By Daniel Lo Surdo
Amid the slew of impressive individual performances that have propelled the Canterbury Bulldogs’ run to the brink of the NRL’s top four this season, the feats of Bronson Xerri are particularly noteworthy.
The explosive centre hasn’t missed a beat in his first NRL season since returning from a four-year doping ban – and in doing so, has bucked a trend of athletes who struggled to regain the heights in top-tier competition after returning from an extended suspension.
Justin Gatlin won gold in the 100m at the 2004 Olympics, but never again scaled the pinnacle after returning from a four-year ban in 2010, while five-time grand slam winner Maria Sharapova could not recapture her former glories in women’s tennis after 15 months out of the game.
Xerri was just 19 and tipped as a star of the future with the Cronulla Sharks when he was banned for four years after testing positive to anabolic steroids on the eve of the 2020 season.
He signed with the Bulldogs in 2022 despite not being able to play until 2024 at the expiration of his ban, and made his first-grade return in a round five win over the Roosters.
Xerri had been playing in the NSW Cup for a month, and got his chance when first-choice winger Blake Wilson went down with illness. Xerri has kept his spot in the top grade ever since, scoring nine tries in 16 appearances for the rejuvenated Bulldogs.
Bronson XerriCredit: Getty Images
Having struggled to come to terms with his situation after being rubbed out for four years, doubts about his ability to cut it in first-grade began to creep in shortly after he returned.
“We got a little panicky at the start when [Bulldogs coach Cameron] Ciraldo wasn’t picking him,” said sprint coach Roger Fabri, who took Xerri under his wing during his time out.
“We thought he may have transitioned a bit quicker from reserve grade to first grade… [he] was second-guessing whether he’d get there, but you’ve got to give him kudos. He’s got that one opportunity and hasn’t given it back.”
Bronson Xerri and Jacob Kiraz hug after the Bulldogs victory over the Roosters.Credit: Getty
Canterbury winger Jacob Kiraz said Xerri “wasn’t the fittest” when he joined the club, but that he was now “killing it in first grade”.
“Every day since he’s come in, he just wants to be better. He’s asking questions, learning off someone like ‘Critta’ [Stephen Crichton] and I feel like every game he plays he’s getting better and better.”
University of Sydney Associate Professor Rhonda Orr, who specialises in exercise science and doping in sport, said a successful return revolved around a “well-managed” training regime that would “prepare [Xerri] to come back into first level rugby league”.
“Coming back into professional rugby league, in first grade, he would have had an [exercise] dosing that would get him back to that high level of training.”
Sandor Earl said Bronson Xerri could take some positives from his suspension. Credit: NRL Photos
Former Canberra and Melbourne winger Sandor Earl, who received a four-year ban in 2013 for using and trafficking banned substances, said he had been impressed by the speed of Xerri’s return to first-grade form.
Earl was thrown a lifeline by the Storm in 2018 following his suspension, but was plagued by injury and retired two years later.
Earl, who regularly spoke to and supported Xerri during his suspension, told this masthead Xerri had looked like a “different beast” since returning, saying that the forced time away from the sport allowed him to “grow himself athletically without the challenges and the demands of rugby league”.
Earl said the centre enjoyed the advantage of still being only 23 when he returned, and had dodged the toll four years of first-grade rugby league would inevitably have taken on his body.
“He’s a hell of an athlete, and he can look back and go, ‘I wouldn’t wish that [ban] upon anyone … but there are some positives to take away from it, and the person that I am now is probably built on the back of the resilience that I was able to earn through a really challenging experience’.”
Xerri has his sights set on an Origin debut next year, and holds ambitions of representing Australia or Malta – the nation of his family’s heritage – at the 2026 World Cup.
The Bulldogs will play finals this season for the first time since 2016, and are fifth going into Friday’s clash with the Warriors.
Xerri will spend the summer shedding weight in a bid to become faster next season, the last under his current Bulldogs contract. Fabri thinks it will unlock some of the explosiveness that put Xerri on the map as a teenager for the Sharks.
He says it will still take two more pre-seasons for Xerri to see the “best version” of himself, but insisted he’ll get “better and better” as he becomes accustomed to the weekly brutality of first-grade rugby league.