Canterbury Bulldogs great Josh Morris has launched into his former club over the playing group's work ethic.
A tumultuous week off the field for the Bulldogs to end the season was capped with a high-scoring loss to the Gold Coast Titans on Sunday afternoon.
It means Canterbury finished the regular season in 15th place and, more concerningly, has shown next to no improvement on the side that turned out last year despite high-profile signings and the arrival of Cameron Ciraldo as coach.
In a horror final week of the season, the Bulldogs were constantly in the media over players not liking a heavy training workload and punishments for arriving late.
But speaking on 2GB Radio, Morris said he agreed with how Ciraldo was attempting to change the culture at Belmore from a losing one to a winning one.
โIt's hard to see as a former player. You don't want to see a club like the Bulldogs where they are right now,โ Morris said on 2GB.
โI agree with what Cameron Ciraldo is trying to do. He is trying to change a culture from a losing one, which it has been for five years, to a winning one.
โHow do you do that? You build that on hard work.โ
One of the reported criticisms from Canterbury's playing group was over having one long day per week, something Cameron Ciraldo defended when quizzed mid-week.
Morris revealed that when he played under Des Hasler, wrestling until you couldn't breathe and spending long days at training where 'normal' rather than the exception.
โI don't think all the Bulldogs players are working hard. I mean wrestling 20-30 blokes, that was a Monday or Tuesday when I played with Dessie. We would wrestle non-stop and you pretty much go until you couldn't breathe,โ Morris said.
โIt's the generation as well. They want to get paid as much as they can for doing as little as they can.
โThe job hasn't changed. You are a professional athlete. If you think turning up to training half an hour early is good enough, your wrong. You have to turn up 45 minutes to an hour before training starts.
โYou got to be accountable in how you train and how you play โฆ You hear about all this negativity and whinging about long training days. They have one long training day where they finish at 5pm. We would do days where we would get in at 7 and leave at 5 nearly every day.
โWhen you are losing, you find things to whinge about. It's like cancer, it just spreads.
โIt takes one or two players being in senior positions for it to filter down and the younger players see that.
โI've got no doubt that some of those players have checked out already. No doubts. Last weekend, there were players out there that looked like they didn't care and that's the heartbreaking thing for me.โ
