Sign up now!!! <\/a><\/p>\nThe Daily Telegraph\u2019s Dean Ritchie agreed that Burton extending at the Bulldogs is unlikely, but on the back of potentially losing Bronson Xerri that would be a big blow to their roster. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I think ultimately he will go, whether it\u2019s end of this year, possibly,\u201d Ritchie said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think that the writing\u2019s been on the wall there for a while now and I think Burton will go, which does mean that if they lose Xerri and Burton in one year, it is disruptive.\u201d <\/p>\n
The question remains if the Bulldogs were planning to move Burton to the centres and eventually on from the club, why didn\u2019t they move him before the season started? <\/p>\n
However, Anasta warned that would have been far to controversial, after the club moved Reed Mahoney and Toby Sexton on last year to get Galvin to the club. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf they\u2019d moved Burton there to start the year, it would have been a big deal,\u201d Anasta said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been huge and he would have been taking someone else\u2019s spot, which is Bronson Xerri\u2019s and they wouldn\u2019t have been sticking with the halves partnership they wanted last year to take them forward this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think they still stick with Burton and Galvin and back them for the next month, but if Xerri moves on, they\u2019ve got the option to move Burton in the centres.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ponga & Brown hit with sideline stint | 03:03<\/p>\n
However, he warned the Xerri situation may have been designed to give Cameron Ciraldo the flexibility to move Burton to the centres if he and Galvin don\u2019t fire in the halves. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think he gives them that opportunity,\u201d Anasta said of Xerri being dropped. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives them the freedom to make that call if they need to and not feel like they\u2019re stepping on someone\u2019s toes.\u201d <\/p>\n
A member of the Bulldogs\u2019 last premiership winning team in 2004, Anasta lamented why the Bulldogs are putting themselves through more drama after the Galvin, Mahoney and Sexton saga followed them all last season. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would love things settle down at the Bulldogs, like last year was enough,\u201d Anasta said. <\/p>\n
\u201cDo we need this again this year where we are talking about this sort of stuff? Don\u2019t you just want to focus on the football and playing footy and keeping it simple?\u201d <\/p>\n
However, Ritchie explained that is not how Phil Gould operates and that building a title winning roster will continue to be a fluid and evolving process under his leadership. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what you\u2019re going to get with Gus being there,\u201d Ritchie said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe has an inflammatory style. He\u2019s very good at his job. We all know that he\u2019s got a great football brain. <\/p>\n
\u201cHaving said that, when he\u2019s in charge, you know there\u2019s going to be drama.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bulldogs\u2019 backline drama shows no signs of slowing down with suggestions Matt Burton is likely to join…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,269534,87396,7618,7622,28814,269535,269530,269532,269537,26100,269496,4617,33215,4746,9139,761,762,158,269536,269503,269531,3232,85,4546,269502,196850,269529,4440,269533],"class_list":["post-543944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-backline-drama","tag-bronson-xerri","tag-cameron-ciraldo","tag-canterbury-bulldogs","tag-dean-ritchie","tag-dollar-centres","tag-dollar-contracts","tag-dragons-game","tag-football-brain","tag-halves-partnership","tag-knights-spine-duo","tag-lachlan-galvin","tag-lord-gould-of-brookwood","tag-mark-st-john","tag-national-football-league","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-pic-desk","tag-ponga-brown","tag-premiership-winning-roster","tag-reality-check","tag-sports","tag-stephen-crichton","tag-storm-change","tag-things-settle","tag-title-winning-roster","tag-toby-sexton","tag-winning-roster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543944","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=543944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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