Cameron Ciraldo’s blunt response to journo after Dogs’ win over Eels

After battling to a hard-fought win over Parramatta, Dogs coach Cameron Ciraldo was in no mood for a journalist’s curious question.

Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo has bristled at a journalist’s question in his post-match press conference, laughing at the suggestion his team was concerned after losing the second half of their 16-8 win over the Eels.

Undefeated after the opening three weeks, an injury-hit Canterbury faced its toughest task yet against battling Parramatta on Sunday, just holding them off to record the eight-point victory.

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The Bulldogs went into halftime up 14-4 and had to increase the intensity in defence as the Eels tested their line time and time again in the second stanza.

With five-eighth Matt Burton and backrower Viliame Kikau both sidelined with MCLs, Ciraldo was proud of his team’s resilience and had a somewhat frosty response when questioned on the second half performance.

Cameron Ciraldo‘s face says it all during his post-match press conference.

A journalist pointed out they were outscored 4-2 in the second half and asked if this was of any concern. Ciraldo chuckled before responding.

“Seriously? No, we just won a really hard-fought game with a number of players missing,” he said.

“I’m stoked with the effort. We didn’t win it on smarts.

“We’ll learn a lot of lessons around how we can attack better but considering we were missing our five-eighth, missing Kikau, I thought our attack did what it needed to do.

“But it was all about our defence this week.

“I was really happy with the improvements we’ve made there.

“It’s hard to win any game in this comp … over the first two rounds I was really disappointed in some of the tries we’ve let in.

“To keep them to two tries today – although I would have liked to stop those ones – there was a definite attitude adjustment to our defence and something we can build off moving forward.”

With the Eels winless to start the year, Ciraldo said the Bulldogs were expecting some desperation from their opponents and that is what they got on Sunday at CommBank Stadium.

“It was exactly the sort of game we thought we were going to get,” he said.

“We knew we’d have to win in the last 10 minutes and we definitely had to do that.

“They were really desperate and it was important we matched that desperation. I thought we definitely did.”

The Bulldogs now face a tough battle against the Sharks next Saturday, while the Eels will chase their first win away to Manly on Sunday.

Originally published as Cameron Ciraldo’s blunt response to journo after Dogs’ win over Eels