NRL: Canterbury in emergency meetings over Barrett’s future

On Sunday night, reports emerged that Canterbury Bulldogs powerbrokers had called an emergency meeting regarding the immediate future of the club’s head coach, Trent Barrett. It is understood that a decision will be confirmed by Tuesday.

The Bulldogs were praised relentlessly heading into the 2022 NRL season as a host of signings were announced to take them out of wooden-spoon contention. Josh Addo-Carr, Tevita Pangai Jr and Matt Burton were hailed as the big names needed to make ‘The Kennel’ feared again. However, a lack of cohesion on and off the field between head coach Trent Barrett and general manager of football Phil ‘Gus’ Gould has given the Bulldogs only two wins in their first 10 games.

Barrett has spent the season so far displaying an inability to manage his roster or properly utilise the rotation of interchanges in games, as well as an inability to inspire and motivate his side to perform at a high level week in, week out.

The Bulldogs may have started their season with a two-point win over the Cowboys in North Queensland, but signs clearly showed Barrett had his hands full early. Between naming his initial side for round one and the team taking the field that weekend, Barrett made a whopping six changes to the starting line-up, with only one of those changes forced by injury.

The stability of the Bulldogs’ first-grade side would only worsen, as Barrett has gone on to make multiple changes in key positions that continually disjoint his team. He went as far as to select Brandon Wakeham at halfback in their clash against the Sea Eagles, only for the 23-year-old to be hooked from the game for the final 15 minutes.

Issues grew between Barrett and Gould at Canterbury when Kyle Flanagan was finally selected in the first-grade side by the coach, as Gould explicitly stated that he was the dictator of who was and was not available for selection. Barrett had used three halfbacks, including Flanagan, who long appeared Barrett’s last choice in that role.

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The selection of Flanagan was criticised heavily in the media, with the former Rooster framed as a potential scapegoat for the number of issues Barrett had encountered. The coach would only create more for himself by leaving Flanagan out of the traditional first receiver role; instead fullback Matt Dufty would step into dummy half, pushing hooker Jeremy Marshall-King to first receiver.

Some criticism was that Flanagan had not taken part in any first-grade training sessions. This was clear for all to see, as he appeared to have no connection with backrower Pangai Jr and halves partner Burton. For a team needing wins to silence their critics, the Bulldogs lacked any type of direction or attacking potential.

Barrett has been the conductor of poor interchanging plans that, despite all intentions to maximise the output of star recruits such as Pangai Jr, have failed incredibly. Barrett burnt four of his total eight changes against the Brisbane Broncos on his star forward, who managed only 34 post-contact metres and two tackle breaks as Canterbury went on to lose.

While the Bulldogs have been beaten by competition heavyweights Melbourne and Penrith, they have also been on the losing side when taking on struggling clubs such as the Raiders and Knights. The Dogs often find themselves being beaten in areas of the game such as their completion rate, total run metres, tackle efficiency, errors and penalties conceded. They are areas of effort and discipline that are imperative when it comes to winning games at the top level.

It is the issues in those areas that prompted Gould to allegedly hijack both video review and on-field training sessions, reading the riot act to his first-grade players. Surprisingly, this was the catalyst for the Bulldogs beating the Sydney Roosters, a victory many credited to Gould.

Barrett’s gross misuse of the roster at his disposal has cost his team a 2-8 record to start the 2022 NRL season. With six months of preparation, Barrett could not settle on a starting 17 to begin the year, bungled his interchange rotation and has failed to be the coach that inspires his side to win.

While Gould may have a long history of firing head coaches, Barrett has more than Gus to be concerned about. The news that broke on Sunday evening only confirmed what most already expected: that the Canterbury board has lost all confidence in the man at the helm.

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