Cameron Ciraldo was announced as Canterbury’s new head coach this week.
But he was first recruited by Phil Gould a decade earlier, and asked to help a flagging Penrith squad get up off its knees.
The now-37-year-old drove south from Newcastle to meet with Gould at Gosford McDonald’s, and left with a handshake deal to pack his bags and move to the foot of Sydney’s mountains.
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“Where Panthers were placed, we were in the doldrums a little bit, and it was going to be a trip down the mines,” Gould told Wide World of Sports’ Six Tackles with Gus podcast.
“I remember I signed a couple of players – I signed he and Clint Newton – to make sure we weren’t rushing our younger blokes, and to also give the players who were out there at the time a sense of professionalism.
“I knew of Cameron pretty well.
“He walked in (to the McDonald’s meeting), Cameron, I said ‘this is my vision for the club and this is what I want to do, this is the role you’re going to be playing and it’s not going to be glamorous… I need you to train every session, play every game, show the young blokes how to train hard and play hard’.
“He said ‘that sounds great’, and he shook my hand and got up and started to walk out.
“I said ‘we haven’t spoken money’, and he said ‘pay me what you like’.”
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Ciraldo joined Penrith ahead of the 2012 season and played 32 games for the club before hanging up his boots.
And while he was no longer contractually obliged to help the Panthers, he stuck around anyway, and has been there ever since.
“We used to train our junior reps at Patrician Brothers Blacktown. One afternoon I drove down… and there’s Cameron Ciraldo standing with a couple of his young children watching the junior reps train,” he said.
“I went across and said ‘what are you doing?’, and he said ‘I’m interested in the kids coming through, I’m watching them’.
“The next week I went back and he was out helping the coaches, and helping the players, helping them train. No one ever asked him to do that.
“You could just see that he had a genuine love for it and feel for it.”
Ciraldo began as an assistant coach with Penrith’s junior teams, then took over as head coach of the under 20s and led the side to a premiership, before being promoted to NRL assistant.
He’s been instrumental in the recent Panthers success, winning last year’s title and making the grand final in 2020.
He will see out this season as Ivan Cleary’s assistant before assuming his first NRL head coach role at Belmore.
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