Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo has heaped praise on comeback kid Bronson Xerri who made a stunning return to Shark Park on Saturday night.
Xerri made his debut for the Sharks as an 18-year-old in 2019 before being sensationally suspended from the game for four years for a serious doping violation.
The gun centre was everywhere as he scored two tries against his former club in the 20-6 victory that took Canterbury to the top of the NRL ladder.
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It was a historic night for the Dogs as Xerri led the side to their first win at Shark Park since 2011 and the club’s first 4-0 start to a season since 1993.
“I thought he was awesome,” Ciraldo said of Xerri.
“Bronson just impresses me more every week, he’s really walking towards pressure situations and he’s working hard on his craft.
“We all knew he was a talented guy coming through but at the moment he’s become the real work ethic guy, so we’re challenging him to bring back those talent plays that he’s known for and add that to work ethic plays he’s had for the last 12 months.
“Nothing fazed him tonight, I thought he was brilliant.”
The stunning win and Melbourne’s loss earlier on Saturday meant the boys from Belmore are the only remaining undefeated NRL team in 2025.
Ciraldo revealed the team changed their attacking structure heading into the clash.
“We changed some things in our game this week and had to spend a fair bit of time looking through it and the way everyone committed to that and the plan was outstanding,” he said.
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“We were excited for the challenge. We came in here against a consistent top four team and whether we won or lost we were going to have a good idea of where we’re at.
“With our attack, we changed some roles and plays and shapes, just stuff we thought we needed to do to win this game.
“What we’d done in the first three weeks was really good but it wasn’t going to be enough to beat a quality Sharks team.
“As you do as your season goes on you have to build your game and had done really well for three weeks of just winning the possession and field position battle but tonight was going to take a little more and we had to make sure we got a few more plays on and I’m glad we did that.
“We knew it was going to be a semi-final type game tonight even though it’s early in the year. They’re a quality opposition and we had to play at a really high level and come up with some big plays if we were going to get the points.”
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The win was made even more impressive by the fact the Dogs did it without two of their best players in five-eighth Matt Burton and backrower Viliame Kikau.
Bailey Hayward pulled on the No. 6 jersey for the first time while Jacob Preston had a blinder in the second row.
“The next man up mentality, that’s what we’re trying to build here and the last two weeks has shown that,” Ciraldo said.
“Bailey Hayward especially, such a mature performance. Jack Todd coming off the bench in his first game didn’t look out of place.
‘Really happy with those guys who have come in and replaced the injured guys and we still feel like we’ve got some young guys coming through who haven’t come out to play yet.
“Really happy with how the guys prepared this week, they locked in.
“I thought they came out hard and we had to weather a storm and once we started to get our game on we saw some really good signs of what we’ve been working on over the pre-season.
“A lot to like but a lot we can get better at… some ill-discipline bobbed up.”
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