You’ve heard it all before.
Matt Burton isn’t a five-eighth. Lachlan Galvin isn’t a halfback. They won’t work well together in the halves. Why did the Bulldogs axe Reed Mahoney last year?
But on Saturday afternoon at Homebush, as the Bulldogs fell to their first loss of the 2026 NRL season, Cameron Ciraldo made the most obvious admission yet that he might be about to join the crowd.
Because, in three games, the Bulldogs have now scored just 45 points.
15 against the St George Illawarra Dragons in Las Vegas where they scored two tries and were gifted a penalty in golden point to put the game away, 14 against the Canberra Raiders in admittedly dismal weather conditions and now 16 against the Knights.
Two of their three tries against the Knights came off what could only be described as suspect looking passes.
In the end, the Bulldogs fell to the Knights by eight points owing to a second half comeback.
The issue with that second half comeback?
The spine needed to change to spark it after a dismal first half which saw errors, a lack of creativity and a pedestrian-like attack.
In the second half, Cameron Ciraldo pulled the trigger. Stephen Crichton went to five-eighth, Matt Burton went to the centres and Sean O’Sullivan, who was the Bulldogs’ best during the pre-season challenge matches, came off the bench.
All of a sudden, they looked like a footy team.
Even a gallant Knights’ defensive line couldn’t hold them. Burton scored a double, Jacob Kiraz scored and the Dogs scored three tries in 24 minutes.
It wasn’t enough to arrest the scoreboard after going into halftime down by 16 points where there were few if any excuses, but the blue and white might have unlocked the keys to the future.
Not using the spine they specifically ripped up the joint to put in place last year.
Post-game, Cameron Ciraldo said he simply thought he needed Stephen Crichton’s hands on the ball more often.
“Yeah, there was obviously a lot of fatigue in the game with that 60-40 possession,” the head coach said during his post-match press conference.
“We need Critta (Crichton) getting the ball in his hands. So we needed him to get in and be closer to the action and try to manage the energy of both Burto (Burton) and Critta.
“I thought he showed some great signs, when he got closer to the action and got the ball in his hands and we looked a bit more dangerous there.”
Ciraldo then admitted Crichton trained a lot in the five-eighth role during the pre-season, but stopped short of saying it was going to be a fulltime switch.
“Oh look today it was just like what can we do to change the course of the game right now,” he said.
“He’s trained in that position a lot over the last two pre-seasons and those guys are pretty interchangeable.
“But you know, obviously Burto was out five-eighth and Critta was out centre today but we needed to do something to change the energy of the game.
“I thought both those guys, that move actually helped us get some more energy and get a bit more footy in our play.”
The issue for the Bulldogs is, it might have to be a fulltime switch.
Lachlan Galvin is still learning the ropes at halfback, and while Crichton won’t help there, he is clearly Canterbury’s most important player.
He needs his hands on the ball as often as possible.
Burton, meanwhile, is a former Dally M centre of the year and while he has had some good games in the halves, consistency in the role since his move to the Bulldogs has been, frankly, lacking.
It would mean admitting defeat for Ciraldo, and there are still going to be issues to work out.
What role does O’Sullivan play in the side moving forward? Is there another role available for Lachlan Galvin?
They may be the chief questions to answer alongside the Burton and Crichton kerfuffle, but what is for sure is that Canterbury are not going to win a whole lot of games by averaging 15 points per contest.
Their defence is among the best in the competition, but you simply can’t do that every week for the entirety of the season, as proven during the first 40 minutes yesterday against a Knights side who deserve plenty of credit for the start to the season they have made under Justin Holbrook.
Crichton himself admitted to ‘enjoying’ the new role during the post-match press conference.
This Bulldogs side should be a top eight certainty, but they are going to need more points, and for that, the biggest calls of Cameron Ciraldo’s coaching career to date are just around the corner.