The time has arrived for the Canterbury Bulldogs to finally turn things around in 2024.
Simply put, the time for excuses is over. The club have signed countless players, and this is fast becoming a roster than now second-year coach Cameron Ciraldo and veteran head of football Phil Gould can say they have built.
That means performances must be expected. Gould was always realistic about what the Bulldogs were going to be able to achieve in 2023 as they continued to rebuild. The club were further impacted by injuries and suspensions, but they have built a roster that has plenty of depth across the board for 2024.
The Belmore-based side have certainly been ridiculed for their utility signing spree, but the club have made plenty of external noise that all of those players have roles, and with continued improvement of some of the other young talent at the club, the Bulldogs simply must find a way into the top eight this year.
Here are the burning questions Canterbury must answer with success in 2024.
1. How do the utilities fit in?
It has been well publicised that the Bulldogs have spent much of the last 12 months signing utilities. Not neccessarily players who don't have a best position, but players who can play multiple roles.
It has been something of a head scratcher, just the sheer number of players they have signed who seemingly have been picked up as the number 14.
That becomes even more so the case when you consider their biggest need has appeared to realistically be in the forwards - more on this later.
But with all of Drew Hutchison, Kurt Mann, Jaeman Salmon, Blake Taaffe, Connor Tracey and back-up hooker Jake Turpin arriving at the club for 2024, it's unclear just how they will all fit in.
Most of that group had starting - or at least fringe - roles at their former clubs.
But at Belmore, another arrival in Stephen Crichton from the Penrith Panthers and Matt Burton already are likely to form two key parts of the spine at fullback and five-eighth. That means that Drew Hutchison is a chance of wearing 14, while Blake Taaffe and Connor Tracey may be stuck on the outer.
Should Hutchison or even Taaffe take the 14, that means Kurt Mann would be left starting at lock, but again, it's unclear whether that will be a realistic course of action for coach Ciraldo given Josh Curran has signed, while all of that, combined with the fact Mann can also play at dummy half which he spent plenty of time doing in Newcastle during 2023, is likely to leave Turpin outside the squad.
Jaeman Salmon has claimed he wants a back-row position, but with Viliame Kikau and Jacob Preston likely to have the starting spots, it means he will be on the bench at best.
It's hard to suggest the signings make sense, but it will be only in the course of the season, and possible injuries, that things can properly be judged for the blue and white.
