Inside Barrett’s final hours at Bulldogs... and the moment that left players ‘stunned’

Trent Barrett has quit as Bulldogs coach following the club’s disastrous start to the season.

The Bulldogs issued a statement on Monday confirming the embattled coach had “stood down”, effective immediately.

“We would sincerely like to thank Trent for all of his hard work and effort over the past 18 months in what has been a very difficult time for the Club,” the statement read.

“As this is a challenging time for all parties, the Club would like to respect Trent’s privacy and wish him all the best for the future.”

It followed reports that the club was scheduled to hold an emergency meeting to discuss Barrett’s future following the Magic Round loss to the Knights which was viewed as the breaking point.

The Daily Telegraph’s David Riccio revealed players began arriving at Belmore around 7am on Monday and were left “stunned” after being told Barrett had quit the night before.

A 9.30am training session was cancelled and the players were sent home, their schedule for their upcoming clash with the Wests Tigers abandoned.

The playing group were reportedly told to return to training on Wednesday when a new coach would be in place. They were also instructed not to speak to the media.

Forward Paul Vaughan, however, couldn’t resist a swipe at the waiting media pack.

“Do you have to be here? You are the worst kind of people,” he said.

Barrett, meanwhile, was not at Belmore on Monday as the club held a series of meetings with head of football Phil Gould and captain Josh Jackson in attendance.

The developments come just weeks after Gould backed Barrett as the club’s long-term coach.

Earlier, speaking on Sports Breakfast Radio, the Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield said Barrett would not survive the week.

“No he doesn’t (survive). He is gone,” Rothfield said.

“I think there’s internal issues emerging with an unhappy roster and I think the axe will fall in the next 48 hours.”

Rothfield said the club was handling the situation “very delicately” to make it appear that Phil Gould was not behind Barrett’s axing, with both men managed by Wayne Beavis.

“Phil Gould can’t be seen as the person who sacks him. But he’s got a history of getting rid of coaches. You go back to Penrith with Ivan cleary and Anthony Griffin,” Rothfield said.

“The way it will be orchestrated is, it will be a board decision. People with any real knowledge of the situation know Gus has more power than the chairman, CEO or anybody within the club and it’s his decision.

“What will happen is Trent Barrett, it will be orchestrated that (Barrett) resigns and stands down and says publicly he’s not in position to take the team forward.”

Fox League’s panel of experts spoke on the meeting on Sunday and suggested the “writing is on the wall”.

“It has been an extremely tough time for Trent Barrett and the Bulldogs but the fact that there is an emergency meeting probably suggests that the writing is on the wall,” Corey Parker said.

“Otherwise then why is there an emergency meeting, what are they going to meet about, if it is not going to be about the future of Trent Barrett.

“It has been a difficult season for them but I don’t know that another coach gets more out of what they have got, I am not sure about that, they have turned up the Bulldogs for most games but they have just really struggled to score points.

“They compete and they turn up but, there is a lot of frustration that is going on there, the performance that they put in the other night against the Knights was totally unacceptable in a lot of areas, and a lot of areas that were just effort based not talent.”

The former Panthers assistant had no answers in Friday night’s post-match press conference, having slumped to the dismal record of only five wins from 34 games.

Many fans had a positive outlook coming into this season, with a number of high-profile recruits including Matt Burton and Josh Addo-Carr ready to revive the cellar dwellers.

But now any optimism has faded and the Bulldogs will not be short of options should they be needing a new coach.

Paul Green, Shane Flanagan and Cameron Ciraldo are the experienced options to take over, while Steve Price has had a successful stint in Cronulla and Kristian Woolf has been solid at St Helens.

 

Story first published on Fox Sports Australia

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Author: 
Tom Sargeant from Fox Sports