It’s been 21 years since the Bulldogs have won a grand final but there’s something about this year’s squad that would have the club’s last premiership-winning coach beaming with pride.
Steve Folkes was the last man to take the Dogs to the promised land. He was an “old-school” type of coach, who “didn’t say much” and “didn’t give much,” according to club great Mark O’Meley.
But he knew how to win and he guided Canterbury-Bankstown to their eighth premiership in 2004 off the back of hard work.
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‘Folkesy’ was renowned for his seriously impressive fitness regimen — something he maintained up until his devastating death in 2018 at 59-years old.
Fitness was his bread and butter when it came to coaching. So much so, that was all his players did for the first month of pre-season each year, as O’Meley recalled on the Fox League Podcast.
“Coming here (in 2002), I remember saying to Braith Anasta and Willie Mason ‘do we touch a football at this club? Because it was a month into pre-season and we hadn’t touched one,” he said.
“We were just doing triathlons, 50km bike rides in the Royal National Park, commandos at Balmoral. It was just ruthless.
“They said ‘we don’t touch a footy until after Christmas’. I remember thinking ‘this is weird.’
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“Then we started playing trial games and teams couldn’t really break us because we were so fit.
“We played, I think it was Parramatta, at the Showground one night and defended six sets on our line and they didn’t score. That set us up for that year.
“After that it felt like we were unbeatable. The confidence and extra leg we grew from that made us a formidable force.
“I remember players like Shane Webcke would ring me and say ‘you’re too light, you need to put five kilos on’. But I was more mobile, I could move, I could play longer, I could kick-chase.
“It had pros and cons but the fitness here and work ethic here instilled that mental resilience that we had throughout the years.
“There’s games that would go down to the wire and we’d score in the last two minutes to win. But we were confident and you never felt like you’d ever lose.”
You’ll find smaller and more mobile forwards, relentless kick-chase and almost unbreakable defence in this year’s Bulldogs team because coach Cameron Ciraldo values hard work and fitness just the same as Folkes did.
“Folkesy would be proud as watching the boys today, especially how fit they are,” O’Meley smiled.
“We talk about it with the old boys all the time how ‘Ciro’ has changed this culture and squad and how fit they are. He would be proud as because that’s what he was about.”
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O’Meley spent six years under Folkes at the Bulldogs where he earned a reputation as one of the toughest and most feared enforcers in the game.
His nickname ‘Ogre’ — which he’s carried since he was 16-years old — probably contributed to that too.
But he absolutely leant into the role he played on the field, in fact it’s one of the things he misses the most.
“I loved to walk on a field and know I could intimidate and blow a team to pieces,” he said.
“I could walk on a field, I could grin at people, smile at them, laugh at them and then just eyeball them and then set the platform for my team.
“That’s what I miss, that’s what I loved doing. When you’re fit, powerful, dominant and you have a great group behind you that follow you.”
O’Meley played a key role in the premiership season, but four years later he and Mason joined the Dogs’ fierce rivals of the early 2000s, the Sydney Roosters, following the footsteps of fellow ‘04 teammate Anasta, who had already jumped shipped.
It’s important to know though that O’Meley had intended on staying at Belmore, however a verbal agreement fell through when there was a change in boards.
And so with the blessing of Folkes he became a Rooster.
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“Going to the Roosters they wanted to change the club to have a family culture so they sold that to me,” he said.
“I sat down and spoke to Folkesy and told him the offer, he tried to keep me here but said ‘I’ll drive you there.’ He said ‘you’ve got a young family, you’ve been through two clubs that have gone into liquidation, you’ve made sacrifices for this club… I’ll drive you there.’
“So I left here on good terms. The day I announced it the boys were all at my home congratulating me and we had a barbecue.”
When asked if he was nervous to break that news to Folkes, O’Meley said: “Not really because if you’re honest, especially with this club, they’re honest to you.”
O’Meley only had to wait until Round 4 to go up against his former club and remembers it like yesterday.
“I told Sonny (Sonny-Bill Williams) I’d run straight at him. He shoulder charged me and we both got on with it. I think he probably got the better of me,” he laughed.
After two years at the Roosters, O’Meley headed over to the Super League to play for Hull FC before announcing his retirement in 2013. He did, however, pull on the boots again a year later to play for the Wyong Roos with his eldest son.
Various coaching stints followed, but now the 44-year-old is back where he belongs — at Belmore — working in pathways with the Bulldogs.
Ironically, this interview just so happened to be conducted in the very room he did a handshake deal with former club president Barry Nelson 24 years ago.
O’Meley reminisces his decorated career on the latest episode of the Fox League Podcast. From growing up in the small town of Barmedman to the big stage of Origin and representing his country, O’Meley covers it all.
He talks about the Bulldogs’ success in the 2000s, his horrific injuries, reveals the backstory to his nickname and of course his famous pre-game ritual of rubbing Dencorub on his face.
Listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts.
