Cameron Ciraldo has explained why he made the bold decision to shake-up his spine and play Stephen Crichton at five-eighth — which resulted in a tight win over the Sea Eagles.

Crichton kicked the winning field goal in golden point to down a high-flying Manly outfit and also scored in a dominant display as a first receiver, swapping with Matt Burton.

Burton was originally named in the No.6, but switched to the centres when the Dogs took the field in a move Ciraldo believed was “always an option” for his side.

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And it could be a sign of things to come if his comments are anything to go by.

“At time where we’ve been a bit short in the halves over the last two pre-seasons, Critta’s jumped in there and he’s shown a lot of potential in that position,” Ciraldo explained in his post-match press conference.

“(It’s) something we have always had in the back of our minds that it might happen one day and we have seen little glimpses of it throughout the last couple of years.

“But I think we had the bye last week, we had a really good opportunity to sit back and chat about how the first half of the season has gone, how individuals have gone.

“The change was more around helping (Burton) find his best and most consistent form, we had our mid-season catch-up and talking to Burto about what can make him as consistent as he possible can be.

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“And we narrowed it down to a couple of areas and then we spoke about well, maybe we can do that by you playing in the centres.

“Just taking a little bit of responsibility off him for a bit and just allow him to just enjoy his footy, and I thought Burto was brilliant tonight, he was brilliant.”

Ciraldo also made it clear this wasn’t a quick decision made in the heat of the moment. Instead, it was planned and trained since the Dogs last outing.

“We trained this for two weeks over the bye and I thought the way Burto trained over those two weeks, and the way he played, I thought he was brilliant,”

“I’ll enjoy this win to start, but I was really proud of our whole club that we were able to train it. Everyone knew what was going on.

“But we kept it in-house and everyone just got on with their preparation.”

As for Crichton, although he had the No.4 on his back, it was another unofficial start at five-eighth for the man who has worn the No.6 for Samoa twice.

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Ciraldo also made it clear that Crichton’s niggling shoulder injury remains, but he was brave in defending in the front line and marking up against one of the game’s toughest back rowers.

“Critta hasn’t been able to do contact training for a long time now, and then to get thrown into five-eighth,”

“I knew he’d handle the game management side of it and the leadership, but he had to also mark Haumole (Olakau’atu) for 80 minutes who was charging off the back fence.

“And to do that on the back of hardly any contact training over the last, you know, all season is a credit to how tough he is.”

Crichton himself was critical of his own performance, saying: “I feel like coach really made it simple for me, just simple plays done really well.

“Not trying to over play and I feel like I did it a few times tonight, just over playing, ball on the ground and things like that.”