‘Join the dots’: More Bulldogs exit claims as Bears tipped to strike on ‘out of whack’ $2m cap reality

The Bulldogs’ backline drama shows no signs of slowing down with suggestions Matt Burton is likely to join the Perth Bears amid claims you can’t have two million dollar centres.

Burton is currently the Bulldogs five-eighth, but there is growing speculation he will be moved to the centres to allow Lachlan Galvin to play in the No.6 jersey and bring Sean O’Sullivan into the troublesome halfback spot until young gun Mitchell Woods is ready.

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The situation has intensified amid the drama surrounding Bronson Xerri, who reportedly wants out of the club after being dropped for Enari Tuala.

Burton is off-contract in 2027 and there are doubts the Bulldogs want to re-sign him on big money, given he has struggled to nail down the No.6 role.

The Daily Telegraph’s Brent Read acknowledged Burton may find himself in the centres this season where he has won a Dally M positional gong for Penrith, but he warned having two centres on $1 million dollar contracts is unsustainable to build a premiership winning roster.

“You can’t have two million dollar centres,” Read said on NRL 360.

“In the long term there’s no way they could have Matt Burton and Stephen Crichton in the centres because your cap is completely out of whack if you’ve got two guys on seven figures in the centres.”

Read predicted Burton’s management will eventually come to the club to discuss a potential extension and if they don’t get the terms they are after he will go to market, with the Bears waiting to pounce with a big money offer to be their five-eighth.

“Inevitably in my view the long term play here is, and I’m not saying this is a Dogs thing, I think Burton will go to the club at some point, I imagine towards the back end of the year,” Read said.

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“He’s got one more year left on his deal. I imagine his manager will go to the club and say, what do you think? Is there a long-term deal here for Matt? And they’ll have to say to him, well, not at a million dollars a year.

“And if I’m Matt and his manager, I’m then going, well we’re going to go to market and see what’s out there for us.

“And it would not surprise me in the least and Gus has denied this. I’ve said it a hundred times, Perth are watching and they’re waiting to see what happens with Matt Burton.

“And it would not surprise me if at some point, later in the year, it’s not going to happen in the next month or two months, Burton’s on the market.”

Braith Anasta agreed there is mounting evidence that Burton’s long-term future could be away from the Bulldogs, with the star also linked to a move to the NFL as a punter.

“It’s looking that way, you’ve just got to join the dots in this situation, without overplaying it,” Anasta said.

“But it’s going to be interesting to see what they do with Burton.”

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The Daily Telegraph’s Dean Ritchie agreed that Burton extending at the Bulldogs is unlikely, but on the back of potentially losing Bronson Xerri that would be a big blow to their roster.

“No, I think ultimately he will go, whether it’s end of this year, possibly,” Ritchie said.

“I think that the writing’s been on the wall there for a while now and I think Burton will go, which does mean that if they lose Xerri and Burton in one year, it is disruptive.”

The question remains if the Bulldogs were planning to move Burton to the centres and eventually on from the club, why didn’t they move him before the season started?

However, Anasta warned that would have been far to controversial, after the club moved Reed Mahoney and Toby Sexton on last year to get Galvin to the club.

“If they’d moved Burton there to start the year, it would have been a big deal,” Anasta said.

“It would have been huge and he would have been taking someone else’s spot, which is Bronson Xerri’s and they wouldn’t have been sticking with the halves partnership they wanted last year to take them forward this year.

“I think they still stick with Burton and Galvin and back them for the next month, but if Xerri moves on, they’ve got the option to move Burton in the centres.”

However, he warned the Xerri situation may have been designed to give Cameron Ciraldo the flexibility to move Burton to the centres if he and Galvin don’t fire in the halves.

“I think he gives them that opportunity,” Anasta said of Xerri being dropped.

“It gives them the freedom to make that call if they need to and not feel like they’re stepping on someone’s toes.”

A member of the Bulldogs’ last premiership winning team in 2004, Anasta lamented why the Bulldogs are putting themselves through more drama after the Galvin, Mahoney and Sexton saga followed them all last season.

“I would love things settle down at the Bulldogs, like last year was enough,” Anasta said.

“Do we need this again this year where we are talking about this sort of stuff? Don’t you just want to focus on the football and playing footy and keeping it simple?”

However, Ritchie explained that is not how Phil Gould operates and that building a title winning roster will continue to be a fluid and evolving process under his leadership.

“It’s what you’re going to get with Gus being there,” Ritchie said.

“He has an inflammatory style. He’s very good at his job. We all know that he’s got a great football brain.

“Having said that, when he’s in charge, you know there’s going to be drama.”

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