NRL 2024: The Bulldogs must give Matt Burton less ball to get the most out of their star
Matt Burton can become a great five-eighth - but first, the Bulldogs must move him back to the centres - DAVID RICCIO explains why.
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Brad Fittler, one of the NRL’s greatest five-eighths, took nine seasons to call the No.6 jumper his own.
Fittler played a total of 332 career games. Of his first 161 games, only 32 were with the six on his back.
In far fewer career games (79), Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton has already chalked up more appearances (48) at five-eighth than what Fittler had through his early years.
Consider this as the starting point for a debate into why the Bulldogs should move Burton out of the halves and into the centres in 2024.
Because of his legacy as a devastating playmaker, it’s almost impossible to remember, that between 1989 and 1997, Fittler shuffled between fullback, centre, lock, front-row — yes, he played three games at prop in 1995 — and on the bench.
It wasn’t until 1998 that Fittler would be recognised as a starting five-eighth, playing 24 out of 25 matches in the position that season for the Sydney City Roosters.
He was 26 at the time, going on to win every individual and team award possible in the position.
Laurie Daley shares the podium alongside Fittler as one of the best five-eighths of the modern era.
The Canberra Raiders legend has a similar story of developing into the playmaking position.
Like Fittler — and as we’ve seen from Burton — ‘Loz’ played his best football on instinct.
He was a big body who was all power when he ran the ball. He could get on the outside of a defender, he was skilful, he could kick and he could create for his men by drawing in the defence.
However, after making his NRL debut from the Raiders bench in 1987, it would take Daley a total of five seasons before he would be regarded as Canberra’s first-choice five-eighth.
Between 1987 and 1991, Daley played only 23 of 58 games at five-eighth.
In 2024, Burton enters his fifth full season in the NRL and has already played more games at five-eighth than Daley had at the same stage.
Like Fittler, Daley also floated between fullback, centre, lock and the bench.
The Bulldogs need to consider doing the same with Burton by returning the 2021 Dally M centre of the year to the centres in 2024.
The 190cm, 96kg Burton, has the same character traits as the two legends.
Shifting back to the centres, doesn’t have to mean Burton’s days in the six are over.
It would allow the 23-year-old to develop as a footballer, improving with better players around him, just as Fittler and Daley did.
The other crucial factors are these.
The Dogs began pre-season training on Friday. Over the next month, nine new faces will begin training ahead of the 2024 season.
What stands out compared to last season is the flexibility in their halves.
Joining halfback Toby Sexton in blue and white in 2024 comes Roosters half Drew Hutchison, Knights ball-runner Kurt Mann, Panthers utility and former NSW under-18s five-eighth Jaemon Salmon and South Sydney fullback or half Blake Taaffe.
Granted, none of them are what you would call elite and NRL-seasoned halves.
However, it could be argued that with so much talent outside them, why do they need to be?
By shifting Burton to the centres, the Dogs will boast one of the most lethal backlines in the NRL, coupled with two damaging backrowers.
With Taaffe at fullback, Josh Addo-Carr on one wing and Jacob Kiraz the other, Burton and Stephen Crichton in the centres and Viliame Kikau and Canterbury 2023 Player of the Year, Jacob Preston on the edges, will it not be the priority of the halves to provide the team’s greatest strike weapons with quality ball?
The concern is that the Dogs are still short of an elite-level enforcer in their pack, which makes moving Burton even harder, given his ability to boot the Bulldogs out of trouble from their end of the field.
And that’s the big concern from Dogs fans. Can the team adjust after Burton had the final say on almost every play in 2023?
More to the point, what becomes of Burton’s lethal torpedo bombs at centre?
Burton has proven on the game’s biggest stage that he can still be the best player on the field in the centres.
In game two of the 2022 State of Origin series, Burton made his debut for NSW. Interestingly, Crichton was the other Blues centre.
Burton was dynamic. He was pipped only by Nathan Cleary as the man of the match.
Burton scored a try from a Cleary grubber, laid on another for winger Brian To’o and produced a crucial one-on-one strip on Cameron Munster.
And his kicks? His booming left footers were hailed as game-defining for the Blues in their 44-12 win over the Maroons at Optus Stadium in Perth.
Burton also played at centre in the Blues Origin III loss in 2022.
His Origin series finished with eight kicks in two matches.
By comparison, NSW five-eighth Jarome Luai had six kicks in three games.
Burton finished the series with two line break assists in his two matches compared to Cleary’s two in three games.
There’s a game plan that exists that allows Burton to be just as damaging at centre as he could be at five-eighth. It allows him to pull back on his involvement, to pick his moments in attack and to conserve both mental and physical energy which differs greatly between centre and five-eighth.
The Dogs are building a roster that is no longer beholden to Burton.
Move him now, give him time to mature as a footballer and it will only help him later in his career.
Fittler and Daley have proven that.
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