Dogs with no lead: Canterbury’s alarming captaincy void laid bare

The events of the past week have only shone a brighter light on how stark the dressing room leadership is at Canterbury. DAVID RICCIO analyses a major issue for the embattled club.

Josh Jackson’s sudden retirement left an unexpected leadership void at the Bulldogs. Picture: Getty Images

Garry Carden turned to a Canterbury figurehead a couple of years ago with a passing comment that sticks out like a dog’s proverbial today.

The longest-serving member of the Bulldogs, with 37-years service as the head trainer and conditioner for the greatest players that have ever walked through the club, Carden was cut loose in 2020.

He was told over the phone that he no longer fit into the budget.

Carden personally built the Belmore gym in 1991 – after piling weight plates and benches from his own garage into a truck.

Nonetheless, Carden has moved on. And so will we with the yarn.

“I said to someone there when I was still at the club, that if I was going to buy one player that I would like to lead this club, so the team would follow him, it would be Jared Waerea-Hargreaves,” Carden said.

“I said that’s the type of bloke you need to get here because he wants to win and blokes would follow him because he’s got that mongrel in him.

“I haven’t seen anyone at the club, that has that in them.’’

Without overstating it, the Bulldogs are in the midst of their greatest captaincy void in 50 years, and possibly their history.

The Bulldogs are in the midst of a huge captaincy void. Picture: NRL Photos

This is a footy club that has boasted the game’s most influential, hard-nosed and ruthless leaders the game has witnessed.

The honour roll is a Scanlens checklist of win-at-all-costs leaders, who had the ability to uphold standards, change the attitude of a training session or dressing room, simply by their presence.

They weren’t afraid to tell a teammate to pull their heads in either. What the Dogs would do now for any one of these former skippers.

Josh Jackson, James Graham, Michael Ennis, Andrew Ryan, Steve Price, Darren Britt, Simon Gillies, Terry Lamb, Andrew Farrar, Paul Langmack, Steve Mortimer, Peter Tunks, Steve Folkes, George Peponis and Bob McCarthy.

The events of the past week at Canterbury have only shone a brighter light on how stark the dressing room leadership is at the club, especially after the premature retirement of Jackson in December last year.

241 first-grade games walked out of the club when Jackson called full-time.

Jackson’s sudden retirement left an unexpected leadership void.

It led to the appointment of current co-captains Matt Burton, Reed Mahoney and Raymond Faitala-Mariner. All, while seriously talented, are rookie leaders, having never led an NRL dressing room before.

Only time will tell if they develop into long-term leaders.

If nothing else, 2023 has been an acid test.

Josh Jackson’s sudden retirement left an unexpected leadership void at the Bulldogs. Picture: Getty Images

During South Sydney’s most recent turmoil, this column questioned the authority of Rabbitohs captain Cam Murray and his leadership experience to lead the side through the headlines.

It wasn’t a slight on Murray, but more so pointing out, he is in just his second season as a captain.

Again, time will tell if Murray has the leadership nous to keep such a loaded Rabbitohs side in check.

The issue for Canterbury is, experienced leaders are hard to find, which is why clubs are loath to lose them.

The Roosters decision to re-sign 34-year-old Waerea-Hargreaves for 2024 is everything to do with what Carden could see what would soon be missing at the Dogs. He leads and others follow.

When the Broncos players complained to coach Kevin Walters during the 2022 pre-season that the training was too hard, it was veteran halfback Adam Reynolds who had the years of experience to not only calm the playing group, but offer Walters some alternatives. The result is now.

Zane Tetevano isn’t a name you associate with Penrith’s current dynasty.

Neither was he a former captain, but most definitely was he a leader of preparedness and toughness.

The former Roosters premiership-winner’s move to Penrith after the club had finished 10th in 2019 had everything to do with the prop being identified as a player who could drag the standard of the Panthers younger forwards like James Fisher-Harris and Viliame Kikau up to a level that would ultimately claim the 2020 premiership.

The Eels are fortunate to have Clint Gutherson. Things could be a whole lot worse without him.

Gutherson has developed into Parramatta’s captain through not only leading by his actions on the training paddock and in games, but in his communication to the playing group when he routinely doubles-down Brad Arthur’s game-plan.

“Gutho is basically another coach on the field for us,” Arthur said last week.

Bulldogs co-captain Reed Mahoney is a rookie when it comes to NRL leadership. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Down at Cronulla, Craig Fitzgibbon was chastised by fans for holding on to veteran forwards Aiden Tolman and Andrew Fifita last season.

Sure, the duo were far from their best, but what the pair provided was the type of dressing room presence that lifted the confidence of their teammates. They felt safer.

Wade Graham is retiring at the end of this season and with him will leave almost 300-games of experience.

With Graham gone, it’s the reason too, why despite just 13-games in 2023, the Sharks won’t be letting go of the man that understands training integrity and intensity more than most, forward Dale Finucane.

Remember two seasons ago when it felt like the entire game was calling for the Wests Tigers to sign that man Finucane to help raise the standards of the club?

The Tigers may have missed Finucane but they found their like-for-like in the meticulous and defiant Api Koroisau.

Which leads us back to the Dogs and their decision to sign former Roosters premiership-winner Sio Siua Taukeiaho next season.

With 168 NRL-games, he will be Canterbury’s most experienced player next year.

Sure, the knees aren’t what they used to be.

But right now the Dogs don’t need game-breakers.

They desperately need leaders in the dressing room, like Carden says, who have experience, winning know-how and who others will follow.

Originally published as Dogs with no lead: Canterbury’s alarming captaincy void laid bare