Why one booming, 70-metre kick says it all about Matt Burton 2.0

With one booming 70-metre kick of a soggy Steeden, the secret to Matt Burton’s career-best form for Canterbury was plain for all to see.

Andrew and Matty Johns, Brad Fittler, Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater; ask any rugby league great, pundit or punter you like. They were all in raptures over Burton’s thumping 40-20, which was more of a 20-10, in the wet against the Warriors last weekend.

And Burton?

“That was a bit off the cuff,” the Bulldogs five-eighth said ahead of what looms as another greasy Friday night showdown with the Roosters.

“I got the offload and was thinking about running, but I saw the fullback on the right side so I just thought ‘I’ll give it all I’ve got here’. Luckily, it worked.”

Burton’s game has worked like never before this season as he’s worked out the balance between backing his god-given gifts and what the Bulldogs need most.

After coach Cameron Ciraldo first arrived at Belmore in late 2022, he urged his marquee playmaker to increase his video analysis of opposition defences and players.

To the surprise of many, not the least Andrew Johns, Burton’s spellbinding torpedo bombs were largely shelved for percentage play kicks. “Stuff the percentages, make it rain,” was Johns’ apt assessment this week.

Ciraldo, having crunched the numbers on their success, has urged less is more for Burton’s aerial assaults.

And then, again in the name of balance, Burton has greater licence to roam and run, which he is taking like never before.

“At the start of the year, I wasn’t getting enough runs early in the game,” he says.

“That’s something I really focused on, trying to get my hands on the ball. I’m just learning more about the game and how my style of game is played.

“Obviously, I’m working hard on it at training and picking up little things, and [a key learning] is picking my moments as well.

“In the past, I’ve had moments where I’ve tried to do things myself, trying to work it out. But now I can pick that moment to do things, and it works better for the side.”

Like that booming 70-metre kick in the wet, which as Slater said, beat Warriors fullback Taine Tuapiki to the sideline even though he wasn’t in any way out of position.

Or the devastating running game that sang sweetest when Canterbury’s attack did the same in carving up Manly 42-4 at Allianz Stadium last month.

Despite playing just 15 games so far this year due to a knee injury and NSW Origin call-ups, Burton’s line break (eight) and tackle bust (55) tallies are already on par with his previous three seasons at Canterbury, when he’s barely missed a game.

His average of 114 run metres and 11 runs per game are also his best in blue and white as he truly finds a home at five-eighth.

Undoubtedly, the improved stock around him throughout the Bulldogs rise, think Stephen Crichton, Bronson Xerri, Viliame Kikau, Jacob Preston, Connor Tracey and now Lachlan Galvin, gives defences more to worry about.

Burton too, has less to concern himself with, given Galvin is an especially hands-on, on-ball halfback. Bailey Hayward now adds his ballplaying background to the mix at hooker, along with several small-bodied forwards who shape Canterbury’s mobile attack.

The 25-year-old hasn’t felt his playmaking role shift significantly throughout the upheaval of first Galvin coming into the halves for Toby Sexton, and then Hayward starting at dummy-half for Reed Mahoney.

Mostly because in 2025, Burton, all 190 centimetres and 96 kilos of him, can just run.

“Burto’s got a pretty simple blueprint,” Ciraldo says.

“He’s such an instinctive player, but he just needs opportunities to get himself in the game. And because he’s so selfless, sometimes he’s thinking about giving the ball to other people more than looking for himself.

“But we need him looking for himself, and if he does that, then those opportunities will open up for people around him.”

Ciraldo speaks of a maturing in Burton this season at the age of 25, but “because he’s got a lot of experience, we all sort of expect him to play like a 30-year-old playmaker”.

The coach reckons his $800,000-a-year pivot is fitter and more disciplined than he’s ever seen on diet and preparation.

Teammates have clocked Burton growing increasingly vocal in team meetings on and off the field. The extra analysis work that Ciraldo first had to encourage is now combining with Burton’s natural talent and footballing instincts.

“And he’s still learning his own game,” Ciraldo says.

“But I think he’s made giant strides forward this year. And we all know when Burto plays well, the team plays well. So he’s a really important part of what we’re doing”.

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