Greg Bird reveals the four players who ‘ruined everything’ at Catalans Dragons

Catalans Dragons remain the only French side in Super League once again following Toulouse’s relegation and they’re not there to make up the numbers.

Upon entering Super League the team from Perpignan had a period whereby they couldn’t be relegated in order to establish themselves in the league.

Since then they’ve gone from strength to strength and have even made a Grand Final in recent years, as well as winning the Challenge Cup and League Leaders’ Shield.

No longer do teams see Catalans on their fixture list and assume they’re in for an easy two points, the Dragons are now one of the most competitive sides in Super League and Perpignan is almost a fortress from the French outift.

Testament to that is the fact that they’ve made the play-offs three years on the bounce, and they look set to do so again this season as they aim to win their first Super League title.

Speaking about their rise, former player Greg Bird has revealed the reasons behind their success and helped to explain the huge shift that had previously led to half-hearted seasons, but now is sprouting success.

Speaking with James Graham on The Bye Round Podcast, Bird was questioned about former players such as Willie Mason who only six weeks ago referred to his former Catalans head coach Laurent Frayssinous as “a bit of  d**k”.

Bird said: “They had the awesome foursome there before me, which probably ruined everything in Todd Carney, Dave Taylor, Willie Mason and Justin Horro. They had a pretty loose crew and had plenty of Barcelona trips.”

That lined up with what Mason revealed to Graham when he explained that players would regularly catch a coach or flight to Barcelona for the social life during the week, rather than prepare for a game.

Bird continued: “I think they forgot they were there to play football most of the time, it’s a beautiful place and that’s what happenned in Catalans a lot of years through that period.

“They’d start the season so well because it’d be winter and they’d be training hard and then the beach bars open and their footy would drop off through the summer, they’d just hope they had enough points on the board to make the semis at the end of the year and limp in.”

Catalans have started this season in excellent form, winning six of their first eight games. Despite the two losses, former World Cup winner Bird believes that the inconsistencies of Catalans are long removed and he cited England skipper Sam Tomkins as a key reason for that.

“That was the case for a long time but I think they got rid of a lot of those players and they sort of tried to change the culture and the appearance of what it was to play for Catalans.

“They’ve got some success there now with the likes of Sammy Tomkins, Micky McIlorum. They’d been great players in the Super League for years.

“They’ve got some great French lads in Ben Garcia, Julian Bousquet and a lot of those guys were really young when I was there but they’re doing great things now.”