Dean Pay quits Bulldogs

[The_Frog]

The Bulldogs are definitely not under-resourced.

Looks a pretty under resourced playing roster to me.

 

[Zadar]

unsure who you follow but if a dogs fan I get your view.

Barrett is a quitter. He quit his first head coaching role when things got too tough. If he’s the wise choice of saviour the Dogs board to resurrect their club... wow.

This was a club that made the GF 5 years ago, then screwed up their salary cap, got rid of many of their headline players, and have been a basket case ever since. That’s not Dean Pays doing.

As for your Dragons reference... Mary isn’t a quitter. I’d have him 1000 times over Trent Barrett coaching my club. The bloke was on the rack 5 weeks ago, and they’re now climbing out of an almighty hole. The club has backed him, and I back them both.

There’s far worse clubs than the Dragons to make comparisons of shoddyness to.

Clubs such as the Dogs, Broncos, and Warriors.. Clubs who’ve wasted millions on sacking and paying multiple coaches like the Tigers and Panthers. Clubs who’ve breached / cheated the salary cap like Parramatta, Manly, oh and the Dogs too.

And while there’s plenty of other clubs who are far above us in terms of results, we’ve not been the headcases these others have been at times. And none of them have won a comp after we last won ours in 2010, aside from Manly in 2011 - well before their dramas. Give me the Dragons over any of these, every day of the week, every day of the year.

Fantastic post, great passion and good luck for the rest of the year, supporters like you deserve it.

 

[Last Week]

Their next coach is going to be responsible for the next 5 years of that club, particularly in regard to recruitment. This is a big gamble on Barrett.

They need an experienced coach. One who's has runs on the board for recruitment.

I'm surprised Eddie Jones hasn't been mentioned.

 

[Last Week]

Looks a pretty under resourced playing roster to me.

Lacks quality, but they have every resource needed off the field.

 

[redVinme]

Nathan Brown inherited a mess at Newcastle but had them competing for finals footy in a few years. Pay has taken this squad no where coming into his third season. I don’t think they’re any better off than this tome 2 years ago.

That said I don’t understand the hype around Barrett. Had a solid if unspectacular run at Manly.

I'm sorry but hardly...
Brown got back to back spoons and then the knights spluttered in his third season and he was gone by August. The knights still didn't make the 8.

Barrett probably worse...
Des has basically the same team he did and they were going great before tom t and afb got injured.

 

[Xcalibre]

unsure who you follow but if a dogs fan I get your view.

Barrett is a quitter. He quit his first head coaching role when things got too tough. If he’s the wise choice of saviour the Dogs board to resurrect their club... wow.

This was a club that made the GF 5 years ago, then screwed up their salary cap, got rid of many of their headline players, and have been a basket case ever since. That’s not Dean Pays doing.

As for your Dragons reference... Mary isn’t a quitter. I’d have him 1000 times over Trent Barrett coaching my club. The bloke was on the rack 5 weeks ago, and they’re now climbing out of an almighty hole. The club has backed him, and I back them both.

There’s far worse clubs than the Dragons to make comparisons of shoddyness to.

Clubs such as the Dogs, Broncos, and Warriors.. Clubs who’ve wasted millions on sacking and paying multiple coaches like the Tigers and Panthers. Clubs who’ve breached / cheated the salary cap like Parramatta, Manly, oh and the Dogs too.

And while there’s plenty of other clubs who are far above us in terms of results, we’ve not been the headcases these others have been at times. And none of them have won a comp after we last won ours in 2010, aside from Manly in 2011 - well before their dramas. Give me the Dragons over any of these, every day of the week, every day of the year.

So there actually are Dragons fans that want McBaldrick as coach?! Good to know. The only reason I used them for comparison is the fans are constantly wanting his head, and tbh, rightfully so. He isn’t capable of delivering a premiership. That’s clear as day.

As for Barrett, he doesn’t seem like much of an upgrade, if at all, but apparently has been running the Panthers attack, so has that going for him. Only time will tell if he gets the job, to see what he does with the team.

 

[aqua_duck]

People can point to the mess left behind by Des but the implications of that mess were more of an issue in 2018 and 2019, since then Pay has made numerous signings and re-signings that really have been very poor. When you're paying $600k a season for players like Napa, DWZ and an over the hill Josh Jackson it's not exactly going to help your cap situation. All 3 of them in their current form would struggle to make the top 17 in most good sides. Aside from those 3 all the other guys he's signed in Crichton, Stimson, Cogger, Britt, Sue, Katoa, etc have contributed absolutely nothing.

 

[Mr Angry]

Should hire Terry Lamb.

https://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lamb.html

Take the time.

Reading is good.

Some never get taught.

 

[Mr Angry]

Where is @0neye

Neen a doodie and a bulldog on carpet cleaner.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

So there actually are Dragons fans that want McBaldrick as coach?! Good to know. The only reason I used them for comparison is the fans are constantly wanting his head, and tbh, rightfully so. He isn’t capable of delivering a premiership. That’s clear as day.

As for Barrett, he doesn’t seem like much of an upgrade, if at all, but apparently has been running the Panthers attack, so has that going for him. Only time will tell if he gets the job, to see what he does with the team.

Absolutely there are and I’m one of em. Loads of dragons fans call for his head each week but that’s nothing new for this club. Our fans have called for more heads than Henry the VIII. It’s part of the DNA. Or like the Simpsons mob always chanting “Someone else, Someone else”

There’s only 3 or 4 current NRL coaches I’d have at the Dragons to replace him if there was a possibility of getting them over. Robinson, Bellamy, Stuart or Bennett. The rest would be a waste of money in my opinion, and I’d have no confidence they’d do a better job. My view pisses off a lot of Dragons fans, and usually brings a few bitter ones out of the woodwork but I don’t care one bit.

 

[mave]

Looking foward to seeing T Baz crash and burn again.

 

[typicalfan]

I feel for Dean Pay but this decision was inevitable. The team is getting worse, players aren't developing under him. Losing Harawira Naera, Stimson etc didn't help.

 

[Sphagnum]

If they get Barrett expect another 3 or 4 years of absolutely shithouse performances.

looks a lot like the parra situation where the back office is in such disarray with in fighting and sabotage that the footy club just can’t get out of its own way.

feel sorry for dean pay

 

[gUt]

ITT: McGregor is the 5th best coach in the NRL.

 

[Reflector]

Its rare I get pissed off at what other clubs do, but I am with this.

It’s all been written before but the dogs were crippled years ago by shocking salary cap management and Dean Pay (a former great of the club) took up the most unenviable coaching position in the comp.

The club has also since denied Pay the opportunity to get Josh Reynolds back, while they lost 2 players earlier this year to behaviours that also cost the club a major sponsor.

The bloke has been up against it from the start, and never been given the tools and support needed to lift the Dogs out of the absolute mess caused by others.

Now they’re talking to Trent Barrett, a bloke who quit on his former club in the middle of a contract, and when Manly were running awful. So this is the kind of person they feel could work.....???? A bloke who quits when the going gets tough....

For what used to be known as the family club, they are a complete opposite of that now, and farce of a joint. Dean Pay is the only bloke in that club who should hold his head up high.

"The family club" died with Bullfrog 20 years ago.

 

[nick87]

This was never going to work because

a) The club was in such a miserable state when Pay took over, it would have been near impossible for him to do well there

b) Inspite of that, he's not actually a good coach. His work at the Raiders was poor and we improved dramatically with him leaving and he's done nothing to suggest he's a coach capable of getting the dogs out of this mess

So both things are true imo

 

[Dogs Of War]

As a Dogs fan. I think we are in a horrible position. Trent Barrett is being seen as a fall guy who has a couple of years to try and just get us competive and upgrade the roster. If he succeeds in that time period, he will get an extension. Otherwise he will just go the way of Pay.

No other coach worth his salt would even try to take on this mess, especially with a front office that is dysfunctional. It just can't work.

Hopefully they can get some old heads around him to help guide/teach him the role. But with Steve Price serving his apprenticeship as Football Manager. I'm not so sure it's going to happen. Maybe some ex-head coaches as assistant coaches? Maybe that might work.

 

[Valheru]

Agree with most on here. Pay may be no good but we still don't really know the answer as he was never given a realistic chance to succeed.

I would strongly argue that the 12th place finish last year was just about the ceiling for that roster and he was on a hiding to nothing this year missing ~700k of cap space that he wasn't allowed to replace.

I see Barrett being a complete disaster there.

 

[League Unlimited News]

Official as of this morning:

 

[Sleep]

Top to bottom their roster, even at full strength is abysmal. They're in for some tough years for the foreseeable future. Anything better than bottom four would be a good outcome.