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Culture is vital to a NRL club's chances of success. A club might assemble the best 17 players in the competition, but they won't win a premiership without the right culture. The best coaches are as much about building a club's culture as they are about defensive systems and attacking plays. The players need more than just talent, they need to believe absolutely in the player next to them and the strength of their combined commitment to the cause. Rugby league is the ultimate team sport, individual brilliance might win the occasional game, but alone it can't win a title. A visit to Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs headquarters at Belmore will reveal a mantra written in large blue letters on many of the interior walls: "Club First, Team Second, Individual Third." It is a constant reminder to the players that they are a part of something much larger than themselves. They are the talent, selected to play for a team which represents the club. The club carries the hopes and expectations of a larger community, the fans. It is why Josh Addo-Carr had his contract torn up by the Canterbury Bankstown board on Thursday evening. One of the competition's most talented wingers was seen to have placed himself above the club and the team. On the crest of the Bulldogs' first finals campaign in living memory, Addo-Carr failed a roadside drug test. Worse than that, he looked football boss Phil Gould in the eye and told him he was innocent. Gould went to the media in full support of his player, only for the secondary test to confirm the findings of the first, that Addo-Carr was driving with cocaine in his system.  Addo-Carr met with the board on Thursday, still proclaiming his innocence. The secondary test results were enough for the NSW Police to fine him and suspend his driving license, and they were enough for the NRL to suspend him for four weeks, but somehow Addo-Carr maintained that he had no idea how the substance was found in his system. The board simply did not believe him, saying as much in a media statement. "This season has demonstrated the importance of building a culture based on clear standards and values. While the NRL Integrity Unit has completed its investigation and imposed a four-match suspension, the club views the combination of the failed drug test and subsequent lack of transparency as serious breaches of Josh's contractual obligations and our club's standards." The New South Wales and Australia winger will likely find a new club soon enough, with the St George Illawarra Dragons rumoured to be interested in his signature. The Dragons have been working on a different cultural problem, with star halfback Ben Hunt released from the final year of his contract this week. Hunt has been trying to leave the Dragons for several years now and with one year left on his contract, was set to sign elsewhere as soon as the November 1 deadline passed. It is simply untenable for a club to have its highest paid player and captain openly looking to play elsewhere. Not every player is good enough to pick and choose where he plays and Hunt has every right to relocate his family, but the Dragons could not play out the 2025 season with their captain's bags already half packed.  Coach Shane Flanagan, in his second year at the Dragons, had to make a decisive move as he battles to rebuild the culture of a club that has struggled now for years. He won't find a better halfback than Hunt for 2025, but he knows that whoever he throws the No. 7 jersey at, they will be fully committed to the cause and more than happy to have the opportunity. The Parramatta Eels terminated the contract of coach Brad Arthur this year, before appointing Jason Ryles to the role starting in 2025. Ryles is looking to rebuild, stamp his mark on the roster and no doubt revitalise a floundering club culture. The Eels played in the 2022 grand final, but have tumbled to the depths of mediocrity in the past two years. Clint Gutherson has been the backbone of the club during that time, but as his contract nears its end, he has been told to look elsewhere, and might also end up at the Dragons.  Was Gutherson the reason the Eels almost claimed the wooden spoon this year? No, that was the team's collective failures. But in letting him go Ryles is sending a clear message to the rest of the team that no one is safe, the club is bigger than the individual, and that recent performances have not been good enough. Ryles might struggle in the short term to find a fullback as good Gutherson, but he knows whoever he selects to play in the No. 1 jersey will be hungry to prove himself. He also knows that he has placed the other players on notice to perform. Similar to the Eels, the Broncos played in a recent grand final, before sacking their coach Kevin Walters this year and giving the job to veteran Michael Maguire. Maguire also faces a cultural problem at the Broncos and one of his first tasks will be to sort out the Ezra Mam situation. Mam was not only caught driving with cocaine in his system, he was also unlicensed and caused an accident that injured a mother and her daughter. It is hard to see how Maguire can reboot the Broncos' culture without making an example of Mam. From the outside it would appear that giving Mam a second chance would corrode any attempt to convince the players that the club is more important than the individual. The Broncos have just re-signed Reece Walsh to the biggest contract in the club's history. Walsh has had his own issues with the seemingly ubiquitous white powder. He has also been seen to be an individual who might consider himself more important than the club. Players who enjoy meteoric rises can easily fall into that trap, but the true champions soon realise that they are nothing without the teammates around them. It is a very fine balancing act which the coaches face. The club culture must come before the egos of the players. The coaches have to nurture talent while ensuring that everyone is contributing to the best of their ability, 100% of the time. Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo, in an interview during the 2024 season, explained what his club was after in a player. "The main trait we were looking for was men with strong character. Men who were willing to work hard, work together and trust in our process." Sometimes the best players for a club are not necessarily the most talented. A good club player needs to recognise his place in the system and be willing to commit himself to that hierarchy. Once any player is allowed to place himself above the club, the whole house of cards crumbles, and it is usually the coach who finds himself on the bottom of it and unemployed.
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