New Penrith coach Cameron Ciraldo reveals he tried to resign earlier this year following rift with Anthony Griffin
A FIVE-HOUR meeting inside Phil Gould’s office at Penrith’s rugby league academy saved rookie coach Cameron Ciraldo from walking away from the club — not once, but twice.
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A FIVE-HOUR meeting inside Phil Gould’s office at Penrith’s rugby league academy saved rookie coach Cameron Ciraldo from walking away from the club — not once, but twice.
Ahead of his NRL coaching debut, The Saturday Telegraph has learned Ciraldo’s first attempt to resign was at the end of the 2017 NRL season, while his second attempt was just five weeks ago.
On both occasions, the 33-year-old assistant to sacked coach Anthony Griffin had decided to continue his coaching career at another club because he couldn’t see any further development as a coach under the structure at the time.
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The marathon conversation with Gould convinced Ciraldo to hold onto his letter of resignation and continue in his assistant coaching role in 2018.
On the second occasion, on the Tuesday before the Panthers’ 36-4 win over the Warriors in Round 17 on a Friday night at Penrith, Ciraldo had decided that after having his principles questioned by Griffin, he could no longer continue.
He had spent the night before penning notes on a piece of paper which The Telegraph believes was Ciraldo’s way of illustrating to Gould, why he needed to leave the club.
But this time, it wasn’t Gould who stopped Ciraldo from walking out on his contract which still had 12-months to go.
It was his loyalty to rookie half Jarome Luai, who made his stunning NRL debut against the Warriors and Tyrone May — both of whom Ciraldo had worked closely with during their development in the under-20s — which kept him at the club.
Ciraldo was dragged into the turmoil that has engulfed Penrith since Griffin’s sacking last Monday after Gould revealed on Nine’s Footy Show that the caretaker coach had tried to “resign twice.’’
The Saturday Telegraph pressed Ciraldo on the details of his resignation attempts.
He confirmed that he had tried to resign.
However, wanting to avoid adding another chapter to the ugly verbal slanging-match between Griffin and Gould ahead his debut as coach this afternoon against the Titans on the Gold Coast, Ciraldo stopped short of divulging the intricate details of why he wanted out.
“I just felt like it was the right thing to do for the club, myself, my family and Hook as well,’’ Ciraldo said.
“I’m glad Gus (Gould) talked me out of it.
“Looking back, it would’ve been terribly hard to leave the players I’ve seen grow up for the last five years and move to another club and have to coach against them.
“But I had my reasons, which I felt pretty strongly about.’’
Asked if he had fallen out with Griffin, Ciraldo said: “The job of an assistant coach is to challenge a head coach, so like every assistant does I had different opinions, but me and Hook (Griffin) had a working relationship. It’s in the past now.
Ciraldo wouldn’t comment on whether Griffin had lost the dressing room.
“And the players shoudn’t have to answer whether he’d (Griffin) lost the group because they go out and put their bodies on the line every week no matter what the situation is,’’ Ciraldo said.
“I’ve got full confidence that they have the highest of integrity.
“From my point of view, I couldn’t have asked anything more from them in the last three days. They’ve been really engaged in terms of video and training and their energy has been good.
“But that doesn’t matter if we don’t get the job done on Saturday.
“We’ll get judged on that and hopefully some of what we’ve seen during the week at training will translate into a game day performance.’’