World Cup winning All Blacks coach Steve Hansen wants to create a cultural shift at the Bulldogs after agreeing to come on board as a mentor to new coach Trent Barrett.
The appointment of Hansen is a massive coup for the Bulldogs who are going on a recruiting spree to turn around recent seasons of poor results.
Hansen took the All Blacks through a period of unprecedented success that included going unbeaten throughout 2013, before retaining the World Cup in 2015, defeating Australia at Twickenham in London.
Read Next
He revealed that Barrett reached out for help, having spent time with the All Blacks studying their environment and Hansen, who is no longer in charge of the Kiwis, was happy to come on board.
Hansen declared he would be there to assist Barrett in creating an envirobment where success could be sustained, after the Bulldogs recorded just three wins in 2020.
“The club itself has a rich history and if they want to be successful that will mean spending a lot of time in discussions with Trent about maybe being a backboard for him and maybe going left instead of right at times,†Hansen said.
“The key thing is he is the man in charge and my role is to assist him to create that environment really.
“You’re in a very limited winning environment if you don’t have the right culture. You can only sustain success if you have the right culture.
“If your culture is airy-fairy, so are your results going to be. You may ssee uccess for a little while but it won’t happen long term.â€
🗣 “You have to understand who you are as a team. Who you are representing and the history of that.†– Steve Hansen#proudtobeabulldog pic.twitter.com/EnVosp02W4
— Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (@NRL_Bulldogs) October 28, 2020
Hansen said there had to be “non-negitoables†with players who also had to understand their place in the Bulldog’s rich history.
“You have to understand who you are as a team. Who you are representing and the history of that and what does that mean from a responsibility point of view,†he said.
“There’s always certain things that have to happen for that environment to be right.
“One of the non-negotiatbles is the team is more important than the individual. That way you get everyone contributing to the team, making good decisions.
“No young athlete is ever going to be perfect, they will all make mistakes, they sometimes go left when they should go right.
“It’s a good opportunity to be involved in another sport and I am excited by it.â€
