The moment that spelled the end for Trent Barrett at Bulldogs
There's a moment towards the back-end of Canterbury's awful loss to Newcastle in Magic Round that told you all you need to know about how bad things got at the Dogs under Trent Barrett.
With his team down by four and eight minutes left in the game, Josh Addo-Carr finds himself in at dummy-half and decides a chip kick from 40m out is the best fifth tackle option.
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The ball slices off his foot and falls harmlessly into the arms of a Newcastle player and another ineffective set comes to an end.
The Knights score soon after and defeat No.8 for the season is chalked up for a Canterbury side so low on confidence and morale it's almost palpable.
It left the Bulldogs board with no option but to twist Barrett's arm and strongly suggest he quit before being sacked.
He took the advice.
The rot had to stop.
"Kyle Flanagan got tackled and I just ran the ball and realised it was last tackle," Addo-Carr explained at fulltime.
"Burto (Matt Burton) was on the other side of the field and it was just a play, brah.
"There was no frustration, I just didn’t know it was last tackle."
It’s a move that would have earned the Fox a fierce blast from his old coach Craig Bellamy, but underlines the level of desperation and lack of organisation at Canterbury.
The Dogs are rock bottom of the table, averaging fewer than 10 points a game and showing absolutely no sign of improvement
They throw nothing at you in attack and a better side than Newcastle would have put plenty on them.
Good players look average, average players look park standard.
Players are trying to solve problems on their own, with Addo-Carr's chip Exhibit A.
They won just five games of 34 under Barrett and he leaves them officially a rabble.
Bulldogs in search of a new coach for 2022
Word on the street in Brisbane was Barrett and Phil Gould stayed back after the Knights debacle to work out how to play it.
The pair share the same manager so you would think the exit plan would have been a fairly smooth exercise.
The coach's resignation saved face for Gould, who recently said Barrett would be at Belmore long after he was gone.
Gus can put hand on heart and say he didn’t load the bullets in the chamber.
The Dogs are likely to copy the Cronulla blueprint and appoint a caretaker for the rest of 2022 before looking at a young, up-and-coming coach from a good system – most likely Penrith assistant Cameron Ciraldo.
Premiership winners Paul Green and Shane Flanagan are options should they seek a more immediate fix.
As for Barrett?
He needs time away from the game to re-evaluate his future.
He is an excellent assistant but an NRL head coaching role has proved beyond him in stints at two clubs across five years.
He is one of the genuinely decent people in the game and this won't be the last we hear of him.
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