Bulldogs supremo Phil Gould has blasted the ‘moron’ who snapped him meeting Titans rake Sam Verrills as he broke his silence on what is going wrong at the club.
With the Dogs falling to a fifth-straight loss as their horror 2026 campaign continues, Gould used the weekend to suss out potential acquisitions.
One of whom is Verrills, who was spotted meeting with Gould, with the image circulating on social media.
The Titans were reportedly blindsided by the meeting but have since opened the door to a potential player swap, which would see them receive centre 25-year-old Bronson Xerri in return, according to The Courier-Mail reports.
Verrills, 27, is unsigned for 2027 and has fallen out of favour with Titans coach Josh Hannay, while Xerri also appears out of favour in Belmore, having been dropped earlier this year and being recalled to first grade due to injuries.
But the Verrills meeting being photographed didn’t sit well with Gould, who labelled the person who took the picture a ‘moron’ before revealing he had met with a host of players and their managers during Magic Round.
“I must have had 12 or 14 meetings around Brisbane over the four days I was up there over the weekend – I met a lot of young players, parents and managers,” Gould said on 100% Footy.
“The mentality of some moron that wants to hide behind a pole and take a photo of you to send it to the papers, what do they get out of that? Who cares, honestly.
“Anyway, I had a lot of meetings on the weekend.”
It comes as veteran journalist Brent Read revealed on NRL360 the Bulldogs are trying to recruit a new fullback and believes the fact Gould is meeting with potential hooker and fullback recruits shows they “got it wrong”.
“I can tell you right now they’re looking around for a fullback,” he said.
“The mere fact they are in the market for those positions shows they know they made some mistakes and need to fix them.”
Gould confirmed as much on Monday night, stating they are looking to bring in reinforcements as they struggle to recapture the form that saw them play finals footy last year.
But the 68-year-old is confident that the issues are being addressed, having broken his silence on what is going wrong at the club.
“There’s no doubt they’re struggling, but I’ve seen all this before. There are a number of reasons why we’re struggling at the moment, and there’s not much we can do about it. We’ve got to just keep turning up and giving it our best shot,” Gould continued.
“The disappointing thing the other night was the start, we were down 24-0 after 20 minutes, and we actually won the next hour.
“They’re fighting on, but we have that bad 20-minute period every week, and it’s costing them games.
“There are a number of factors why we’ve gone the way we have over the past five weeks, but we’re not whinging about it, and we’re not looking for excuses.
“We’ve just got to get some better form back on the field – it belies the way they train and prepare – we’ve just got to get some wins.”
But former Canterbury star Braith Anasta believes that is easier said than done, as they couldn’t even get up for Stephen Crichton’s milestone game last week.
“I watched the tribute to Critta on Instagram, and it was beautiful,” Anasta said.
“If anyone deserved their team to get behind them and win a milestone game it was him and then you look at the performance and you think, ‘What is wrong?’ … we commended them 12 to 18 months ago about how they had changed the DNA and it was the Bulldogs of old.
“That was with players like Sexton and Mahoney, it wasn’t this crazy star-studded team. They just found their mojo and DNA and what it is to be a Bulldog and here we are after numerous decisions and they look nothing like a Bulldogs team.”
At this point of the season last year, the Bulldogs were top of the NRL ladder, before several personnel changes were made, and their season quickly went backwards.
The Dogs changed their hooker and halfback midway through last season and already are seemingly ready to change both positions again, speaking to hooker Verrills, and halfback Luke Metcalf.
However, they ultimately were forced to pull out of the race for the latter due to his high wage demands.
The Bulldogs have won just three of ten matches as they sit in the bottom four on the ladder.
Phil Gould slams ‘unbalanced’ NSW squad
Gould also voiced his displeasure with the structure of the NSW squad ahead of State of Origin 1.
Laurie Daley announced a total of eight changes to his starting 13 that ran out in Game 3 last year, handing out seven debuts.
But Gould doesn’t like what he sees, feeling Billy Slater got Queesland’s squad right and Laurie Daley got it wrong.
“When I look at the NSW squad I don’t think it’s anywhere near as balanced as the Queensland squad and I don’t think it covers as many things that could go wrong on the night potentially,” Gould said on 100% Footy.
“If something happened to James Tesedsco, you’ve virtually got an inexperienced fullback going back there to cover that position. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen.
“The other thing is coverage in the back row. I guess Cameron Murray or a Victor Radley might be able to cover an edge and they have done at a club level, but not in Origin.”
The former Blues coach also feels if NSW has less possession than Queensland they simply won’t win.
“I look at this team and I’m thinking they’re going to have to have a lot of possession. They’re going to have to at least get 50% possession to win this game,” he continued.
“I don’t think this is a team that can survive without the ball for long periods of time, which could happen in Origin. It can happen with if they referee the way they’ve been doing it.
“You know, in Origin we used to talk about you got to win without the ball. You know, whether you come home with 30% possession or 60% doesn’t matter. You still got to win without it.
“I don’t think this team can win without it. They’re going to need a lot of possession to win.”
