Embattled Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo has been grilled amid stories of unrest on the membership and the stroll out of a participant as a result of an unfair coaching punishment.
Ciraldo confronted the media on Wednesday morning and answered a spread of questions on the Bulldogs’ tradition and excessive requirements, which has reportedly alienated some gamers.
Ciraldo’s press convention comes a day after The Daily Telegraph reported an unnamed participant walked out on the membership after being pressured to wrestle 12 teammates as punishment for turning up late.
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At the highest of the presser, Ciraldo stated the problem was “sensitive” and he declined to touch upon it, however wasn’t afraid to air some harsh truths across the present Bulldogs’ tradition.
When requested by one reporter if there was a cultural downside on the membership, Ciraldo was sincere and even defended punishment strategies which have been used on the Bulldogs this season.
“Well, we’ve been losing. The culture isn’t exactly right. The system is only one part of the result from the weekend. The main part of the result is the culture and that’s something we’ve worked really on,” Ciraldo stated.
“We’ve probably uncovered a lot more to that culture and reasons for where we are where we are and we’ll continue to work hard at that.
“At different times we wanted to put some standards in place and obviously if you are late, we have to do something about that.
“We are trying to drive standards. We want to have winning performance standards and a lot of that is around individual responsibilities.
“We’ve gone through a range of different ways of talking about holding standards, some of it has been monetary related, some of it has been spinning a wheel and then some of it has been ways to change behaviours.
“The reality is, we need to change behaviours here and I think we’ve done a good job of that throughout the season and we’ll continue to find ways.”
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“Every group goes through times where your standards are challenged and ours are being challenged at certain times but yeah, we are trying to create winning standards here.”
The SMH reported earlier within the week that Bulldogs gamers had despatched round a textual content message with issues concerning the size of coaching periods.
Ciraldo admitted that “hard work” had been half and parcel of being within the NRL and stated there have been longer days at his earlier membership of Penrith.
“It’s the NRL, nothing comes without hard work. It is what this club is built on and work ethic and that’s what drew me to this club and what we are trying to instill back into this place,” Ciraldo stated.
“We have one long day a week and if you get the last massage, you are probably leaving at 5:30… The days are longer at the place I was at previously.
“We have a Jersey Flegg group coming in at 5am to do weights, go and work for 10 hours and then come back and train at 5:30 in the afternoon. That’s a long day and the way those guys are going about to business, they are future Bulldogs and players we can build the club around.”
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Ciraldo was requested about his time at Penrith and the way far the Bulldogs have to go to achieve the tradition of the 2021 and 2022 premiers.
“Yeah a lot further,” Ciraldo stated.
“We need to continue with the process we are on and that’s holding winning standards. That didn’t happen overnight, it was a hard process but over there but the players bought in, they trusted in the process and got good rewards for it.”
The coach is within the first yr of a five-year take care of the Bulldogs, and whereas it hasn’t been the best first season, Ciraldo doesn’t remorse taking the job.
“No, I’m glad I’m here. I’m glad this isn’t happening in 12 months time. We need to go through this right now to know who is going to come on the journey moving forward and I’m glad we are doing it now,” he stated.
Source: www.foxsports.com.au