Canterbury are finally in a position to show off their complete package.
Four years after building their roster, Cameron Ciraldo can finally have a sense of stability at Belmore.
When Canterbury run out onto Las Vegas's Allegiant Stadium on Saturday (Sunday AEDT), they will likely do so with their same best 17 from the end of last year.
That in itself is a far cry from a club that overturned an entire roster in the space of four seasons, with no player from 2021 at the club last year.
"It's definitely nice," Ciraldo said.
"We've been able to add some guys into our squad. Guys like (back-up half) Sean O'Sullivan and (injured prop) Leo Thompson.
"But having that continuity of a lot of our staff and the players has given us a good foundation to work off at the start of pre-season.
"The boys have brought that intensity to their training, and I feel like it's gone to another level.
"They know what we're doing now and they're doing it at a lot higher rate."
Tracking Canterbury's rebuild from a miserable 2021 season is lengthy in itself, after the club lured in Phil Gould as general manager that July.
Matt Burton headlined a list of 12 new faces in 2022, while there were nine more for Ciraldo's first year at the club in 2023.
Nine followed as they returned to the finals in 2024, before the arrivals slowed down to just three last season enroute to a top-four finish.
Even then the Bulldogs' spine was completely shaken up mid-season when Lachlan Galvin arrived and Toby Sexton and Reed Mahoney both fell out of the side.
Not that Ciraldo is willing to buy into talk of this season being the complete package for the 2026 season ahead of Saturday's clash with St George Illawarra.
"We're not thinking about the big picture or anything like that," Ciraldo said.
"It is honestly one week at a time. We've prepared really well. We can't fault the boys in their preparation, but there's a big 80 minutes ahead."
In good news for the Bulldogs, Matt Burton (hamstring), Jacob Kiraz (calf) and Marcelo Montoya (ankle) have all overcome injury concerns for Saturday.
Burton was launching bombs high towards the Allegiant Stadium roof at training on Friday, with Ciraldo believing the five-eighth could threaten the hanging speakers.
Meanwhile, all the attention is on his halves partner Galvin.
Placed on a media ban by Bulldogs officials, the 20-year-old has been the only player from all four squads not accessible in Sin City this week.
But Ciraldo does believe he will enter this season well placed, having had the chance to have a full pre-season alongside Burton for this year.
"It's been nice for him to just focus on his own game," Ciraldo said.
"There was a lot of speculation around him last year. If he wants to be the player that he wants to be, he's going to have to deal with that in the future.
"But hopefully a nice quiet week will be good for him.
"It's been awesome for him to be in camp with the boys for nine or 10 days. He's connection to the group, is growing every day. It's really good to watch."
