In the belly of Belmore Oval’s grandstand, a couple of halfbacks are playing with army men.
Near enough, anyway. That’s what Toby Sexton likens his game planning and tactical tutorials with Jason Taylor to.
The Bulldogs No.7 and assistant coach are a pair of unabashed “nerds”, according to Sexton, and in their element as the 24-year-old prepares to truly take charge of an NRL side for the first time.
Matt Burton’s expected 4-6 week spell on the sidelines with an MCL injury puts Sexton front and centre as Canterbury’s senior half, starting against Parramatta on Sunday as Bailey Hayward plays his first NRL game at the scrumbase.
From wondering if he had a future in the game two years ago, to the 2024 semi-final loss to Manly that “took a toll” and a contract that is yet to be extended beyond this year, Sexton carries those playmaking play dates with Taylor the whole way.
“I’m a footy nerd, I just love everything about rugby league,” he grins.
Toby Sexton and Jason Taylor work through a video session at Belmore Oval.Credit: Hope Saad/Bulldogs Digital
“JT [Taylor] is pretty similar. He’s the most detailed assistant coach I’ve ever come across. His footy IQ is through the roof, and we bounce ideas off each other a lot.
“We’ll have phone calls talking stuff through, but it’s mostly our video sessions and training sessions, how we can evolve our attack.
“He’s got his little army dudes, these little figurines he’ll use. And JT likes to draw plays up on the whiteboard and we’ll work through it, a lot of visual mapping out which works for me.
“There’s the little field we work our plays out on, we’ve got a few different methods to work it all out.
Peas in a pod: ‘Footy nerds’ Toby Sexton and Jason Taylor.Credit: Hope Saad/Bulldogs Digital
“I really enjoy it all. To me, as a halfback, you should know the game and the structures inside out. How are you supposed to lead a team if you don’t know it?
“I have had to balance it, too, though because I used to be thinking about footy 24/7 and it’d get in my head too much.
“Now, when I’m at Belmore, I still can’t get enough of it. I love watching footy, clips, video analysis and that, but as soon as I walk out the door now, I’ve got things going on outside of footy.”
Cameron Ciraldo didn’t see Canterbury’s attack clicking the way he liked until July last year. But scores of 40 and 28 against the Titans and Dragons this season point to plenty of hard work over the summer, with Sexton and Taylor at the centre of it all.
Ciraldo’s famed defensive bedrock will probably always be the first touchstone for his halfback. Even if Sexton greets the subject with a grin and “yuck, defence” before noting his own improvement when “the aggression and decisiveness you need to defend well” is his first priority.
Sunday’s local derby against Parramatta will be Sexton’s 50th NRL game and one of the few in which he can boast more experience than his halves partner.
With the Eels, Sharks and Knights looming before a round six bye and any prospect of Burton or injured star Viliame Kikau returning, the lessons learned out of Sexton’s first finals outing last September loom large.
Especially after the Bulldogs pulled their interest in veteran playmaker Ben Hunt and backed Sexton as their halfback, albeit with rising 18-year-old Mitchell Woods tipped as a serious prospect.
Toby Sexton was outstanding for the Bulldogs in 2024 but is off contract at the end of 2025.Credit: Getty
Sexton remains off-contract and talks around his future continue.
But the torment of last year’s finals loss to Manly, when the Bulldogs coughed up two separate 10-point leads, has been learned from and left behind.
The prevailing theory that Canterbury could have closed out that game with a senior player like Hunt calling the shots, Sexton hopes to shake, too.
“I think that game took a toll on me,” he says.
“It rattled me for a while to end a season that way. But to go watch it back and look at it from a footy perspective and take the raw emotion out of it over the pre-season was the best thing to do with it.
Cameron was very open and honest with that and those talks [with Hunt] too, the whole time he kept me in the loop. That’s all I could ask for and I appreciated that approach.
“Obviously the club has to do what’s best for the club, so I couldn’t worry too much about it all given it was out of my control.
“There were some big things about game management and closing a game out as a halfback that I worked on over summer and I feel confident in what I can take from that.”
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