Is it time to move Burton to centre? Bulldogs season hinges on massive Ciraldo decision

19 hours ago 3

Canterbury Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo rolled the dice this week, laughing in the face of those accusing him of meddling with his team too much by meddling even more.

Reed Mahoney, already axed from the starting side for a spot on the bench, was axed altogether in favour of the most controversially axed player this season, Toby Sexton.

It was a gamble that could have left Cameron Ciraldo with egg on his face, but when Stephen Crichton limped from the field in the first half with a potential season-ending ankle injury, it proved an unfortunate stroke of genius.

Sexton replaced Crichton by coming on in the halves, forcing No.6 Matt Burton to shift into the centres where he has played plenty of football for Penrith, NSW and Australia.

Not so much for the Bulldogs, though, having only previously played in the centres once in the four years since joining the club.

The big question Ciraldo must answer this week is whether Burton should do it again.

Matt Burton of the Bulldogs celebrates with teammates after scoring a try.

Not only because he posed a threat with his running game, but because the Bulldogs looked like a better football team with Sexton controlling the team.

There’s no doubt Galvin is blessed with plenty of talent, but at the moment, the burden of being the team’s general appears to be weighing on him.

Sexton’s arrival on the field on Friday night, coinciding with an opportune try with his first involvement, seemed to free the shackles and the Bulldogs looked better for it.

That notion was put to Ciraldo after the game, who gave no indications that he would be afraid to go with Galvin and Sexton in the halves again when they square off against the winner of the Panthers-Warriors final next Saturday night.

Toby Sexton had an immediate impact, scoring as soon as he entered the field on Friday night.

“On the back of that tonight, yeah, 100 per cent,” Ciraldo said about a possible Galvin-Sexton halves combination.

“I thought considering they haven’t really trained in those positions before and what we were able to do against a really quality opposition; I thought it was great.

“We’ll look at that for next week, but the main thing is right now that our guys get recovered, that was a brutal game. We need to recover physically and emotionally and get ourselves ready to go next week.”

Bulldogs captain Stephen Crichton on cruches on Friday night.

The physical toll will be far more difficult an assignment to overcome than the emotional one. Emotionally they were buoyed by what Ciraldo described as one of the bravest performances he’s been associated with.

However, judging by Crichton’s movement after the game, and the sombre mood of the Canterbury staff in the confines of AAMI Park, he won’t be playing next week – if at all again – this season.

“It’s hard to know until we get scans, but when you can’t finish a game it’s not looking great,” Ciraldo said.

The good news for the Bulldogs is that Bronson Xerri should be back, while Marcelo Montoya is racing the clock to overcome his own syndesmosis injury to play in week two of the finals.

Crichton’s centre partner, Enari Tuala, also left the field with a calf injury that may end his season; more bad luck for the Bulldogs.

“We had none of it tonight,” Ciraldo said.

The lack of luck mentioned by the coach wasn’t just in relation to the physical state of some of his players.

Ciraldo had to bite his tongue when asked about the refereeing of Adam Gee.

“I was probably hoping you’d ask me that question 10 minutes ago, and then I calmed down and have been thinking about not getting myself in trouble,” Ciraldo said.

“A good thing was that we came down here three weeks ago, and you sort of you know the rules of engagement after that.

“I’ll just shut my mouth, but I think at half time we were half a second slower in the play the ball, and we were the ones getting penalised for slow rucks, so I wasn’t happy with that.

“The two points, for a high tackle penalty in the first half, I was disappointed in that. And then when we gained some ascendency there in the second half, and there was a crusher penalty coming off their own try line, I was even more unhappy with that.

“As I said before, you need a bit of luck in these games, and we got zero tonight.”

The season that promised so much now threatens to end in heartache. A loss next week and the coach will wear the blame for meddling too much. Or, perhaps not enough.

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