Why Canterbury believes its utility player strategy can help get the club back on track

As Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo looks to end the club’s longest run without finals football since the 1950s, he’s got all the options a coach could ask for.

It’s not just that the Bulldogs have embarked on yet another big recruitment drive that gives the club’s roster a new look for 2024, it’s the sheer number of positions the new faces can play.

The Belmore club has found itself in an unusual position — they have so many utilities they can cover just about every position on the field several times over.

If we try to map it out you need to pay attention, because it’s hard to keep track of it all. Jaemon Salmon has joined from Penrith and he can play centre, second row and five-eighth. Former Cronulla man Connor Tracey can play fullback, wing, centre and five-eighth.

Blake Taaffe, a one-time grand finalist with Souths, wants a starting spot and he can play fullback and five-eighth. In the halves he’ll be competing with former Rooster Drew Hutchinson, who can play centre, five-eighth, halfback and hooker.

Then there’s Kurt Mann, perhaps the NRL’s ultimate Swiss army knife, who has played fullback, wing, centre, five-eighth, halfback, hooker and lock since his first grade debut almost a decade ago.

The top end of the roster isn’t immune to it either — marquee buy Stephen Crichton isn’t sure if he’ll play centre or fullback and the club’s previous prize capture from the Panthers, Matt Burton, was linked with a move from five-eighth to centre, the position where he’s represented New South Wales and Australia, last month.

It’s a lot of moving pieces and Ciraldo’s greatest challenge over the summer is making a picture where they all fit together. Where some might see it as a weakness, the flexibility can also be a strength and a way to create competition across the squad over the summer.

“If everyone’s pushing each other rather than the coach pushing you, that’s something everyone wants to be a part of,” Hutchinson said.

The former Roosters playmaker, like many of Canterbury’s new recruits, joined the club in search of a permanent starting berth.

Locking down a single position when you’ve played so many in the past isn’t easy but in Mann, who has played some of the best football of his career at lock forward in recent years, is proof a utility can eventually find a real home on the field.

“You’re going to get opportunities in different spots. If you get your opportunity at a position you really want to play you have to make the most of it,” Mann said.

“It’s not a bad thing, being able to move around. I probably saw it as an Achilles heel when I was younger but as I’ve gotten older I’ve seen the benefits for the team. It really helps.

“We have blokes who can fill multiple roles and any place you have healthy competition, it brings training standards out and it brings out the competition in the team, which means you’re more likely to win games.”

Not all of Canterbury’s utilities are created equal, with each of them bringing more to the squad than pure versatility.

Mann, for example, is known as one of the league’s best trainers – most utilities have to be in order to stay physically ready to fill in at several different spots at a moment’s notice — and as the oldest player in the squad, he wants to set an example to the club’s younger players through his actions.

“I’m not the biggest body, so I have to take my training very seriously,” Mann said.

“Once you’re on the field, that’s your office, that’s your job and as an older bloke it’s my job to bring other people up around me.”

Just as Mann can drive standards during the week, each of the players fighting it out for a spot have different strengths.

Hutchinson, for example, brings steadiness and technical knowledge of the game to the table as he fights it out with youngster Toby Sexton for the right to partner Burton in the halves.

“I understand a few things about my game that have let me down in the past. I really want to work on the physical aspects and I know if I work that out I can apply a lot of the things I’ve learned over the last few seasons,” Hutchinson said.

“I’m 28 years old, I understand how the team is supposed to play and what skills I can bring to the team, that’s something I can add.”

At the other end of the scale Taaffe, who spent three years playing spot duty at the Rabbitohs as Latrell Mitchell’s back-up and will compete with Crichton to play fullback, brings an exuberance and eagerness to show the attacking craft he’s learned during his time under Wayne Bennett and Jason Demetriou.

“The past two, three years I’ve been a fringe player, only really playing if someone got injured,” Taaffe said.

“I feel like I’ve done my apprenticeship under two of the best in the game in Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell and I think I’m ready to take things into my own hands and show everyone what I can do.

“Understanding the attack of the game, being that ball-player at fullback and five-eighth, I’ve learned a lot about that over the last few years and I want to come here and show it off.”

There is still much of the pre-season to go and plenty of work to be done in the sweltering heat before Canterbury launch its 2024 season in March.

Creating a shark tank is the best way to find the biggest fish and if the Bulldogs strategy is successful, not many of their new faces will be regarded as utilities for long and that, as Taaffe points out, is every utility’s dream.

“Everyone has an opinion on somebody being a utility player,” Taaffe said.

“But I’m sure if you ask that person what position they play they all tell you one position. We all have that one place we want to play.”