This was published 6 months ago
‘Prove the haters wrong’: The Crichton speech behind Dogs’ siege mentality
Call it a Churchillian call to arms, in the belly of Belmore Oval.
“I’m excited to prove all the haters wrong,” Bulldogs skipper Stephen Crichton says.
The siege mentality is alive and well at Canterbury after a stirring dressing room address from their captain following Saturday’s 24-6 loss to Cronulla, in which the Bulldogs were largely listless in attack and lost Bronson Xerri (concussion) and Marcelo Montoya (ankle).
In the Accor Stadium sheds, Crichton told his side immediately after their fourth defeat in six weeks that the walls were about to close in.
The message was seized upon and repeated on Monday – first at a sunny NRL finals launch and then in the carpark at Canterbury. Bulldogs players and their skipper smiled, obliged and were polite to a fault as they explained how the world is against them.
“Everyone’s writing us off, but we know what’s best for us in here,” Matt Burton says ahead of Friday’s trip to Melbourne.
Even with the Storm conceding a combined 70 points in their last two games and losing Jahrome Hughes, Ryan Papenhuyzen and Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Canterbury are healthy $2.70 outsiders with the bookmakers.
“[Criticism] does motivate me a lot,” Burton says. “I’ve copped it ever since I’ve come into the NRL so it just fuels you and makes you better.”
Crichton offers similar in response to the intense focus on 20-year-old halfback Lachie Galvin.
“I’ve been pretty lucky that I’ve been copping it probably since I was young, so I kind of know whose voices to listen to,” the Bulldogs skipper says.
“But talking on behalf of Lachie and his first couple of years in the game, I can only just imagine how he’s going through it. I feel like he’s handled it really well to this stage right now, and I feel like he’s going to become a better player for it.”
Crichton has long been regarded as one of, if not the best, centres in the game, won 84 of his first 100 NRL games and has three premierships and two State of Origin series by the age of 23.
Criticism comes in many forms, of course. Cameron Ciraldo isn’t afraid of steering into it, either – he was the Penrith assistant who dug out Melbourne’s social media mocking of the Panthers’ blue-collar upbringing while celebrating their 2020 title, and used it as an effective spur a year later.
As two of the game’s elite performers, Burton and Crichton might be stretching it about copping it ever since coming into grade.
But Galvin, Ciraldo’s selection calls and the Bulldogs’ attack have undeniably come in for scrutiny of late.
Not least because Canterbury massively exceeded expectations through the first four months of the season, raising hopes of a premiership in a way few would have predicted before a ball was kicked.
“That is fair, the last month we haven’t been attacking at our best,” Connor Tracey concedes.
Boasting arguably the game’s biggest and most passionate fanbase magnifies the spotlight. Phil Gould brings his own again as one of the most polarising figures in rugby league.
Galvin’s messy Tigers exit, and far-from-seamless fit into the high-flying Dogs line-up, has kept the storyline bubbling all season.
And their late-season slide has champions like Johnathan Thurston, Andrew Johns, Cooper Cronk and Mal Meninga all picking over the causes.
“Oh, there’s always going to be noise there, especially around our team with everything that’s going on as well,” Crichton says about Canterbury’s erratic form.
“Only good players can block that out and go out to win games … the type of noise that we are hearing right now is that we’re not good enough. But inside our four walls we know what we have works. So, yeah, I’m excited to prove all the haters wrong.”
