The winds of change in the National Rugby League are blowing and so the drums, are quite literally, beating through the streets of Belmore as Canterbury-Bankstown’s 2025 campaign rolls on.
Cameron Ciraldo’s Bulldogs lead the premiership and already boast 28 competition points with an 11-2 record.
If nothing else, the Bulldogs have set themselves up for a monumental crack at their first premiership since 2004 – twenty-one long years ago.
On Thursday night, they head to CommBank Stadium in Parramatta to face the modern, ‘never before, never again’, Penrith Panthers.
We all know how many former Panthers are now employed by Canterbury.
But isn’t it how it all works?
The Panthers, this behemoth, and all its success, had to be pillaged at some point.
Phil Gould and Ciraldo were quite right to load-up on Penrith stars.
After all, Gould and Ciraldo also worked at the Panthers.
But while the Bulldogs have the blueprint – they couldn’t copy.
They knew that.
And as this season goes on, it is quite clear, that the Bulldogs have created their own version based on necessity and the evolution of the game.
They needed to be different.
In the early 2000s, the Sydney Roosters created their own ‘Steel Curtain’, akin to the defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s.
Ricky Stuart’s Roosters, of that era, put the fear of death into opposition forward packs.
It was brutality.
Adrian Morley, anyone?
Other sides followed – like the Bulldogs.
Friday night blockbusters, the match-of-the-round, usually featured those two teams.
Canterbury beat the Roosters in the 2004 grand final.
Ferocious footy.
The greatest minds in the game find ways to change the sport.
Tim Sheens didn’t know what he had when he signed to coach Wests Tigers, but he quickly jumped on the surfboard and rode the wave of all-out attack and a smaller pack to win an unlikely title in 2005.
Benji Marshall, Brett Hodgson, Scott Prince and Robbie Farah helped.
At the same time, a storm of the dark arts was brewing in the Victorian capital.
Craig Bellamy changed the game again.
Everyone tried to copy.
What followed, eventually, was a series of fairytales and feel-good triumphs.
St George Illawarra in 2010.
Sam Burgess and the cheekbone.
A halfback’s field goal from Townsville.
The porchlight in Cronulla.
Melbourne and the Roosters dominated through 2017 to 2020.
Nobody knew what would happen next at the foot of the mountains.
Finally, the sleeping giant out by the Nepean River, woke up.
Domination.
Now here we are.
The fact is, you can take as many Panthers players as you want, but you’ll never be able to do what Penrith has done over the last five or six seasons and just expect a premiership ring on the first Sunday in October.
Canterbury knows that.
They appear to be changing the game before our very eyes.
Whether it’s enough to win the premiership is another story.
But it could get them there.
At the very least, the Bulldogs have created a new blueprint for the sport.
A squad.
Not a team sprinkled with a few big names.
‘Next man up’ is the new ‘culture’.
But the Doggies are the true definition of next man up.
You wonder what the ’04 Bulldogs would think of the game and their ’25 counterparts.
NRL athletes have never been bigger.
While sports science, physical development and professionalism has gone through the roof since 2004 – this year’s Bulldogs forward pack [average 188cm] isn’t much bigger than 21 years ago [184.8cm].
In fact, according to NRL.com, the competition’s average pack height in 2025 is 188cm.
What the Bulldogs are doing differently is playing smaller across their squad.
No other side in the NRL is trying to do what the Bulldogs are doing.
Based on games played so far this year – you could argue their best bench is Kurt Mann, Josh Curran, Harry Hayes and Bailey Hayward.
That’s an average height of just 183cm.
If you take Hayes out – it drops to 181cm.
The 2004 premiership-winning Bulldogs bench, before Steve Price was ruled out of the grand final, averaged 183.7cm which included Roy Asotasi and Sonny Bill Williams.
A major difference between the game of the early 2000s and now is the size of each club’s backs.
It’s not unusual to find the tallest players on the field playing on the wing, halves or centres.
Stephen Crichton stands at 193cm.
Matt Burton, in the 6 jersey is 190.
In 2004, Hazem El Masri stood at 178cm.
Matt Utai at just 168cm.
Ironically, the equivalent in the modern game would in fact be the Panthers and Brian To’o [182] and Sunia Turuva [181] when they played together during the current Panthers dynasty.
The Bulldogs have tweaked the blueprint for 2025.
To go with their smaller pack – their preferred wingers Marcelo Montoya and Jacob Kiraz are both 187cm.
All this perhaps explains Gould and the Bulldogs agitating to get Lachlan Galvin to the club when he did.
On a dry track, the Bulldogs are very comfortable.
Rain and wet conditions make them more predictable.
Heavy feet against bigger teams could mean disaster in September.
The tweaking of the blueprint will continue.
Canterbury’s ongoing experiment of 2025 will be studied for years to come.
