‘Haters’: Dogs star clips critics over Galvin form
George Clarke |
Stephen Crichton says pinpointing Canterbury’s late-season form slump on Lachlan Galvin is “harsh” and the Bulldogs captain has urged the halfback to block out his “haters”.
Arguably no player heads into September under as much pressure as Galvin with the Dogs looking to end a 21-year premiership drought.
Galvin, 20, signed with Canterbury midway through this season after his acrimonious break-up with Wests Tigers.
And while he was first drip-fed into first grade as a bench utility, the Bulldogs’ record since Galvin became the club’s starting halfback reads 4-4.
The Dogs’ attack has often been clunky but Crichton claimed Galvin was not the sole reason for Canterbury’s stuttering late-season form.
“I feel it’s pretty harsh just putting it all on one kid, let alone a 20-year-old kid,” Crichton told AAP.
“He is copping it heaps right now but I feel Lachie will come out a better player for it.
“He’s not the only one to blame, it’s a team sport, coaches, players, myself are all included about how we can manage our gameplay (better).”
Crichton said he had offered Galvin his support as the halfback prepares to lead the Bulldogs into Friday’s qualification final against the Melbourne Storm.
“He’s got a good head on his shoulders and I’ve been talking to him a lot about it (pressure),” Crichton said.
“He’s been really good about it, listening to the right people and things like that.
“There’s always going to be noise out there and people trying to pull the good players down.
“That’s probably the biggest thing, when you’re a good player, there’s always going to be haters out there trying to pull you down.”
Canterbury’s meeting with Melbourne will be Galvin’s first finals encounter and the Bulldogs will need to find another gear with reliable backline members Bronson Xerri and Marcelo Montoya both ruled out.
The Storm will also be down firepower with halfback Jahrome Hughes and prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona sidelined.
Crichton claimed the Dogs’ 20-14 loss in round 25 to Melbourne was proof that Canterbury could hope to pull off an AAMI Park upset on Friday.
“There were just a lot of opportunities, better choices, that we could have taken,” Crichton said.
“It showed that our game works, our style is good enough to beat the top teams.
“Getting our mindset right leading into those games is the biggest thing.
“The confidence that we got from that game to go up against the big teams is good and we went down there a couple of weeks ago, it’s nothing new now and we’re excited for the opportunity.”
AAP
