'We can get so much better': Ciraldo backs Bulldogs defence to keep improving 10:45

Well, one thing that I have said over the last few weeks, and I think more needs to be made of it, and that is the rise and rise of the Bulldogs. After a disappointing season last year and a really, really tough time for the club in recent years, of course, Cameron Serraldo made the move from the Penrith Panthers. He recruited a whole heap of players with, of course, the assistance of Phil Gould, the head of football at the Kennel in Belmore. And have a look at them go. They're fifth overall.

on the ladder at the moment. Their one went outside the top four and they absolutely thumped the Brisbane Broncos yesterday afternoon at Suncorp Stadium in front of a great crowd of 43,000 and they did it without Stephen Crichton. Their coach is Cameron Serraldo and I'm pleased to say he joins us on the line. G'day, coach. Hi, guys. How are you? Mate, really well. Congratulations on the win but also on this rise and rise of the Bulldogs. You as the coach, it must be fulfilling knowing that all this hard work's really paying off.

Yeah, it is. I've got to say it's fulfilling going to work every day with a great group of guys who love each other's company and want to work hard. The wins along the way are really good moments to celebrate, but I'm honestly just enjoying going to work every day. Hey, Sarah, I know you're a defence-based coach and you want your team defending extremely well, but

Mate, yesterday watching you blokes and the way you attacked, in particular, attacked their edges with the football. You guys changed a little bit up there with your attack?

Yeah, look, we put a lot of work into our defence to start the season and with a new team coming together, I think we had 10 new recruits, new coaching staff. We knew our attack was going to take time to evolve. We had to figure out what was going to work for us and what we did well and what didn't work for us. And I think over the first probably 19 rounds, we discovered that. We had three really hard games against the Roosters, the Sharks and the Warriors and

Got a chance to go to a bye and figure out what we'd done well in the season, what we needed to improve. Clearly, there were some things in our attack we needed to improve. With games we played well, we'd been able to move the ball a lot and get the ball in guys' hands who needed it. We were able to work on that over the bye. Against the Cowboys, Reid and Berto were in the origin camp, so they only had one captain's run with us to

to get it going and we were a little bit clunky against the Cowboys although I thought we played really well we were a bit away from Bailey Hayward scoring a try and going out to a bit of a lead there but we were still clunky and we looked at that game and saw some opportunities where

where we didn't quite get our footy on. But yesterday, we went to Suncorp really confident. Three o'clock game at Suncorp. We knew we were going to have an opportunity to move the ball around. And yeah, it was awesome to see the boys put the plan into place and stick to it for the best part of 80 minutes. Hey Cameron, it's Neil Breen here. I was out of Belmore several weeks ago now, and I managed to watch a little bit of training. I was doing an interview with Phil Gould out there.

And we were talking about the team and yourself and everything. And he said to me, the real focus this year, talking about defence, was stop the matches where the Bulldogs really hemorrhage points. And that happened a couple of times last year. And I sit here now, you know, several weeks down the track, and you've got the second best defensive record in the whole of the NRL behind the Panthers. You must be unbelievably proud that you've been able to put that sort of defensive structure together.

Yeah, I am. It's a lot of hard work going into it from our coaching staff, but our players, they're the ones that have to go out there and live and breathe it every day in every session. They've just worked so hard. But we can get so much better. I think back to some of the trials we've let in. We probably won a game where we're just like, where did we let that one in? So yesterday, probably our third try, the back end of the game was one of those tries. So

Well, I'm really happy with where we've gotten to with our defence. I only see improvement left in us. So I want to keep chasing that improvement over the next seven weeks. And if we can keep improving with the ball as well, then we're going to put ourselves in a really good position at the back end of the year. Mate, we see a lot of your games and I'm impressed by a number of your players. I think you've got a lot of players who are...

a fringe really good players but there's a bloke I must admit until this year I'd never heard of him Bailey Haywood jeez I like the style that he plays I like his ball playing ability he's only a small bloke but jeez he's tough he's a good player he played halfback up until the start of pre-season so he's a really great halfback last year um

Yeah, in pre-season he probably was down the pecking order in halves and he just got thrown into hooker a little bit. Come storm, he just said, you know, what position do I think is best? And we agreed sort of hooker and lock were sort of opportunities there to just get some reps in at training and he just

he just became this guy in the middle that's just like glue. He's one of our best communicators. He understands our systems as well as anyone in our club. And he was a leader before he even debuted in first grade. He's just got an ability to lead people and say the right thing at the right time. And he's just such a tough kid. He comes from a tough family. Yeah, we absolutely love him. And he's just been so important to our team this year and

He was starting games there for us and we sort of had a period there just before halftime where we were struggling so we decided he was the guy we wanted to come off the bench and lift our tempo during that time and he's definitely done that the last few weeks. I thought Kurt Mann coming into the starting team has given us some real experience there to start games and then Bailey Haywood coming off the bench gives us a lot of energy and I feel like our footy's improved just with those subtle changes.

And just one last one, Cam, before we let you go. Stephen Crichton wasn't there yesterday. And I must admit, last week when we saw him sort of lose feeling in that arm, we sort of all took a big deep breath. We were hoping it was nothing serious. So we'd love an update on your skipper. And also Josh Addo-Karr, there's a bit of talk he's a chance of playing next week. Can you bring us up to date?

Yeah, both guys are a big chance of playing on Sunday at Belmore, which is going to be a really special day for us. Yeah, Stephen, it was more than just hold your breath when Stephen went down there. It didn't look great. I've got to say what a tough effort it was for him to stay on the field against the Cowboys, just show what type of a leader he is. But once he got scans and we sort of saw the doctor, it looks like a 10-day injury just to get some rest into it, which probably isn't a bad thing for him post-origin anyway. So we're

made the decision to keep him out of the game against the Broncos and get him ready for the last six games of the season which will be really important to us there and Fox has ticked every box in his rehab now and we're hoping to get him back for Sunday again really excited about playing at Belmore this Sunday we're going to have a packed house there and

A lot of support from Bulldogs fans. So to have those two guys back on deck is going to be really important for us too. All right, Cameron, just before you go, look, Darrell's too humble to say this, but he lives in the Shire. Year the Sharks won the premiership, he was invited in and spoke to the players and had a bite to eat with them. He's one of the great Bulldogs of the past. So if you need any help in the finals, I'm just offering his services because he's too humble to offer them himself. Actually, I know where he lives and Port Hacking Seafood's on the way.

which is a really good place to stop. They've got great burgers and chips. Do you ever go there, Cameron? No, I don't actually. You need to get there. It's a very good place. Well, actually, Levy's got a restaurant as well. No, I wish I had a card or something. You did, did you? Free hot chips for life. No, that was somewhere else. That was Natara. That stopped. That's gone. Was that Natara's? It was Natara's. Anyway, good on you, Cameron. Appreciate you joining us on this Sunday, mate. Go well.

Thanks, guys. See you later. Good on you, buddy. We'll see you down the Shire. That's Cameron Serraldo, the head coach of the Bulldogs, and they are flying. 41 points to 16. Just quickly, Darrell, I'll go to you as the former Bulldog here. Are they a team capable of doing some damage in the finals? I think so. They've developed. They've developed very well. One of their problems, I thought, and I haven't really closely looked at it, was the fact that they couldn't really score points, but they could stop them. And that's probably...

something that's been ingrained in the Bulldogs for decades and decades. They're always a tough, uncompromising side who could stop other side's scoring points and then maybe just bully them into...

allowing them to actually go and score points. So I like the look of what I'm seeing with them. I think he's done a great job with them. I think this is his second or third year there. I'm not sure what it is, second year. But their improvement this year is incredible. You know, they bought a lot of good players who you knew they were going to eventually click

together. They've got a lot of the boys from Penrith and we all know that but he's got other blokes there. Reid Marnie's a quality player. He's a terrific player. They've got these other boys that have come out of really nowhere like Jacob Preston. What a player he is. Jacob Carraz. I mean I think he's from Newcastle. They brought some players who were just good players and he's formed into a really good unit. Josh Curran's been good. Absolutely. Their aside, I think you'd be a little bit

Not intimidated by, but you'd be a little bit worried about, I reckon. They can play. What do you think, Pete? No, I think they can play. I think they're the real deal. You know, off the back of that, as long as they keep their key players injury-free, which is what all the sides have got to do. But if they can do that, the way they're playing, there's no doubt that they can... They're a chance of making the top four if they continue. I just had a look at their draw. They're playing teams that are all in and around them over the next five or six weeks, so...

Destiny's in their hands. They can well and truly get a top four spot. See, they're playing at Belmore next week. That'll be sold out. Playing Canberra. See, that's a game. They can't let that slip. They've got to beat Canberra. You've got to win. You've got to win against Canberra at home. Yep. You've got to. Can I ask this question?

So we go through this dipsy doodle of coach of the year at the Dalliams every year. Could he win it, Cameron Serrato? No doubt. He should. Coach of the year? Yeah. Oh, he'd be in the running. I don't think there's any doubt about that. You know, he's done a great job. The raps on him have been huge for a number of years. Huge. A number of years. And there was a lot of clubs chasing him, and he decided to go to the Bulldogs, and I don't know why. But, you know, Gus being there would have, I think, played a part in it.

I reckon it was the free reign. I reckon Gus being there because they were so in the doldrums, the free reign to rebuild. It's not encumbered with the problems like the West Tigers are. You know, they've sort of train here, play there, play there, play there. You know what I mean? They're the Bulldogs of Belderwall, right? Yep. All right. There we are. So Cameron Serrato, the Bulldogs 41, points to 16 winners over the Brisbane Broncos.