Newly appointed Bulldogs coach Trent Barrett isn't ruling out a move for another Penrith player, while stating he sees exciting comparisons between his new squad and the 2020 minor premiers.
Canterbury announced the signing of Josh Addo-Carr to a four-year deal from 2022, adding to the club's impressive recruitment in 2020.
New signings Nick Cotric and Kyle Flanagan are set to for key roles under Barrett, with former Panther Jack Hetherington set to be joined by ex-teammate Matt Burton at Belmore by the conclusion of next season.
The Bulldogs missed out on exciting Panthers youngster Spencer Leniu after the prop decided to sign a contract extension with Penrith, but that hasn't kept Barrett from attempting to lure a number of players away from the mountains.
Off-contract centre Stephen Crichton has been previously linked to the Bulldogs and would be a massive gain for Barrett's hopes of ending Canterbury's finals drought.
Speaking toย Sky Sports Radio,ย Barrett said he would love to add some of Ivan Cleary's finest to his Bulldogs squad.
โThereโs a few out there I wouldnโt mind," he said.
โI donโt think Iโll be welcome back there for a while.
โThereโs still spots there. Weโre still working hard behind the scenes to fill them, weโve got a couple of good kids here in our juniors too that if we donโt get who we want or we canโt get them for the following year, that weโll probably bring through.
โWeโre still working really hard there and weโve got room but thereโs probably only two or three that weโve really targeted that we want to bring in.โ
Barrett added that he sees some similarities between his squad and the current Panthers, who are favoured for the 2021 premiership, namely between Flanagan and Penrith star Nathan Cleary.
โThere is some similarity between Nathan Cleary and Kyle Flanagan,โ Barrett said.
โKyle will have his hands on the ball a lot as did Nathan.
โThere will be a few things that we will change because it depends on personnel.
โWe were pretty blessed out there at Penrith with some really good individual strike players
โMy job as a coach, especially in attack, is to get our best players the ball at the right times on the right part of the field and blokes like (Viliame) Kikau and (Stephen) Crichton โ we were a little bit lucky with them out at Penrith.
โWeโre getting there now, (Raymond Faitala-Mariner) is one thatโs stood out for me. Thereโs a bit of Kikau about him actually, heโs a big body and a bit of a weapon on an edge.
โOur attack will morph into sort of what it wants to be through the course of the year.
โAt the start of the year itโs just really important we complete our sets, defend really well and hang onto the footy.โ
