‘Plan C’: Ciraldo’s shock reveal on ‘medical marvel’ as Bulldogs star gives big injury update
Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo was a relieved man in his post-game press conference on Monday afternoon, revealing the “medical marvel” behind Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | Ciraldo’s side had plenty of opportunities to add to the scoreboard in the first half against the Eels, with 51 tackles in the opposition half compared to just 22 for Parramatta.
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They didn’t have any points to show for it, and in the end it was a 76th minute Matt Burton penalty goal that separated the two teams. The last pass was often just not there, with halfback Lachlan Galvin showing glimpses of his best — particularly on last-tackle kicks — but a few passes also went to ground in a clunky game from the Bulldogs as a whole.
“We defended really well, we got forward really well, and then we got down to the opposition try-line and just got a little bit nervous and you could feel the tension. We just started overthinking things a bit. ” When pressed on what was behind that tension, Ciraldo said he could “feel it through the crowd as well” and paid credit to Parramatta’s “brave” defence for making life hard for his halves.
But Ciraldo seemed to concede the outside noise surrounding his halves combination may have also contributed to the nervy showing, calling them the “most scrutinised pairing” in the NRL.
“Our halfback’s 20 and he has to hear a lot of commentary about how he’s going,” the Bulldogs coach added. That may have also explained why the Bulldogs had issues setting up for the game-winning field goal in the final 10 minutes of Monday’s game, with Ciraldo offering a simple one-word response when asked if he would have liked to have seen Galvin opt for the one-pointer.
“Yep,” he said, while skipper Stephen Crichton also confirmed the players had a conversation on the field about trying to set up for the field goal. “How we can set that up, but obviously not just putting all of our eggs into that, but still playing footy. If we had an opportunity, we still had a set-up to take that slot, but we didn’t need it in the end.
” Sitili Tupouniua was a clear standout for the Bulldogs in an otherwise unconvincing performance, running 13 times for 102 metres to go with a try and three tackle busts.
“He’s really showing everyone how we need to attack when we get down to that part of the field,” the Bulldogs coach added. “He just comes off the back fence, he just thinks it’s another line on the field, and we just all need to take a little bit of Sitili’s mentality at the moment when we get there.
” Ciraldo conceded the upcoming one-week break could not have come at a better time, adding he has “never seen a team need a bye more” than this Bulldogs outfit. To that effect, he revealed that winger Jacob Kiraz had played through a torn calf, calling him a “medical marvel” and he wasn’t the only Bulldogs player in serious doubt for Monday’s game.
“The team we thought we were going to play with on Saturday morning, which was probably Plan C, ended up being different because these guys just put their head up and said we’re playing,” Ciraldo said. “Kiraz, Critta, even Enari and a couple other guys that are carrying some stuff, they just refused not to play. “Kiraz is a medical marvel.
He’s got a torn calf, he tore it in the warm-up last week and got through 80 minutes, so that gave us a little bit of hope that there could be a chance, but as of Saturday morning, he hadn’t trained.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of chance that he could play, so we were pretty set with what we were doing there, and then he just managed to get through training and not just get through training — he was one of our best trainers, so I don’t know how he does it, but I’m glad he does. ” Crichton also played through pain after re-aggravating his AC joint injury last week, although the Bulldogs centre said the morning after last week’s Tigers game was the “best it’s ever felt” despite “ripping off all the cartilages” in the process.
As a result, the Blues centre revealed he only needed to get needled up at the start of Monday’s game. Crichton was named in NSW coach Laurie Daley’s Blues squad for Game 2 and is expected to retain his spot in the starting side.
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