Rugby League: Down, out and ashamed in Doggie-land

By PETER JESSUP in Sydney

Canterbury-Bankstown was a Bulldog-free zone yesterday.

The blue and white banners were absent.

Not a single Bulldogs jersey walked the streets.

The district seems to feel the shame and embarrassment of the local league side's salary cap scandal.

The local sports store has taken the club's gear out of its window.

The official NRL shop said it expected sales to drop from a predicted A$100,000 ($116,225) to zero - not one bumper sticker was sold this week.

Before the decision came out last night, there was concern that too harsh a punishment could provoke riots.

Already this season, there have been several serious incidents in Bulldog country.

There were brawls with rival fans at the Sydney Showground and on trains carrying fans.

Gangs of generally Lebanese youths wearing Bulldogs jerseys are the subject of police warnings after reports of standover tactics and street robbery.

The Bankstown police station was shot up by a Lebanese gang two years ago and Asians have been beaten.

The gang of rapists whose leader was sentenced to 55 years' jail for pack attacks on Australian women came from the area.

All this is leading to nervousness and talk of racism, of lawlessness.

There's a feeling the football club has added to the general attitude of ignoring the rules, of snubbing authority, or taking it on.

The main streets of Rookwood, Lakemba, Villawood, Auburn, Padstow - Doggie heartland - were bare of Bulldogs supporters yesterday - at least, of any who wanted to identify themselves as such.

The Bulldogs fan club is running a bus convoy to Canberra for their game. Police are nervous, planning extra security for the ground.

Veiled threats are running between players from each side as the Raiders ask why they should risk injury against cheats.

The club found nothing good in yesterday's news. Even before the announcement that it had been pushed from the top to the bottom of the table, an NRL audit turned up evidence that A$200,000 ($232,450) taken from ratepayers' money given by the Liverpool Council for the grandiose Oasis casino, sports centre and apartment project had been siphoned off for a player payment.

The Australian Taxation Office said it was reviewing the tax-free status of the Oasis development.

The Bulldogs' sponsor, National Telecommunications Group, met the club to discuss its concerns about the scandal, and is believed to be on the verge of withdrawing.

Dogs coach Steve Folkes went to NRL headquarters to make a personal plea that the team not be expelled.

He met chief executive David Gallop in confidence, and neither commented afterwards.

But whatever Folkes said was to no avail.

When the punishment came, it was comprehensive - the Bulldogs lose 37 competition points and plummet from the top of the table to the bottom.

They retain four points awarded to them for byes, and are required to play the remaining three home and away matches so other sides will not be prejudiced.

But they will not be in the finals and they will have to pay a A$500,000 fine.

Bulldogs historians have just completed a record of the club which was all set for printing, due to go on sale after the glorious grand-final win.

Now, Volume 2 and possibly a third will be needed, because the fallout from this is set to run some distance.

The focus is still on footballers' overblown salaries.

But eventually, the Aussies are going to start asking questions about the A$900 million Oasis project that was supposed to support all this.

Forget the huge casino, covered stadium, water park, 2500 apartments. While robbing themselves of a finals chance, the Bulldogs look to have robbed the wider community of all that.

The one thing clear in Bulldog territory yesterday was that Bulldog was a dirty word. No one wanted to touch them with a bargepole.