Crawley Files: Why Phil Gould will be great for Canterbury Bulldogs
The fact Phil Gould has a track record in turning clubs around, albeit with a few casualties along the way, isn’t the only reason his return to Canterbury is looking so promising, writes Paul Crawley.
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Phil Gould is rugby league’s most polarising figure. Opinionated, unbending, passionate, intelligent. Likes an agenda, too.
Plenty might even go as far as to say he’s also the game’s biggest pain in the bum. From where I’m standing, he leads a very strong field.
But what can’t be disputed is Gould is a rugby league genius.
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And he’s the man most likely to turn around the Canterbury Bulldogs, the club that has been bashed from pillar to post in recent years for reasons mostly of their own making.
Sometimes in this game the stars just align. And the fact Gould has a track record in turning joints around, albeit with a few casualties along the way, isn’t the only reason it is looking so promising here.
What a lot of younger league fans, who identify Gould’s coaching journey only with the Panthers, Roosters and the NSW Blues, perhaps don’t realise is that the return to Belmore is also personal to Gus.
It contains a touch of real nostalgia which is sure to have him emotionally invested in making them winners again – with as much passion as he has shown anywhere else.
And it is a “back to the future” opportunity for Gould and the Bulldogs that could end up as a carbon copy of the impact he had at Penrith – and, just maybe, the results the Panthers are having now.
Gould began his playing career at Penrith, returned as a coach, won them a premiership, went on a winding path elsewhere for years and returned as football general manager to put the Panthers on a new course.
As is almost compulsory when it comes to Gould, along the way he put noses out of joint and turned the local world upside down in doing so.
Just ask Ivan Cleary and Anthony Griffin.
The same fate awaits him and the Dogs. He played there, coached them to a premiership, has long been disconnected from them too … and he’s returning with the same goal.
He is going to have to stick it to a few people along the way to achieve that. But what’s new? The fact is he gets results.
"It's always been one of our marquee clubs within Sydney and we want to return it to that level."https://t.co/bSXVrQqXLE
— Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (@NRL_Bulldogs) July 17, 2021
And that first success is almost forgotten. Back at the Bulldogs … way back in 1987-88. In ’87, the first season after he retired as a player at age 28 – he played 103 first-grade games for four clubs – he was given the reserve grade team under the legendary Warren Ryan.
Canterbury had won the comp under Ryan in 1984 and ’85 before going down to Parramatta in that famous 4-2 grand final in 1986.
But events started to unravel. Favourite sons like Chris Mortimer and Peter Kelly were let go along with a whole lot of other good players.
The Dogs missed the finals in ’87, the always uneasy relationship between Ryan and CEO Peter “Bullfrog” Moore deteriorated even more and “The Wok” headed off to Balmain, where he took them to successive grand finals in 1988-89.
People close to the club believe to this day that Gould was only brought in as a stopgap for Chris Anderson – Moore’s son-in-law and a club legend – who was coaching Halifax and had lifted them from the bottom half of the ladder to a championship (1984-85) and Challenge Cup (1987-88).
Some suspect “Bullfrog” was happy for the side to slip so he could justify Anderson’s return when his contract ended. Instead, Gould defied everything – including history.
🔙 Back to 1988.#proudtobeabulldogpic.twitter.com/Wqcy6YomgV
— Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (@NRL_Bulldogs) July 16, 2021
He became only second person to win a premiership in his rookie year as a coach, ironically against the Ryan-coached Tigers. The first coach to do so was Balmain’s Leo Nosworthy in 1969.
Gould was also the youngest (non-playing) coach to win a title – two months before his 31st birthday.
By the end of ’89 (the Dogs finished ninth), Gould was gone from Belmore. And, as predicted, Anderson took over and kept the job for seven years (winning a title in 1995).
But from there, Gould took success with him wherever he went.
In 1990, he guided Penrith to a grand final and the next year – with the likes of Royce Simmons, Greg Alexander, Mark Geyer and Brad Fittler playing a part in that history-making triumph – he delivered the Panthers their first premiership trophy.
Gould also went on to become NSW’s most successful coach – still is – before coaching the Roosters.
He then went into coaching director roles at the Roosters and Panthers.
Let’s not kid ourselves.
He has always been one of the game’s most divisive figures – and that is never going to change because it is in his DNA.
Ask anybody in Queensland – they can’t stand the sight of him when it comes to Origin.
Or anyone who watches the footy on Channel 9.
But what won’t be disputed is that he is the one man most likely to take a club that has been floundering for five years – since Des Hasler was shown the door – and use his contact book and authority to take this club back to where it long belonged.
The Dogs have already got quality players like Josh Addo-Carr and Matt Burton arriving next season.
On Wednesday it was confirmed Tevita Pangai was the latest to come on board.
And be assured, Gus won’t be adding any second-raters to that lot and he will clean up what he sees as the dead wood – those players he doesn’t think he can win with.
He will upset some and win others over.
He will also help sort out political issues that have haunted Canterbury for way too long and put in place structures at a junior level to grow from within.
But more than anything, it will be his ruthless winning mentality that will be his biggest influence. And even if he comes with baggage, that is what the Bulldogs most need right now.
Who gets dibs on Dylan?
There is a lot of talk about the lack of young playmakers with the ability to become genuine NRL superstars.
Yet it is hard to believe Dylan Brown only turned 21 last month as he cruises through his third NRL season. Come November 1, the young Parramatta five-eighth will be free to put himself in the shop window. Take it as fact rival clubs are waiting in anticipation.
Whereas there are a stack of other playmakers on the open market who are finding it incredibly difficult to find a new home, Brown is seen as a player with that rare potential that should catapult him into the marquee money category.
He still has next year to run on his Eels contract, which is worth a reported $650,000 a season, with a further year option in his favour.
Brown’s role at Parramatta has become even more crucial in the countdown to the finals after the revelation Mitchell Moses has a back fracture from the final State of Origin, which has sidelined him indefinitely.
Brad Arthur brought his son Jake into the team for Thursday’s clash against Canberra and said he wants to see Brown continue to focus on his running game.
It’s a part of Brown’s game that is really only now starting to emerge. What is not widely known is that he is one of the quickest halves in the comp.
Tigers miss their target again
The question for Wests Tigers is not whether Tevita Pangai was the right fit for their club.
The question the Tigers need to answer truthfully is, why did Pangai chose Canterbury when it was reportedly the Tigers who offered him the most money?
While many might think the Tigers dodged a bullet missing out on the controversial Brisbane power forward, the fact is they went in hard – but fell short in negotiations again.
Yet this is an ongoing issue that the club just can’t continue to brush off as though it didn’t happen. Like when Latrell Mitchell took considerably less to sign with Souths. And Josh Addo-Carr also ended up at the Dogs.
It just goes on and on.
Everyone automatically points the figure at Michael Maguire and his reputation of being too tough on players.
Yet the Tigers were heading down the road to nowhere long before Maguire arrived.
We saw a softer side of “Madge” in the outstanding Fox Sports documentary Wild Wests: Tales from Tiger Town that went to air this week – that no doubt did Maguire’s image no harm.
However, that aside, he is now heading towards the back-end of his third season in charge. And of the current playing group, all bar a few were either signed or re-signed on his watch.
Chief executive Justin Pascoe must also be feeling the pressure, given he has been in charge for this entire roster rebuild, going all the way back to before Jason Taylor’s dismissal in early 2017.
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Originally published as Crawley Files: Why Phil Gould will be great for Canterbury Bulldogs
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