Andrew Johns says the reason for Canterbury’s demise mainly comes down to not investing enough in their spine, rather than Trent Barrett’s coaching.
“They haven’t got NRL class players in key positions,” the Immortal told Wide World of Sports’ Freddy and The Eighth.
“Dufty at fullback horribly, horribly out of form. Matt Burton down on confidence, some of his passing on the weekend was so unlike him.
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“Jeremy Marshall-King, he’s tough but doesn’t create and craft, and lacks the creativity from dummy-half. Kyle Flanagan, I don’t know if consistently he’s up to NRL standard week in week out.”
Trent Barrett quit his post at the Bulldogs this week with club great Mick Potter to take over for the rest of the season. Just one day after the Barrett bombshell was dropped Brent Naden left the club to join the Wests Tigers, adding to the tumult at Belmore.
It’s been an incredibly dry spell for the club, which hasn’t featured in NRL finals since 2016, and have been anchored down towards the bottom of the ladder for the last four years. When they signed the likes of Matt Burton, Tevita Pangai Jr, Naden, Dragons duo Matt Dufty and Paul Vaughan and Storm superstar Josh Addo-Carr for the 2022 season, there was increasing optimism the family club could return to the glory years.
Since arriving at the club as general manager of football, Phil Gould has added Eels hooker Reed Mahoney and Panthers forward Viliame Kikau to the star list of signings, but still the concerns over the team’s spine remain.
While Mahoney in particular will go some way to solving the problem, Johns believes the rush to recruit big name players in non key positions has contributed to the club’s failure to turn things around on the field.
After identifying the weaknesses in Canterbury’s spine, Johns pointed to Melbourne and Penrith as models that should be followed when building a roster.
“The top teams – Melbourne have Papenhuyzen, Munster, Jahrome Hughes, Harry Grant and Brandon Smith,” Johns said.
“Look at Penrith – Jarome [Luai], Nathan [Cleary], Api [Koroisau], Dylan [Edwards]. They’ve (the Bulldogs) got to get some players in key positions.
“I understand Dufty is going to the UK Super League. They need a halfback; Flanagan doesn’t have that NRL class.”
Speaking on Wide World of Sports’ Six Tackles with Gus podcast, Gould said the club will be out of their salary cap problems in 2024.
“The thing I can tell you about the salary cap for 2024, which is now only 18 months away, we only have five or six players on contract,” he said.
“So our salary cap is actually in really good shape. Not right at the moment, but in 18 months’ time we have the opportunity to totally reshape the look of the Bulldogs, the culture of the Bulldogs.”
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