Inside story of how Bulldogs signed Phil ‘Gus’ Gould

In less than two years, Phil Gould has transformed the Bulldogs into a destination of choice. It started with a text message.

The details surrounding Phil Gould’s bombshell move to the Bulldogs have been revealed.

The Saturday Telegraph is taking readers inside the story of how the former Panthers supremo began his Bulldogs revolution.

It was a simple text message of support that has forever changed the course of the club’s history — and the rugby league icon’s.

After a punishing defeat at the hands of Manly in 2021, Bulldogs chair John Khoury received a text message from Gould to say he was in.

The Bulldogs had been chasing Gould for weeks as the club hunted for its next football boss.

After receiving the text, the Bulldogs chair moved quickly. The next morning, Khoury and Gould’s manager Wayne Beavis caught up. Gould then joined the conversations and the trio took little more than a week to nut out an agreement.

You can read the full story of the Bulldogs’ recruitment coup here.

How Gould has turned Dogs into destination of choice

One of the richest sponsorship deals in NRL history – a $16 million pot of blue-and-white gold – was secured with a nudge and a wink from one of the game’s most powerful individuals.

As pub baron Arthur Laundy and his sons, Craig and Stu, contemplated a lucrative extension with Canterbury in the middle of last year, they sat down for a meeting with Bulldogs head of football Phil ‘Gus’ Gould.

The Laundys weren’t completely over the line. They were leaning towards extending their deal but they wanted some surety. A reason to believe the Bulldogs were on the way up. They got it from Gould.

“This is where the relationship between Gus and dad has got to — the strength of it,” Craig Laundy said.

“We were sitting there one day and dad said to Gus ‘should I do it’. We had pretty much done the deal, he just needed to hear Gus say it.

“Gus looked him straight in the eye … he was deadpan and he said, ‘Come with us, I will look after you’.

“Dad said, ‘That is good enough for me’.”

Bulldogs head of football Phil Gould. Picture: NRL Photos

The Laundys’ deal could stretch to 10 years. At the very least, it will be worth $12 million. With bonuses, it could skyrocket to $16m.

It’s a remarkable show of faith by the Laundys — Arthur, Craig and Stu — and it owes much to the influence of Gould, the rugby league soothsayer who returned to the Bulldogs midway through 2021.

In less than two years, Gould has turned the Bulldogs from a club mired in failure to a destination of choice, luring big-name players and the game’s most promising coach.

As the Bulldogs prepare to launch their season next week against Manly, they do so with the wind in their sails. Their final trial loss to Cronulla did little to dispel the notion Canterbury are a club on the move, the revolution led by a rugby league giant and a new-age coach.

In the first part of a two-part series on the revolution taking place at the Bulldogs, The Saturday Telegraph takes you inside the talks to bring back Gould and then pursue Cameron Ciraldo.

READ THE FULL STORY: Inside Canterbury’s talks to snare Phil Gould