Bulldogs players have almost two million reasons to stay out of trouble with the NRL club's new major sponsorship deal laced with clauses linked to behaviour.

The Bulldogs announced the new three-year deal with retailer Strathfield on Thursday, worth almost $2 million, but the lucrative contract is strongly linked to the club's efforts to restore its public image.

Strathfield Group chairman Vaz Hovanessian said his company, itself rebuilding after going into administration last year, discussed NRL player behaviour at length before committing to the Bulldogs after being impressed by changes there.

He confirmed the company, made wary by the bad publicity generated by several NRL players' alcohol-related misdemeanours this season, had insured their investment with a behaviour-related escape clause.

"I think the out-clauses are something any organisation in such a situation would have to consider. You make an investment you want a return on it," Hovanessian told AAP.

"We have expectations on delivery of certain things and they likewise have expectations on us.

"The out-clauses go both ways. It's not just one way. An important aspect of the out-clause is the player and team member behaviour.

"(NRL player behaviour) was a substantial consideration in our deliberations at board level and management level.

"But I think we all recognise that for better or worse those incidents (this year) have, as unhappy as they were, made the entire league industry think twice about itself.

"The culture change will come. Their brands would be worthless unless it did come.

"We've been particularly impressed with the change of the culture at the club.

"The Bulldogs were perhaps a difficult team to be considered 12 months ago by any organisation.

"But they've bitten the bullet and done the hard yards and made the changes and they deserve to be rewarded.

"They have a loyal fan base and just a little bit of time will allow the public to recognise the Bulldogs are a changed team."

The deal is a great boost to the Bulldogs after they lost a prospective sponsor on the eve of the season kick off when the company baulked at rugby league sponsorship following Manly star Brett Stewart's sexual assault charge.

It was a big blow as chief executive Todd Greenberg had battled to repair the club's public image after last year's wooden spoon finish and off-field troubles.

So poor was their image that they had to convince well-known children's charity Camp Quality to have a free association with them on the front of their jersey.

That charitable statement helped the Bulldogs image and Strathfield have allowed Camp Quality to retain a presence by relinquishing commercial rights to the top of the back of the jersey for the remainder of 2009.

Greenberg said he was pleased to finally get a commercial deal for the club after such extensive efforts to rebuild their image.

"It shows that if you get your house in order you can get some good returns in a really tough market," said Greenberg.

"We didn't want to undersell what we thought was the value of the product which is significantly high.

"We didn't want to do short term deals. We were prepared to turn away cash in the short term to get a better long term deal."

Meanwhile Greenberg confirmed the club would pursue the loss of their two competition points to the NRL appeals committee chairman Sir Laurence Street next week.

"I have said a number of times we will do everything physically possible to get our points back," he said.

"We will continue to argue next week that for what we did - we had an extra player on for the period of 22 seconds - doesn't fit the crime and two points is too hard a punishment to pay."

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