{"id":460255,"date":"2026-02-05T14:49:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T14:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/460255\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T14:49:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T14:49:18","slug":"hooker-says-hes-still-unsure-why-he-was-dumped-by-canterbury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/460255\/","title":{"rendered":"Hooker says he\u2019s still unsure why he was dumped by Canterbury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dumped to the bench in the back half of last season and ultimately cut loose with a year remaining on his Bulldogs deal, Reed Mahoney says he\u2019s still none the wiser over the reason for his fall from favour at Canterbury.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you find out, tell me,\u201d the hooker said with a smile on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Bulldogs rake Reed MahoneyCredit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure. Everyone has their own opinion. I won\u2019t say too much. We were going really well \u2026 it was what was best for the team at the time, which is fine. I do know it was the toughest part of my career at that stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Dogs flying high in the top four, Mahoney was given permission to find another club midway through last year, and was quickly snapped up by North Queensland.<\/p>\n

The mid-season arrival of Lachie Galvin, Bailey Hayward\u2019s shift to hooker, and Mahoney\u2019s pending move to the Cowboys meant the 27-year-old became a bit-part player in the run home to the finals.<\/p>\n

Galvin, unfairly, became a scapegoat when the Dogs started to splutter, while the reputations of Mahoney and Super League-bound Toby Sexton remained intact.<\/p>\n

Mahoney, who averaged 60 minutes in his final year at Canterbury, insists he is an 80-minute player and says he will try to prove that at the Cowboys. He also confirmed discipline had nothing to do with his exit from Belmore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought last year my discipline was the best it\u2019s been my whole career,\u201d Mahoney said. \u201cIt was out of my control in a way. I learned a lot about myself. If anything, I\u2019ve taken it as motivation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dumped to the bench in the back half of last season and ultimately cut loose with a year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-460255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460255","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=460255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}