The Canterbury Bulldogs have undoubtedly been one of the feel-good stories of the season so far as Cameron Ciraldo, in just his second season in charge, has orchestrated a stunning climb up the ladder.
Although in a somewhat surprising admission, the coach admitted that until recently the side was still in a state of flux.
"I don’t think we truly found our style until six weeks ago," the coach stated on Backstage with Cooper and Matty Johns a week out from the club's first finals appearance in eight years.
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Cameron Ciraldo makes shock admission ahead of Dogs’ finals campaign
Despite being inside the top eight since Round 14, Ciraldo revealed the Canterbury players and coaching staff have constantly been tweaking their approach this season.
"It was probably a lot of trial and error for the first 19 rounds - some things worked and some didn’t," Ciraldo noted.
"And then we had our last bye and had the chance to sit down and see what was working and what wasn’t."
Since the aforementioned bye in Round 19, the Dogs have won five of their last seven matches to come within a whisker of claiming a top four finish.
One of the reasons for their resurgence has been a bold recruitment approach last year which saw a host of players moving in and out of the club.
"Obviously, with the way we wanted to play - especially around our defence - we wanted guys who were fit and mobile," Ciraldo said.
"Our recruitment strategy was more around character than anything else though."
Ciraldo cited how it was difficult to build a cohesive unit amongst an unfamiliar group of players, but paid tribute to the summer signings for their help in creating a positive environment at Belmore.
"Jaeman Salmon, Connor Tracey, Josh Curran, Kurt Mann, Jake Turpin and Drew Hutchison - they’re all really good connectors of people," Ciraldo said.
"And that’s something we really looked at in our recruitment."
The Dogs raised eyebrows in their pursuit of the fringe first graders in the off-season. Although the move is now looking like a masterstroke with the Dogs forming a solid unit during their resurgence.
"A lot of them were really good players who had limited opportunities at other clubs," Ciraldo said of his most recent recruits.
"A lot of them just needed to play regular first grade in a regular position and have that time to be able to build their game.
"Being able to buy good players out of good systems and give them a simple role - that’s benefitted them individually and us as a team."
