Why Cameron Ciraldo is right to stick to Bulldogs’ Lachlan Galvin game plan
There’s no other club in the competition that wouldn’t love the talent of Lachlan Galvin available on their bench. It’s why Bulldogs fans need to trust Cameron Ciraldo, because the Galvin game plan is going nowhere.
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Bulldogs fans have short memories.
Two seasons ago, in July 2023, the Panthers thrashed Canterbury 44-18.
On a Sunday afternoon at Penrith, Dogs coach Cameron Ciraldo looked around at training for his roster of options and ended up playing Jake Averillo at halfback, Kyle Flanagan at hooker, Corey Waddell at lock, Hayze Perham at fullback, Matt Burton at five-eighth and Reed Mahoney from the interchange bench.
The real story is how the Panthers didn’t put 50 on the Dogs.
How things have changed.
On Friday night at CommBank Stadium, the two teams produced the best two hours of television on Fox Sports this season.
The game of the year went down to the last seconds with the back, bigger than ever Panthers, holding on 8-6.
Yet within minutes of full-time, Dogs fans weren’t coping, taking to social media with their view on the evolving entry point into the game of new buy Lachlan Galvin.
Take it as gospel, there wouldn’t be another club in the competition that wouldn’t love the talent of Galvin available on their bench.
This is where the Dogs are at and how far they’ve come in two years.
The shifting of Toby Sexton from halfback to hooker in the second half for Reed Mahoney to leave the field and for Galvin to enter the game in the halves isn’t normal for an NRL team.
That’s undeniable. But that doesn’t mean it can’t work either.
If anything, it should make the Dogs even more potent.
Mahoney, who made 40 tackles before leaving the field, is no longer a ‘spot’ player for the opposition to attack and Sexton remains an attacking threat with a kick or pass from dummy-half.
One thing is clear, Ciraldo won’t be altering the heavily debated game plan anytime soon.
“I thought it worked pretty well tonight,’’ Ciraldo said after the match.
“I like how it’s working at the moment. Reed rips in, gets his work done and works himself to a standstill.
“Toby did a great job going in there (to hooker) and shoring up the ruck again and providing good service.
“And Lachie comes on and can sort of roll around and ask really good questions which he did.
“So we’re happy with the way it’s going at the moment.
“I don’t see any reason to change it.’’
Ciraldo was then asked if Galvin from the bench would still be how the team will be operating in round 25.
“A lot of things can happen before round 25. You hope your whole squad is healthy,’’ he said.
“The good thing is we’ve got good depth and we’re (being) asked these questions.
“We’ve got headaches around selection, but I thought it worked really well tonight.
“I thought it worked really well the other week (against the Rabbitohs), so I don’t see any point in changing it at the moment.’’
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