Written by Megan Taylor, sports reporter covering international sports since 2020
The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs Phil Gould operation rethink has officially begun after the club was caught out by recent NRL rule changes. The football general manager admitted on Wednesday that the team must re-evaluate its entire strategy to fix their current slump.
The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have won just four of their last 16 matches. This poor run has put immense pressure on head coach Cameron Ciraldo and the halves combination of Matt Burton and Lachlan Galvin.
While the team searches for answers, other clubs face similar selection dilemmas, as detailed in the Herbie Farnworth ruled out as Dolphins reshuffle for Raiders clash in NRL Late Mail update.
Gould stated that the roster was built on defensive fitness, which fails to match the modern style driven by rapid set restarts.
Tactical Struggle and Restarts
“If I had one theory about the whole thing, and I’m not the football coach, I’m not telling the coach or anything, but we built this team over the last couple of years built on old DNA of defence and fitness and resilience,” Gould said.
“And we haven’t been a big point-scoring team for the last two years either, we’ve been winning games three tries to one or four tries to two and we’ve really backed our defence, and in the game today it’s hard to do that. It just hasn’t suited us.”
Gould noted that lopsided scorelines across the league prove that teams lacking possession cannot cope with high-speed game momentum.
“It’s got us rethinking everything about our operation but right at the moment we need to support the players and we need to support the coaches and see if we can get some good performances and some confidence back into their football,” Gould added.
Pundits Question Rapid Decline
Journalist Brent Read noted the team has regressed rapidly since finishing in the top four. Journalist Michael Carayannis argued the squad overachieved last year.
League legend Gorden Tallis believes the club erred by shifting away from last year's successful foundation when they moved past Toby Sexton and Reed Mahoney. Supporters can track upcoming matches on the official NRL website.