Bronson Xerri has been in dark places before so he knows what he\u2019s got to do to restore faith in himself, his coach Cameron Ciraldo and his Bulldogs teammates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old readily confessed his recent stoush with Ciraldo over his form and attitude was \u201cthe kick up the arse I needed\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And with skipper Stephen Crichton out injured, Xerri was just what the Bulldogs needed at left centre at Accor Stadium on Thursday night as they brought Penrith’s unbeaten run to a screeching halt.<\/p>\n
Xerri had 13 runs for 158 metres, one line break, a try assist and four tackle busts in the 32-16 triumph.<\/p>\n
After being part of the 15-14 win over the Dragons in Las Vegas in Round 1, Xerri had been overlooked by Ciraldo since as rumours swirled the powerfully-built centre wanted out of Belmore.<\/p>\n
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Sitili Tupouniua Try<\/p>\n
“It’s been tough. But as long as the boys within the four walls, and the staff, they all know my intentions here,\u201d Xerri said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Whatever was reported was out of my control. As long as the team and all the boys knew my intentions with everything.<\/p>\n
“I’m just going to come every day into training and do the best I can – just waiting for the call-up like tonight.”<\/p>\n
His past includes the four-year ban for taking performance enhancing drugs in 2019, after scoring 13 tries in 22 games for Cronulla in his debut season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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From the field: Matt Burton<\/p>\n
His present had him on the outer with Canterbury\u2019s coaching staff, knowing action was required.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI went home and asked some hard questions about myself and came back,\u201d Xerri said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I have a really good support system… my family have been through something with me much worse than this. I know how to handle these things.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just got a bit comfortable in myself… wasn’t really giving it my all at training. So it was that kick up the arse I needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’m a true believer in that everything\u202fhappens for a reason.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Me and Ciro (Ciraldo) had some tough conversations but I’ve got nothing but love and respect for Ciro.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That circle includes his teammates, especially Crichton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He’s been very supportive. All the boys have been by my side and messaging me and seeing how I am with my mental health, which is awesome – that’s what you want from your teammates,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Critta has always been good to me – to learn off the best is what I need.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Connor Tracey right from the textbook<\/p>\n
After two games in NSW Cup, Xerri said he was nervous about returning to the NRL arena. But after his first few touches with the ball, the nerves subsided.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It was good. It’s a fair result – I was blessed to get the opportunity and I just wanted to take it with both hands,\u201d Xerri said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been out three weeks, so to come back and especially\u202fto verse Penrith, was going to be a big game for myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I was so proud of the boys and happy to get that win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Like I said it was the kick up the arse I needed. When it’s all gone you don’t realise what you’ve got.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“When I was playing NSW Cup I was like ‘This is not where I belong, this is not where I want to be’.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I came into training and just put my best foot forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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From the desk: Connor Tracey<\/p>\n
Ciraldo was full of praise not just for Xerri\u2019s undoubted attacking abilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most pleasing thing, which no-one would have seen, was how well he was communicating out there,\u201d Ciraldo said.<\/p>\n
The players in there (dressing room) were already talking about that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople in the stands might not see that or value that as much as we do. It\u2019s awesome he\u2019s brought that into his game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bronson Xerri has been in dark places before so he knows what he\u2019s got to do to restore…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-372973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}