Debate has raged over how best to integrate Lachlan Galvin into the Bulldogs team without creating disharmony in the playing ranks given they are on top of the table.
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Galvin was named on the extended bench for the Bulldogs for their King’s Birthday clash with arch rivals the Eels on Monday.
Fresh from signing a three and a half year deal, Galvin is reportedly set to come off the bench with coach Cameron Ciraldo suggesting he needs to earn his place in the team.
However, The Daily Telegraph’s Dean Ritchie believes a week or two in NSW Cup could help ease the pressure on Galvin and stop any bad blood in the playing group over his mid-season signing.
“I think he should play NSW Cup,” Ritchie said on NRL 360.
“Cameron Ciraldo said it, he has to earn the right to get into our side, so if that’s the case he should go and play a game or two in the lower grades.
“The other thing it would do is appease any simmering angst in the playing group right now that this kid is going to come straight in.
“And it would also allow Galvin just to find his feet and allow the players that are there to think, you know what this kid is not going to get preferential treatment. He is not going to push his way into the side. He will earn his way into the side.”
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However, Braith Anasta questioned what good playing NSW Cup would do for the team.
“What is he going to get out of playing NSW Cup?” Anasta asked.
“It just takes the sting out of the story for starters,” Ritchie replied.
However, Paul Crawley believes the circus will follow Galvin wherever he plays and urged the Bulldogs to not delay his arrival in the team, which is inevitable anyway.
“It doesn’t take any sting out of the story because a few weeks ago when he played NSW Cup for the Tigers, you went out and watched the game,” Crawley said.
“It is still going to create a circus. You might as well cut the chord. They didn’t buy him to play second grade. They bought him to play NRL.”
However, Ritchie believes Galvin has not yet earnt the trust of the playing group and could do so by working his way up from NSW Cup.
“If it means keeping some harmony inside that camp, I have got no problem with him going back and just finding his feet,” Ritchie said.
“Ciraldo just said he has got to earn the right. Has he earnt the right by not playing a game?”
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However, Crawley believes Ciraldo would not have signed Galvin without speaking with his players first and backed his coaching style to get the best out of the former Tigers star and his other players.
“I tell you what Ciraldo has done here, there was a lot of concern that this may disrupt the harmony of the Bulldogs team,” Crawley said.
“They are sitting up the top of the ladder and everyone has done their job. If you go and drop Mahoney or Sexton it could create disharmony.
“I think Cameron Ciraldo is proving to be that good of a coach, he wouldn’t have brought someone in from the outside if he hadn’t first had the likes of Stephen Crichton and Kikau and Matt Burton and his senior players on board about this decision.
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“Because while it may be a problem with the Wests Tigers, they (Bulldogs) are loyal to their team. They are loyal to their success. They would have had to have the conversation and said, boys this is the team first culture and this is what we are going to do.”
Anasta believes any disharmony in the squad would still be there if Galvin played NSW Cup, so the Bulldogs should get him into first grade as soon as possible.
“If it is going to disrupt them we will find out regardless of whether he plays NSW Cup this week or not,” Anasta said.
“It is going to be an issue if that is the case. It may not be. I just think get him in there.
“I don’t think dropping Sexton straight away is going to help, but get him in there amongst the playing group, which they already have.
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“Let him come off the bench and play in a few different positions or whatever that may need to be, whilst monitoring how Sexton is going and the way that he is controlling the team.
“Then they have the option of dropping Sexton or not, which they have got that now anyway. I think the quicker you throw him into the furnace the better and see how he reacts.
“I just don’t see what the point would be of buying a big signing like him, who they have talked up can possibly get them to a title now, why waste a week or two in NSW Cup? Get him into first grade.”
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Gorden Tallis agreed that the Bulldogs players are all professionals and have to respect the club put its own interests at the forefront of signing Galvin.
“I would throw him in there,” Tallis said.
“You bought him to play first grade and that’s what you want him to do. If he puts someone’s nose out of joint, well they bought him because they didn’t think they could win the competition with the roster that they had.”
