By Dan Walsh
Cameron Ciraldo is a bona fide “sicko”. That is Toby Sexton’s description, delivered with a grin and affection.
And maybe not the same loud and proud love for a rugby league defensive line that the Bulldogs coach boasts. But definitely a new appreciation for it.
“I’ve never made defence a primary focus,” Sexton, 23 years old and 37 games into his career as an NRL halfback, says.
“It’s always been about attack because that’s just easy to do. But the day I walked in here, Cam made it clear that defence needs to be the first priority ... He’s a sicko for defence.”
The game has entered a new era in 2024. Very easy on the eye, very attack focused and now five years into the high-octane age of six-agains, very, very fast.
This makes Canterbury’s transfer of speed from one side of the ball to the other all the more loveable.
“The Bulldogs remain patient and they have the ability to check, release and move onto the next person, which has a domino effect to the players on the outside of them,” former Canterbury champion turned pundit James Graham explained on Fox Sports in the lead-up to last Friday’s win over Cronulla.
Vision of the Bulldogs repeatedly scrambling to shut down attack played throughout Graham’s explanation of a defensive system that defies NRL numbers.
Canterbury miss more tackles (39 per game) than any NRL outfit. The 5.9 penalties they give away each match third worst.
Yet, they concede only 16.73 points a game, second only to premiers Penrith, and almost half the 32 they leaked last year. That was the worst in the competition.
Opposition teams are limited to 1475 running metres a game as the Bulldogs swarm up off their defensive line, again trailing only the Panthers.
The ‘check, release and respond’ system that Graham outlined relies on speed of foot, sound decision-making and above all, teamwork.
Skipper Stephen Crichton is the game’s best defensive centre, and the perfect man to lead it. All he has known in six years of NRL at the Panthers is Ciraldo’s prize-winning system, the defensive backbone of Penrith’s three consecutive premierships before the coach and later captain moved to Belmore.
Last month when Kurt Mann was sin-binned and the Bulldogs trailed Parramatta 18-10 while down a man, Ciraldo’s ‘check and release’ system more than kept Canterbury alive.
Granted, the Eels attacked at times like a lowly side that has forgotten how to win. The Bulldogs defensive speed and scramble made it so.
It’s a system founded on repeat efforts and a “pack mentality”, as Graham puts it. One-in, all-in is the theme of fellow Bulldogs favourite Josh Reynolds’ assessment.
“If you’re in the middle, it could be three times a set you have to fill holes,” Reynolds says.
“Where in other defensive systems, it’s about ‘do your own work, do your own wrestle’ and all that type of stuff.”
It will also look familiar on both sides of the ball this Saturday against the Warriors.
Cameron Ciraldo celebrates Penrith’s 2022 grand final win with Viliame Kikau before both moved to Canterbury.Credit: NRL Photos
A win and favourable results elsewhere can lift Canterbury into the top four. If, says recent recruit and former Warrior Josh Curran, they can pick apart the same system.
“Ciro [Ciraldo] has got a really good defensive system, and he made it out at Penrith,” Curran says.
“Webby [former Panthers assistant Andrew Webster] took it to the Warriors from Ciro and we’ve really trained for it all pre-season. It doesn’t actually feel like I’ve changed clubs. The whole system and set-up is the same.
Feeling the love: Bulldogs players celebrate a golden point win over Cronulla.Credit: Getty Images
“I can’t give out all the tricks, but I guess it’s just who can stay in their system the longest. Penrith are really good at it, obviously. They’ve been doing it for a long time now and they go for the whole 80 minutes.”
Increasingly, so does Canterbury. Tight early season losses have swung to scenes like last week’s golden point triumph over Cronulla.
Eleven changes to the Bulldogs squad from Ciraldo’s first season to his second, with Raymond Faitala-Mariner’s exit heralding a complete, 30-man turnover from the 2021 roster, have yielded a small, mobile forward pack.
In Ciraldo’s 17 against the Warriors on Saturday, Reed Mahoney, Jaeman Salmon, Bailey Hayward, Kurt Mann and Kurtis Morrin will all play in the forwards, all at less than 100 kilos, and most all with a playmaking background.
“It helps not having the biggest pack because we’re fitter this year and we can keep going,” Curran says.
“The six-agains, we train for those moments.
“But I think the culture we’ve got at the club, if someone misses a tackle, then someone else has to be there to make up for it.
“I think we’ve really brought into that and I think that’s why we’re up there as the best defensive teams.”
Whenever Ciraldo has been questioned about one of the NRL’s starkest defensive turnarounds this year, the word culture is where he has repeatedly turned.
Off-season recruits Crichton and Salmon (Panthers), Blake Taafe (Rabbitohs), Drew Hutchison and Jake Turpin (Roosters), Curran (Warriors) and Connor Tracey (Sharks) all came from clubs that played finals last year and knew what success looks like. Sitili Tupouniua arrives next season with similar references.
The Bulldogs have spoken regularly about changing the culture at Belmore.
On the paddock, Ciraldo’s defensive love/obsession has taken hold.
When the Bulldogs held Newcastle to a single penalty goal at the end of May despite having two players sin-binned in miserable conditions, he was asked about the defensive shift.
The Knights had thrashed his side 66-0 and 42-6 just 10 months earlier.
Ciraldo called out a desperate try-saving tackle by back-rower Jacob Preston, which followed a scrambling effort from Blake Wilson on the opposite sideline a player earlier.
His love of defence, and the catching obsession in his side, was epitomised in one play. He went on to explain why.
“No change in the structure or the system,” Ciraldo said.
“It’s the exact same system we had when Newcastle pumped us twice last year.
“The change has been around the culture. We’ve got good people in who want to work hard and they love each other.
“Whenever you’ve got that you’re going to be hard to break down. I just love watching them defend at the moment.”
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