Cameron Ciraldo has declared a few of the Bulldogs’ attacking selections “unacceptable” after a brutal baptism of fireplace at 4 Pines Park for the rookie NRL coach.
He additionally shut down a suggestion that Viliame Kikau’s quiet sport had something to do with the top knock he suffered within the Dogs’ second trial sport.
There was a variety of hype across the Bulldogs — and Ciraldo — heading into the season however they had been dealt a actuality examine in a 31-6 loss to Manly.
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They’re assault got here below hearth all through the sport with Matt Burton significantly developing with some off moments.
Burton’s kicking sport was nothing prefer it often is with the star five-eighth’s 40/20 try going out on the total in addition to a kick-off too.
He additionally made the weird choice to move to Kikau as a substitute of kicking himself on the fifth deal with. It meant Kikau needed to put in a long-range kick, which ended up going out on the total.
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Fox League skilled Michael Ennis referred to as the second “ridiculous” and mentioned the Bulldogs halves “have to be better.”
Ciraldo was requested about a few of the fifth-tackle choices and conceded some performs had been “unacceptable” and the group learnt “a lot of lessons.”
“We lacked cohesion at times around that area and around a lot of other areas as well,” he mentioned.
“We’re a new team, we had three debutants today and five guys making their club debut.
“We’re going to get better every week but today there were some things that we didn’t do well and are unacceptable for us moving forward.
“But I still think we showed a hell of a lot of grit there at times to defend our tryline, stick together and stay in the contest physically. There were a lot of lessons learned.”
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Bulldogs followers solely received to see quarter-hour of Kikau within the second trial as a result of a failed a HIA and sadly they didn’t see a lot of him within the 73 minutes he did spend on the sphere on Saturday.
It was anticipated that Kikau would type a formidable mixture along with his former Panthers teammate Burton on the left edge, however as a substitute he had minimal affect on the sport.
Kikau completed with 62 metres from 9 runs, however did make 21 tackles with only one miss.
When requested if the rampaging second-rower was nonetheless coping with results from his concussion, Ciraldo mentioned “nah” earlier than explaining why Kikau might need had a quiet sport.
“He’s had a short pre-season Kiks, he only played 15 minutes (in the trials).
“We made it hard for ourselves with how much ball they were getting so a big guy like that with the amount we had to defend, it wasn’t ideal. He’ll be right.”
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Ciraldo was nonetheless capable of finding the positives within the loss although. He gave debutants Jacob Preston, Jayden Tanner and Paul Alamoti a rap, however he couldn’t go previous the “incredible” efforts of star recruit Reed Mahoney.
“He was incredible. He competed all day — he showed why he’s our captain. If we can all take a leaf out of his book we’re going to be very hard to beat,” Ciraldo mentioned.
“Max King was another guy, he played the first 40, he’s just tireless and came up with some big plays. For a front-rower to play the first and then be there to save a try after the bell — it was an incredible effort as well.
“We had some good performers there today but we to do better.”
Source: www.foxsports.com.au