Heads will roll at the Bulldogs this week, inside sources are heralding in the media, with Trent Barrett on the verge of being axed from the club top job after the beleaguered team lost their ‘four-point’ game against the Knights at Suncorp Stadium on Friday and slipped to last place again.
The Sporting Base has heard Barrett could be gone as soon as Wednesday.
That’s the same tune the Daily Telegraph is singing too; according to Phil Rothfield, the club has called an emergency meeting today to discuss the future of their struggling helmsman, with everything pointing to his head rolling in the critical meet.
The plan, the Telegraph reports, is to sell the chop as a mutual split. The inner workings, however, will see Gus Gould swing the axe after Barrett slumped to a 5–29 record this week.
Club members have been blowing up Bulldogs phones all weekend.
That pressure and the fact that Canterbury-Bankstown’s front office recruited relatively well in the offseason and has still had to watch their team tumble down into the wooden spoon danger spot after ten rounds have all played a part in the melting pot that eventually decided Trent Barret’s fate at the blue-and-white Sydney club.
The Bulldogs signed Josh Addo-Carr, Max King, Matt Burton, Tevita Pangai Jr, Matt Dufty, Paul Vaughn, and Brent Naden, but are still far from a complete package out on the footy field.
There are several coaches waiting in the wings that could lead the refreshed Dogs squad.
This includes Shane Flanagan, whose son Kyle is already playing for the club. His role in the halves could be boosted if his father takes up the top job being offered around this week. Paul Green, who won the NRL with the North Queensland Cowboys in 2015, is another big name being linked with the soon-to-be coachless club this week.
There are those at the club that would love to lure Panthers assistant Cameron Ciraldo into one of the sixteen (soon seventeen) NRL hot seats too. St Helens’ Kristian Woolf has also been mentioned.
