2002 Bulldogs RLFC season

The 2002 Bulldogs RLFC season was the 68th in the club's history. Coached by Steve Folkes and captained by Steve Price, they competed in the National Rugby League's 2002 Telstra Premiership, finishing the regular season at the bottom of the ladder due to punishment for breaches of the NRL's strictly-enforced salary cap. The discovery of these breaches resulted in then-unprecedented penalties being inflicted upon the Sydney-based club, none more so than the 37 competition points gained from the 2002 season docked from them and the demotion of the club from first to last place with three rounds remaining in the season.^[1] In addition to those penalties, the club was fined a then-record $500,000. The League's top try scorer for the season was Nigel Vagana with 23 and the top points scorer was Hazem El Masri with 254 - both Bulldogs players.

Salary cap breach

The Bulldogs fallout from a disappointing 2000 season saw a "new breed" of players coming through for 2001. The Bulldogs' outfit aged badly in 2000 with many players past their best and a massive cleanout happened with several new players on the way including Nigel Vagana, Luke Patten, Brett Howland and Darrell Trindall. The Bulldogs finished the Minor Premiership in second position but crashed out of the Finals. The Dally M Rookie of the Year that season was Braith Anasta. Mark O'Meley was signed up for the 2002 season as the club said farewell to captain Darren Britt and his deputy Craig Polla-Mounter. With both of those gone, Steve Folkes opted for Steve Price as captain ahead of the more experienced Darren Smith.

In mid-2002, the Bulldogs were found guilty of serious and systemic breaches of the salary cap. NRL Chief Executive David Gallop described the violation as "exceptional in both its size and its deliberate and ongoing nature". The club received the maximum fine of $500,000, and was stripped of all 37 competition points.^[2] The latter action was particularly harmful, as the club were poised to take the Minor Premiership and had won 17 consecutive matches (the second highest in Australian club rugby league history at the time); the penalty meant that the club would win the wooden spoon. Fans of the club had gone from the joy of a last-minute win over Newcastle just two weeks prior to the pain, anguish and realisation that the club would not be participating in the 2002 finals.^[3]

The stripping of the Bulldogs' points also enabled the Canberra Raiders to make the finals with a points differential of -170, the poorest such record of any finalist in the competition's history, and despite the fact that the Raiders only won one game outside of Canberra for the entire season. It also enabled the New Zealand Warriors to secure their first minor premiership in the club's history.

An extensive NRL investigation resulted in two senior club officials being charged with fraud, theft and forgery by the NSW Police; both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to nine years jail with a non-parole period of seven years, and were suspended from the NRL for life.

Club legend Steve Mortimer was brought in to save the Club, and the Bulldogs then finished one game short of the Grand Final in 2003.

Ladder

The Warriors received A$100,000 prize money for finishing the regular season as minor premiers.^[4]

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	New Zealand Warriors	24	17	0	7	2	688	454	+234	38
2	Newcastle Knights	24	17	0	7	2	724	498	+226	38
3	Brisbane Broncos	24	16	1	7	2	672	425	+247	37
4	Sydney Roosters	24	15	1	8	2	621	405	+216	35
5	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	24	15	0	9	2	653	597	+56	34
6	Parramatta Eels	24	10	2	12	2	531	440	+91	26
7	St George Illawarra Dragons	24	9	3	12	2	632	546	+86	25
8	Canberra Raiders	24	10	1	13	2	471	641	-170	25
9	Northern Eagles	24	10	0	14	2	503	740	-237	24
10	Melbourne Storm	24	9	1	14	2	556	586	-30	23
11	North Queensland	24	8	0	16	2	496	803	-307	20
12	Penrith Panthers	24	7	0	17	2	546	654	-108	18
13	Wests Tigers	24	7	0	17	2	498	642	-144	18
14	South Sydney Rabbitohs	24	5	0	19	2	385	817	-432	14
15	Bulldogs	24	20	1	3	2	707	435	+272	8¹

¹Canterbury were deducted 37 premiership points due to gross salary cap breaches.

References

↑ Bulldogs are out, vows NRL boss - smh.com.au
↑ Tunnah, Helen (2002-08-24). "Rugby League: 37 nails in Bulldogs' kennel". The New Zealand Herald. APN Holdings NZ Limited. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
↑ Tearful fans have hit rock bottom - smh.com.au
↑ NZPA (2002-10-05). "Sorry guys, the cheque's not in the mail". nzherald.co.nz (APN Holdings NZ Limited). Retrieved 2009-12-04.

External links

Full coverage of the Bulldogs salary cap breach from The Sydney Morning Herald

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs

Est. 1935 in Sydney, New South Wales

Club	History Records Players Honours Coaches

Home grounds	Belmore Sports Ground Spotless Stadium ANZ Stadium

Culture	Club songs Bulldogs Hall of Fame Back to Belmore

Important figures	Moore family Mortimer brothers Chris Anderson Steve Folkes Hughes family Terry Lamb Hazem El Masri

League	NSWRL ARL SL NRL

Premierships (8)	1938 1942 1980 1984 1985 1988 1995 2004

Seasons (80)	1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Other competitions	Current National Youth Competition New South Wales Cup S. G. Ball Cup Harold Matthews Cup Past Amco Cup Jersey Flegg Cup

Affiliations	Sydney Bulls

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, August 10, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.