The Canterbury Bulldogs have come out swinging to defend their change of logo for 2026 after widespread fan criticism.
The logo, which is the first time it has changed since 2010, now features the head of a Bulldog with what the club described as a 'proud and determined look'.
Some fans suggested the logo had been AI generated, but CEO Aaron Warburton, speaking on SEN Radio, said the new logo had been two years in the making, and had been with the NRL for 18 months.
It was created when the club had a few lean years in a row, and Warburton suggested there was another iteration of the logo which didn't work from an embroidery or digital point of view.
“We actually submitted it as you have to do to the NRL about 18 months ago,” Warbuton said on SEN 1170's Breakfast.
“So, I guess two years ago, on the back of a couple of lean years in terms of the rebuild of the club and where we wanted to head, but really, we had a really complex logo put aside the heritage logo of this year.
“It didn't embroid well, it didn't rank well digitally, so we knew we wanted to change our logo, particularly as we head into what is our penultimate decade heading towards 100 (years).
“We didn't want to do it in halves; we didn't want to change it (now) and then have to change it again in four years.
“We were well behind the pack when it came to what was a clean and bold digital logo.”
The new logo, which will have its first run in the competition when the Bulldogs head to Las Vegas to open the 2026 NRL season against the St George Illawarra Dragons, was also criticised for having no fan involvement, but Warburton said that wasn't true.
“We had an internal committee, we did a heap of fan surveys that weren't directly saying that we're getting a new logo, but we wanted to get a pulse check for what logos over the 90 years resonated most with the fans and why,” he said.
“We definitely raised the concept of having a fan committee.
“But the in-house nature of making sure that there weren't any leaks and we built this with a professional designer that had lots of feedback that was directly pulled from fans around the logos they loved."
