DANE ELDRIDGE: Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo may be looking over his shoulder at Bulldogs boss Phil Gould
Gus Gould is not afraid to act ruthlessly when things are not going well at Belmore, something the coach would know all too well.
If a footballer can’t make a tackle in the middle of Accor Stadium, can you blame it on a guy sitting 70 metres away in a polo shirt?
Of course you can, because the coach’s remit in footy is so wide these days they can be held responsible for everything wrong at a club from game day performance to the quality of the toilet paper in the stadium loos.
Forget mitigating uncontrollables like injuries, board ructions and random changes to ruck interpretation introduced with a week’s notice; everything is the coach’s fault, even the two-ply.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.So when you add other random elements to the environment - ie Phil Gould - should Cameron Ciraldo be looking over his shoulder? Namely for the supremo’s notorious knife?
As one of the most sought after rookie coaches in the game, Ciraldo has enjoyed job security at the Bulldogs since joining the club for the 2023 season second only to Putin in the Kremlin.
But with his side sinking deeper with every passing week as it rides a chastening four-game losing streak, it’s only a matter of time before the awkward questions are asked at Canterbury - if they’re not already.
Sadly for Ciraldo, that’s what the coach is for, and when you add Gould to the mix - a general manager renowned for giving a guarantee as unstable as his trigger finger - it doesn’t take Einstein to join the dots.
Considered a genuine top four threat in the pre-season, the centrepiece of Canterbury’s gauche demise up to recently has been an attack that posts scores so low its like they’ve mistaken footy for playing the back nine at Royal Melbourne.
Some claim it’s down to new attack coach Adam O’Brien, whereas others trace it back to Gould’s wooing of Lachie Galvin last year.
The club was sitting pretty at the top of the ladder with a 9-2 record when he arrived from the Tigers but have appeared prohibitively de-fanged in good field position ever since to the point of looking gummy.
But now these headaches in attack have been complemented with a woeful defence, with everyone so frustrated that Ciraldo lashed the edge defence for “soft decisions” after the Dolphins debacle in a blast almost as savage as the gob-full skipper Stephen Crichton doled out to Galvin for missing a tackle.
Of starkest concern for the Dogs’ predicament is the abject lack of hope, with weeks of persistent tinkering yielding nothing with a squad the hierarchy has built for itself via years of radical turnover.
This not only means there’s no cavalry on the way, but it can’t even be blamed on the previous administration much like a newly elected government would do with national debt.
Sadly for Ciraldo, that’s what the coach is for, and when you add Gould to the mix - a general manager renowned for giving a guarantee as unstable as his trigger finger - it doesn’t take Einstein to join the dots.
Who could forget the supremo shipping off Ivan Cleary at Penrith for looking “tired”, sacking Anthony Griffin four weeks out from finals while running fifth and punting Trent Barrett in the same month he declared the former five-eighth would still be the coach of the Bulldogs “long after I’m gone”?
Admittedly, after the sheer humiliation of the Dean Pay/Barrett years and the ugly divorce with Des Hasler, Canterbury would be so reluctant to cut ties with another coach that you’d need to walk in to the Leagues Club naked with a chainsaw to get sacked, and even then you’d likely just escape with a show cause notice.
But right now, options are dwindling and there’s only so many times you can shift Crichton to five-eighth and cross your fingers.
While the club remains on message at this stage with no backroom maneuvering to report, a continual degradation in results means it’s only a matter of time before the first shady pics emerge of Gould in the bistro in crisis discussions over a plate of Kung Pao.
Because while everyone at the club is preaching patience, let’s be honest- who’s got time for that?
Without a dramatic turnaround in fortunes, the unthinkable will slowly become the unavoidable.
Something has to change for Canterbury, and if it’s not the halves then it’s gotta be the bloke 70 metres away in a polo shirt.
