https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sp...nderson-replaces-ray-dib-20180211-h0vwl9.html
The new top dog at Belmore had only just received the sign-off as the Bulldogs' new boss when she said, very simply, that everything old would be new again. There has always been a certain way of doing things at the Bulldogs. And they will be doing it that way again from now on.
First and foremost, it stays in the family. It's about the Moores, the Mortimers and the Hugheses. Business is better kept behind closed doors, done quickly and without any accompanying column inches. No-one holds a gun to Canterbury's head. Players don't demand that a mate be signed before he inks his own contract. Contract disputes with former coaches don't end up in the courts. Not at Canterbury.
But, for all of that, there is something even more fundamental about the Canterbury way – the Bulldogs have to be performing on the field. If deposed chairman Ray Dib had been able to deliver a winning side, the Reform ticket would arguably have lost much of its allure.
Before she'd even had a chance to sidle up to the bar to celebrate a stunning landslide election win – her ticket securing six of the seven seats on the Bulldogs board – Lynne Anderson was mimicking her father and Canterbury patriarch Peter 'Bullfrog' Moore, no doubt still pulling those blue-and-white strings upstairs.
"We hope no one is going to be hearing from us because we're a board that won't be out front, we're going to be behind the scenes rebuilding some of the structures that need rebuilding," she told Fairfax Media.
Dib's empire had been a decade in the making, but all it took was six months of missteps for the natives to become restless. They voted with their feet and at the ballot box.
They couldn't tolerate the Des Hasler affair and his imminent $2 million-plus unfair dismissal lawsuit. They couldn't handle Josh Reynolds being told an offer from another club was too good to turn down. They couldn't handle the fact their books were so unbalanced they had to let their skipper James Graham go – and pay him to play somewhere else in 2018.
The cracks are usually papered over by a winning team. But for the first time in a long time, the Bulldogs last year weren't getting the results and Dib paid the price.
Dean Pay might not know it, but he needs to win the competition in the first two years as an NRL head coach to reach the Dib-driven five-year strategic plan crafted at the end of 2014. It targeted two titles by the end of 2019. It sounds outrageous now, but it's the standards the Bulldogs set themselves. How much that blueprint contributed to Dib's demise is unclear.
There were also a number of other highly ambitious off-field goals, which are no closer to being achieved.
Dib has led a new Canterbury of sorts. He's always been one of theirs, a lower-grade player and loyal team strapper who rose through the ranks and lent on his outstanding business contacts to help the Bulldogs flex their considerable muscle.
But he'd also led a push for outside influence. Hasler was brought in and led the club to two grand final appearances, but he and the Bulldogs always felt like yin and yang. A New Zealander in Raelene Castle was whisked across the Tasman to take on the chief executive role, but butted heads too many times with the boss in the end.
In Anderson's ticket, the rank-and-file Bulldogs have now got an old Canterbury of sorts. They have promised a return to the "Bulldogs way", something maybe only the Moores, the Mortimers and the Hugheses really understand.
She wouldn't be drawn on whether her board will seek a settlement in the Hasler case and even if they did, it would be done with a minimum of fuss.
It is much like their campaign to sweep to power. Not much publicity, but members of the Reform ticket knocked on the doors of eligible voting members as far north as Tweed Heads and as far south as Ulladulla to make their pitch.
They asked each and every one to trade the new Canterbury for the old Canterbury. Which they did. And now the old Canterbury must start winning again. It's the only way the Bulldogs know.
The new top dog at Belmore had only just received the sign-off as the Bulldogs' new boss when she said, very simply, that everything old would be new again. There has always been a certain way of doing things at the Bulldogs. And they will be doing it that way again from now on.
First and foremost, it stays in the family. It's about the Moores, the Mortimers and the Hugheses. Business is better kept behind closed doors, done quickly and without any accompanying column inches. No-one holds a gun to Canterbury's head. Players don't demand that a mate be signed before he inks his own contract. Contract disputes with former coaches don't end up in the courts. Not at Canterbury.
But, for all of that, there is something even more fundamental about the Canterbury way – the Bulldogs have to be performing on the field. If deposed chairman Ray Dib had been able to deliver a winning side, the Reform ticket would arguably have lost much of its allure.
Before she'd even had a chance to sidle up to the bar to celebrate a stunning landslide election win – her ticket securing six of the seven seats on the Bulldogs board – Lynne Anderson was mimicking her father and Canterbury patriarch Peter 'Bullfrog' Moore, no doubt still pulling those blue-and-white strings upstairs.
"We hope no one is going to be hearing from us because we're a board that won't be out front, we're going to be behind the scenes rebuilding some of the structures that need rebuilding," she told Fairfax Media.
Dib's empire had been a decade in the making, but all it took was six months of missteps for the natives to become restless. They voted with their feet and at the ballot box.
They couldn't tolerate the Des Hasler affair and his imminent $2 million-plus unfair dismissal lawsuit. They couldn't handle Josh Reynolds being told an offer from another club was too good to turn down. They couldn't handle the fact their books were so unbalanced they had to let their skipper James Graham go – and pay him to play somewhere else in 2018.
The cracks are usually papered over by a winning team. But for the first time in a long time, the Bulldogs last year weren't getting the results and Dib paid the price.
Dean Pay might not know it, but he needs to win the competition in the first two years as an NRL head coach to reach the Dib-driven five-year strategic plan crafted at the end of 2014. It targeted two titles by the end of 2019. It sounds outrageous now, but it's the standards the Bulldogs set themselves. How much that blueprint contributed to Dib's demise is unclear.
There were also a number of other highly ambitious off-field goals, which are no closer to being achieved.
Dib has led a new Canterbury of sorts. He's always been one of theirs, a lower-grade player and loyal team strapper who rose through the ranks and lent on his outstanding business contacts to help the Bulldogs flex their considerable muscle.
But he'd also led a push for outside influence. Hasler was brought in and led the club to two grand final appearances, but he and the Bulldogs always felt like yin and yang. A New Zealander in Raelene Castle was whisked across the Tasman to take on the chief executive role, but butted heads too many times with the boss in the end.
In Anderson's ticket, the rank-and-file Bulldogs have now got an old Canterbury of sorts. They have promised a return to the "Bulldogs way", something maybe only the Moores, the Mortimers and the Hugheses really understand.
She wouldn't be drawn on whether her board will seek a settlement in the Hasler case and even if they did, it would be done with a minimum of fuss.
It is much like their campaign to sweep to power. Not much publicity, but members of the Reform ticket knocked on the doors of eligible voting members as far north as Tweed Heads and as far south as Ulladulla to make their pitch.
They asked each and every one to trade the new Canterbury for the old Canterbury. Which they did. And now the old Canterbury must start winning again. It's the only way the Bulldogs know.
