‘Soft as s**t’: Willie Mason rips in over rumours of unrest at Bulldogs

Canterbury Bulldogs premiership winner Willie Mason has given players complaining about training at the club a brutal reality check.

Willie Mason has given unhappy Bulldogs a brutal reality check. Photo: Getty Images

Canterbury Bulldogs champion Willie Mason has sent players whinging about training at the club a clear message, saying: “If you can’t deal with it, you’re not going to be f**king there”.

It comes after the Bulldogs landed in the spotlight after a message rumoured to be from several players began circulating with complaints about the workload demands with players expected to be at training between 8am and 5.30pm.

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It’s been far from the season hoped for from the Belmore club after signing former Panthers assistant Cameron Ciraldo to a five-year deal.

The Bulldogs have fallen in a hole late in the season having won just one of their last six, and two games since round 12.

The side is 15th on the NRL ladder and despite having seven wins for the season, have a points differential of -327, the worst in the NRL.

The club have leaked 735 points to have the worst defensive record in the NRL, and the second worst attack ahead of only the wooden spoon winning Wests Tigers.

And if the side concede more than 40 points in their final match of the season against the Gold Coast Titans, they will enter the top 10 most points conceded in a season in rugby league history in Australia.

However, the Bulldogs haven’t played finals football since 2016 and it’s a trend the club needs to change.

It’s been a bad season at Belmore. Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images

Speaking on his Levels with Willie Mason and Justin Horo podcast, Mason, the former Bulldogs premiership winner for the club who works in the club’s coaching staff, blasted the players complaining about the training schedule.

“It’s f**king soft as s**t,” Mason said.

“I hate s**t like that because I see what our coaches put together with Ciro (coach Cameron Ciraldo), to Travis Touma, to Zapp, to Chady Randall, to Bobcat (Andrew Ryan), to Ogre (Mark O’Meley), all these sorts of guys, high performance. I know what the schedule is.

“If you can’t deal with it, you’re not going to be f**king there. Because there’s high standards at the club, regardless of what’s happening right now with where we’re coming on the ladder.

“But there’s no excuses and you’ll get weeded out of the club and that’s what Ciro wants to do.

“These guys have had a losing mentality there for like five years so it’s a cultural thing, the winning and losing.

“This is a way of fishing them out. All this s**t’s getting out there, if you can’t handle the way the Bulldogs play and train, this is not your f**king club. And they’ll find out. You’ll find out, because if you’re on contract right now and you don’t happen to be on the roster next year or if they don’t want you, you’re that dude that they don’t want at the club.

“So the guys that we want there, they will be there. Players that are coming in, they’ll bring a winning culture as well.

“It’s going to take a minute but it’s the way it is, you’ve got to tough it out. It’s just the way it is and we’re all in this together.

“You think it’s f**king good watching these young kids go through these losses every single week nearly? To prepare them so well and see them so f**king shattered after the game — it’s heartbreaking as coaches. Imagine being Gus (Phil Gould) — I’m only sort of from the outside in. Imagine being Ciro. Imagine being these guys who are riding these waves with them, trying to make them better humans, better players, better everything and we’re just not coming up with the results. But we’re on that f**king wave.”

Willie Mason has a message for those complaining about training. Photo: YouTube

Horo interjected and said he felt for the players like captain Reed Mahoney, who he added “busts his guts out every week”.

Mason agreed but said: “If you don’t want to be there, you’re not going to be there.”

The Bulldogs had renewed controversy on Wednesday after reports of a “fringe first-grader” walking out on the club after being forced to wrestle a dozen teammates as punishment for arriving late to training.

The player was reportedly left distressed and vowed not to return to the club.

Bulldogs football boss Phil Gould spoke about the issue on his Six Tackles With Gus podcast but refused to offer too many details.

“This is one of those where, as a club, we need to be very measured in our response, because there are some very sensitive matters at stake here,” Gould said, adding there were some “exaggerations and embellishments”.

“It’s not as though he walked out after the event, he was still with the club for another week and then decided he needed to take some leave, and he’s been doing that.

“We’ve been waiting on some reports from medical people which we now have in our possession. My suspicion is that details of that report have been leaked out in some way, shape or form, which is why the media has now suddenly seized upon the story.

“Our priority is the welfare of the player, it’s as simple as that.”

Cameron Ciraldo faced the media. Photo: Max Mason-Hubers

Ciraldo himself spoke about the rumours, saying he is trying to “change behaviours and “drive standards”.

Ciraldo said the clamp down on behaviours, amid player complaints of long days at the club, was key to turning a poor season in to a successful one.

“Nothing comes without hard work, we have one long day a week and if you get the last massage you‘re probably leaving at 5.30pm,” Ciraldo said.

“The days were longer at the place I was previously.

“Nobody has come to me and complained about long days, we‘ve got a Jersey Flegg (under 21s) group who do weights at 5am, work for 10 hours and come back and do field at 5.30pm.

“We‘ve got a leadership group that we meet with every week and you’d like to think if there was some unrest that those guys would have brought it up.”

With NCA Newswire

Originally published as ‘Soft as s**t’: Willie Mason rips in over rumours of unrest at Bulldogs