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Let’s cut through all the Lachlan Galvin BS and decipher what’s actually gone down in a messy, legal and bitter exit from Wests Tigers.
In the past 48 hours Galvin has made it clear about his preference to join the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs effective immediately.
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Despite repeated public denials from one of the most powerful figures in the game in Bulldogs king pin Gus Gould, Galvin will be at Canterbury-Bankstown on a three-and-a-half-year deal valued around $750,000-a-season on a pro-rata basis from this week.
Gould has consistently and repeatedly denied any interest in Galvin despite lavishing unrelenting praise on the teenager for the past 12 months.
Here’s one of Gus’s best recent lines about Galvin: “We are not involved in the Lachlan Galvin discussion and we won’t be involved in the Lachlan Galvin discussion. We wish him all the best.”
There’s a reason Gould and Galvin’s agent Isaac Moses felt the love in the air over the last six months and mended a long-standing feud.
Those two had been off since the Bulldogs did the dance with Mitch Moses a few years ago before the Blues playmaker ultimately opted to remain with his existing club the Parramatta Eels.
We’re not suggesting anyone has broken any rules by Gould and Moses finding the peace pipe merely it’s a case of convenient timing.
Rival clubs are predictably blowing up about Gould’s dual roles as GM of football at Canterbury-Bankstown and one of the loudest voices on the Nine Network.
Has Gould gained an unfair recruitment advantage by repeatedly publicly denying interest in Galvin despite talking him up deluxe on all his various media platforms?
Welcome to first grade. Business is business and ultimately Gus is going to get his man.
Where is there not a conflict or combat in rugby league?
Gus weighs in on Dogs Galvin interest | 02:04
The Bulldogs are adamant they’ve only entered the Galvin equation in the past seven days since Wests Tigers granted the teenager permission to negotiate with rival clubs.
Canterbury-Bankstown’s charm offensive on Galvin has been cranked up in the past week courtesy of coach Cameron Ciraldo, assistant coach Luke Vella and chairman Adam Driussi.
One theory has the Bulldogs acquisition of Galvin involving major surgery with Matt Burton going to fullback, Connor Tracey in line to be axed or Burton going into the centres – disrupting the Bulldogs premiership charge.
That’s not the way we’ve heard it. Once the Galvin deal is settled the teenager is expected to wear the Bulldogs no.7 jumper. Toby Sexton is expected to be the only player who pays the price.
What’s not up for debate is the way Bulldogs coach Ciraldo has completely transformed a rabble of a team into the best defensive outfit in the NRL.
Granted the Bulldogs were beaten by a far superior Dolphins side on Thursday night but they still sit outright first on the NRL ladder after the opening 12 rounds with nine wins and only two losses.
As good as Canterbury-Bankstown are in defence where the club still has light years of scope for improvement is its attack.
There’s no greater example of this than the role utility Bailey Hayward has played in rounds 10 and 11 when the Bulldogs ran down big deficits against the Raiders and the Roosters.
Hayward unlocked Canterbury-Bankstown’s attack with a ball-playing clinic playing in a halves/lock forward role.
Lachlan Galvin can only value add to what the Bulldogs are building in terms of the club’s attack and its tilt at ending a 21-season premiership-drought.
In the old days under the one and only Peter “Bullfrog” Moore the Bulldogs didn’t do rebuilds they won premierships.
For proof just look to the record books of 1980, 1984, 1985, 1988 and 1995.
Winning was simply rusted-on to the DNA of the four walls at Belmore.
In the new world where Snapchat and Instagram rule the days of training hard, playing hard and partying hard are a distant memory.
Irrespective a big part of the Bulldogs DNA since the club’s inception in 1935 has always been winning.
And the club is currently in the midst of one of its long premiership droughts.
Ciraldo and the team of assistants he’s got around him are rapidly on the way to resolving that.
The signature of Lachlan Galvin gets them a lot closer than they were last week.
The Parramatta Eels also went all-in at the negotiating table due to Galvin turning to Eels captain Moses as a mentor over the last 12 months.
The Eels offered more than the Bulldogs $750,000-a-season but as the Galvin camp has made abundantly clear since the first newspaper column about this appeared in March it’s not all about the money it’s about football development.
As recently as last week supporters of the Galvin camp were still claiming the Eels were in the box seat.
Ultimately the Eels have been caught carrying a knife in a gun fight. As highly as Galvin rates the cousin of agent Isaac Moses – Eels and NSW star Mitchell Moses – his preference has always been Canterbury-Bankstown where the trump card is his high school coach Vella.
In a twist only rugby league could produce, Galvin’s first NRL game for the Bulldogs will be against the Eels in round 14.
What were your likes or dislikes from a round of upsets in round 12?
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