logo
Lachlan Galvin leaves new Bulldogs' team-mate baffled with odd team instruction as the ex-Tigers star ends month of headlines with try in Canterbury's win vs Parramatta

Lachlan Galvin leaves new Bulldogs' team-mate baffled with odd team instruction as the ex-Tigers star ends month of headlines with try in Canterbury's win vs Parramatta

Daily Mail​8 hours ago

Lachlan Galvin left one of his new Bulldogs team-mates bemused after issuing a odd team instruction when the former Wests Tigers five-eighth came off the bench for his debut for Canterbury on Monday.
The 19-year-old prodigy ended months of speculation over his future and announced his arrival at the Bulldogs, by scoring a try and taking the reins as halfback, to help seal a 30-12 win against Parramatta.
The result keeps the Dogs at the top of the NRL but some uncertainty still remains over what role the exciting young playmaker will have in Cameron Ciraldo's side.
The ex-Tigers star warmed the bench for 56 minutes before coming on to take over at half-back, as off-contract No 7 Toby Sexton was moved to play hooker.
But the move left Sexton slightly puzzled, admitting to Fox League after the match that he thought Galvin had been joking when he told him he was set to join up with the forwards for the final quarter of the match.
'He came on and said play hooker and I thought he was joking for a second and he goes: "Nah you're actually playing hooker" and I thought: "Oh, righto this will be good",' Sexton told the outlet.
Bulldogs No 7 Toby Sexton (left) said he thought Galvin was joking when he told him to move to play hooker as the ex-Tigers star stepped into his role in the halves
'Whatever is my role in the team, the coach is going to decide that and I just have to play to the best of my ability.
'We've got lots of strike in the team and they're good headaches for the coach to have.'
Galvin, meanwhile, still is unsure of his own role in Ciraldo's backline, adding: 'I thought I was coming on at lock or centre, I didn't know and then Ciro told me to go into the halves so whatever Ciro wants and the boys need, I'll do it.
'If we keep winning like that I'll do anything.'
At the start of the month, Galvin broke his silence to set the record straight on his controversial Tigers exit.
He set the record straight on his relationship with Benji Marshall and Jarome Luai, claiming there was no bad blood with them, adding that he was excited to work under Ciraldo.
And on Monday he was again pressed on the move, claiming that he was still trying to ignore the negative furore around the move.
'I just want to play footy. I shut that out. That's all over now and that's all in the past,' he said.
'That's all in the past now. I just want to play footy and I was smiling and enjoying it out there today. That's all I really want to do and with these bunch of boys, it's quite amazing and the fans got right behind us tonight. It was really cool.
'As you can see when I scored, they all jumped over me. They've been so supportive, they've got behind me.
'Just to get the win with all these boys that have been so good to me, I love every minute of it. The club is building into something really special here and I love being a part of it.'
Galvin did just that, involving himself heavily in Canterbury's attack and linking with five-eighth Matt Burton in the lead-up to a Viliame Kikau try to put the Bulldogs up 18-12.
And, after Harry Hayes crossed to make it 24-12, Galvin capped his arrival in the No.23 jersey by scoring his first try in Bulldogs colours to seal the match.
After putting fullback Connor Tracey into space on the right edge, Galvin backed up on the play and ran onto a Josh Curran pass to score after a Jacob Kiraz offload.
Galvin had been one of the most divisive figures in rugby league for the past two months, such was the nature of his highly-publicised exit from Wests Tigers.
But there was nothing but love from Bulldogs fans, with a crowd of 59,878 in Accor Stadium on Monday.
The 19-year-old's name was chanted before he even entered the field and he earned a standing ovation as he ran on and again with each of his first touches.
And the roar was enormous when he crossed late in the match, 10 days after officially putting pen to paper on a three-and-a-half year deal with the Bulldogs.
In fact, it was a surprise to see Galvin on the matchday squad, after it had been thought the young footy star could play a warm-up match in the NSW Cup last week, as opposed to stepping out onto Stadium Australia for Monday night's King's Birthday clash.
'We had a couple of plans, but no, that wasn't the plan (to play halfback). We had a couple of different plans there,' Ciraldo said.
'It's been a really hard week to get his head around everything.
'On Tuesday, when I named the team, he wasn't in the team.
'I thought he would play NSW Cup and he'll just come through there and learn our systems but every training session he did, he got better. He understood our systems better and by the end of the week, it was clear that we needed to have him in the team and he could help us win the game.
'Credit to him and how he went about his training during the week and I thought he did great when he got on there.'
Notable too was how impressive Sexton's kicking game was for Canterbury before Galvin came on.
The Bulldogs' regular halfback also entered Monday under intense scrutiny, given he is off-contract and seemingly unlikely to now be re-signed.
Canterbury were able to dominate field position for the majority of the match, only for Parramatta's resolute defence to keep them in the contest.
Burton scored early for the Bulldogs when he picked off a Ryley Smith pass from a scrum and went 60 metres to score.
But the Eels returned the favour moments later when Zac Lomax intercepted a Burton pass and put Mitch Moses into space to score a 90-metre try.
The Bulldogs took a 12-6 lead back when Burton went to the short side in the 20th minute and sent Marcelo Montoya over.
However, the match swung again when Viliame Kikau was sin-binned for dangerous contact on a kicking Moses just before halftime and the Eels levelled the score on the next set.
Canterbury went 14-12 clear when Moses was penalised for a high shot in the 50th minute before the Bulldogs ran away with it late with Galvin in the centres.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Steve Smith not thinking about Ashes as Australia prepare for World Test final
Steve Smith not thinking about Ashes as Australia prepare for World Test final

Glasgow Times

timean hour ago

  • Glasgow Times

Steve Smith not thinking about Ashes as Australia prepare for World Test final

England have been vocal about their long-term planning being geared towards building a team capable of wresting the urn from Australia for the first time in a decade ahead of the 2025-26 series Down Under. However, Smith is zoned in on this week's World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord's, starting on Wednesday, before Australia head to the Caribbean for three Tests and five T20s. Steve Smith trains at Lord's ahead of the World Test Championship final (Ben Whitley/PA) 'The Ashes is a big series but you also can't look too far ahead,' said Smith, winner of the Compton–Miller Medal for player of the Ashes series in 2017-18 and 2019. 'You've got to keep playing each game as it comes, every game is important with the World Test Championship on the line. 'That's the reason it came in: to make every Test more relevant. We go to the West Indies next week and we've got a series there, that'll be the next focus after this game.' Australia's last Test visit to Lord's in the 2023 Ashes saw an extraordinary bust-up between a couple of players and Marylebone Cricket Club members, one of whom was expelled and two others suspended. Asked about sort of reception he is anticipating from the members this time, Smith replied: 'Unsure, and I'm actually not fussed either way.' Australia defeated India in the 2023 final and are overwhelming favourites to see off the Proteas, whose place at the showpiece has been questioned, including by former England captain Michael Vaughan. Vaughan said they got there 'on the back of beating pretty much nobody', while ex-Australia spinner Kerry O'Keeffe likened their run to 'making the Wimbledon final without playing a seed along the way'. South Africa played only a dozen Tests in the 2023-25 edition and did not have to face either England or Australia, although six successive wins saw them book their spot in the final with a match to spare. Head coach Shukri Conrad said: 'I'm tired of speaking about it, we're here and that's all that matters. We get a chance to walk away World Test champions. 'Playing Australia, it doesn't get any bigger than that. What's gone before counts for absolutely nothing at the minute. We're quietly confident going into this game that we can pull one over them. 'We still hold Test cricket very dearly, our fixture list might not speak to that, but this is the biggest final all of our players have ever been involved in and their biggest match.' Stuart Broad joined South Africa as a consultant on Monday (Ben Whitley/PA) Conrad and his coaching staff had dinner on Sunday evening with former England seamer Stuart Broad, who took 113 of his 604 Test wickets at Lord's and has more dismissals against Australia than anyone else. Broad joined South Africa as a consultant at practice on Monday to pass on tips to the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen about dealing with the notorious slope at the home of cricket. 'It was just a casual chat and if I didn't call time at 10:30pm, I think he'd still be there chatting to us,' Conrad said. 'It was really enlightening, really casual and everybody walked away thinking 'that was great', Broady included.'

Steve Smith not thinking about Ashes as Australia prepare for World Test final
Steve Smith not thinking about Ashes as Australia prepare for World Test final

South Wales Guardian

timean hour ago

  • South Wales Guardian

Steve Smith not thinking about Ashes as Australia prepare for World Test final

England have been vocal about their long-term planning being geared towards building a team capable of wresting the urn from Australia for the first time in a decade ahead of the 2025-26 series Down Under. However, Smith is zoned in on this week's World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord's, starting on Wednesday, before Australia head to the Caribbean for three Tests and five T20s. 'The Ashes is a big series but you also can't look too far ahead,' said Smith, winner of the Compton–Miller Medal for player of the Ashes series in 2017-18 and 2019. 'You've got to keep playing each game as it comes, every game is important with the World Test Championship on the line. 'That's the reason it came in: to make every Test more relevant. We go to the West Indies next week and we've got a series there, that'll be the next focus after this game.' Australia's last Test visit to Lord's in the 2023 Ashes saw an extraordinary bust-up between a couple of players and Marylebone Cricket Club members, one of whom was expelled and two others suspended. Asked about sort of reception he is anticipating from the members this time, Smith replied: 'Unsure, and I'm actually not fussed either way.' Australia defeated India in the 2023 final and are overwhelming favourites to see off the Proteas, whose place at the showpiece has been questioned, including by former England captain Michael Vaughan. Vaughan said they got there 'on the back of beating pretty much nobody', while ex-Australia spinner Kerry O'Keeffe likened their run to 'making the Wimbledon final without playing a seed along the way'. South Africa played only a dozen Tests in the 2023-25 edition and did not have to face either England or Australia, although six successive wins saw them book their spot in the final with a match to spare. Head coach Shukri Conrad said: 'I'm tired of speaking about it, we're here and that's all that matters. We get a chance to walk away World Test champions. 'Playing Australia, it doesn't get any bigger than that. What's gone before counts for absolutely nothing at the minute. We're quietly confident going into this game that we can pull one over them. 'We still hold Test cricket very dearly, our fixture list might not speak to that, but this is the biggest final all of our players have ever been involved in and their biggest match.' Conrad and his coaching staff had dinner on Sunday evening with former England seamer Stuart Broad, who took 113 of his 604 Test wickets at Lord's and has more dismissals against Australia than anyone else. Broad joined South Africa as a consultant at practice on Monday to pass on tips to the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen about dealing with the notorious slope at the home of cricket. 'It was just a casual chat and if I didn't call time at 10:30pm, I think he'd still be there chatting to us,' Conrad said. 'It was really enlightening, really casual and everybody walked away thinking 'that was great', Broady included.'

Aussie swim star bounces back after disqualification blunder as she reveals why she nearly lost out on a ticket to the World Championships
Aussie swim star bounces back after disqualification blunder as she reveals why she nearly lost out on a ticket to the World Championships

Daily Mail​

time3 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

Aussie swim star bounces back after disqualification blunder as she reveals why she nearly lost out on a ticket to the World Championships

Kaylee McKeown has said a disqualification blunder will only add to her mental steel after a dramatic start to her world championship selection trials. McKeown was aghast to be disqualified after her heat in the 50m backstroke heat on Monday morning at Australia's trials in Adelaide. Race officials DQ'd McKeown, the world record holder in the event, for initiating an early start. But after a protest, and a two-hour appeal, she was reinstated to the final when officials ruled McKeown was distracted by movement prior to the starter's signal. 'It's something that you really want to practice,' McKeown said. 'But it's good to mentally toughen yourself up and hopefully it prepares me for anything down the track.' McKeown won Monday night's final at the South Australian Aquatic Centre in 27.33 seconds, well shy of her 26.86 global benchmark set in October 2023. McKeown said the disqualification blunder will only add to her mental steel after a dramatic start to her world championship selection trials The five-time Olympic gold medallist refused to detail the exact distraction that caused her initial disqualification. 'Things happen and it just crumbled that way,' she said. 'I knew as soon as I started, what I had done. 'But thankfully we had the technology to look back at footage and saw the distraction and I got reinstated.' With her victory, McKeown secured her ticket to the world championships in Singapore from July 27 to August 3. In the men's 400m freestyle, Sam Short laid an emphatic marker in his redemption tale after a disappointing Olympics last year. Short was rated a gold-medal freestyle fancy in the 400m, 800m and 1500m in Paris but finished fourth, ninth and 13th respectively. On Monday night, he won the 400m free final in three minutes 41.03 seconds from Paris silver medallist Elijah Winnington (3:43.99). 'I came fourth (in the 400m) at the Olympics, so in our lives it's probably a little bit of a failure,' Short said. 'But I've got tons of mates ... they'd literally probably chop their legs off just to get the opportunity to come fourth at the Olympics.' Lani Pallister won the women's 400m freestyle in 3:59.72 - the first time she has dipped under four minutes in the event. Pallister will lead Australia's tilt in the event in Singapore in the absence of Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus, who will miss the worlds while on an extended break. In the women's 200m individual medley, Ella Ramsay (2:09.21) prevailed. And Alex Perkins won the women's 100m butterfly in a personal best time of 56.42 - 0.36 seconds quicker than her previous benchmark set hours earlier in the heats. In the men's 100m butterfly, Nash Wilkes (1:00.19) touched ahead of Bailey Lello (1:00.47) but both were outside the automatic qualifying time of 59.75 set by Swimming Australia.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store