Former Panthers assistant coach, Cameron Ciraldo has sworn against poaching Penrith players prior to his first year as head coach of the Canterbury Bulldogs.
Ciraldo has served as an assistant coach at Penrith since 2017 and even had a brief stint in the head coaching role after the sacking of Anthony Griffin in 2018.
However, the newly crowned coach of Belmore told The Sydney Morning Herald he has no plans of utilising his strong ties at the Panthers to lure any premiership-winning players away from the club.
“I've got my own values and morals and I'll stick to that,” Ciraldo declared.
“It's not going to be me approaching any Penrith players. I'm sure if a Penrith player can't fit in there, I'd like to think I'd be one of the first people they call - but I won't be calling them.
“A lot of people at Penrith have done a lot of hard work over a number of years and I'm not going to try and rip that apart. I have my own job to do.
“This is a development club here now at Canterbury.”
The Bulldogs had already snagged two big names out of the Western Sydney club before Ciraldo's appointment, including 2021 Dally M Team of the Year member Matt Burton and more recently Viliame Kikau to Canterbury.
“I had guys at Penrith for eight or nine years. We built trust," Ciraldo continued.
“I want to come in here and build that same trust so (players) can come to me. I treat the players how I would want to be treated. I know things are going to be different as a head coach.
“At the end of the day it just didn't feel right.”
