Faitala-Mariner opens up on Bulldogs exit ahead of clash with former club

The back-end of Faitala-Mariner's time at Belmore was a hot topic after the 30-year-old went from newly appointed club captain to being shown the door in the space of 12 months.

It came after Faitala-Mariner, as club skipper, approached Ciraldo midway through last year on behalf of a section of the playing group to raise some concerns about the rookie coach's training methods.

He didn't feature in first grade beyond round 21 before being told not to return to preseason training in November; something he has since described as a "miscommunication."

The Samoan and Kiwi International fronted media in December to quash suggestions of a rift with the Dogs hierarchy, but was en route to Wollongong a month later after agreeing to a mutual release from the final two years of his deal.

Fresh questions about the saga have arisen since former Bulldog Jackson Topine launched a $4 million action against the club last month over an alleged incident that saw him forced to wrestle up to 30 teammates after arriving late to training in July last year.

Faitala-Mariner - who revealed he hasn't spoken to Topine since before Christmas - was loath to link the issue with his own departure ahead of his first outing against the Bulldogs this Thursday, insisting he has no lingering ill-will towards his former club.

"I think I'm not at the [Bulldogs] because they're after other players that will fit their mould," Faitala-Mariner said.

"I think it just got to a point where the club thought they were going in the right direction, and then they had other thoughts and other ideas [about] what kind of players best suit them.

"I guess staff members there think otherwise of me, and they were up front with it. As a player, from a business point of view, they wanted to head in a different direction and I guess I wasn't in those plans.

"I was sweet, I was appreciative of the honesty. When the transition happened, it happened in the space of a week.

"We had a mutual agreement there and I think the respect between the club and myself [meant] that happened pretty quickly."

While he stands by his approach to the leadership position, the former Kiwi International admits it was a learning curve.

"I was still learning, I was new to the captaincy, new to that leadership role," he said.

"My way of leadership, maybe I was wrong, maybe my leadership was wrong. It was a tough time going through all that, the highs and the lows, but I've learned a lot from it.

"Hopefully that's made me a better leader and now I know what to do and what not to do.

"At the end of day it's all business and I'm doing what's best for my family and [Canterbury's] doing what's best for the club.

"Both parties were happy, we had mutual agreement there, and it's all behind me now. I'm just looking forward to [this] week."

Faitala-Mariner has already impressed Shane Flanagan at the Dragons with his leadership qualities, saying the shift has proven the breath of fresh air he didn't know he needed.

"I think for anyone that's been at a certain place for a couple of years, when you go somewhere new it's pretty refreshing," he said.

"I think with any player, if they feel like they're a priority, and the coach makes them feel like they're a priority, they want to jump at that opportunity.

"That's what happened here, Flanno (Flanagan) made me feel that way. For someone that wants me to be in the team week in and week out, I think anyone would jump at that.

"If I did stay [at Canterbury], who knows if I would be playing or not. All I had to do was focus on what I can control and it was just training hard hoping for an opportunity, and an opportunity came.

"That's good thing about having the big Lord on my side. Sometimes your back's against the wall and then he shows favour and another door opens up."

His time at Belmore may have been a roller coaster, but it didn't involve any finals matches, with Faitala-Mariner yet to experience September footy in 124 NRL games.

It's something he's determined to change at the Dragons, saying he's not interested in biding his time.

"I'm at that point in my career where I'm desperate to play finals footy," he said.

"I want to see some success come my way and hopefully we can do that here at the Dragons.

"There were a couple of games there at the start of the year where we thought we could have won, but going into the bye, the game against Souths was very important.

"It was a four-point game for us to get. The next three to four games is really important for us.

"If we can get more wins and losses in the next couple of weeks, it's going to be a good step forward to hopefully finals footy."

Flanagan has made just the one change to the side that beat Souths prior to the bye last weekend, with Luciano Leilua named to return from a calf injury on the bench at the expense of Ben Murdoch-Masila.