Bulldogs shut down NRL greats calls to move Matt Burton

Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton’s lacklustre opening to the NRL season has started a conversation Canterbury don’t want to have.

Matty Johns has called for Matt Burton to shift to the centres. Photo: Getty Images and Fox League

Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo has backed five-eighth Matt Burton to become a “great” No. 6 after calls grow to move him to centre.

Burton came to Belmore in 2022 after winning a premiership with the Panthers at centre but despite having one of the biggest boots in the competition, has been unable to lift the club back into finals contention.

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It’s now been seven seasons since the Bulldogs have made the finals, and after a season where the club finished 15th with the worst defence and second worst attack in the game.

The Bulldogs again struggled in their season opener, losing 26-8 to the Eels, with two tries late in the game after Parramatta dominated possession.

Regardless of how much ball the Bulldogs had, when they had the ball, the team’s biggest names Burton, Stephen Crichton and Viliame Kikau didn’t get involved.

According to NRL stats, Crichton finished with eight runs for 62m, Burton had seven runs for 42m and Kikau, in 67 minutes, had just six runs for 40m.

While Burton touched the ball 50 times, he was mainly just a link player and the chief kicker.

It led to league greats Matthew Johns and Greg Alexander to call for Burton to shift to the centres to bring back his running game.

Burton wasn’t the only one who didn’t get involved. Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

Matty Johns called for Burton to move to the centres. Photo: Fox Sports

Johns said he’d play Burton at left centre to “really stimulate his running game”.

“Burton is a world-class runner of the football,” Johns said on Sunday Night with Matty Johns. “I’ve seen this a million times, you get great runners of the football and put them in a playmakers position, they get weighed down by what they think their duties are as far as organising the side.”

Alexander said he had always doubted Burton at No. 6 and would also make the shift.

In the 2021 premiership year, Burton was named one of the Dally M centres of the year and debuted in State of Origin in the centres.

“When Matt was centre at Penrith he was one of the best centres in the game and I’ve always had my doubts about him being as effective in the six jersey,” Alexander said on the Fox League podcast.

“That’s not just from looking at him on the weekend against the Eels, it’s sampling his footy over the last couple of years … I think ‘Burto’ is a great hole-runner, he’s big, tall and fast. I think centre suits him down to the ground.

“Maybe him and Stephen Crichton on either side and someone else in the six jersey. Let’s throw Toby Sexton in at seven and Drew Hutchison at six and see what they can do with ‘Burto’ in the centres.”

Ciraldo has backed Burton to make the No. 6 his own. Photo: NRL PHOTOS

But Ciraldo has backed Burton in the halves.

“He’s our five-eighth at the moment,” Ciraldo said.

“Everyone knows Matt is able to play centre, he’s won a grand final there, played rep footy there but he’s also got some really good attributes about his game at five-eighth.

“Last week, he kept us in the game with his kicking game when we were on the back foot. When teams are on the back foot, that’s a really hard thing to do and I think he did a great job of that last week.

“Does he need to get more involved? 100 per cent. When he touches the ball, good things happen and our team benefits from it. So we want to get him in those positions this week.

“He’s working really hard, he’s put himself in those positions at training and we’d like to see it come out tomorrow.

“We all know Matt can be a great centre but I think he’s going to be a great five-eighth as well.”

Originally published as Bulldogs shut down NRL greats calls to move Matt Burton