Bulldogs playmaker thought Galvin was ‘joking’ when told he was being punted

A Bulldogs star says he could not believe the message Lachlan Galvin gave him as he was thrown under a bus to make way for the former Tigers gun.

Bulldogs halfback Toby Sexton has revealed he thought new recruit Lachlan Galvin was joking when he came on for his debut on Sunday and told the No. 7 to go play hooker.

Nobody knew just how Galvin would be used off the bench in his first game for Canterbury, including the players themselves.

The 19-year-old warmed the bench for 57 minutes thinking he was likely coming on at lock or centre, but when the moment arrived it was in the halves - his preferred position.

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Galvin came on and Sexton, who admits he has “no idea” the long-term plan for positions, was told to move into dummyhalf with Reed Mahoney going off.

“He came on and said play hooker and I thought he was joking for a second and he goes ‘Nah you’re actually playing hooker’ and I thought oh righto this will be good,” Sexton said on Fox League.

Lachie Galvin ordered Toby Sexton to play dummy half. Photo: Fox League.

“Whatever is my role in the team, the coach is going to decide that and I just have to play to the best of my ability. We’ve got lots of strike in the team and they’re good headaches for the coach to have.

Galvin said he still has “no clue” what position he’ll be playing moving forward under coach Cameron Ciraldo.

“I thought I was coming on at lock or centre, I didn’t know and then Ciro told me go into the halves so whatever Ciro wants and the boys need, I’ll do it,” Galvin said on Fox League.

“If we keep winning like that I’ll do anything.”

Ciraldo said he had a number of possible plans to get Galvin into the game, but halfback wasn’t the number one idea. He also revealed that his original intention last week was to have Galvin play in NSW Cup, rather than the King’s Birthday blockbuster.

“We had a couple of plans, but no, that wasn’t the plan (to play halfback). We had a couple of different plans there,” Ciraldo said.

“It’s been a really hard week to get his head around everything.

“On Tuesday, when I named the team, he wasn’t in the team. I thought he would play NSW Cup and he’ll just come through there and learn our systems but every training session he did, he got better. He understood our systems better and by the end of the week, it was clear that we needed to have him in the team and he could help us win the game.

“Credit to him and how he went about his training during the week and I thought he did great when he got on there.

Ciraldo was assured that the 19-year-old’s best position was in the halves.

“He plays in the halves. That’s his preferred position,” Ciraldo said.

“When we looked at bringing him in immediately we probably thought he can fill a number of positions, and he might be able to do that, but he’s predominantly a half and he did a great job tonight.

“The learning is not over. He’s been here for a week. He’s still got a lot to learn, but today it was a great start for him.”

Sexton is still without a contract for next season and admitted the uncertainty around his future, which was only amplified with the arrival of Galvin, has played on his mind at times this season.

“Yeah it obviously has its moments but I have a great playing group and staff here and coming to training every day is so enjoyable and it’s pretty cliche but I’m just trying to control what I can control,” Sexton said.

“Hopefully that (contract) will get sorted sooner rather than later but it was another good win tonight.

”It’s obviously been a few weird weeks with Lachie coming to the club but I thought the moment he came in, all the pressure went away and I could just focus on footy.

“At the end of the day he’s a great kid and from day dot he just wants to learn and get better and he’s very young. He’s fit in really well and I don’t feel the pressure, I just need to play footy and if I do that well the rest is out of my control.”

Galvin said he had moved on from the drama surrounding his departure from the Tigers and paid tribute to his new teammates and fans.

“I just want to play footy. I shut that out. That’s all over now and that’s all in the past,” he said.

“That’s all in the past now. I just want to play footy and I was smiling and enjoying it out there today. That’s all I really want to do and with these bunch of boys, it’s quite amazing and the fans got right behind us tonight. It was really cool.

“As you can see when I scored, they all jumped over me. They’ve been so supportive, they’ve got behind me.

“Just to get the win with all these boys that have been so good to me, I love every minute of it. The club is building into something really special here and I love being a part of it.”

Bulldogs No. 6 Matt Burton played in the halves alongside both Sexton and Galvin on Sunday and said the dynamic worked with all three of them on the field.

“I thought it was good, (Galvin) came on and added a lot of energy there through the middle and took them on,” Burton said.

“He’ll only get better as he gets older and I thought he was great on debut tonight and jagged a try but I thought Sexton was really good in the middle as well.

“We didn’t train too much (Galvin) to be honest, he sort of filled in a few spots during the week but we didn’t know where he was going to come on.

“I thought he did a great job to handle that and has obviously been through a bit, he’s done well tonight. There’s been a lot of noise around him so it’s good for him to come out here, have some fun and play footy.

“(But) Sexton) has been outstanding for us all year and the way he goes about his business is second to none and I thought he played really well in the first half, got us in a good position and set us up for the second half.”

Canterbury captain Stephen Crichton added: “There’s a long way to go with him, tonight was just a little snippet of how good he can be, I’m very proud he’s in the Bulldogs colours now, he’s going to be a massive asset to our team.”

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Originally published as Bulldogs playmaker thought Galvin was ‘joking’ when told he was being punted