By Jasper Bruce
Cameron Ciraldo will resist the temptation to attempt a replica of Penrith’s premiership-winning system as he embarks on his first NRL pre-season as Canterbury head coach.
Ciraldo joined the Panthers’ coaching staff after he retired from their playing roster in 2013 and helped mastermind their dual premiership-winning defence as an assistant to Ivan Cleary.
The 37-year-old’s first full-time head-coaching job comes after significant hype about his potential and following failed approaches from two other NRL clubs – the Warriors and Wests Tigers.
There will be similarities between his old club and new. Bulldogs football GM Phil Gould oversaw Ciraldo’s appointment to the Penrith coaching staff, while Canterbury’s Viliame Kikau, Matt Burton, Corey Waddell and Tevita Pangai jnr are all former Panthers players.
But Ciraldo said the chance to coach ex-Panthers had not been a driving factor in his move and that he would not be preaching the Penrith way at Belmore.
“Penrith’s a different club to the Bulldogs,” he said.
“I’ve got no preconceived ideas about what the team’s going to look like. It’s a clean slate for everyone in the building.”
“I’m not going to cut and paste everything that was at Penrith and try to bring it to the Bulldogs.
“There were things that we did (at Penrith) that would work in a number of places and a lot of that was around hard work. (But) Canterbury has been built on that for a long time.
“At the moment, I’m just trying to understand what the Bulldogs are about and absorb as much of the culture and history that is at the Bulldogs already.
“We’ll find our own identity as we go along.”
Cameron Ciraldo is embarking on his first NRL pre-season as a head coach.Credit:Louie Douvis.
Trent Barrett, another former Penrith assistant, lasted less than a season-and-a-half as the Bulldogs’ coach before poor results led the club to sever ties with him in May.
Ciraldo said the Bulldogs were a club with high standards and that he was realistic that an NRL head-coaching job came with pressure.
“But there’s pressure on everyone. That pressure is a privilege,” he said. “As for expectations, that’s for other people to worry about, not me or the playing group.”
With players on leave or at the Rugby League World Cup in England, Ciraldo has not yet formulated a predicted 17 for round one of the 2023 season, nor has he considered whether Kyle Flanagan will remain first-choice halfback.
“I’ve got no preconceived ideas about what the team’s going to look like,” he said. “It’s a clean slate for everyone in the building.
What I can say is that Kyle is in a really good place and he’s working hard behind the scenes.”
Ciraldo hopes to build on the foundations laid by his predecessor Mick Potter, the Canterbury great who reignited the faltering Bulldogs in his stint as interim coach.
As assistants to Ciraldo, Potter and Chad Randall will supervise Canterbury’s attack in 2023.
“I had a good chat to him (Potter) towards the end of the year and thought he was a really calm and level-headed guy that could help us moving forward,” Ciraldo said. “I’m really excited to be working with him.”
AAP
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