Canterbury-Bankstown coach Cameron Ciraldo has made one of the biggest calls of his coaching career by appointing star recruit Stephen Crichton as the club’s new captain.
Three-time premiership winner Crichton, 23, will replace Reed Mahoney and Matt Burton with Ciraldo informing the Bulldogs playing group of the news on Thursday morning.
A St Clair Comets junior out of the Penrith Panthers system, Crichton returned to training early prior to Christmas and has impressed so much he’s now been handed the role of leading Canterbury-Bankstown back towards playing finals football.
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The Bulldogs have failed to feature in September dating back to 2016 when Des Hasler was coaching at the club with Crichton and Ciraldo now the front men trying to end a seven season finals drought.
Ciraldo went out of his way to praise hooker Mahoney and five-eighth Burton for captaining the Bulldogs last season.
“I just want to lead with my actions,” Crichton said in a statement released by the club.
“I’ve been at a successful Club and I’ve seen what good leaders look like and I’ve learnt a lot from the older boys that I was with and I’ve taken a few things from each person that I can implement in my life on and off the field, as well as in being a leader.
“Going into the camp I knew straight away the boys were nervous and I knew that my communication and leadership could bring the boys up a bit and make them excited.
“I was looking at the back end of the camp, when camp was finished, and where this team could go to and I knew that they needed a leader to get them through the camp. So, I just kind of took on that role from the start.
“We have a lot of leaders that were talking through camp just as much as me, and I wasn’t trying to put that pressure just on me, I leaned on them, the other senior boys, just as much as they were leaning on myself.”
Crichton has made an immediate impact since joining Canterbury-Bankstown and was the standout candidate to be named captain when the club embarked on a pre-season army camp.
Crichton also paid tribute to some of the champion Bulldogs players who have helped form the fabric of the club made famous as “The Family Club” throughout the 1980s.
“I just listened to a few of the boys that have been at the Club for a while about how much it means to them and it hit me. It’s a community Club, it’s a family Club. They really do care about their fans,” Crichton said.
“I see it as hard-working, proper Dogs. Hungry. I look at the past players, Sonny Bill, Willie Mason, James Graham, players like that. They just did it without hesitation. They were just hard Dogs. That’s what I see the Club as and that’s what Ciro [Ciraldo] is trying to build here: You put the team first, you go out there and you play your heart out. That’s what being a Bulldog means.
“I can’t wait to go out there and play for them [the Bulldogs] and for my family.”
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Bulldogs coach Ciraldo said Crichton’s leadership qualities became evident as soon as he arrived at Belmore.
“Stephen is a really good reader of energy. He understands when people are a little bit flat, low on energy, and when it’s a bit quiet, and he can change the mood in an instant. Sometimes that’s with some annoying music or sounds, or loud noises that he comes up with but he’s great at bringing people together,” Ciraldo said.
“He really understands bringing positive energy to the group and he’s been such a valuable asset to us this pre-season.
“Reed [Mahoney] and Burto [Matt Burton] have played integral roles in setting the foundation for our team’s success, both on and off the field. They did an exceptional job being thrown in the deep end last year and put their hands up during a challenging year to help guide our young squad. There were a lot of lessons and learnings out of last year and both Reed and Burto will be better from the experience of it.”
The Bulldogs will host Cronulla in the NRL’s pre-season challenge at Belmore Oval on Friday with Crichton to captain the club and make his first appearance in a Canterbury-Bankstown jumper.
Crichton has scored 56 tries in 100 NRL games since making his debut for Penrith in 2019.
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