Canterbury Bulldogs off-season recruit Reed Mahoney has leapt to the defence of under fire coach Cameron Ciraldo after a tumultuous week at Belmore.
Mahoney joined the Bulldogs from the Parramatta Eels during the off-season, but has failed to inspire the Bulldogs to any great heights, with the club locked into a 15th placed finish before their final game of the season on Sunday against the Gold Coast Titans.
The Bulldogs have been in the wars this week with revelations over the club's training style and players not agreeing with coach Ciraldo.
That came after reports earlier in the week suggested at least one player was on mental health leave after arriving late to training and being forced to wrestle multiple teammates consecutively.
Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, Mahoney said it was more than just that for the individual player.
โI don't want to talk about it because this is his thing, and we're worried about his welfare. I don't want to sit here and talk about it, but there was more than just that. There was other stuff going on,โ Mahoney told the publication.
Ciraldo said mid-week at a press conference during the week that his playing group were expected to put in hard yards as the Bulldogs desperately attempt to turn around a sustained period of poor results.
โThere's a lot of people doing a lot of hard work here and the players got better and better with training as the year goes on and some guys have exceeded expectations but to comment on every player's attitude, I couldn't comment on that,โ Ciraldo said at a press conference.
โWe've been losing. The culture isn't exactly right. The system is only one part of the result from the weekend. The main part of the result is the culture and that's something we've worked really on.
โWe've probably uncovered a lot more to that culture and reasons for where we are where we are and we'll continue to work hard at that.
โAt different times we wanted to put some standards in place and obviously if you are late, we have to do something about that.
โWe are trying to drive standards. We want to have winning performance standards and a lot of that is around individual responsibilities.
โWe've gone through a range of different ways of talking about holding standards, some of it has been monetary related, some of it has been spinning a wheel and then some of it has been ways to change behaviours.
โThe reality is, we need to change behaviours here and I think we've done a good job of that throughout the season and we'll continue to find ways.โ
Mahoney wasted no time backing his coach, suggesting that if players don't like the way the club is going, they are free to leave.
โTraining is always hard. If it was easier, everyone would be doing it,โ he told the publication.
โI definitely think he's a mate before a coach, and that's what everyone loves about him. He's easily approachable, his door is always open and a lot of boys go and talk to him about life advice and then footy comes second. That's how he is.
โBut he has standards and we have standards as a playing group and as a club with where we want to go.
โI think Cam is stressed out a lot that this is the way we're going, and if you don't like it, then it's probably not the place for you.โ
Mahoney has struggled to find his best form at the Bulldogs in his first season with the club, but has become something of a leader almost instantly for Ciraldo's side and will be expected to continue that role next year with the arrival of Stephen Crichton from the Penrith Panthers headlining next year's recruits.
