Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\nTwo-time Under-19s NSW Blues representative Mitchell Woods appears the leading contender, but the young playmaker\u2019s limited football in recent years means the club would be taking a significant gamble by handing him the No.7 jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s huge. It\u2019s premiership-defining (and) season-defining,\u201d CODE Sports reporter David Riccio said on NRL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Connor Tracey needs a massive pre-season. I don\u2019t think (Kiraz) at fullback. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would have Jacob Kiraz at fullback but he has chronic injuries, and he\u2019s unable to train and get the loads in and it\u2019s just not an option<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they will have to bank on Mitch Woods and go Galvin and Mitch Woods. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of careers resting on the hamstring of Mitch Woods. That\u2019s as simple as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Broncos Call on Ben Hunt | 01:51<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, foxsports.com.au\u2019s Paul Crawley believes the Belmore-based side\u2019s current halves predicament is the result of a recruitment strategy gone wrong.<\/p>\n
He argued that the club are paying the price for a series of positional reshuffles as the Bulldogs are yet to find a settled halves combination.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club has made this problem for themselves because when they recruited Galvin,\u201d Crawley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGalvin was always going to be a six. He was never going to be a halfback, but they brought him in when they already had Matt Burton, so then Matt Burton becomes the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of doing something there, they\u2019ve moved Stephen Crichton who is one of the world\u2019s best centres, into the five-eighth spot and that\u2019s not working either\u2026and it\u2019s all come through poor recruitment and I can\u2019t see how it\u2019s going to get better.<\/p>\n
\u201cMitch Woods could be the best young footballer we\u2019ve ever seen, but he has hardly played for two years. <\/p>\n
\u201cHow does a young half carry that team with the lack of football?\u201d<\/p>\n
NRL 2026 RD18 Parramatta Eels v Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles – Ronald Volkman NRL PHOTOSSource: The Daily Telegraph<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs\u2019 uncertainty in the halves could also open the door for a potential recruit, with Ronald Volkman emerging as a left-field option after his impressive stint at the Parramatta Eels.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little birdie told me he\u2019s been spotted either talking to the Bulldogs or around their facilities a couple of weeks ago,\u201d Anasta said.<\/p>\n
Riccio added to the intrigue, noting that Volkman remains without a club beyond this season and is unlikely to remain at the Eels with the arrival of Jarome Luai next season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s sitting there without a club, and I\u2019m watching him play for Parramatta (and he has been amazing),\u201d Riccio elaborated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canterbury Bulldogs hopes of winning a premiership in the next decade are set to rest on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-859649","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\/859649","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=859649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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