"Flat out lie": Ciraldo criticised after shock halves switch

Bulldogs coach Camero Ciraldo has been criticised for “messing with the heads of his players” after his call to switch Matt Burton out of the halves in yesterday’s loss to the Knights.

Ciraldo made the call to switch Matt Burton and centre Stephen Crichton in order to have Crichton steer the side’s attack during attacking periods, which appeared to shock the five-eighth when he was told on the sideline by Bulldogs’ officials.

The Bulldogs struggled for points against the understrength Newcastle Knights, only managing 16 points, which is a cause for concern for SEN’s Blake Austin, who believes the decision not to back Burton in crunch moments will hurt the club more in the long-run.

“Cam Ciraldo… I think he's teetering a line of really messing with the heads of his players,” Austin said on SEN NRL Crunch Time.

“I was shattered for Matt Burton yesterday.

“If you look at Matt Burton's game across the 80 minutes, the Bulldogs' left edge was under siege the whole first half. I thought they'd done a wonderful job to repel the Knights as often as they did.

“(In the) second half, he started with two line-breaks, and I felt he was the reason the Dogs got back in the game.

“When we get to the crunch moments, the message… that's come from Cam Ciraldo is ‘well done, Matty, but you're going to move out of the way now and Stephen Crichton's going to take over’.

“I understand Stephen's a great player but the message that sends to the guy that you're probably going to put in the six jersey again next week is ‘you're just not up to it, son’.

“I've never been too concerned about the Bulldogs' lack of points, because I think they've always created systems that they're playing the long game.

“The game's completely changed this year, so we've seen them coast through last year on the basis of their systems.

"This year, you need attack, because when the ruck speeds up, you need players that can take advantage and it's proven over the first three weeks the dogs haven't quite had that.

“It’s also their defence is getting stretched more than it ever has, and I reckon that's another result of the ref waving his arm around and it gets really chaotic.

“The dogs remind me a lot of the Sharks at the minute. I've been screaming for years, the Sharks need to go and get some help for Nicho Hynes, and that's in the fullback position.

“I reckon they've got to do the same with the dogs. It sounds crazy because I reckon Connor Tracey's playing brilliantly… but I just don't know if he's offering enough to the overall output of the team's attack.”

Under Ciraldo, the Bulldogs have never been afraid to alter their line-up regardless of results, most notably when the side axed halfback Toby Sexton for Lachlan Galvin despite leading the competition.

Ahead of Round 3, centre Bronson Xerri was dropped for Enari Tuala, leading to talk of Xerri wanting an immediate release from the club.

In the press-conference, Ciraldo defended the decision to switch Burton and Crichton, saying the move was what his side needed “to change the course of the game right now”.

“He's trained in that position a lot over the last two pre-seasons and those guys are pretty interchangeable… but we needed to do something to change the energy of the game, and I thought that move actually helped us… get a bit more footy in our play,” Ciraldo said post-match.

Austin was unimpressed by Ciraldo’s reasoning, believing the Bulldogs’ coach was “fabricating the truth” in order to justify a poor decision.

“I think that's a flat out lie,” Austin said.

“The last two weeks in his press conference, (Ciraldo) has tried to defend some of the decisions that he's made.

“I reckon he flat out lied last week when he said Enari Tuala blew up the GPS. No centre's ever blown up the GPS.

“If you're not a fullback or you're not a half, you're not running more than nine kilometres in a game of footy.

“This week to justify his decision, he says Stephen Crichton had a (lot of good touches), he didn't have a lot of good touches.

“The fact that Cam's trying to justify these decisions in the press conference doesn't sit well with me because I think.

“I'm not saying he's lying, but I think he's trying to fabricate a bit of the truth.”