Bulldogs defend ‘punishment’ of player who walked out and didn’t return

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Bulldogs defend ‘punishment’ of player who walked out and didn’t return

The punishment involved wrestling up to a dozen of his teammates for an extended period. A week later he asked the club for time off due to personal reasons and hasn’t been back.
www.smh.com.au www.smh.com.au

Michael Chammas​

August 29, 2023 — 9.31pm

The Canterbury Bulldogs are privately defending their treatment of an NRL player who walked out of training five weeks ago due to mental health reasons.
The player, who hasn’t been named due to the seriousness of his mental state, turned up to training late for a session last month. He is in the top 30 squad but considered a fringe first-grader.

The coaching staff decided to enforce a punishment, which is a common practice at NRL clubs, asking him to wrestle up to a dozen of his teammates for an extended period at the end of training.

A week later he asked the club for time off due to personal reasons and hasn’t been back to training since. The club is still paying his contract.

The Bulldogs declined to comment when contacted on Tuesday night. The Daily Telegraph also reported that centre Braidon Burns walked out on a training session last week after suffering a hamstring injury and has left the club. The Herald has been told he trained on Tuesday.

It comes after the Herald reported on Monday that Bulldogs staff were aware of a text message that has been doing the rounds in recent days that claimed up to eight players were unhappy at the club under the coaching of Cameron Ciraldo.

One of the grievances allegedly raised by some current players, and potential recruits, was a frustration over Ciraldo’s workload demands.

The message claimed that Ciraldo’s expectation for players to be around for training from 8am to 5.30pm was unrealistic and a deterrent for some players to join or remain at the club.

The Dogs’ performances of late, which have left many questioning the commitment of the players, speaks to a problem at the club. Those concerned about how hard or long training is appear to have their cards marked, with the Bulldogs expected to make a raft of changes once their season ends this weekend.

Ciraldo has a proven track record of success having worked hand in hand with Panthers coach Ivan Cleary to deliver two premierships at Penrith.

He has recruited players from clubs who have played for successful teams like Stephen Crichton (Panthers), Jaeman Salmon (Panthers), Liam Knight (Rabbitohs), Blake Taafe (Rabbitohs) and Siua Taukeiaho.

Ciraldo is expected to front the media for his weekly pre-game press conference on Wednesday.
 
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tony soprano said:
Pretty scary our club wanted to hire madge two so badly.
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You may have a good point. I imagine it can be a fine line between pushing a player to get the best from him and riding him so that he wants to leave. Perhaps often a matter of perception? The player could see it differently to the coach?
Either way you wouldn’t want too many players hanging around turning into bad apples?
 
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WesternSuburbsBoy said:
I grew up in Western Sydney. I was blessed enough to have food to eat, clothes to wear & was lucky enough to go to a decent school. Can I say the same for a lot of people I know? No, a lot of people I knew growing up had generational trauma passed down to them (most likely from your generation), parents who were also abused at a young age & have passed it down to their kids. It's easy to sit & judge from the outside looking in but that doesn't give you the right to sit here & throw out the word privilege hoping it sticks. Get off your high horse.
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Easiest solution is to just block that guy. I did it and life on this forum is way better for it.
 
The irony of people raising the "participation trophy" generation complaining about the participation trophy generation is almost magnetic.

Also the fact that they had the best possible opportunities in Australia and then proceeded to [This word has been automatically removed] it up for everyone after them.

Can't wait for them all to die off.
 
You never hear of players complaining about Bennett or Bellamy, and they seem to drive players pretty hard. It has to be man management - not so much what the coaches are doing but how they do it. How does Bennett get such committed performances from players and still be so well liked?
 
Sataris said:
The irony of people raising the "participation trophy" generation complaining about the participation trophy generation is almost magnetic.

Also the fact that they had the best possible opportunities in Australia and then proceeded to [This word has been automatically removed] it up for everyone after them.

Can't wait for them all to die off.
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Dad or mum issues?
 
Punishment can be morale boosting. It depends on the intention.
when I coached a young team, I dished out punishment occasionally.
As an example, if someone was talking over my instructions, I’d call him out, with a ‘drop and give me 20’ as he gets closer to the end his teammates would cheer him on, back him to achieve.
It was a fun thing to do and got the message resonating.
I read an article about Andrew Davey’s take on the punishment culture at Bulldogs and you have to wonder what it’s designed to achieve?
 
twentyforty said:
Punishment can be morale boosting. It depends on the intention.
when I coached a young team, I dished out punishment occasionally.
As an example, if someone was talking over my instructions, I’d call him out, with a ‘drop and give me 20’ as he gets closer to the end his teammates would cheer him on, back him to achieve.
It was a fun thing to do and got the message resonating.
I read an article about Andrew Davey’s take on the punishment culture at Bulldogs and you have to wonder what it’s designed to achieve?
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100 percent agree with this, was watching a podcast that Ben teo was in who is doing a bit of coaching. He was saying the wrestling drill itself is common place throughout the NRL but it was the intention it was done was the key.

It is designed to break player down mentally and the build them back up to make them stronger. Usually when partaking in this drill the other members of the team would be shouting encouragement egging on the team mate with positive reinforcement to will them through.

Teo was saying under no circumstances should the drill be used as a punishment with the team mates shouting negative comments or discouraging / embarrassing the team mate completing the drill as it has the exact opposite effect on team culture and is not what it's designed to do.

He was saying the drills not the problem but how it was being used was, that it's fine to have punishment in place but make the guy run laps / do push ups / extra weights whatever.
 
Tired Tiger said:
100 percent agree with this, was watching a podcast that Ben teo was in who is doing a bit of coaching. He was saying the wrestling drill itself is common place throughout the NRL but it was the intention it was done was the key.

It is designed to break player down mentally and the build them back up to make them stronger. Usually when partaking in this drill the other members of the team would be shouting encouragement egging on the team mate with positive reinforcement to will them through.

Teo was saying under no circumstances should the drill be used as a punishment with the team mates shouting negative comments or discouraging / embarrassing the team mate completing the drill as it has the exact opposite effect on team culture and is not what it's designed to do.

He was saying the drills not the problem but how it was being used was, that it's fine to have punishment in place but make the guy run laps / do push ups / extra weights whatever.
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I agree, wrestling shouldn’t be part of the punishment. It sends a negative message, gives the impression that the punished player is an outsider and provides an advantage for anyone of his teammates to legally payout on him. It’s just not an effective team building exercise. Unless of course, that is the intention?
military service has a very effective way of team building and weeding out those who built for it, either physically or mentally, and it doesn’t involve alienating individuals.
Storm have a similar recruitment introduction.
I think the wrestling thing is designed to rid the club of that player and send a crude message to the others, but it does nothing for club, team loyalty. imho
 
Yeh that's when it comes down to man management. You have to keep taking feedback and see how the players are finding it.

If the coaches were already aware that this particular player has mental health issues then not the smartest thing to do by creating him as the face of punishment.

I think the ideologies of "going to war" have lost its meaning and are kind of irrelevant now. The younger corp require some other kind of motivation to keep them going.
 
the club has every right to set standards,i bounced around a few pages,smart things were said by all until it got dumb.As much as corparate Australia loves 2 jump on the care factor ,fk all have any idea,whoever the player was probably only got clarity from the 1 person he spoke to from outside of the game
 
I feel that what was done if true at the dogs is wrong .
Punishment for turning up couple minutes late would be better served on the bench or miss a game and cop an internal fine 1/2 weeks wages .this would hurt them more
The kids and young men of today do not have the mental strength to be forced to wrestle multiple other team mates , this would have been spiteful no doubt. , between the body punishment there brains are not equipped for the mental part of this type punishment , years ago the hard heads would have done it no issue but today I don’t think they can take it , times have changed so much over the years , the young men today physically may be tuff but mentally no way they tuff
 
Shame how mental health gets thrown around as a cop out when ppl can't cut it.
Plenty of other jobs out there, you either want it or you don't.
Everybody wants the rewards first without the hard work.
Not that difficult to get there on time like the rest of the squad.
 
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