Bulldogs 2025

[mtd#2]

"I wouldn't change a thing" - Cameron Ciraldo, Sunday 21st September 2025, post match press conference.

Penrith - 40
Bulldogs - 8

That was the score after the Panthers crossed first following halftime, before easing off. They went on to eliminate the Bulldogs in straight sets, sealing a 46–26 victory.

Phil Gould, one of the sharpest minds in rugby league, managed to lure “the best young footballer” he’s ever seen away from the Tigers. Ironically, those same Tigers — without that player — went on to beat the Bulldogs 28–14 (and it really should have been 28–8 if not for a fortunate try just before fulltime).

Meanwhile, one of the game’s highly rated young coaches made the call to replace Sexton — a genuine halfback who had steered the team to the top of the table — with Galvin, a natural five-eighth who had never played halfback at NRL level.

Fast forward, and Ciraldo shifted Burton out of five-eighth, where he had played 22 games this year, just to accommodate Galvin in the halves. Instead of sticking with the Sexton-Burton partnership that was working earlier, he restructured the spine and moved pieces around.

If Ciraldo truly believed in the long game, the smarter option might have been to let Galvin develop in NSW Cup this season, while allowing the established halves to keep the momentum. Instead, the side’s rhythm was disrupted mid-year, and the Bulldogs crashed out in straight sets.

From the outside, it feels like an obvious outcome — so why didn’t Ciraldo see it? Is he thinking several steps ahead and willing to sacrifice 2025 for the future, or did he simply miss a golden chance to push deeper into the finals this year?

I’m struggling to understand why the club keeps insisting they wouldn’t change a thing. What am I missing here?

 

[TheEnz]

I still don't know how much of it is Ciraldo vs Gould. Would they be arrogant enough to blow this season to give the players there long term more experience before making a run in 26...seems odd considering they were coming first and there were really no other consistently dominant teams, even raiders were having to win games from behind. Can't help but feel it was arrogance and stubbornness from Gus and now ciraldo is having to tow the line, which to me is a failure on his part as a head coach to not stand up to Gus.

 

[mtd#2]

I still don't know how much of it is Ciraldo vs Gould. Would they be arrogant enough to blow this season to give the players there long term more experience before making a run in 26...seems odd considering they were coming first and there were really no other consistently dominant teams, even raiders were having to win games from behind. Can't help but feel it was arrogance and stubbornness from Gus and now ciraldo is having to tow the line, which to me is a failure on his part as a head coach to not stand up to Gus.

If it comes off then they looks like geniuses. But it didnt, they were down by 32 points with 20 minutes to go.

It's not a Galvin bashing thread either.

I just want to understand what I'm missing... What can't I see that these supposed great minds can see?

 

[TheEnz]

Even ppl like Anasta, who are close to the club and always supportive are struggling to understand why they screwed around with the team so much and disagreed with the changes.

 

[Odessa]

If it comes off then they looks like geniuses. But it didnt, they were down by 32 points with 20 minutes to go.

It's not a Galvin bashing thread either.

I just want to understand what I'm missing... What can't I see that these supposed great minds can see?

EGO

 

[GNR4LIFE]

A lot of times, you can tell when a team is on the up, but just aren’t quite there yet. Like Penrith in 2019-20. I don’t get that feeling from the Dogs. I don’t think this season was any kind of stepping stone. Unfortunately, their legacy from 2025 will be discarding their 7 and 9 who guided them to the top of the ladder at the midway point through the season to fit in an unproven kid. I don’t see them being in contention for a premiership any time soon. They have mutilated their spine.

 

[innsaneink]

CC is just trying to cover his arse but everyone can see they erred massively....i doubt he truly believes he wouldnt change anything but if he does truly belive it theyre in big big trouble...mistakes are fine only if you learn from them.
Gus and him gambled and lost.
This crap about "the journey" is palava...the window.of opportunity doesnt come along very often

 

[Merlot]

imo the blame lays on gus outsmarting over thinking and doing a job on himself

 

[innsaneink]

Theyve carried on late in the year celebrating before theyve won anything

195K views · 1.6K reactions | The Dogs and their army have made the march to Accor 🐶 | Triple M NRL

The Dogs and their army have made the march to Accor 🐶.

www.facebook.com

 

[innsaneink]

imo the blame lays on gus outsmarting over thinking and doing a job on himself

I wonder if gus will have the balls to front 100% footy tomorrow night...he was a no show last week

 

[Tucker]

They stole Galvin away from a struggling club that he had a contract with for the next 18 months, to shoehorn him into their side who were leading the comp as they didn’t believe that the halfback that got them there could deliver in the finals and bring the trophy to Belmore.

That sentence makes some sense if Galvin was the current SOO half who consistently delivers games in a clutch fashion as a true leader on the field….a Nathan Cleary level player for instance. However it doesn’t make sense as Galvin was lucky to be a starting half in OUR club, let alone the competition leaders. He has zero leadership qualities and is not clutch in any way shape or form.

This really should be called out as the biggest administrative stuff up in Australian Sports recent history….across all sports. I’m not interested in hammering the kid. He is as dumb as dogshit, but still a pimply faced kid who knows nothing about anything. The true villains are the Canterbury Bulldogs and in particular their leader Phil Gould. This bloke is a fraud and it angers me that he has an army of imbecilic lemmings who protect and raise him up.

One of the things that annoys me about how he talks is he says the “the Rooster will beat the Shark”, “the Bronco will lose to the Warrior”, the Tiger won’t beat the Panther”. It sounds stupid but listen to channel 9….they are all doing it. They have copied this idiotic speech pattern as if it’s cool. They have this utter imposter on a pedestal. Hopefully all these podcasters can turn the tide and tell the truth as ex players and mainstream pundits are brainwashed. Gould is the worst thing in our sport and needs to be called out for destroying the Bulldogs season. I feel sorry for their squad members. They don’t deserve this shit.

 

[Rock Hopper Steve]

I wonder if gus will have the balls to front 100% footy tomorrow night...he was a no show last week

Yeah, I hope he does and Gal rips him a new one.

 

[Spartan117]

I hate the Bulldogs

Just hate em

 

[TurnStyle]

Here's "2,000 words":

 

[GNR4LIFE]

In a lot ways, players are robots. They don’t let much affect up them. However, I don’t know how their playing group wouldn’t be absolutely livid with the way their season was sabotaged by Gus.

 

[mtd#2]

They stole Galvin away from a struggling club that he had a contract with for the next 18 months, to shoehorn him into their side who were leading the comp as they didn’t believe that the halfback that got them there could deliver in the finals and bring the trophy to Belmore.

That sentence makes some sense if Galvin was the current SOO half who consistently delivers games in a clutch fashion as a true leader on the field….a Nathan Cleary level player for instance. However it doesn’t make sense as Galvin was lucky to be a starting half in OUR club, let alone the competition leaders. He has zero leadership qualities and is not clutch in any way shape or form.

This really should be called out as the biggest administrative stuff up in Australian Sports recent history….across all sports. I’m not interested in hammering the kid. He is as dumb as dogshit, but still a pimply faced kid who knows nothing about anything. The true villains are the Canterbury Bulldogs and in particular their leader Phil Gould. This bloke is a fraud and it angers me that he has an army of imbecilic lemmings who protect and raise him up.

One of the things that annoys me about how he talks is he says the “the Rooster will beat the Shark”, “the Bronco will lose to the Warrior”, the Tiger won’t beat the Panther”. It sounds stupid but listen to channel 9….they are all doing it. They have copied this idiotic speech pattern as if it’s cool. They have this utter imposter on a pedestal. Hopefully all these podcasters can turn the tide and tell the truth as ex players and mainstream pundits are brainwashed. Gould is the worst thing in our sport and needs to be called out for destroying the Bulldogs season. I feel sorry for their squad members. They don’t deserve this shit.

Well put.

I don't follow any of the channel 9 content these days, I did listen to Gus's podcast earlier in the year, but stopped listening because of the language you mentioned - it was unbearable.

Braith and Reni seem to be quite diplomatic on the issue on BTFU podcast, so I dare say we will get honest feedback from them.

James Graham and Willie Mason still work with the club, so I expect them to maintain their bias.. and you can throw Brent Read into that mix, he's so far up Gus and Ciraldo it's not funny.

Keen to hear Justin Horos take on it... And then the SEN crew across the day.

Busy day at work tomorrow so it's going to be hard to get ANY of it in.

 

[happy_tiger]

Let the Bulldogs finish eating their shit sandwiches