The Fox sports article eludes to nothing of Burton getting a release early. This Bulldogs "fan page" is just making up shit for clickbait.
PANTHERS SWITCH THINGS UP
Staines was an overnight sensation after scoring four tries on debut in Round 9 last season. The club knew exactly what they had found and ultimately made a decision that he was the future.
Veteran winger Josh Mansour was informed that he’d likely lose his spot on the wing to Staines in 2021 and Mansour ultimately signed with the Rabbitohs.
Three months on from when Cleary informed Mansour that the club would be backing Staines, the Panthers coach is still just as confident that the 20-year-old Forbes product has a big future at the club.
“We’d like to think he’ll be a starter and if he continues to improve and work hard there’s certainly an opportunity for him,” Cleary told
Foxsports.com.au
“He’s still a very young man and he had a couple of soft tissues last year in his first year of first grade so that can be a bit of a shock to the system.
“He’s working away and we have big plans for him. Hopefully he has a good year, he’s just doing the work at the moment so taking it day by day.
“But we definitely have some guys in and around that positions, as it is with all our positions, that if someone is not quite on top of things or gets injured here or there we certainly can fill those spots.”
While it was expected Staines would take Mansour’s place on the left wing, five-eighth Jarome Luai dropped a hint that it would be Brian To’o moving from the right to fill Mansour’s void on the left.
Luai posted a photo on Instagram with himself, Viliame Kikau, Stephen Crichton and a new face to the dangerous left-edge combination — To’o. He captioned the photo ‘left side/strong side.’
Cleary said “it could be” when asked if we can take that as a hint but kept coy as he shared that To’o had been training on both sides and “maybe (Luai) is trying to tell me something.”
There’s a spot in the forward pack and a spot on the bench up for grabs with the departure of James Tamou and Zane Tetevano but other than that Cleary says we can expect a Panthers team similar to last year’s minor premiership-winning side.
“We’re pretty settled... certainly more than this time last year.”
Having returned to pre-season training in the new year, the Panthers have a much shorter time than previous years to prepare for Round 1.
“It was really crucial that the boys came back in good shape so we didn’t have to waste too much time getting them into decent shape and could train effectively,” Cleary said.
“To their credit, they all did that and we’re just not trying to waste a minute really.”
And they haven’t wasted any time. The squad spent last week at a sport and recreational centre in Broken Bay on the Central Coast.
It’s not the first time the Panthers have taken the squad away on a training camp. The 2020 team participated in a brutal army camp around the this time last year and many of them went on to credit that experience as a factor in last season’s 17-match winning streak.
Cleary agrees that the success of army camp is what drove the idea of last week’s getaway.
“We felt like we got a lot of value out of last year (army camp) so we thought we wanted to follow up on a few things we learnt there... it was a little bit of a tough decision because of the shorter pre-season but having done it now, we’re really happy with how it went.”
It wasn’t an army camp but the players were still physically challenged. Australian boxer Bilal Akkaway joined the boys and put them through their paces.
“It was just another way to keep them off their legs. We’re just trying to get as much into them as we can,” Cleary said about the boxing training.
As for any future boxing stars Cleary laughed and said “not really.”
Cleary’s ‘big plans’ for Panthers shake-up; shock Dragons position battle: NRL preseason notebook
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