The Kangaroos position battles which could be won this finals<\/a><\/p>\nTo be fair Galvin was a bright spark in a sorry loss for the Bulldogs at least in attack and Ciraldo stood by his two young playmakers to the bitter end this season. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need any vindication or validation of what we\u2019re doing,\u201d Ciraldo said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what we\u2019re doing and we\u2019re really confident in what we\u2019re doing, but for Lachie to go out there today and attack the game the way he did, I thought he was one of our top players out there. <\/p>\n
Ivan speaks on attacking masterclass | 06:29<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Bailey Hayward was one of our top players out there when he got on the field. \u201cAnd for those two guys in particular to come out and be two of our best on the big stage under the most pressure says a lot about their character in terms of how much crap they had to deal with this week and external opinions. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose two guys are tough, tough characters. They\u2019re going to play a massive part in our future.\u201d <\/p>\n
Alamoti scores impressive finals triple | 00:51<\/p>\n
The Panthers led 36-8 in the highest scoring first half in finals history and Ciraldo admitted his side got a brutal lesson. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat first half is a pretty painful lesson for us in the future,\u201d Ciraldo said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe ran into a champion team that knows exactly what it takes to win these big games and they were near perfect and we were off the mark there in the first half. <\/p>\n
Galvin Strikes back under pressure | 00:46<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they completed at 100 per cent and we just made a couple errors but we just didn\u2019t have the defensive intensity that was needed and every opportunity they got, they took. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo that was a nightmare that first half and hard, but these guys I\u2019m just so proud of them throughout the year when they\u2019ve had to face adversity and been in positions like that, that they come out and they never stop fighting, they never give in, they never get torn apart. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo to come out in the second half and attack the game the way they did, that made me really proud. <\/p>\n
‘Showtime’ Panthers flex their muscle | 00:40<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be honest at half-time you\u2019re winning a semi-final 36-8, you have got every right being the Panthers to start thinking about next week and going into self-preservation mode and I totally understand that would have been part of it. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut in terms of what our guys could control, I thought the way we attacked the second half with and without the ball was awesome. We scored some tries there in the second half but we left a couple out there as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the heavy defeat, Ciraldo was proud of his players for fighting back in the second stanza. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a really clear game plan of what we wanted to do, we just couldn\u2019t do it in the first half,\u201d Ciraldo said. <\/p>\n
Nathan adds Bulldogs to finals legacy | 01:10<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just completed sets and made us come off our own line and that pressure forced us into some errors and they were brilliant. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut again at half-time, our guys there was a challenge there and that\u2019s embarrassing being in that position in the biggest game of your life and just the way they went about in the second half is something to be really proud of. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think our fans should be really proud of the way they have held together this season and the way they\u2019ve gone about it and stuck together and the way they fought in the second half.\u201d <\/p>\n
Penrith put 36 on dogs in first half | 01:04<\/p>\n
Ciraldo was pressed on his decision to start Reed Mahoney, but dodged the question and focused on his other starting change. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe just probably felt like we\u2019ve been a middle short all year,\u201d Ciraldo said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSitili\u2019s been one of our best players in his limited amount of games with us and we just thought we had to start fast and go after it and Sitili\u2019s the guy that when you\u2019re in combat, you want him. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo that was part of the plan but the possession and field position just sort of thwarted that plan.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cleary Praises Panthers’ First Half | 03:16<\/p>\n
‘Im alright, just winded’ Martin | 00:56<\/p>\n
Ciraldo warned the Broncos, Storm and Sharks that they will do very well to stop the Panthers five-peating in the next two weeks. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have to tell them at half-time, they definitely did,\u201d Ciraldo said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey know what it takes to win big games. Champion team, got some champion players in there and they\u2019re going to be very hard to beat.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cameron Ciraldo has no regrets despite the Bulldogs going from first in the competition after 16 rounds to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[104529,7618,105591,105590,105588,104497,105584,105583,60064,105582,105585,43,105593,4617,4746,44,4598,104489,105592,47923,86577,105586,105594,11094,105589,51349,76104,41,60861,39,42,40,105587],"class_list":["post-158709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bitter-end","tag-cameron-ciraldo","tag-champion-players","tag-champion-team","tag-clear-game-plan","tag-crunch-moment","tag-defensive-intensity","tag-defiant-despite","tag-dominant-win","tag-finals-history","tag-finals-masterclass","tag-headlines","tag-impressive-finals","tag-lachlan-galvin","tag-mark-st-john","tag-news","tag-penrith-panthers","tag-position-battles","tag-pretty-painful-lesson","tag-quality-opposition","tag-season-fade-out","tag-selection-shake-ups","tag-self-preservation-mode","tag-semi-finals","tag-starting-change","tag-state-of-play","tag-straight-sets","tag-top-news","tag-top-players","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-young-playmakers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}