UPDATE:Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo has addressed claims that a player walked out on the club after a brutal punishment at training, refusing to comment on the specific case but admitting that his club uses a punishment system to "drive standards".
Speaking to the media on Wednesday amid claims that a player in the top 30 has been absent from the club for five weeks since being forced to wrestle up to a dozen of his teammates at the end of a training session because he turned up late, Ciraldo said he wouldn't comment on the incident, nor would he clarify if he wanted the player to return.
"It's a pretty sensitive issue and I won't be commenting on that one," he said.
READ MORE: World Cup kiss scandal explodes
READ MORE: Legend's grim Latrell warning amid text scandal
READ MORE: Ange disaster as Spurs knocked out in 18-year first
"I don't want to comment specifically, but at different times we've been, wanted to put some standards in place and obviously we, if you're late, well we have to do something about that. But I won't be talking specifically about it," he added soon afterwards.
The player, who has reportedly taken personal leave related to his mental health has been described as a fringe first grader. He is reportedly still getting paid by the Bulldogs.
Ciraldo did, however, admit that he was aware of scuttlebutt that some of his players were fed up with the expectations of them after a text message circulated claiming there was a group of players disgruntled by the "long days" they were expected to do, although he said he didn't know "exactly who they are".
"It's all rumours, it's all text message rumours and things like that. No one's come to me and complained to me about long days," Ciraldo said.
"The long days, we've got a Flegg group that come in and do weights at 5 o'clock in the morning, go and work for 10 hours and then come back and do a field session at 5.30 in the afternoon.
"That's a long day and the way those guys are going about their business, they're showing us that they're future Bulldogs that we're going to build the club around."
Ciraldo refuted that the expectations at the Bulldogs were over and above the usual "NRL standard" saying the Panthers, where he was an assistant coach for their back-to-back premierships, were expected at the club for more hours than the Bulldogs.
"Nothing comes without hard work. We have one long day a week and if you get the last massage you're probably leaving at 5.30pm. The days were longer at the place I was previously," Ciraldo said.
"I don't know about this 'toxic' culture," he added.
"There might be certain people who don't want to buy into what we're doing but I don't think it's a great amount of people. We've got a lot of people, a lot of players working hard inside these four walls and we've got a lot of people doing really good things.
"It's not a widespread thing, there might be a few guys who don't like the direction we're going, but we've got some people, I'm surrounded by people who know what winning looks like, I've come from good systems, I'm surrounded by Bulldogs people who won premierships at the Bulldogs and they know what this club's built on, and I'll listen to those people."
Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on 9Now
Ciraldo said that if there were current Bulldogs players who didn't like the direction the club was going in they were welcome to leave.
However, he said it was hard to get to the truth beneath the scuttlebutt due to the fact that none of his players had come to him to complain about the club's expectations.
"It's hard to address those rumours because no one's come to me and said anything. We've got a leadership group that we meet with every week and you'd like to think that if there was some sort of unrest that those guys would have brought it up," he said.
"But it hasn't been brought up. They are rumours but if there are people who don't want to work hard and don't want to tick every box to win NRL games then they don't have to be here."
Watch Tevita Pangai Junior's next fight in the 'Battle on the Reef' on October 7.Available to watch via pay-per-view live and exclusively on Stan
The Bulldogs will almost certainly finish 15th on the ladder after another difficult season, with Ciraldo accepting that it was hard for fans of the club to see progress given that they won the same amount of games in what was widely considered a dismal 2022.
Earlier this season Bulldogs general manager Phil Gould surprisingly told Nine's 100% Footy that he wished the club was able to hire Ciraldo 12 months later than they did, so that they could get one more year of pain out of the way without him, but when quizzed about that comment the coach said he didn't hold that view.
"I'm glad I'm here. We need to go through this right now to know who's going to come on the journey moving forward and I'm glad we're doing that right now," he said.
"We know where we're going. If you're willing to work hard and make sacrifices and accept winning standards, come with us."
0 Comments