’Unacceptable’: Ciraldo puts players on notice as Dogs coach responds to recruit’s tough debut

Cameron Ciraldo blasted an “unacceptable’ part of his team’s performance after a brutal baptism of fire for the rookie NRL coach.

Cameron Ciraldo and Reed Mahoney.

Cameron Ciraldo has declared some of the Bulldogs’ attacking decisions “unacceptable” after a brutal baptism of fire at 4 Pines Park for the rookie NRL coach.

He also shut down a suggestion that Viliame Kikau’s quiet game had anything to do with the head knock he suffered in the Dogs’ second trial game.

There was a lot of hype around the Bulldogs — and Ciraldo — heading into the season but they were dealt a reality check in a 31-6 loss to Manly.

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They’re attack came under fire throughout the game with Matt Burton particularly coming up with some off moments.

Burton’s kicking game was nothing like it usually is with the star five-eighth’s 40/20 attempt going out on the full as well as a kick-off too.

He also made the bizarre decision to pass to Kikau instead of kicking himself on the fifth tackle. It meant Kikau had to put in a long-range kick, which ended up going out on the full.

Cameron Ciraldo wasn’t happy.

Fox League expert Michael Ennis called the moment “ridiculous” and said the Bulldogs halves “have to be better.”

Ciraldo was asked about some of the fifth-tackle options and conceded some plays were “unacceptable” and the team learnt “a lot of lessons.”

“We lacked cohesion at times around that area and around a lot of other areas as well,” he said.

“We’re a new team, we had three debutants today and five guys making their club debut.

“We’re going to get better every week but today there were some things that we didn’t do well and are unacceptable for us moving forward.

“But I still think we showed a hell of a lot of grit there at times to defend our tryline, stick together and stay in the contest physically. There were a lot of lessons learned.”

Bulldogs fans only got to see 15 minutes of Kikau in the second trial due to a failed a HIA and unfortunately they didn’t see much of him in the 73 minutes he did spend on the field on Saturday.

It was expected that Kikau would form a formidable combination with his former Panthers teammate Burton on the left edge, but instead he had minimal impact on the game.

The Dogs weren’t good enough. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Kikau finished with 62 metres from nine runs, but did make 21 tackles with just one miss.

When asked if the rampaging second-rower was still dealing with effects from his concussion, Ciraldo said “nah” before explaining why Kikau might have had a quiet game.

“He’s had a short pre-season Kiks, he only played 15 minutes (in the trials).

“We made it hard for ourselves with how much ball they were getting so a big guy like that with the amount we had to defend, it wasn’t ideal. He’ll be right.”

Ciraldo was still able to find the positives in the loss though. He gave debutants Jacob Preston, Jayden Tanner and Paul Alamoti a rap, but he couldn’t go past the “incredible” efforts of star recruit Reed Mahoney.

“He was incredible. He competed all day — he showed why he’s our captain. If we can all take a leaf out of his book we’re going to be very hard to beat,” Ciraldo said.

“Max King was another guy, he played the first 40, he’s just tireless and came up with some big plays. For a front-rower to play the first and then be there to save a try after the bell — it was an incredible effort as well.

“We had some good performers there today but we to do better.”

Originally published as ’Unacceptable’: Ciraldo puts players on notice as Dogs coach responds to recruit’s tough debut