{"id":277793,"date":"2025-11-11T14:18:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T14:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/277793\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T14:18:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T14:18:27","slug":"leo-thompson-reveals-why-he-joined-the-canterbury-bulldogs-contract-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/277793\/","title":{"rendered":"Leo Thompson reveals why he joined the Canterbury Bulldogs, contract, plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

A seat in the nosebleeds at Accor Stadium and a conversation with coach Cameron Ciraldo<\/a> were all Leo Thompson<\/a> needed to convince him to become a Bulldog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The star prop said he had no ambition to play for anyone other than the Knights<\/a> in the NRL but found himself rejecting an extension deal to pursue a fresh start elsewhere.<\/p>\n

There was large interest in Thompson’s talent when it became clear he was open to a move, with the Dogs winning the bidding war and locking him in on a four-year deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/p>\n

Set to stay in Belmore until the end of 2029, it was the words of Ciraldo that got Thompson over the line in the end. <\/p>\n

“My ambition was always to be a one club man,” Thompson told 9News Sydney.<\/p>\n

\"Leo<\/p>\n

Leo Thompson could not hide his excitement to join the Bulldogs. \u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

“I held onto that for a long time, but they (the Bulldogs staff) told me areas of my game that I could work on … and I’m always keen to learn and get better.<\/p>\n

“They told me they could help me with some of my weaknesses.<\/p>\n

Thompson said he liked his new club’s “dogs of war” mentality.<\/p>\n

“You can see with this team that they have a big focus on their defence, which is something I like to pride myself on,” he said.<\/p>\n

Thompson is hopeful he can stamp his mark on the Bulldogs squad and gain the support of the club’s faithful, who he has come across on several occasions.<\/p>\n

\"Leo<\/p>\n

Leo Thompson is tackled by his new Bulldogs teammate Max King. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

But the 25-year-old revealed he wanted to experience his new team’s supporters from a different perspective – and he did so during last year’s finals series.<\/p>\n

Thompson purchased his own ticket to the Bulldogs’ semi-final clash against the Panthers, sitting alongside fans in the nosebleed section.<\/p>\n

“I snuck into the stadium, turned up late and sat in the nosebleeds so nobody would recognise me,” the Kiwi international said.<\/p>\n

“I experienced first-hand what it’s like to sit in the crowd and hear how vocal they are. I love playing in front of a huge crowd. I love the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

“Those are things that make me excited to play.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A seat in the nosebleeds at Accor Stadium and a conversation with coach Cameron Ciraldo were all Leo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-277793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277793","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=277793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}