Jai Bednall from News.com.au
August 31st, 2023 6:27 am
The crisis at Canterbury shows no signs of slowing as the fallout over a training punishment known as “shark bait” and clear fractions between some players and the club’s coaching staff and management continues.
The Bulldogs’ disappointing season has hit new lows this week after it was revealed a player walked out on the club after being brutally punished for arriving late to a training session last month.
The club has been unapologetic about its need to improve professional standards at Belmore, but it’s clear not everyone is on the same page as players continue to defend themselves and leak information to the media.
Now players have spoken out annonymously about the incident in a further indication of the division within the club.
On Wednesday night, The Daily Telegraph published explosive new comments from players who are pointing the finger back at a coaching group led by Cameron Ciraldo.
They offered further detail about the player being used as “shark bait”, with one expressing his discomfort at what went down.
“He was made to wrestle everyone and you can imagine how fatigued he got. It was everyone in the top 30 squad apart from the injured guys,” the player said. “After it happened, I thought ‘what the f**k was that?’ It was pretty ordinary. A lot of players didn’t want to do it.”
Another player, who is no longer at the club, told The Daily Telegraph he left because of “the environment”.
The publication also reported Ciraldo’s recent criticism of his team’s work ethic has angered some players.
It’s been a wild week for rookie coach Ciraldo, who doubled down on his methods after being accused by a select few players of working them too hard.
The rookie coach drew a line in the sand and said he’ll make no apologies for insisting hard work is at the core of the club’s rebuild.
On NRL 360 on Wednesday night, Canterbury was accused of “letting the inmates run the asylum” while Bulldogs premiership winner Braith Anasta believes “there is a mole” in the playing group trying to bring down the club.
“The inmates are running the asylum, if you allow the inmates to run the asylum your standards will fall,” Billy Moore said on NRL 360.
“Ciraldo has come out and made a very profound statement that the standards will stay high and if you don’t want to get on the bus then get off it and I can’t agree more.
“Compare them to the Warriors under Andrew Webster, every player has gotten better there. You can’t say that about the Dogs, there’s something not right there.
“There is something festering at the club and between Gus (Gould) and Ciraldo they have to lance it and get rid of it because if they’re in this position next year then (the board) might not be as generous to Ciraldo.”
There’s reportedly “a lack of trust” within the club after several leaks to the media in recent weeks.
“There is a lack of trust between elements of the playing group and the coach because things are getting out. Stuff that’s in-house is getting out,” Michael Carayannis said.
“You can trace it back to Josh Jackson’s retirement last year, he sent a text message to the playing group and within a couple of hours it was out there.
“Tevita Pangai Jr’s retirement broke after he told the playing group. This is stuff that’s super in-house.”
“It doesn’t just sound like a leak to me right now, it sounds like a vendetta,” Anasta said. “It’s not just a leak here, it’s someone trying to bring down (the club) from within the group, to destabilise them. There’s a mole in the camp.”
Anasta has declared the state of affairs at the Bulldogs “an emergency” and even suggested the Bulldogs must break the rules and sign a contracted player.
“They need to almost go out and steal a player, they need to go behind closed doors and get a player out of a contract, or whoever is off contract next who is a powerhouse forward, they need to get. It is an emergency,” Anasta responded.
“They need a big fish, they missed out on Payne Haas, they missed out on Tino Fa’asuamaleaui,” Gorden Tallis added.
Canterbury has seen almost 40 players depart since general manager Gould joined the club halfway through 2021.
James Hooper called the current crisis the biggest test of Gould’s administrative career but backed him to lead the club out the hole.
“They’ve got one the best deal-makers in the business to that point in Gus, if anyone can go when there aren’t players on the market and there’s not a whole lot doing. If anyone can identify an area where they might be able to target somebody, it’s Gus,” Hooper said.
“This is a huge test for the Canterbury Bulldogs and the biggest challenge of Cameron Ciraldo’s short career but also close to the biggest test of Gus as a GM anywhere,” Anasta said.
“He got the Roosters to the premiership, we helped the Panthers to the premiership. He comes to the Bulldogs and it’s gone backwards.”
