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.
3. Is there enough depth in the forward pack?
While the Bulldogs have two of the game's best second-rowers in Jacob Preston and Viliame Kikau, there was little to write home about in a forward pack which underperformed badly throughout the 2023 campaign.
Injuries certainly didn't help the cause, but the signings ahead of 2023 didn't work, and they ultimately found themselves on the back foot in both attack and defence more often than they didn't.
That ultimately means they must find improvement for 2024.
The late addition of Josh Curran, who was released by the New Zealand Warriors to take up a deal with the Bulldogs, will certainly help. That said, it has always been felt his best position is on the edge, something he won't be doing given Viliame Kikau and Jacob Preston have the number 11 and 12 jerseys sewn up.
The Bulldogs now have an elite back-row, but as it was in 2023, the front row is going to be the issue. From an already skinny group, Luke Thompson, Franklin Pele and Tevita Pangai Junior have all disappeared from the club.
In their place, only Poasa Faamausili joins Curran as a new addition in the middle third, and simply put, it won't be enough to fill the gaps unless they can promote and improve from within.
There is young talent at the club, and Samuel Hughes is one I expect to have a breakout year, while the club could also do a lot worse than having form from Raymond Faitala-Mariner, but in the interim, it seems unlikely to be enough for the Bulldogs to drag themselves all the way up the ladder and into the top eight.
No side with a below average forward pack plays finals football, and it's one the Bulldogs must fix if they hope to return to that arena anytime soon.
