Why Canterbury Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo must accept criticism of his own performance

At what moment will Cameron Ciraldo point the finger at himself and concede the Bulldogs have gone backwards on his watch this season, writes Paul Crawley.

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo.

Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo needs to look in the mirror before coming out and bagging his players the next time he feels the need to justify his own lack of results.

At what point will the rookie NRL coach point the finger at himself and concede the Bulldogs have gone backwards on his watch this season?

As for Willie Mason labelling some players “f.....g soft as s..t” for daring to raise concerns they are being trained too hard, Mason’s unprofessional response on a podcast this week only further highlights how the Bulldogs’ coaching staff seem to have absolved themselves from any blame in respect to the team’s dreadful on-field performances.

Given Mason is on the Bulldogs’ payroll, it was simply outrageous.

If any other assistant at another NRL club came out and attacked his own players in this disrespectful manner, chances are they would be looking for a new job before the day was out.

But at the Bulldogs, under the current regime, it is obviously acceptable behaviour.

Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo has been very vocal on the shortcomings of his playing group. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

It only makes it more concerning when you factor in the explosive allegations of the extreme punishment handed out to a young player for turning up to training a few minutes late.

How in the world anyone in this day and age could think making any player wrestle the entire top-30 squad “apart from the injured guys” is fair punishment has to be a huge concern for the management at every level of the game.

The player has not returned to training since with concerns over his mental welfare.

As one player who saw the incident speaking on the condition of anonymity told this masthead: “After it happened, I thought ‘what the f*** was that’. It was pretty ordinary.”

And even though the player’s name has not been released by the club or media, it has not stopped a wildfire of speculation on social media to try and expose him.

How this young man comes back from this remains to be seen.

But the NRL certainly cannot sit back and allow this not to be fully investigated.

If the allegations are proven then extreme punishment of a different nature needs to be executed on those responsible.

Make no mistake, the claims have left experienced people around the game gobsmacked.

Treatment that borders on physical and emotional abuse is not acceptable in any work environment. It should also not be acceptable in the NRL.

Yes, it is professional sport.

But how would any parent feel/react if their boy or girl was subjected to such humiliating punishment?

Would you want to send your kid to the Bulldogs after hearing this?

And we are entitled to question if Ciraldo would react as calmly as he did in his media conference this week if it was his own child forced to endure the same discipline.

It also defies belief that, on one hand, Ciraldo and Bulldogs general manager of football Phil Gould have refused to address the specific allegations due to the sensitive nature of the issue.

Yet, in the next breath, both doubled down on Ciraldo’s hardcore training methods and the need to toughen up the Bulldogs’ current culture.

Gould also referenced that the player continued to train for another week, which could be seen as implying this wasn’t the big deal it was being made out to be.

Outspoken Bulldogs assistant Willie Mason. Picture: Damian Shaw

“There are some exaggerations and some embellishments,” Gould claimed on his podcast.

Yet at no point has Gould put the blowtorch on the job Ciraldo has done this year.

There is just no hiding from the fact the Bulldogs are playing worse now than they did last year under interim coach Mick Potter. That is despite Ciraldo having a better roster to work with.

And while the Bulldogs won’t finish with the wooden spoon this year, few would argue that on current form they are the NRL’s worst performing team.

For the Bulldogs to be conceding on average 32 points a game – and playing with such a lack of enthusiasm and commitment – is as alarming an indication of the methods Ciraldo and his coaching staff are employing as it is the so-called lack of culture and toughness within the playing group.

Even if a team can’t challenge for the premiership, fans at least expect to see them go out and have a go.

But it is like Ciraldo has arrived from his assistant role at the Panthers coaching the back-to-back premiers and just expects to implement the same standards and the players will rise to the challenge.

Experienced coaches will tell you it just doesn’t work that way. It takes time to get to those levels. In between it is also the coach’s job to find a way to get his players performing to their existing potential. On that front Ciraldo needs to own up to his part of what has gone wrong at the Bulldogs this year.