Dear Members and Fans,
The first few weeks of the season have been difficult. No one at the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs doubts that.
We are a resilient club, however, that will continue to stick to the Bulldogs’ values of toughness in all situations.
Last night’s performance proved that.
After a disappointing result the previous week against Manly there were a lot of negative comments written about the club.
We accepted that the performance wasn’t good enough and the playing and coaching staff knuckled down to correct the errors that had been made and to come out fighting last night.
It was fantastic to see that response and also the toughness and commitment shown by the team in difficult conditions at ANZ Stadium
To fight through the adversity and come away with a hard fought win against a tough Broncos side was a credit to all involved.
We would especially like to thank the fans that braved the wet conditions to support the team in person. Your dedication and commitment is greatly appreciated by the players and your loud and enthusiastic support certainly was a factor in getting the boys across the line.
We also understand the enormous conjecture that has taken place about the future of coach Des Hasler.
As the board has said all along it is a vital decision that needed to be made in the right way , making sure that both parties were happy and we have also said we won’t be rushed. We continue to have positive conversations with Des and his management and we hope to have an outcome in the coming weeks.
It has also been great to see the NRL debuts of Brad Abbey, Matt Frawley and local junior Marcelo Montoya in recent weeks.
Marcelo and Brad both had outstanding debuts in our match in Dunedin against the Warriors in round three, while Matt Frawley was excellent last night against the Broncos in the terrible weather conditions.
We are proud of all three players and it is valuable to know we have the depth when we need it.
We also continue to have some outstanding results with our community programs, including a successful Community Blitz, where we visited hundreds of children in schools in our local area with all of our players giving of their time to talk to the children involved about inclusion and being part of a team. It is crucial that we continue to connect with the local community and embrace the diverse multi-cultural population of our local areas.
I encourage you all to become part of our social media platforms. We are producing some great content that is only available to members and we continue our efforts to open up access to our players. Recently, we have profiled all of our debutants and continually seek to give you the most up-to-date and in-depth access of any club in the NRL.
Despite a tough start, everyone at the club is committed to working hard this season to ensure that we continue to show the values of toughness and resilience that you the fans expect from us.
We will not waver on that.
Raelene Castle
Chief Executive
