Former Bulldogs players Reni Maitua, Willie Mason say coach Des Hasler has eliminated club’s history

FORMER Bulldogs star Reni Maitua has questioned Canterbury’s culture under Des Hasler, saying he felt like an “outsider” when he returned to the club in 2014.

FORMER Bulldogs star Reni Maitua has questioned Canterbury’s culture under Des Hasler, saying he felt like an “outsider” when he returned to the club in 2014.

After stints with Cronulla and Parramatta, Maitua rejoined the Bulldogs but says it was a very different place to when he started his career at Belmore in 2004. And that was largely down to Hasler.

“The work ethic was still the same, but from someone who had played 100 first grade games, plus 50 Flegg and reserve grade games there, I came back and I felt like a complete outsider,” Maitua said on Skipi TV.

“That wasn’t because of not being accepted by the players or anything like that — the place had changed. It was just not the Bulldog culture that was bred into me.

“When I came to the club as a Souths junior, it wasn’t long before I bought into the Bulldogs environment and culture.

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Willie Mason and Reni Maitua fool around during a team photo for the Bulldogs. Pic; Gregg Porteous

“I knew everything about every ex player. I knew what every player did throughout the 80s and the legacy they built in the 90s and into the early 2000s.

“I was lucky enough to come into a system in the ‘04 season and win the grand final, but Canterbury had been building towards that.

“But when I went back in 2014, it was like I’d never played there before.”

Maitua believes Canterbury changed under Hasler purely because he is a Manly man.

“Des is a Manly person with a Bulldogs shirt on,” he said. “I don’t think they wanted to have any sort of history with the club.

“That is his vehicle to be successful as a coach to be at Canterbury, but he will always be Manly.

“If you take him into a room and held him at gunpoint and said, who do you do for? — he is going to say I’m a Manly person.”

Fellow Bulldogs legend Willie Mason, who won the 2004 premiership alongside Maitua, also expressed his thoughts on Hasler.

Mason revealed he seriously considered finishing his career where it started at the Bulldogs after his one-year stint with Manly in 2015.

He even met with Hasler to discuss a contract, but says he was put off by his focus on statistics.

“At that stage it really put me off rugby league and pretty much forced me to France,” he said.

“It did my head in. I was thinking, ‘I don’t know how to play football anymore.

Des Hasler. is too smart for rugby league says Reni Maitua pic Stephen Cooper

“I met Des in Darling Harbour and we had a coffee and started talking about football.

“Then he just put out this big book with stats on everything.

“In his eyes, I don’t know if they are twisted or football has just got to him, but Aiden Tolman was the best prop in the game.

“But to me, no disrespect to Aiden, but I was 35 and I’d still dust him up.

“In my eyes I was no, Sam Burgess or George Burgess at that time.

“I said, do you ever go by the eye test Des and look at what he brings and what sort of emotion and physical presence.

“The best thing Des said was go to France and enjoy the last year.

“I’ve got so much respect for Des, but that was the best thing he said in the entire meeting.”

Maitua rates Hasler highly, but says he is too complex for most NRL players.

He insists this style is a major reason behind the Bulldogs’ struggles in the past two seasons.

“Des is a super, super intelligent human being and I think he is too smart for rugby league,” he said.

“I think you need to peel it back a bit.

“Have your team fit, but you don’t need to give them so much information.

“They are rugby league players and when you overload them with information it’s just typical of the way they are playing now.”