From topping the NRL ladder for half the season to a covert raid on Wests Tigers playmaker Lachlan Galvin, the Canterbury Bulldogs have found themselves constantly in the news in 2025.
But no matter how well the club performs on the field, one issue simply won’t go away for Bulldogs supremos Cameron Ciraldo and Phil Gould—what’s the story behind the club’s spate of shocking haircuts?
While AFL bosses have long wrestled with the issue of questionable hair, the trend appears to be rapidly infiltrating the NRL and questions are being asked about how to protect the game’s hard-earned reputation.
Tracing the Bulldog’s current situation, it appears to have started with the arrival former Panthers premiership player Viliame Kikau in 2023 and his now-trademark peroxide ‘faux hawk’.
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However, this season the powerful Fijian-born forward has been joined by several first-grade teammates including Jacob Preston and Jaemon Salmon, each bringing their own unique take from the local Belmore barber.
The mid-year arrival of 19-year-old Galvin and his ‘Jim Carey’ fringe did little to ease the scrutiny as the Bulldogs suddenly threatened to have more mullets than a dodgy fish and chip shop.
But things truly a came to a head this week with the signing of the talented Angus Bowen on an NRL Development Pathways Contract, who arrived at Belmore sporting what The Betoota Advocate respectfully described as a ‘bowl cut mullet’ before then suggesting the NRL Integrity Unit get involved.
To quote one figure in The Sporting News newsroom, ‘surely it’s getting to the point where the Bulldogs are stripped of premiership points for these shocking haircuts?’
Bulldogs general manager of football Phil Gould was contacted for comment but was believed to be at the salon getting fades.