NRL: How Bulldogs coach Des Hasler beat the Sydney storms

Bulldogs coach Des Hasler. Photo / Getty Images

Only Bulldogs coach Des Hasler could have won this fight.

The NRL's "mad scientist" is equal parts crazy and genius - and that rare combination is the reason his beachfront home in Sydney's northern beaches suburb of Collaroy is still standing.

The former Manly mentor was one of the few lucky home owners on Collaroy's flooded "millionaire's row" - but luck had nothing to do with it.

Channel Seven reporter Josh Massoud told Triple M's Grill Team that Hasler was ready for everything mother nature had to throw at his property. Scarily so.

"It's right on the sand," Massoud said of Hasler's multi-million dollar home.

"If any property was going to be wiped away, washed away by the storms over the weekend it was going to be this one - and it's still standing. Nothing affected. Not a brick touched. Absolutely perfect.

"That's because Des was meticulous when he bought it. He did his research. He looked at the tides and he found that there were two major storm events in the last 50 years. He measured how bad they were and what the potential was for them to wipe away his property because you can't get insurance on an act of god. He knew that.

"There was a retaining wall, but according to Des' calculations it wasn't high enough so he invested the money and the time to build it that little bit higher and guess what? The water came within centimetres of going over the wall, but it didn't go over. He calculated it to perfection."

Massoud said Hasler invested thousands of dollars on his pre-emptive fortification.

There were reports sections of the house were destroyed, however, Hasler's wife Christine Hasler said: "We are very lucky."

Hasler was approached by reporters earlier this week and simply said: "We're sweet."
He probably never even broke a sweat.

Grill Team host Matthew Johns hit out at the way people have responded on social media to the northern beaches flooding.

The NRL great said "some real pieces of work out there" need to have a look at themselves.

"Some of the locals are shocked and horrified because it's the first time they've been in the eye of social media," Johns said.

"Some of the pieces of sh*t that are on there - it is hard to believe.

"Some people are on there saying things like 'rich people losing their homes haha', laughing and whatnot.

"Let me tell you about my mate, who is in peril at the moment with his house and his family. He lives along that row because since he was a teenage boy he's worked in a takeaway shop which he bought as a teenager straight out of school. He works in that shop seven days a week.

"He gets an occasional holiday, once every five or six years. That's what he's done with his life to afford a nice house.

"If you think he deserves to lose that nice house because that's what it is, it's a nice house and he has neighbours nearby who have got money, then honestly you have to have a good hard look at yourself."