Bulldogs rebuild will make Ciraldo better coach: Cleary

Jasper Bruce | July 24, 2023

Ivan Cleary has backed Canterbury’s rebuild to make his former assistant Cameron Ciraldo a better NRL coach.

Ciraldo arrived at the Bulldogs this season as the most-hyped untested coach in recent memory, having engineered the dual-premiership-winning defence at Penrith as Cleary’s right-hand man.

But things have not yet gone to plan for Ciraldo and the Bulldogs, whose 44-18 loss to the Panthers on Sunday was the latest in a string of poor defensive performances.

The Bulldogs sit 16th on the ladder after 21 rounds and leak an average of 31.2 points per game, which will mark their third-worst year for that statistic on record if they continue to concede at the current rate.

The year has been made more difficult by a string of injuries, notably to key forwards Viliame Kikau and Luke Thompson, that have forced the club to lean on their younger players.

Cleary empathised with Ciraldo, having overseen a similar rebuild in his first coaching job with the Warriors in the mid-2000s.

In his first stint at Penrith, Cleary inherited a similarly disjointed roster that finished 15th in his first campaign.

“He’s doing a rebuild. I cut my teeth on that kind of stuff. It’s hard,” Cleary said.

“I look back and think it can make you a better coach.”

Cleary backed Ciraldo to make tough roster decisions and develop a style of play that suited the side he assembled.

“That team that played today, that side’s not going to look like that in the next two years,” he said.

“They’re in that phase where they’re trying to find the players they want, how they’re going to play and stuff. He’ll be fine.”

Ciraldo took positives from the loss to the Panthers.

The Bulldogs fell behind 28-0 early but scored as many tries as the Panthers across the final 50 minutes of the game.

“I’m really happy with how we hung in there, stayed connected, and finished strong,” he said.

Kikau, Josh Addo-Carr, Ryan Sutton, Toby Sexton and Braidon Burns are all in the frame to return from injury for the Bulldogs’ clash against the Dolphins next week.

“We’ve got a bit of competition for spots there. That’s a good thing,” Ciraldo said.