{"id":648870,"date":"2026-05-04T11:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/648870\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T11:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:07:16","slug":"canterbury-bulldogs-blasted-over-reed-mahoney-hooker-call-bailey-hayward-cameron-ciraldo-phil-gould-round-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/648870\/","title":{"rendered":"Canterbury Bulldogs blasted over Reed Mahoney hooker call, Bailey Hayward, Cameron Ciraldo, Phil Gould, Round 10"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Bulldogs have been criticised for pushing Reed Mahoney out of the club without a ready-made replacement after the shunted hooker returned to haunt his old club in Round 9. <\/p>\n<p>Mahoney was let go by the Bulldogs in favour of promoting Bailey Hayward to the starting hooker role, despite the fact he played most of his juniors in the halves. <\/p>\n<p>Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | <a href=\"https:\/\/kayosports.com.au\/en-AU\/welcome\/nrl?pg=default&amp;extcamp=fsaeditoriallinkleague-edt-fsp-lnk-awr-grc-nrl-kyo&amp;channel=fsa&amp;campaign=fsacontra&amp;voucher=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776909012_441_poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old veteran has piloted the Cowboys to the top four and watched his former club drop out of the top eight since he left. <\/p>\n<p>And Mahoney had two try assists and a game high 52 tackles in the Cowboys\u2019 28-12 win over the Bulldogs, while Hayward had zero run metres and no try or linebreak involvements. <\/p>\n<p>Mahoney couldn\u2019t resist a few cheeky digs at his former club post game on the field and on social media. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cReed Mahoney took a dig at his former teammates, how good was this from Reed?\u201d Braith Anasta said on NRL 360. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cShown the door, kicked out last year, told that he wasn\u2019t needed, and then he came back and was close to man-of-the-match against them on the weekend and didn\u2019t he let them know. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s reposted the Bulldogs Instagram post of the final score and did we expect anything else from Reed?\u201d <\/p>\n<p>MORE NRL NEWS<\/p>\n<p>CRAWLS: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/nrl\/nrl-premiership\/nrl-2026-round-9-results-and-analysis-paul-crawley-column-jarome-luai-situation-exposes-transfer-flaw-phil-goulds-bulldogs-moves-backfire\/news-story\/ff15264f3c0df909f66497c2d1d6aefe\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Munster mystery sparks Origin dilemma; Gus\u2019 fingerprints on Dogs debacle<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TALKING POINTS: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/nrl\/nrl-premiership\/nrl-2026-the-lachlan-galvin-call-the-bulldogs-have-to-make-melbourne-storm-losing-streak-state-of-origin-teams-talking-points-round-9-review\/news-story\/7165bb4865e2288556ebbacc77da0777\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018Crazy\u2019 move that sums up Dogs\u2019 biggest issue; why 19yo is \u2018future\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TEAM TIPS: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/nrl\/nrl-premiership\/nrl-2026-round-10-team-news-ins-and-outs-changes-injurys-team-tips-fixtures-brisbane-wests-tigers-south-sydney\/news-story\/ff98b5dbff5293c94d10a38ce75306c1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">FOUR Broncos gone in fresh crisis; worrying Roosters sight, Bunnies blow <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bailey Hayward and Reed Mahoney.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Telegraph\u2019s Dean Ritchie feels the Bulldogs are missing the very ingredients that Mahoney brought to their side last season when they were leading the competition. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe one thing I think that Canterbury have missed through Reed Mahoney\u2019s exit is their energy and their cheekiness,\u201d Ritchie said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think they\u2019ve really missed that this year. They need a bit of spark, a bit of spunk and Reed had that last year and the Bulldogs right now, they just look a bit pedestrian, they look a bit flat and that was the bloke that gave him that spark last year.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Get all the latest NRL news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/newsletter-sign-up?utm_source=NRLArticle&amp;utm_medium=TextLink&amp;utm_campaign=signup\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bulldogs failing to fire under O&#8217;Brien | 01:20<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Telegraph\u2019s Brent Read noted that Mahoney is a far better dummyhalf than Hayward at this stage of their careers, which sparked a debate with Anasta. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe would have loved that game of course he would have,\u201d Read said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I think Bailey Hayward\u2019s learning on the run and at the moment Reed Mahoney\u2019s a better hooker than Bailey Hayward. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt some point, maybe Bailey goes past him, but there\u2019s no doubt right now he is not at that level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt what point would that be?\u201d Anasta interjected. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not saying in the next two or three weeks, I\u2019m saying maybe at some point he goes past him,\u201d Read continued. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any doubt Canterbury would be a better side with Mahoney in it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not ruling it out though, I think Bailey Hayward is a good footballer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Preston move raises more concerns | 02:01<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not ruling it out either, but do you see it happening in the next decade or the next few weeks?\u201d Anasta replied. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to happen this year, but potentially in the next year or two he goes past him,\u201d Read said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut there\u2019s no doubt right now, if you were to say, would Canterbury be a better side with Reed Mahoney at hooker. Yeah, there probably are. And I think that showed on Thursday night.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>However, Ritchie has no doubt the Bulldogs made the wrong call in letting Mahoney go and was backed up by Gorden Tallis. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe decision to let Reed go in hindsight\u2019s a clanger, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Ritchie said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any debate there that they got it wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Tallis added: \u201cAbsolutely, I reckon if I\u2019m a mad Bulldogs fan, I like my side last year at this time.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bulldogs have been criticised for pushing Reed Mahoney out of the club without a ready-made replacement after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[7189,64,63,7618,7622,28814,313986,33215,4746,761,762,158,313987,7623,313985,85,56397,157965,11737],"class_list":["post-648870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-adam-obrien","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cameron-ciraldo","tag-canterbury-bulldogs","tag-dean-ritchie","tag-hooker-call","tag-lord-gould-of-brookwood","tag-mark-st-john","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-ready-made-replacement","tag-run-metres","tag-shunted-hooker","tag-sports","tag-star-returns","tag-starting-hooker-role","tag-team-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648870","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=648870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}