Dogs at War: Triumph, Treachery and the Truth

For the past ten years the Canterbury-Bankstown Rugby League Club (the Bulldogs) has reeled from one crisis to the next. Once known as the "Family Club" and the "Entertainers," the Bulldogs have since figured in many off-field dramas including rape allegations, executive reshuffles, and sorting the salary cap. Three families have dominated the club in the past thirty years—The Moores—whose patriarch was long-time club boss Peter "Bullfrog" Moore who ran the club with an iron fist and whose sons-in-law include several former players like recent coach Steve Folkes and previous coach Chris Anderson. The Mortimer brothers—Steve, Peter, and Chris—and The Hughes Brothers—Graeme, Garry, and Mark—nephews of Peter Moore. How did the club disintegrate and lose its way? Graeme Hughes autobiographically walks us through his first associations with the Bulldogs culminating in the great Grand Final win of 1980 in which he played. Then we follow the Bulldogs' fortunes through Graeme and his brothers' official roles with the club and Graeme as TV sportscaster. The death of Peter "Bullfrog" Moore was a key turning point and soon bastardry, disintegration, and the scandal cited above dominated the club.