Canterbury have been accused of “letting the inmates run the asylum” while Bulldogs premiership winner Braith Anasta believes “there is a mole” in the playing group trying to bring down the club.
It’s been a wild week for rookie coach Cameron Ciraldo who doubled down on his methods after being accused by a select few players of working them too hard.
The rookie coach drew a line in the sand and said he’ll make no apologies for insisting hard work is at the core of the club’s rebuild.
“The inmates are running the asylum, if you allow the inmates to run the asylum your standards will fall,” Billy Moore said on NRL 360.
“Ciraldo has come out and made a very profound statement that the standards will stay high and if you don’t want to get on the bus then get off it and I can’t agree more.
“Compare them to the Warriors under Andrew Webster, every player has gotten better there. You can’t say that about the Dogs, there’s something not right there.
“There is something festering at the club and between Gus and Ciraldo they have to lance it and get rid of it because if they’re in this position next year then (the board) might not be as generous to Ciraldo.”
There’s reportedly “a lack of trust” within the club after several leaks to the media in recent weeks – and the issue has now been linked to their “disgraceful” defence.
“Canterbury are in free fall at the moment, their defence this season has been disgraceful,” James Hooper said on NRL 360.
“There is a lack of trust between elements of the playing group and the coach because things are getting out. Stuff that’s in-house is getting out,” Michael Carayannis said.
“You can trace it back to Josh Jackson’s retirement last year, he sent a text message to the playing group and within a couple of hours it was out there.
“Tevita Pangai Jr’s retirement broke after he told the playing group. This is stuff that’s super in-house. What is defence built on? Defence is built on trust.”
“It doesn’t just sound like a leak to me right now, it sounds like a vendetta,” Anasta said.
“It’s not just a leak here, it’s someone trying to bring down (the club) from within the group, to destabilise them. There’s a mole in the camp.”
Anasta has declared the state of affairs at the Bulldogs “an emergency” and even suggested the Bulldogs must break the rules and sign a contracted player.
“They need a big fish, they missed out on Payne Haas, they missed out on Tino Fa’asuamaleaui,” Gorden Tallis said.
“They need to almost go out and steal a player, they need to go behind closed doors and get a player out of a contract, or whoever is off contract next who is a powerhouse forward, they need to get. It is an emergency,” Anasta responded.
Canterbury has seen almost 40 players depart since general manager Phil Gould joined the club halfway through 2021.
Hooper called the current crisis the biggest test of Gould’s administrative career but backed him to lead the club out the hole.
“They’ve got one the best deal-makers in the business to that point in Gus, if anyone can go when there aren’t players on the market and there’s not a whole lot doing. If anyone can identify an area where they might be able to target somebody, it’s Gus,” Hooper said.
“This is a huge test for the Canterbury Bulldogs and the biggest challenge of Cameron Ciraldo’s short career but also close to the biggest test of Gus as a GM anywhere,” Anasta said.
“He got the Roosters to the premiership, we helped the Panthers to the premiership. He comes to the Bulldogs and it’s gone backwards.”
