{"id":759147,"date":"2026-06-25T10:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759147\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T10:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:27:13","slug":"stephen-crichton-five-eighth-shift-why-canterbury-coach-cameron-ciraldo-believes-the-positional-change-may-be-a-long-term-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759147\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Crichton five-eighth shift: Why Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo believes the positional change may be a long-term solution"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ChrisSave<\/p>\n

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For much of the season, Canterbury have been searching for a way to re-energise a misfiring attack and best deploy some of their key assets.<\/p>\n

The answer might have been staring them in the face the whole time.<\/p>\n

Stephen Crichton\u2019s shift to five-eighth last weekend came as a surprise to many,<\/a> but it was anything but a spur-of-the-moment decision, according to coach Cameron Ciraldo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t on a whim,\u201d he said of the switch in which Matt Burton moved to the centres.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been training there for two years \u2026 over the last two pre-seasons. Burto has missed some time through injury in those pre-seasons, and Stephen has got the opportunity to go in there and show us what he could do, so we were really confident in his ability to play that position.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sort of been in the back of our minds for two years, and I think we only saw a glimpse of what he can do last week. I think he\u2019ll improve every week that he gets an opportunity there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe positional switch of Stephen Crichton and Matt Burton paid off.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Partnering Lachlan Galvin in the halves against Manly, the Canterbury captain booted the match-winning field goal, while Burton, freed from the burden of play-making, thrived as he turned attention back to his running game.<\/p>\n

A third win in their past four matches has revived the Bulldogs\u2019 finals chances ahead of a trip to the Gold Coast on Friday. It will be a meeting of the only two teams to beat leaders Penrith this season.<\/p>\n

Canterbury will retain the Crichton-Galvin combination against the Titans, who are fresh from their giant-killing one-point victory over the Panthers last Saturday. While Ciraldo is not yet committing to it permanently, he likes what he has seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say. Who knows what\u2019s going to happen over the next few weeks,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s Origin still to be played out, injuries happen, guys coming back from injury. So there\u2019s so much that can happen over the next couple of months. But we were really happy with what we saw last week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BronsonBronson Xerri is on contract at Cantebury until the end of next season but is in talks with rival clubs.NRL Photos<\/p>\n

The selection change-up, however, has not come without collateral damage.<\/p>\n

Bronson Xerri has been left on the outer again, raising fresh questions about his future at the club.<\/a><\/p>\n

The centre is in discussions with Melbourne and Parramatta after gaining permission from Canterbury to explore his options beyond this season. He has been named on Canterbury\u2019s six-man bench for the Gold Coast clash.<\/p>\n

The Storm and Eels have interest in taking him on before the June 30 transfer deadline, but such an early release has not been considered by Canterbury.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has not been discussed at all,\u201d Ciraldo said. \u201cBronson is a big part of our team, we love having him here, and I expect him to play a lot more footy before he [leaves] here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xerri was upset at his relegation to reserve grade<\/a> after the Bulldogs\u2019 round one win over the Dragons in Las Vegas and the coach had indicated he was disappointed by his reaction to the setback.<\/p>\n

This time around, though, he had taken it well, Ciraldo said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Brad<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHis reaction has been great \u2026 exactly what you\u2019d want, or how you\u2019d want a player to react,\u201d he said. \u201cHe clearly wants to be playing NRL, and he\u2019s working hard to get back in the team, but he\u2019s putting the team first in our preparation, and in our game day, he\u2019s ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love Bronson. He\u2019s been a great player for us the last couple of years. He\u2019s having some challenges this year and we\u2019ve been working through that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s obviously got some things he\u2019s got to sort out … I think he\u2019s at the stage where he wants to look at what\u2019s best for him; he wants to get out of his comfort zone and I fully support how he\u2019s doing that because he\u2019s putting the team first while he\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"ChrisChris Barrett<\/a> is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former South-East Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-759147","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\/759147","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=759147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}