Disappointed Ciraldo threatens to swing axe at Dogs
Jasper Bruce |
Cameron Ciraldo has threatened to swing the axe on hot-and-cold Canterbury, questioning some of his players’ intensity and preparation on the run to the NRL finals.
The Bulldogs’ consistency from earlier in the season is eluding them at just the wrong time, with Friday’s 32-12 loss to the Sydney Roosters their second in three games.
Canterbury were first on the ladder for 13 consecutive weeks earlier in the year but are now in an uphill battle to secure a top-two finish with three games to go before finals.
On Friday, Easts completely dominated the Bulldogs after half-time.
Naufahu Whyte, notably, smashed past four Bulldogs defenders for one of the softer tries the league’s best defensive side have conceded this year.
“When the intensity went up, a few guys didn’t want to go with it,” said frustrated coach Ciraldo.
In part, he blamed his own training practices for a drop in consistency.
“We’ve had consistency for three quarters of the year. The last month has been disappointing,” he said.
“I sort of blame myself there because we’ve got some guys carrying niggles and they just get through training instead of actually training.
“I’m going to stop that. If you can’t train, it sort of results in a performance like that.”
Recruits Marcelo Montoya and Sitili Tupouniua are expected to recover from respective neck and hamstring injuries in the coming weeks.
Back-up hooker Jake Turpin, utility Drew Hutchison and forwards Daniel Suluka-Fifita and Kurtis Morrin are among other proven first-graders currently out of the team.
Ciraldo warned there were plenty of candidates for game time if the rigours of the long season were weighing on incumbent players.
“We’ve got a couple of guys available from injury possibly next week or the week after,” Ciraldo said.
“We’ve got a deep squad. We’ve got a lot of good players that didn’t play tonight. If we don’t want to prepare to win, then I’ll put someone in who does want to prepare to win.”
The Bulldogs have one of the hardest fixture lists to finish the regular season as the only team playing three opponents that began round-24 in the top eight.
Canterbury captain Stephen Crichton, a three-time premiership winner, said the timing was right for Ciraldo to call the Bulldogs out.
“We’re coming into the serious part of the year,” he said.
“If you don’t get your mindset right coming into these big games, you’re going to be sitting behind the posts most of the time (after conceding tries).Â
“You’d rather have this conversation now than leading into finals.”
AAP
