Stephen Crichton In The Centres
He’s open to it long term
The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs needed to make a change. They played with one of the worst attacks in the NRL across the first half of the season and couldn’t persist with the same spine any longer. Whether or not Stephen Crichton’s move to five-eighth is the reason, or simply aligns with an improvement from the team overall, the change is going to stick for the near future.
Crichton is open to it being his long-term position, too.
“The transition has been good going in the halves. Whatever the team needs and once I know what position I’m playing at the start of the week, then I’m fully locked in and trying to grow.
“There’s still so much growth for me playing five-eighth to be better defensively and with the ball so I’m loving the transition.
“It’s always been team first for me and if it’s team first and Ciro picks me at six, then I’m all in on that. If I get picked in the centres and someone else can do the job, then I’m always for it.”
How it’s working now
Fullback, centre or the halves; Crichton is a world class player on both sides of the ball.
He produced some impressive numbers against the Melbourne Storm in Round 22. They were rattled off in his post-match interview and have been mentioned among plenty of SuperCoach and NRL Fantasy related conversations since. He no doubt claimed maximum points in the Dally M voting, too.
| Stephen Crichton — Storm vs Bulldogs (Rd 22, 2026) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tries | Try Assists | Run Metres | Receipts |
| 2 | 2 | 56 | 43 |
However, if we look at how he produced those numbers, we can really see how the stats pages don’t always reflect the reality of a match.
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