Cameron Ciraldo’s appreciation for Canterbury’s devoted fans rocketed to a new level while sipping on a couple of pints inside the London pub where the famous Chelsea Football Club was born. Ciraldo attended captain Stephen Crichton’s wedding in October before joining assistant coaches Josh Jackson and Luke Vella on a fact-finding mission in Spain and England. The first stop was Barcelona, where former Leeds and England league international Kevin Sinfield, now working with the England rugby team, took the group into the national team’s inner sanctum.
Then Ciraldo and his deputies spent a few days in the UK, toured the facilities of Premier League club Leicester, chatting with manager Steve Cooper – who was sacked from the top job about a month later – before they attended a Chelsea-Newcastle game at Stamford Bridge. Ciraldo rarely gets the chance to be a spectator at sporting events, and loved listening to and watching the banter, singing and general excitement among the Chelsea faithful inside The Butcher’s Hook pub before kick-off. The 40-year-old kept thinking back to the atmosphere generated by Bulldogs supporters inside Accor Stadium and Belmore Sportsground, or even in the Belmore streets.
Bulldogs fans cheer created special atmospheres at games in 2024 as the club returned to the fionals for the first time in eight years. Credit: Getty Images Ciraldo, who enters his third year in the top job at Canterbury, was reminded how a sporting team’s success can .