NRL 2023: Canterbury Bulldogs skipper Reed Mahoney defends coach Cameron Ciraldo’s hard line stance

Canterbury Bulldogs skipper Reed Mahoney has defended coach Cameron Ciraldo, admitting players need to be working even harder, despite complaints over training workloads.

Bulldogs skipper Reed Mahoney has doubled down on coach Cameron Ciraldo’s hard stance. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Bulldogs skipper Reed Mahoney has doubled down on coach Cameron Ciraldo’s hard stance by declaring “if anything we need to work harder” after senior players were forced to address concerns within the rest of the group.

Ciraldo publicly challenged his players on Wednesday telling those who did not want to conform to his training load to leave the club. Two days later his captain has essentially done the same.

“Training is always hard,” Mahoney said. “If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. It’s hard to get (in the NRL) and it’s also harder to stay,

“You come to training sometimes and you feel sore you have to get through it. It’s part of the life of being a professional athlete. Some days aren’t always perfect. The training load is for a reason and we do it because we know it's right.”

Bulldogs skipper Reed Mahoney has doubled down on coach Cameron Ciraldo’s hard stance. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

The Bulldogs final match of the season against the Titans has been marred by a speculator fallout between the club and one player. The player is considering his legal options after he was ordered to knee wrestle his fit teammates – believed to be more than 20 players – as part of his sanction after the coaching staff deemed he was around 10 minutes late for training.

Mahoney, said he had reached out to player, was stopped by a club official when asked if he was comfortable with the punishment.

“His welfare is our priority and the club and the group are doing a great job of that,” Mahoney said. “I don’t want to talk about it because this is his thing and we’re worried about his welfare – I don’t want to sit here and talk about it, but there was more than just that. There was other stuff going on.”

The players were forced to address the growing discontent among their peers. The complaints of long training sessions and criticism of Ciraldo by some in the squad have come to a head this week.

“We’ve spoken about it. It is what it is …. if you’re not willing to work hard you’re not going to get better,” Mahoney said. “I don’t know where (that noise) is coming from. You don’t become best mates with someone over night. It takes time.

High profile recruit Viliame Kikau has pointed to the team’s inexperience for some of the angst over training loads. Picture: Sam Ruttyn.

“I definitely think (Ciraldo’s) a mate before he’s a coach and that’s what everyone loves about him. He’s easily approachable, his door is always open.”

Marquee off-season signing Viliame Kikau followed Ciraldo from Penrith ahead of this season.

Kikau pointed to the inexperienced playing group as a reason for some of the angst.

“I‘ve been training under ’Ciro’ for that long now so that was sort of the same training load,” Kikau said.

“I haven’t heard anything. There are a lot of talks out there.

“(The discontent) has been addressed. We’ve had a chat as players. We have address it.”

Originally published as NRL 2023: Canterbury Bulldogs skipper Reed Mahoney defends coach Cameron Ciraldo’s hard line stance