Hasler can coach: two premierships at Manly and five grand final appearances all up. In his last days at the Bulldogs, he’d lost the dressing room. The players weren’t listening to him any more. But he hadn’t lost the room in the traditional sense where players begin to dislike the coach. At the Bulldogs, the players still loved him, and his former players at Belmore still do. They don’t have a bad word to say about him. But they’d stopped hanging off his every word, as they did when he drove them to the 2012 and 2014 grand finals, because they no longer trusted his methods. One of a kind: Des Hasler has been likened to a mad scientist by his Manly players. Credit:AAP “Dessie’s lost it,” was the familiar refrain.

He became obsessed with spending in the football department; splashing out on sports science. He bought a second-hand big screen kind of thing and hung it on the Belmore scoreboard above the hill so he could film training and then play it back to the players to show them what they were doing wrong in the middle of the session. There was one stat on which he became far too reliant: set completions. He believed you had to complete at 85 per cent to win. Loading So the whole Bulldogs’ game plan was pinned on completing sets: Michael Lichaa was banned from running out of dummy half; Aiden Tolman and James Graham were at first receiver on tackle five. Bizarre stuff that made them the worst attackers in the competition. He had zones on the field the players had to target. For instance, from kick-offs front-rowers had to barge their way to a certain spot. If someone broke ranks and slipped an extra pass and they made more ground in a different zone, a video review session blow-up was imminent.

At the end of 2017, the players revolted and began playing their own game. Suddenly, Lichaa was running, the team was attacking and they won their last three games, scoring 82 points. They had won only two of their previous 12 matches. Everyone was in on it except skipper Josh Jackson, who was petrified “Dessie would go ballistic”. Tough times: Things ended badly for Des Hasler at the Bulldogs. Credit:Quentin Jones Hasler's enablers at the Dogs – chairman Ray Dib and chief executive Raelene Castle – cut him in an act of self-preservation, which ultimately failed as they both followed him out the door, both blinded by Dessie’s science. Being sacked was the best thing that could have happened to Hasler. The Bulldogs paid him out and, on gardening leave, his mind cleared. Now he is back where he does his best stuff: his spiritual home, Manly, with poor facilities and no money.

Loading Facilities former coach Trent Barrett couldn't work with. No longer suffering paralysis by analysis, Hasler has orchestrated an underdog drive up the NRL ladder for the Sea Eagles. Backs to the wall stuff. He’s now concentrating his efforts on flying under the radar. One Thursday he phoned the Channel Nine sports desk to find out who was attending his weekly press conference the next day. He then told us we shouldn’t bother turning up as he wasn’t going to say anything interesting. Classic Hasler.