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Super Smash Finals LIVE from 2pmParker's big question mark around the Bulldogs in 2026
Sam Kosack • January 30th, 2026 3:40 pm
NRL great Corey Parker believes the Bulldogs’ attack is all that holds them back from breaking their 22-year premiership drought as the club look to build on back-to-back finals campaigns.
The Bulldogs finished 2025 in third but were bundled out of finals in straight sets, steamrolled by 46-26 by a dominant Panthers’ side in the semi-finals.
As the old rugby league adage goes, defence wins premierships, and Cameron Ciraldo’s side took that to heart, finishing the regular season with the best defence in the competition by a decent margin.
But the Bulldogs’ attack is where they struggled, scoring the least points of any top eight side across the 2025 season.
The side does have strike across the park, with Stephen Crichton, Jacob Kiraz, and Viliame Kikau all dangerous for opposition sides, but it’s in the spine where Corey Parker identifies room to improve.
“The thing for me is (Lachlan) Galvin… he's now had a full off-season, he's had time to settle in, he's had time to have more combinations with (Burton),” Parker said on SENQ Breakfast.
“For whatever reason, towards the back end they started to fracture.
“Now, for me, can they win their comp? It's a question mark… because definitely they can win the comp.
“Absolutely they can win the comp on defence, but the way that the game is heading and the way it is at the moment, and if you listen to the proposed rules… (the NRL) only want to make it faster, which means you score more points.
“That was their downfall (in 2025)... their inability to score points.
“To win a comp… you need some x-factor.
“In your spine, so they got Bailey Hayward in the nine, they've got Burton, and Galvin is a terrific player, and then they've got Connor Tracey at fullback. I love everything that Connor Tracey brings.
“But when you go past the last five years, look at the Broncos, they won last year, x-factor was Reece Walsh. It was unbelievable.
“Then you go through the Panthers, and they've got x-factor right across the park.
“Can they win the comp? They could, I just have a bit of reservation over them.
“If they can increase scoring tries, they'll absolutely give it a shake.
“They'll play finals without doubt in my opinion. You can't fake the defence side of things, and that holds you in good stead every game you're in.
“They finished third in the regular season last year, and I'm sure they'll be thereabouts when the whips are cracking in season 2026.”
Major shake-ups to their spine to their spine, namely the axing of Reed Mahoney and Toby Sexton, impacted the Bulldogs’ attack and flow throughout 2025.
But while the Bulldogs’ attack struggled, the Bulldogs’ defence held true.
The blue-and-white only conceded 414 points all year, an average of 17.25 points a game. The Storm had the next best, conceding 459 points across the year.
Parker believes the Bulldogs’ return to a defensive powerhouse in 2025 comes largely down to the work of Cameron Ciraldo and restoring the club identity from the early 2000s, where they won their last premiership.
“The one thing that set them apart (in 2025), regardless of who they played… was their defence.
“You can't fluke that over the course of a full season.
“Cameron Ciraldo instilled the defence, the structures, etc. and the noise you heard out of Belmore and the Bulldogs was… everything was based on defence.
“When he was at Penrith, he was the defensive coach, Ciraldo, so they've got all that in place.
“Their defence has been so good, they'll cut and paste that, and they'll just work at it so their defence will stay.
“That was part of their DNA.
“Every time the Bulldogs turned up, you knew they were going to have a red-hot crack. You knew they were going to turn up for each other and have that dog mentality that they used to have back in the day, and they've certainly reinstilled that.”
The Bulldogs open their season against the Dragons in the NRL’s Vegas season opener on March 1.
