The lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt professional rugby league, with the Canterbury Bulldogs emerging as the latest club grappling with a wave of virus cases and injury setbacks ahead of a critical late-season clash. What initially looked like a lackluster, underperforming display against South Sydney Rabbitohs last week now has clear context: Bulldogs head coach Cameron Ciraldo has revealed five first-team players were silently battling active COVID-19 during that match, a revelation that explains the squad’s flat energy in a game with major finals implications.
Against all odds, the injury and virus-stricken side turned in a complete 180-degree performance just seven days later, notching a dominant 44-point victory over the St. George Illawarra Dragons — the highest single-game point total the Bulldogs have put up all season. The dramatic turnaround has kept Canterbury’s faint finals hopes alive heading into the final two weeks of the National Rugby League (NRL) regular season, even as the squad navigated a cascade of off-field and on-field challenges that would have derailed most teams.
Winger Jacob Kiraz, who turned in a shaky performance against the Rabbitohs with multiple uncharacteristic handling errors, returned to his best against the Dragons after playing through a painful calf tear for three straight weeks without a full training block. “We didn’t tell anyone, but he had a calf tear again and played for the last three weeks without training. So it’s not ideal, but it just shows the toughness of the guy,” Ciraldo told reporters post-match, adding that Kiraz’s first full week of preparation in weeks clearly showed in his performance. Utility Kurt Mann also left the Dragons clash with a groin injury, adding another name to the club’s growing treatment room list.
Young forward Jacob Preston, who dominated headlines all week after reports emerged that he had rejected a three-year, $1.9 million contract extension from the club, put all off-field speculation aside to turn in a standout performance, scoring one try and setting up a second. What many fans did not know is that Preston spent days in hospital leading up to the match receiving intravenous treatment for an infected elbow, missing the final two full training sessions before game day. Ciraldo joked after the win, “He was in hospital with an infection, so he was on a drip over the last couple of days. Maybe we might have to do that next week as well because he played pretty well.”
Halfback Lachlan Galvin, who set up Preston’s first-half try with a perfectly weighted short pass, brushed off questions about the contract saga and praised his teammate’s mental toughness. “He’s a gun. I love playing with Presto,” Galvin said. “That (the contract) is his business. I don’t really ask him much about that, but I love playing alongside him. He makes me look good, so that always helps.”
Preston was far from the only Canterbury player battling illness through the week: team captain Stephen Crichton was among the five players who tested positive for COVID-19, marking the latest virus outbreak to hit an NRL club in the final stretch of the season. Ciraldo noted that mid-season disruptions like this are common across the league, but rarely make headlines, adding that he regretted being harsh on his squad after the poor Rabbitohs performance before learning about the virus cases. “These things happen in a footy season, every team goes through them, but a lot of them you don’t hear about,” Ciraldo said. “I was a bit harsh on the boys last week, and then you rock up Monday and about five of them have tested positive for Covid so no wonder they were a bit flat.”
The challenges did not end there: playmaker Matt Burton rushed to his hometown of Dubbo mid-week following the death of his grandmother, but returned in time to take the field against the Dragons, shifting to the right edge to turn in one of his best performances of the year with two tries and multiple game-changing defensive stops.
Canterbury still faces an uphill battle to qualify for the 2024 finals, needing a string of favorable results in the final two weeks to secure a spot. But Ciraldo and his players say the win over the Dragons proves the squad will not make excuses for their challenges, regardless of how severe they are. Galvin echoed that mindset after the match, joking that the sick players may have just earned a few extra rest days, and credited the club’s structured game plan for keeping the team competitive even when key players miss training. “I think we rocked up and a few of the boys were sick, but the way they played tonight, you wouldn’t know. I think a few of them just wanted a few days off training!” Galvin said. “When players come up and train with us in the NRL team, we’ve got a system in place that everyone knows what they’re kind of doing. So I don’t think it was that disruptive. I thought we all trained really well this week and were lucky enough to come out and show it in our performance.”