{"id":727333,"date":"2026-06-10T12:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T12:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/727333\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T12:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T12:03:14","slug":"nrl-2026-canterbury-bulldogs-roster-under-the-spotlight-premiership-chances-begin-to-fade-cameron-ciraldo-phil-gould-nrl-360-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/727333\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Canterbury Bulldogs roster under the spotlight, premiership chances begin to fade, Cameron Ciraldo, Phil Gould, nrl 360, nrl news"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Canterbury Bulldogs entered 2026 with title aspirations, but as the NRL heads into Round 15, their chance of winning their first premiership since 2004 has all but evaporated.<\/p>\n

Sitting outside the top eight and unlikely to even make the finals, the attention has now shifted to whether the Bulldogs have the right roster balance and spine combination to return to being a premiership threat.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports |New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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This raises further questions about whether further changes are needed to correct the direction of their squad under coach Cameron Ciraldo and GM of Football Phil Gould.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a ton of stuff they need to work out in this off-season,\u201d Code Sports reporter Brent Read said on NRL 360.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got to work out what they\u2019re doing with Burton. Are they going to keep him, move him to the centres or pay him what he can get in the open market?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019 ve got to decide what they\u2019re doing at fullback. They\u2019ve got so many issues they\u2019ve got to resolve. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got to get through this year first with all the dramas that\u2019s going on. It\u2019s a big six months.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Considered it’ – Tigers on Folau | 00:59<\/p>\n

While much of the scrutiny has been centred on the club\u2019s halves, there is also growing concern around the balance of the remainder of their spine – fullback and hooker.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think their list is still heavily invested in their halves. Matt Burton is on good money, Lachie Galvin is on good money,\u201d Michael Carayannis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then obviously Connor Tracey wouldn\u2019t be on top end and Bailey Hayward wouldn\u2019t be on top end so they\u2019ve still invested quite a significant money but they\u2019ve just got the combination wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs have moved to bolster their dummy-half stocks for next season by bringing in Freddy Lussick from the Penrith Panthers on a two-year contract.<\/p>\n

However, Read believes that the club still needs to target a fullback, having failed in their chase for Wests Tigers star Jahream Bula, who opted to remain at the joint venture on a new long-term deal.<\/p>\n

Souths honour Arrow with white jersey | 01:28<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they need to spend more on their spine. I think they should\u2019ve gone harder at Jahrema Bula when they had the chance,\u201d Read continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think fullbacks\u2019 been an issue for them and that money can be better spent. Look at the elite teams of the comp\u2026Panthers, Storm, Roosters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anasta agreed with Read\u2019s comments, stating that there is too much money tied up in the outside backs and forward pack rather than the crucial positions at the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of players on big money, not the top-end 1.2 (million), but they\u2019re all spread out,\u201d Anasta said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho would\u2019ve thought that at the start of the year they would\u2019ve had such a big job on their hands now, just reformulating and putting pieces of their puzzle together and redoing their cap and putting key positions together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canterbury Bulldogs entered 2026 with title aspirations, but as the NRL heads into Round 15, their chance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-727333","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\/727333","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=727333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}