Bulldogs revolution: Inside the talks that lured Phil Gould back to Belmore
Phil Gould has been given free reign at Canterbury, and in less than two years has changed them from an NRL graveyard, to a destination of choice. Here’s how the Bulldogs got their man.
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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’.”
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.
CHASING GUS
The Bulldogs dressing shed was like a morgue. It was July 3, 2021, and Canterbury had just been on the receiving end of a shellacking from Tom Trbojevic-inspired Manly, the culmination of a horror week for the club after five players were stood down over Covid breaches.
Having attempted to console his shattered players, Bulldogs chair John Khoury stood quietly at the back of the room feeling sorry for himself and his club.
As Khoury digested one of the darkest days in the club’s history, his phone pinged with a message. It was from Phil Gould. Khoury had encountered Gould on occasions as a fan but their talks took a more serious twist in the weeks before the Manly defeat as the Bulldogs attempted to lure him back.
He wasn’t their first choice. The Bulldogs initially had former North Queensland head of football Peter Parr in their sights, twice sounding him out about the job.
The first time Parr met Khoury was in Byron Bay while on holiday in early January. The second time was in April when the Bulldogs travelled to Townsville. Khoury was joined by then-coach Trent Barrett for a twin attack to convince Parr to move to Sydney.
Parr had recently left his position as head of football at North Queensland, having joined the Cowboys board. He was in no hurry to throw himself back into rugby league’s washing machine. Thanks but no thanks was the polite response. The timing just wasn’t right.
That led the Bulldogs back to Gould, who was working with the Warriors in a consultancy role.
Gould had played for the club and led them to a premiership as a coach in 1988. The seeds for his return were planted in the lounge room of a palatial residence overlooking Yowie Bay in Sydney’s south.
It was inside Gould’s waterfront home where Khoury – having earlier that day attended the funeral of former Bulldogs president Barry “Punchy” Nelson – and Barrett pitched their vision to Gould and his agent Wayne Beavis.
At the time, Gould was loyal to the Warriors, but Covid was making it tough to do his job. The Dogs went hard – but Gould decided he would stay with the Warriors.
“I kept it confidential for that first week until I realised the conversations with his manager were getting deep and meaningful,” Khoury said.
“It’s well documented Gus came out just after Magic Round and he said he had received an offer to come to Canterbury: he thought about it but he had politely declined. He was very respectful, very positive, but he politely declined.”
A few weeks later, in a sombre dressing room, Khoury received that text message and hope was renewed.
“Tommy Turbo was in full flight and we absolutely got thrashed,” Khoury said.
“I went into the sheds about 20-25 minutes after the game. In all my time as a director and chair, that was one of the lowest points I ever experienced.
“I’ll never forget, I got a message of encouragement from Gus.”
The Bulldogs chair moved quickly. The next morning, Khoury and Beavis caught up. Gould then joined the conversations and the trio took little more than a week to nut out an agreement.
With the trio aligned, Khoury called a board meeting with chief executive Aaron Warburton and they unanimously agreed to bring Gould back into the fold.
THE GUS EFFECT
From the outside, Gould would appear to have unfettered power at Canterbury. If Gus wants a player, some would have you believe he has carte blanche. His feet were barely under the desk and he quickly signed Penrith backrower Viliame Kikau, Ryan Sutton and Parramatta hooker Reed Mahoney.
Remarkably, Sutton says he never met then-coach Trent Barrett before he signed.
“It was all Gus,” Sutton said.
“I was in the period of my contract where I could speak to other clubs. With Gus being a father figure, it was good to have a chat with him about where he thought the club was going.
“He really sold the club. I could clearly see where they wanted the club to go.
“We met halfway (between Canberra and Sydney). I remember chatting to Gus and he said, ‘We don’t know what’s going on (with Barrett), but you’re coming to a great family club’, and that was a big thing, because I’m a family man.”
Few are as charming and persuasive as Gould when they are in the mood. Few are also as efficient at working their relationships in the game to feather their club’s nest. Some of those relationships stretch back decades.
While Gould has a tight circle, he also has plenty of critics who are quick to suggest his powers at Canterbury will be the club’s undoing. They point to Penrith and the five-year plan that only came to fruition long after he was gone.
Khoury bristles at the notion Gould does what he wants, when he wants. He is quick to point out the salary cap is monitored by a committee involving not just Gould but members of the board.
“That is unfair,” Khoury said.
“I find it disrespectful to him and the club. We take that stuff very, very seriously. We have an independent finance and risk committee and there is protection and compliance across the whole club.
“The only thing I know about Gus is he is someone who is collaborative, very determined, works extremely hard and is highly intelligent.”
That said, there are few if any heads of football in the game with as much power as Gould. Those in his corner would argue it is justified given his rugby league acumen and what he has achieved in his career.
For every person who sings his praise, there is another ready to sink the boot. He has a tempestuous relationship with some of his peers in the media – as a commentator on the Nine Network, he has blocked many of his critics from rival organisations on social media, including this journalist.
Craig Laundy didn’t know Gould before his family agreed to sponsor the club. That relationship was immediately strained in May 2022 when Gould sacked Barrett, who had a close relationship with the Laundys.
Gould explained the decision and has since taken them on the journey, even asking family patriarch Arthur Laundy to help with the recruitment of Brisbane teenager Karl Oloapu.
When Oloapu was edging towards a shift to the Bulldogs, Laundy was invited to dinner to help seal the deal.
A shaky relationship is now forged in blue-and-white steel – Gould and the Laundys — Arthur, Craig and Stu — meet regularly to discuss his plans at either Canterbury Leagues Club or Jobel’s Cafe in Belmore, where Gould takes his regular table in the corner and sits on cushions bearing his image. He may even have a say in the menu.
“We sit in the car afterwards and I just say, ‘wow’,” Craig Laundy said.
“It is fascinating. He is a very shrewd football mind. We can see what he is trying to do.
“We see his vision, we understand it. There is not a time when we don’t come away and say, ‘Thank god the board signed him’. ”
SECURING CIRALDO
Gould wasted no time signing some of the game’s elite players, but his real prize was the coach. From the moment the club parted ways with Barrett – Gould famously suggested Barrett would be at the club long after he himself departed – their head of football only had one man in mind.
Penrith assistant Cameron Ciraldo was the hottest coaching property in the game and Gould knew him well from his time at Penrith.
At the club’s season launch this week, where Gould had an audience of around 500 eating out of the palm of his hand, he recounted the story of signing Ciraldo, describing how he whetted Ciraldos’ appetite for the job by challenging him.
The Laundys were among the few who had an inkling of what was going on. After Barrett’s departure, Gould went out of his way to forge a closer bond with all of the Laundys, Arthur and his sons Craig and Stu.
“We spent an hour with Gus and he was going through options,” Craig Laundy said.
“At the back end of the conversation I said to him if you could have anyone, the No. 1 person, who would it be. He said Cam Ciraldo.”
Unbeknown to Gould, Craig Laundy reached out to Ciraldo and organised a meeting at the Red Lion Hotel in Rozelle.
“I’ll tell you how good a bloke this kid is – we finished the meeting and …. because we got on like a house on fire, the meeting went way over,” Craig Laundy said.
“We had allocated an hour and we ended up yarning for a couple of hours. I couldn’t get dad back home. Cam asked where do you live and he drove dad home.
“We caught up with Cam just to introduce ourselves but also to say hey, we are going to be here for a long time. We wanted to see the cut of his cloth, too. He is an über impressive young bloke.”
The Laundys are among the lucky few to have an intimate view of the revolution that is unfolding at Belmore. In Gus they trust.
“We trust him,” Craig Laundy said.
“He is just telling us to stay patient and to trust him and Cam. We do. Otherwise we wouldn’t have signed for 10 years.”
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