One of the first things Stephen Crichton did when he joined Canterbury this season was move to the club’s heartland.

Only a handful of Bulldogs reside in the Canterbury area. Plenty have settled into the beautiful Sutherland Shire, and Viliame Kikau is still happy to make the long trek from Glenmore Park, where he built a home a few years ago.

That wasn’t enough for Crichton, however. He rented a three-bedroom unit in Belfield, next door to Belmore.

He knew if he was going to bring the best version of himself to his new club, and get a proper appreciation of the community and people he was going to represent each weekend, he needed to sacrifice seeing his parents and fiancee Leone every day.

“I knew if I was moving to a new club, I wouldn’t be taking it seriously if I still lived in Penrith and was worrying about travel and traffic,” Crichton says.

“I had to sit down with my parents and convince them I had to move out and move to Belmore, so I could do everything I could do to get the best out of myself, including things like recovery.

“The last thing I wanted to be doing was rushing out of training and worrying about getting home as fast as I could.

“Living up the road from training has been the biggest blessing. It was all about taking my footy seriously, like I have the last few years.

“I still go home to see my parents on my day off, and stay there overnight and travel back in the morning. That’s the most travel I’ll do during the week.

“I can’t live with my fiancee until we’re married at the end of the year, but we still get to see each other.”

Crichton has immersed himself in the local community. Belmore is a wonderful melting pot of communities, particularly of Middle Eastern and Asian backgrounds, and they have embraced their new skipper. Before kicking a ball, Crichton had his face painted on a wall outside popular cafe Jobel’s.

“It’s been mad. The boys get free coffee everywhere we go, and they show love, no matter what the score is,” Crichton says.