Barrett facing sack as Bulldogs call emergency meeting on coach’s future with another spoon looming

Trent Barrett’s potential as Canterbury coach is on the line with the best-rating club officials established to satisfy as early as Monday to make your mind up irrespective of whether he will survive in the purpose.

The Dogs are anchored to the bottom of the NRL ladder with a 2-8 history just after their 16-6 decline to Newcastle in the Magic Round opener on Friday night time and are staring down the prospect of their second straight picket spoon underneath Barrett.

Club chairman John Khoury is envisioned to fulfill normal manager Phil Gould early in the week to discuss whether or not Barrett should continue on in the function. Gould, who coached Barrett in the Condition of Origin arena at NSW in the early 2000s, has been a staunch advocate of the former Kangaroos 5-eighth and just lately stated he would coach the crew for a prolonged time.

He is contracted until finally the close of subsequent yr but irrespective of an inflow of large-priced recruits this 12 months which include Josh Addo-Carr, Matt Burton, Tevita Pangai jnr, Brent Naden, Paul Vaughan, Matt Dufty and Braidon Burns, he has been unable to change the team’s fortunes about.

(Picture by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Illustrations or photos)

Canterbury have Viliame Kikau and Reed Mahoney coming to the club following 12 months.

They ended up a distant very last with a 3-21 history very last time in Barrett’s initially time at the helm immediately after a prosperous stint as Penrith’s assistant underneath Ivan Cleary.

“I audio like a broken file,” Barrett stated soon after Friday night’s reduction when his staff went down to a Newcastle facet which had absent seven matches without victory.

“It’s the identical each and every week and it is not superior sufficient. I think every person does (want to step up). We’re just building way too many glitches and building it much too tough for ourselves.”

Previous Raiders coach David Furner is on Barrett’s staff as an assistant and could be parachuted into the head job if the Bulldogs’ powerbrokers make a alter.

The Dogs just take on fellow strugglers Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval subsequent Friday so if Barrett continues to be in the gig, a decline to another workforce down the base of the ladder would surely be the remaining nail in the coffin on his time at Belmore.

There are several former to start with-quality coaches on the lookout for a new task with North Queensland’s 2015 premiership-winner Paul Inexperienced and Cronulla’s 2016 grand final-winning mentor Shane Flanagan among them.

Flanagan’s son, Kyle, was recalled to the Canterbury NRL aspect in controversial situation in Round 5 but his sort has been unimpressive as the Canines have been bad at scoring points.

Barrett’s prior stint as an NRL mentor finished in acrimonious situation at Manly in 2018 right after a conflict with management around assets at the club.