By Dan Walsh
Canterbury’s signing of Lachlan Galvin might make or break the Bulldogs’ most promising title tilt in more than a decade.
To many, it could have them contending for premierships for the next decade.
Brad Fittler, as is his way, is thinking bigger.
The man Phil Gould has compared Galvin to, more than once, as the most prodigious teen he’s seen in 50 years of footy, sees a play-making upside where most don’t see an NRL halfback yet.
“They could change the way the game is played,” Fittler says.
Cameron Ciraldo’s Belmore rebuild has already been constructed on a high-octane ‘check and release’ defensive system that has consistently ranked them among the worst teams for missed tackles (12th this year, 17th last season), yet conceded fewer points (18.31 per game) than any side in the past 18 months.
Lachlan Galvin trains with the Bulldogs.Credit: Canterbury Bulldogs
How the Canterbury coach navigates Galvin’s delicate introduction to the ladder-leaders is the latest fascinating watch in the 19-year-old’s enthralling career.
The Bulldogs have signed him on a deal worth more than $2.5 million with the No.7 jersey firmly in mind, though Ciraldo discussed several positions with the young tyro before signing him, and no position has been promised.
Still, Fittler posits a scrum base set-up that builds on the foot speed, small forwards and short passing that Canterbury’s attack has developed effectively this season, with Galvin in the seven.
“If you sat with Burton, and then Galvin, one’s a left-footer, one’s a right-footer, you play Galvin on the right,” Fittler said on The Sunday Footy Show.
“These days, locks are pretty much like halves, people like [Bulldogs utility] Bailey Hayward.
“You could play someone in the middle as a link to both of [halves]. And then all of a sudden, the game really changes.
“The one thing you could also do is stop sitting your halfback in the line so you get 120-kilo blokes running at them, but sit him behind the line, so he can pop in wherever he needs to. This could be a game-changer.”
Like the high-energy, desperate defence Ciraldo crafted for Ivan Cleary at Penrith, Fittler’s suggestion sounds a lot like the Panthers’ championing of Isaah Yeo as the best ball-playing lock in the game.
Off-air, the former NSW coach explains further.
That Canterbury’s lightweight forwards like Hayward, Kurt Mann, Jaemon Salmon and Josh Curran produce such a constant, rolling threat and such a constant ability to ball-play, that the Bulldogs could camp themselves up on the advantage line with numerous fast-moving parts, and largely jettison the long-shift plays that are everywhere you look in the modern game.
Lachlan Galvin trains with Canterbury at Belmore.Credit: Canterbury Bulldogs
Galvin could end up defending like “Allan Langer, Ricky Stuart and Greg Alexander used to” Fittler says - somewhat out of the way, saved for attacking duties and until his 190-centimetre frame fills out.
First though, Ciraldo is working out where the Tiger-turned-Bulldog fits into his 17 against Parramatta next Monday.
No call will be made until the coach has seen Galvin train alongside his new teammates this week, but jettisoning the more-than serviceable Toby Sexton as game-managing No.7 would be a hell of a call.
Sexton will eventually make way and land a deal somewhere in the NRL next season.
Introducing Galvin off the bench alongside Hayward against the Eels is the safest play, seemingly without the same undersized issues that playing two utilities would do at other clubs. What’s one more utility to a Canterbury side that thrives on them?
As for Galvin’s halfback hopes, Andrew and Matty Johns are among those that don’t see it. Cooper Cronk - a utility turned champion No.7 himself through hard work and smarts - has his doubts as well.
What the teen tyro does have is a pure halfback’s sheer want to be involved in the game.
Throughout his 18 months of first-grade, Galvin has averaged around 52 touches per game, a level of involvement that leads all five-eighths in that period and trails only a few on-ball halfbacks like Nathan Cleary, Isaiya Katoa and Nicho Hynes.
Of playmakers genuinely taking on the defence in a statistic the NRL terms ‘line-engaged runs’, only Katoa has done so more often than Galvin this year.
His base-level play-making temperament appeals to coaches just as much as his rare skill and ability.
It doesn’t change the concern that the Bulldogs risk running without direction. Guiding Canterbury around the paddock was a role Burton struggled with when he played halfback, while this is Sexton’s greatest asset.
Hayward might offer another answer as well given his prowess when stepping into the halves this season, most notably in stirring wins over Cronulla at Shark Park and the Raiders in Canberra.
How Galvin fits in here, now, down the line and even in Fittler’s bigger picture, makes the teenager the NRL’s most compelling story once again.
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