Cameron Ciraldo has made no apologies for his approach to lifting Canterbury out of the NRL gutter despite an unnamed player walking out of training after being handed a punishment for turning up late.
The player was subjected to a practice known in wrestling circles as “shark bait”, where he had to stand in the middle of a ring and grapple teammates one after another.
The Rugby League Players’ Association is aware of the situation and the player has not featured for the club at NRL level in several weeks. The player’s name has not been publicised due to the delicate nature of the situation.
The player involved is under contract for 2024 at the Bulldogs but is likely to be released in the off-season to continue their career elsewhere.
“It’s a pretty sensitive issue and I won’t be commenting on that one,” Ciraldo said on Wednesday.
Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
“At different times we’ve wanted to put some standards in place and I feel like we have to do something about that.
“We’ve gone through a range of ways of talking upholding standards.
“Some of that’s been monetary related, sometimes that’s been spinning a wheel and then sometimes it’s been trying to find ways to change behaviours.
“The reality is, we need to change behaviours … we’ll continue to find ways where we can change behaviours.”
The unsavoury incident is the latest challenge Ciraldo has had to navigate in his first year in charge of the Bulldogs.
Despite a lavish recruitment drive under general manager Phil Gould and the arrival of Ciraldo, who had been touted as the next great coach in waiting, the Dogs will finish the season in a lowly 15th position even if they score a consolation win over the Titans on the Gold Coast on Sunday.
Canterbury are going through yet another roster overhaul in the off-season with outside back Braidon Burns also looking for the exit after getting limited opportunities this year.
English forward Luke Thompson, halfback Kyle Flanagan, second-rower Corey Waddell and utility Jayden Okunbor are on their way out while Tevita Pangai jnr has retired to pursue a career in boxing.
Panthers star Stephen Crichton is their only big-name recruit for 2024 with Souths utility Blake Taaffe, Penrith’s Jaeman Salmon and former Sharks centre Bronson Xerri, after serving a four-year drugs ban, also coming on board.
The Dogs last made the NRL finals in 2016 and the former Penrith assistant coach has had to contend with scuttlebutt that players are unsatisfied with his methods.
The coach has consistently bemoaned his players’ effort off the ball and said on Wednesday the culture “is not right”.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Willie Mason – a club great, who is employed as a pathways transition manager – said on Tuesday the club was attempting to “weed out” players who weren’t willing to aim up for Ciraldo.
Players have complained of being subject to long days at their Belmore HQ, which Ciraldo said was part of being a successful NRL club.
“Nothing comes without hard work, we have one long day a week and if you get the last massage you’re probably leaving at 5.30pm,” Ciraldo said.
“The days were longer at the place I was previously.
“Nobody has come to me and complained about long days, we’ve got a Jersey Flegg (under 21s) group who do weights at 5am, work for 10 hours and come back and do field at 5.30pm.
“We’ve got a leadership group that we meet with every week and you’d like to think if there was some unrest that those guys would have brought it up.”
Hodgson calls time on career
Josh Hodgson has confirmed his rugby league career is over after a recurring neck injury caused him to call time on a swansong with Parramatta.
The 33-year-old said on Wednesday he had been medically retired from the game knowing he gave everything physically and mentally possible.
The 19-cap England international suffered two ACL tears during his time in Australia and required a further reconstruction on his right knee last year.
“It’s probably a blessing because I’ve always tried pushing through when my body was broken and putting my teammates before everything, but it has come at a cost,” Hodgson said.
Hodgson’s career will be remembered for the galvanising effect he had on Canberra after moving to the Australian capital in 2015 from Super League club Hull Kingston Rovers.
(Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
The hooker first came to the attention of NRL fans soon after he signed with the Raiders when, on a tour with England, he was filmed running head first through a students flat door in New Zealand.
It was to be a metaphor for his time in Australia as helped turn Canberra’s fortunes around after years of struggle, leading the team to a preliminary final in 2016 and then captaining them in their 2019 grand final loss.
Hodgson was one of the few English spine players to successfully adapt to the NRL and, in 2020, Peter Sterling claimed that the Yorkshireman had gone close to eclipsing Cameron Smith as the game’s premier hooker.
Unfortunately for Hodgson his remaining time at the Raiders was plagued by injury, and despite finding a home at Parramatta in 2023 he was unable to rekindle that same level of magic.
Whitehead sick of ‘outrageous’ NRL fines
Canberra captain Elliott Whitehead says fines dished out by the NRL’s judiciary are “getting outrageous”, after teammate Jordan Rapana was stung for a third week in a row.
Rapana was slapped with a $3000 fine for an attempted trip on Selwyn Cobbo as the Brisbane winger scored a try in their 29-18 win against the Raiders, despite making minimal contact.
That makes it $9000 worth of fines for Rapana in the last three weeks, hit with separate $3000 penalties for using his knees in a tackle on Canterbury’s Viliame Kikau and for another trip on Melbourne’s Reimis Smith.
Rapana has racked up a $15,000 fine tab to go with eight games worth of suspensions in the last two seasons, Whitehead suggesting monetary penalties for footballing incidents might not be the correct course of action.
“They’re getting a bit outrageous them fines, especially for the one on the weekend, there’s not much in there … to get $3000 again is pretty harsh to be honest,” he said.
“I don’t know what they do with the money they take from you, if you’re taking $9000 off someone, there’s not very much wage left come the end of the month.
“Maybe they have to look at something different there because obviously he’s not learning, he keeps getting fined week in, week out.
“It’s probably hurting him and his family more than anything.”
Some have suggested Rapana’s reputation might have been a determining factor when the bunker intervened and sent him to the sin bin.
Elliott Whitehead. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)
It couldn’t have come at a more critical time with the Raiders trailing 20-18, Brisbane scoring again to put the game to bed while they had the player advantage.
Whitehead agreed Rapana’s reputation wouldn’t have helped him, but said it still shouldn’t have seen him sent for 10 minutes due to the light contact.
“Maybe, but obviously they looked at it in the bunker and there was nothing in it, if he did touch him, he barely touched him, he still scored the try,” he said.
“It was a big call on the night … it probably didn’t help our momentum when he got sin binned.
“(And) to keep getting fined $3000, it does hurt, I’m sure anybody out there with a normal job got fined three grand (would agree), it hurts.”
with AAP
NewBruce
Roar Rookie
There is a point at which players need to be suspended. 3rd and subsequent sounds like a tipping point, but when we see Luai getting a fine for his hit on NAS at the same point, with not even a send-off, the whole pile of rubbish that is the refereeing, tech-bench, judiciary needs a long hard look at itself. Kafuasi got 4 weeks early in the season for something trivial, yet big names from other clubs get away with all sorts, and it has cost teams points, and finals slots. Jordie is a great player, who doesn't play any harder than a lot of the others who get tagged "grubs", and there are plenty out there who get away with it week after week. That "trip" was imaginary, and the try was scored anyway. The send-off was a stitch-up, and to then give him a fine was just plain insulting.
Robbo
Roar Rookie
Everyone else earning plenty less is expected to be on time to work - with the idea being 10 minutes early allows for any unforeseen circumstances. If you're late to training you want to have a bloody good reason. Best punishment is and always will be that the whole team is punished.
The Barry
Roar Guru
You may as well wave a flag saying you don’t know what you’re talking about I just gave you an anecdote where Sam Thaiday cited this sort of training as being absolutely key to them winning a premiership, but you didn’t want to know and started waffling on about the Adelaide Crows All clubs do shark baiting as part of wrestling. The Storm have been leaders of it. You’re honestly talking out of your backside of you don’t think they do it Clubs do pre season army camps specifically designed to break players down. This is common https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/teams/storm/the-mail-lifting-the-lid-on-craig-bellamys-blueprint-behind-melbourne-storm-success/news-story/27ba04c1cf0537da85338845fdaef7bb
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
Those clubs don’t have to do it like that because their standards are well established and every player knows that. The Bulldogs have terrible standards and everyone can see that. If CC and his staff have to weed out the dead wood, then so be it. The bottom line is clear under CC, he has set standards and he’s going to do what he has to to raise them to what he knows is required.
Ed Flanders
Roar Rookie
I have no doubt it’s designed to punish him and make an example of him… if there’s embarrassment or humiliation with that, so be it. That’s not new to sport – especially rugby league Or, read the anecdotes that come from the Melbourne camp, or the Roosters camps. How many premierships have those two teams won in the past decade? They've basically won more premierships than the Bulldogs have won matches this year. Perhaps ritualistic humiliation and throw backs to the 80's just might not be the way forward is all.
Ed Flanders
Roar Rookie
They walked out to better clubs and performed better. Adelaide can be as thrilled or disappointed as they like - but they have to cop it. Players do not need to show any loyalty to a club that will treat them that way.
The Barry
Roar Guru
That’s not what I meant in my last paragraph I work for a not for profit that provides services to women who are the victims of violence
mushi
Roar Guru
Most of your response was rebutted by the previous post so seems pointless to run in a circle. The last though I find troubling because I respect you. I do also have side gig on a board in an area affected by this and whilst it’s miniscule to you it’s incredibly meaningful within that group, the more violence and/or overt humiliation is reinforced as a normal interaction the more likely, versus the general population, that you’ll be abusive. Now the difference multiplied may be miniscule for you, but within that miniscule group it’s overwhelmingly prevalent. So to me it’s like saying the driving force behind being a head of state is having a driver’s licence.
Brett305
Roar Rookie
Wrestling is incredible for strength and fitness, and very hard on the body..it’s great for rugby players whether as a punishment or part of conditioning..essential in my view
The Barry
Roar Guru
Yeah ok, I’ve just seen that But so what? What club doesn’t want to weed out the players that aren’t willing to commit or can’t keep up or won’t work hard? Just to be clear Mason’s comments were about the rumour that Bulldogs players had complained about being worked too hard, not about this player that walked after the shark baiting
The Barry
Roar Guru
They already do this as part of training. It’s common practice. He was just made to do more of it The sprints or burpee analogy is far more apt than the kid getting the cane analogy We actually know so little about this. For all we know, they normally do it against 10 team mates and he was made to do it against 12. Or it was 20 seconds per opponent. I’m not suggesting it was either, but based on what we know at the moment, I’m surprised this is even a story There’s a Fox article about Bellamy doing this to players in 2017 and the tone of the article is that it’s part of the reason the team was so successful Your last paragraph is completely unfair. Every footy player gets put through this training. A miniscule number of them abuse women, so to draw a parallel is baseless. May as well say “every NRL player that’s abused a woman has had a drivers licence”
mushi
Roar Guru
I think it’s very different having to wrestle everyone on your knees versus doing something solo like sprints, or 50 burpees. There’s no control for the individual, the imbalance progresses after each one. And then there’s the quantum, does it have to be everyone? Making a guy run 100 sprints is different to 10. Once they’ve been chastised everything after that is just to make the coach feel better, like the cane for kids. And the “we’re rubbish and need to get better” rationale doesn’t wash because the side was rubbish prior to this. Humility and humiliation have the same roots but are very different outcomes. I’m sure it does happen, as it does in all the places until it doesn’t. The power imbalance and “it’s always been like this” keeps it in place until someone snaps. When it’s been challenged around the world (this stuff comes up in US sports all the time) it’s normally been treated as corporal punishment. And have we ever stopped to think that perhaps the treatment of women from select NRL players has a little grounding in conditioning the guys to believe there is nothing wrong with physically dominating and humiliating off the field?
The Barry
Roar Guru
I’m not brushing over it I have no doubt it’s designed to punish him and make an example of him… if there’s embarrassment or humiliation with that, so be it. That’s not new to sport - especially rugby league If this was “player forced to do 12km run while team mates watch” no one would care Obviously I’ve never been in an NRL set up but even in my own amateur days players would get physically punished and have to do extras for not performing Based on what we know so far, this is barely even news - and if more comes out I’ll admit I’m wrong I haven’t heard one current or former player come out and say “that’s too much” I also don’t know why a pre season camp would be less relevant now than in 2006
The Barry
Roar Guru
I am trying to put my bulldogs hat aside Stuff like this used to happen when I played as a teenager 30 odd years ago Players would get punished for falling behind or missing sessions. Often the coach would punish the whole team because one player wasn’t putting in It’s not apples for apples but it’s the same wheelhouse of physical punishment, embarrassment for poor performance Based on what we know so far, I’m actually surprised at the kerfuffle over this If it was “player shows up late and made to do 6 extra 400m sprints while team watches” no one would care Listen to players talk about pre season army camps where the clubs try to break players to make them stronger… this isn’t new territory
The Barry
Roar Guru
So are you saying NRL clubs don’t spend “hours per week” on wrestling training?
mushi
Roar Guru
Putting your Bulldogs hat to one side. Would you see this the same way if it was another club. Forcing something to the point it is simply about repeated pain and humiliating and then keeping it going isn't really consistent with our laws or values. Yes wrestling is part of training. But extending it beyond a productive point is just old school pain and shame. Keeping it going is worse. Now the guy's unlikely to pursue it, because the NRL is a legal cartel for employment, but I think Ciraldo would have a hard time arguing it was anything other than corporal punishment.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
How much individual clubs may vary depending on their situation, but it still forms a major part of their weekly training routine.
Tufanooo
Roar Rookie
Willie Mason - a employee of the club - has said Ciraldo is looking to weed out the roster, TB
Tufanooo
Roar Rookie
1. Nonsense 2. Even if true, it's clearly ineffective then. Australia's most decorated soldier is also Australia's biggest war criminal.
Tufanooo
Roar Rookie
Nah, they don't. That's absolute fiction 6-7 years ago I used to watch a lot of the Roosters training sessions at Moore Park when I was living around that neighbourhood. Robinson is not putting anywhere near that type of volume in on wrestling technique. Granted it was 6 years ago, but I can't see why that would change. You are saying that they would be spending 75% of their training time on wrestling technique and not actual game play. Happy to chat with you, but not if you are just pulling out furphies.