Coach's powerful response to Galvin coverage
Galvin's abrupt move from the Wests Tigers and his four games with the Bulldogs has been one of the biggest stories of 2025, with the playmaker's form becoming a hot topic on traditional and social media.
Ciraldo is the first to admit that Galvin could have been better in his second start at five-eighth last week when the Bulldogs blew an 18-0 lead against the Broncos, but he also feels the intense scrutiny that's followed has been over the top and may have to do with certain agendas in the game.
'That's a great question, but it's hard to answer that because I don't know the thoughts behind that,' he replied when asked if he thought Galvin had been a victim of circumstance.
'Some of the commentary around him is ridiculous.
'He's a 19-year-old kid who has changed clubs mid-year and has come here looking to improve his football.
'Our job internally is to help him through that process, guide him and protect him. He's doing a great job turning up and trying to get better each day.
'I don't know why there's so much attention on him or why it comes to that because we had a number of players last week who didn't play the way they wanted to play, and unfortunately Lachie was in the headlines for a lot of that.
'But he did a lot of things well, he'll learn a lot of things out of that game and he'll come back bigger and stronger.'
Galvin will drop back to the bench this weekend if all of the Origin stars back up against the Cowboys in Townsville where they'll be on high alert for Tom Dearden, who claimed the Wally Lewis Medal.
Galvin will likely come on midway through the second half, with Toby Sexton shifting to hooker to replace Reed Mahoney, based on how he's been used in the past.
Ciraldo stressed that players weren't being moved to fit Galvin in – Sexton and Mahoney will both leave the club at the end of the season – and praised the teenager for how he'd handled a turbulent few months on and off the field that included him scoring a try on his club debut. Galvin enjoyed a stunning start to his Bulldogs career when he came off the bench and scored on debut. NRL Photos Credit: Supplied
'One thing that I really liked about him and admired him for before he agreed to come to us was how he handled himself through that period a couple of months ago,' Ciraldo said.
'There was a lot of attention on him, but every week that he came and played footy, he put that to the side and played with freedom and the competitiveness you want from players like that.
'It's hard for us to hear all that noise because we're not watching all that stuff. We're educating them to stay away from it as well, so we're trying to get our boys off their phones and watching reality TV shows.
'We keep reinforcing that their reference points are their performances in these four walls. Hopefully, they're listening.
'I thought he did a good job coming off the bench a couple of times there, and he's also done a really good job when he's started games.
'There were a few errors that I'd like to take back last week, but they're learnings for him as well. And while they were pressure passes, a couple of them should have been caught.
'He's learning every day, he's putting in the hard work and he's the first one here and the last to leave. When you do that, good things are going to happen.'
Meanwhile, Ciraldo has praised winger Marcelo Montoya, who delayed neck surgery to ensure the team wouldn't lose too many players during Origin.
'He's been struggling with that neck for a while now,' he said, with Montoya expected to be back in time for the finals.
'It was an incredibly tough effort to keep playing through with that over the last few weeks, especially this Origin period.
'He probably could have had surgery a couple of weeks ago, but he chose to delay it a little bit to help the team through that Origin period when we were missing a number of players.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
15 hours ago
- Perth Now
‘Culture' the key, not matter what the sport
Codes collided in Sydney on Monday, and the outcome was nothing but positive as Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson and Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo picked each other's brains about the importance of 'mentality' and 'culture' at a football club. Ciraldo has been at the forefront of a Bulldogs revival since his appointment in 2023, with the club this year a genuine chance of winning its first NRL premiership since 2004. Wrexham has enjoyed a meteoric rise under the tutelage of Parkinson, with the Welsh club having secured three successive promotions to now being an English Championship outfit that will this season vie for a Premier League berth. Seeking any extra edge that he can add to the Bulldogs, Ciraldo was a visitor at Wrexham's training session ahead of the Red Dragons' battle with Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium on Tuesday night. 'It's fantastic that he's come down here (to training) and he seems a top guy, and it looks like they're having a good season and getting in those playoffs,' Parkinson said. 'It was really interesting to speak to Cam about how he approaches and has created his team, (and) coaching his team. 'There are a lot of similarities in terms of mentality and team building, and getting the squad right and the culture right. So much is transferable between the two sports. 'We want a team that's going to work for each other. I've never been a manager who has a team where you can carry a passenger who's not going to run the yards for the rest of the group. 'In sport, if you get one player who's not buying into the group, then it can detract, definitely.' Parkinson – whose club has been owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney since 2021 and is the subject of sports documentary television series Welcome to Wrexham – also spent an extended period with Sydney FC coach Ufuk Talay on a boat trip on Sunday. Ready for battle on Tuesday night are (from left) Sydney FC's Ufuk Talay and Alexandar Popovic, and Wrexham's Matty James and Phil Parkinson. Damian Shaw Credit: News Corp Australia 'He's a very nice guy, a very humble guy, and it was good to see that as coaches, we go through the same things,' Talay said of Parkinson. 'The most important part is winning the games on the field. That give them that leverage to move.' A crowd of more than 35,000 is expected at the game, which is the second of Wrexham's pre-season tour of Australia and New Zealand, with the Red Dragons having beaten Melbourne Victory 3-0 at Marvel Stadium last Friday night. 'It's great for the game in Australia. It's great for the average person that doesn't even watch football to come out and see the spectacle, then actually get hooked, and then buy a season ticket and come to watch the A-League,' Talay said. 'To bring these type of teams into the country is something very special.'
Sydney Morning Herald
17 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Gallen challenges Sonny Bill to fight in a locked room ‘in our undies'
SBW has repeatedly referenced Gallen's involvement in the Cronulla peptides scandal more than a decade ago - dubbed the 'blackest day in Australian sport' - while Gallen responded on Monday by again slamming Williams for revealing in his autobiography that he took social drugs early in his league career. 'He wants to talk about drugs,' Gallen said. 'This bloke's an admitted drug user. Admitted drug user. You've admitted to using drugs. You've admitted to using drugs to cope.' Williams replied 'there's a difference between performance-enhancing drugs and drugs for personal use', but that was given short shrift by Gallen. 'Unfortunately for you, there's not,' Gallen said. 'If they're found in your system, they are classed as performance-enhancing drugs ... you used them to cope with the stress of the game. 'That's cheating. No matter how you want to look at it, that's cheating.' Gallen maintains that he still doesn't know what he was prescribed during the Cronulla peptides scandal, because it was dispensed by the club's medical staff. And he insists that he offered to be drug-tested in the lead-up to this fight. 'I said to certain media people in this room, the first thing and the only thing this dope's going to go on about is drug-testing because he's a stupid prick,' Gallen said. 'He's got nothing else to say. He's an idiot. That's all you've got.' Williams, for his part, said he had requested two minute-rounds, instead of the usual three-minute intervals, 'basically because there has been no drug-testing about'. 'I've heard a lot of rumours … he's a person that can't be trusted, at all,' he said, adding that shorter rounds might actually benefit Gallen, who at 43 will be the elder combatant by four years. Loading 'I think he's had three or four fights of two-minute rounds, and I've never done it,' he said. Naturally, Gallen wasn't buying that line. 'He wants two-minute rounds because it suits him,' Gallen said. 'The thing about Sonny, you look back at what he did at the Bulldogs [walking out on the club mid-contract] many years ago, he did that because it suited him. 'We all want more money, we all want better contracts, but the bloke walked out on his teammates overnight. The bloke's a disgraceful human being … two-minute rounds totally suits him down to the ground - a big, powerful athlete, absolutely suits him.' There will be six fights on the SBW-Gallen undercard, one of which will feature Rahim Mundine - son of Anthony - against Fijian southpaw Joe Vatusaqata.
The Age
17 hours ago
- The Age
Gallen challenges Sonny Bill to fight in a locked room ‘in our undies'
SBW has repeatedly referenced Gallen's involvement in the Cronulla peptides scandal more than a decade ago - dubbed the 'blackest day in Australian sport' - while Gallen responded on Monday by again slamming Williams for revealing in his autobiography that he took social drugs early in his league career. 'He wants to talk about drugs,' Gallen said. 'This bloke's an admitted drug user. Admitted drug user. You've admitted to using drugs. You've admitted to using drugs to cope.' Williams replied 'there's a difference between performance-enhancing drugs and drugs for personal use', but that was given short shrift by Gallen. 'Unfortunately for you, there's not,' Gallen said. 'If they're found in your system, they are classed as performance-enhancing drugs ... you used them to cope with the stress of the game. 'That's cheating. No matter how you want to look at it, that's cheating.' Gallen maintains that he still doesn't know what he was prescribed during the Cronulla peptides scandal, because it was dispensed by the club's medical staff. And he insists that he offered to be drug-tested in the lead-up to this fight. 'I said to certain media people in this room, the first thing and the only thing this dope's going to go on about is drug-testing because he's a stupid prick,' Gallen said. 'He's got nothing else to say. He's an idiot. That's all you've got.' Williams, for his part, said he had requested two minute-rounds, instead of the usual three-minute intervals, 'basically because there has been no drug-testing about'. 'I've heard a lot of rumours … he's a person that can't be trusted, at all,' he said, adding that shorter rounds might actually benefit Gallen, who at 43 will be the elder combatant by four years. Loading 'I think he's had three or four fights of two-minute rounds, and I've never done it,' he said. Naturally, Gallen wasn't buying that line. 'He wants two-minute rounds because it suits him,' Gallen said. 'The thing about Sonny, you look back at what he did at the Bulldogs [walking out on the club mid-contract] many years ago, he did that because it suited him. 'We all want more money, we all want better contracts, but the bloke walked out on his teammates overnight. The bloke's a disgraceful human being … two-minute rounds totally suits him down to the ground - a big, powerful athlete, absolutely suits him.' There will be six fights on the SBW-Gallen undercard, one of which will feature Rahim Mundine - son of Anthony - against Fijian southpaw Joe Vatusaqata.
