list and fans should be excited.
“We’ve got a helluva lot of young guys that Des Hasler didn’t want to try out,” Mortimer says.
“But young players, Dean Pay is willing to give a go.
“You saw a few of them towards the end of last season. It (2019) is going to be exciting. It is something to look forward to.”
And this is where Davey’s role becomes important to the Bulldogs’ on-field success.
Anecdotally, players who have a content personal and family life are more likely to perform better on the field.
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