Phil Gould has explained the Bulldogs backflip in their decision to sign Lachlan Galvin after originally ruling the club out of the race to his signature.
In April Gould denied the Bulldogs would make a play for Galvin after he told the Tigers he would not be at the club long-term and even took the club out of the race for the talented playmaker.
Gould confirmed on Channel 9, that Galvin’s preference is to sign with the Bulldogs in the coming days.
“What I understand of the situation right at the moment is Lachlan Galvin has expressed his desire to play with the Bulldogs,” Gould said.
“We still haven’t closed off on a deal yet. There are still some things that have got to be worked out with the Wests Tigers about his release there.
“I would hope that in the next 48 hours we would have far greater clarity.
“But Lachlan to his credit has come out and said, his preference was the Bulldogs and we will try and accommodate that.”
In April Gould told the Sydney Morning Herald: “We are not involved in the Lachlan Galvin discussion and we won’t be involved in the Lachlan Galvin discussion. We wish him all the best.”
Immortal Andrew Johns asked Gould why the change of heart from the club from their initial position on Galvin.
“You did say that the Bulldogs weren’t interested in Lachie,” Johns said.
“What’s changed since then?”
“I don’t think I used the term wasn’t interested,” Gould replied.
“What I said was we would stick to our program.
“When he first told the Tigers he wasn’t going to play in 2027, he was still contracted until the end of 2026, so as far as we knew he would be playing with the Tigers again in 2026.
“Even if we wanted to sign him for 2027, we couldn’t negotiate with him until November 1 this year.
“That’s 18 months to hang around wondering whether or not you have got a player.
“That didn’t suit our time frame. I said we would stick to the program that we’ve got.
“What happened this week is the goal posts got moved incredibly because all of a sudden we got a call on Tuesday from them to say that there was a chance they were negotiating a release with the Tigers and he would be available virtually now.
“That’s something we had to give consideration. Previously we would have had to wait 18 months to consider him.
“I think I also said three or four years down the track when you see the player I think he is going to become, he will certainly be of interest to everyone.”
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