Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo was uncertain if Josh Addo-Carr’s roadside drug test saga impacted his side ahead their finals clash, but admitted it had taken a personal toll on him.
Addo-Carr stood himself down from Canterbury-Bankstown’s fixture against the Sea Eagles in the wake of reports he had tested positive on a roadside drug test.
The gun winger has maintained he hadn’t taken any illegal substances, however his secondary test also returned a positive result for cocaine.
“I know I’ve done nothing wrong and my name will be cleared in time,” he said in a statement.
Speaking following the Bulldogs’ 24-22 loss to the Sea Eagles, their first finals appearance since 2016, Ciraldo was unsure whether the off-field drama hampered his players.
“It’s hard to say whether it has had an impact or not,” Ciraldo said.
“What I will say is I thought we handled it great. I thought having a leader like Gus (Gould) was awesome for myself and the playing group.
“You are always looking at the playing group and thinking ‘how has it affected them?’. They came to me and said ‘this is not a distraction for us, we are right to go’.
“I think it showed out there tonight how well they prepared all week, it’s a credit to these players and our leaders they were able to shift any focus on that on to trying to get the job done tonight.”
When asked if the situation had affected him, Ciraldo said: “Yeah, obviously the main concern is for Josh and his family, once that’s done I had a job to do with the team,
“I was really lucky the leaders, like Stephen, helped me with that.
“So we were really excited about finals footy, that was the main thing during the week and I was really happy with how we prepared.”
While the Bulldogs’ campaign came to a half after a matchwinning Tolu Koula try, Ciraldo admitted he was “absolutely devastated”.
However, the Canterbury-Bankstown club have shown major improvements in his second season in charge, having finished in 15th place with only seven wins.
Fast forward 12 months and the Bulldogs were two points away from reaching the second week of finals, having doubled their regular season wins with 14 to finish in sixth.
“It was hard to know what to say because they’ve just put so much into this year and this week,” Ciraldo said.
“Selfishly I feel they deserve better. But it’s all a part of the process, this year we have been on a really cool journey.
“We’ve done some really cool things and it feels like we’ve woken a really strong fan base and gave them a team they can be proud of.
“There’s a lot of good things there but there’s some great lessons there tonight, hopefully we get back here next year.”
For Ciraldo, his biggest achievement this year has been integrating the club’s recruits seamlessly into the squad to enhance his side.
The Bulldogs recruited Stephen Crichton, Josh Curran and Connor Tracey amongst a host of other players, and Ciraldo hailed their contributions this season.
“I think what we’ve done culturally is a massive success, with 10 new recruits this year and what they were able to bring to our program,” Ciraldo said.
“What our young guys coming through the program, what they did changed the work ethic, changed the connection. Such an amazing turnaround from a great group of people who worked hard.
“The season’s a success in a lot of ways, but it’s hard to think about that right now.”
For skipper Crichton, he praised the support of the Belmore faithful and said their support was “special”.
“Every big moment we had, just goosebumps hearing how loud they were,” Crichton said.
“How much they love our players. It’s been a good year this year, especially with our fans coming out and supporting the boys.
“Feeling the high and lows, we didn’t get the goods tonight but it’s a good stepping stone to where we wanted to go and that was our goal this year to bring the Dogs back to the finals.
“Yeah we fell short today, but looking at the bigger picture this is exactly where we wanted to be and next time when we get to the finals we can nail our moments.”
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