Cameron Ciraldo fires back over 'made up rumours' after Bulldogs snap five-game losing streak

Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo has fired back at the 'made up rumours' that plagued the club before finally snapping a five-game losing run on Friday night.

With every loss came new speculation and criticism directed towards certain players in the Canterbury squad, but the comeback 30-20 win over Melbourne should quieten some of the "outside noise" Ciraldo believes was impacting his squad.

On a wet night at Accor Stadium, the hosts rallied back from a first-half deficit and losing gun back-rower Jacob Preston to a broken arm to topple the Storm.

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Quizzed about the toughest period in the past two years for the powerhouse club, Ciraldo conceded it had become difficult to ignore the growing pressure.

"As much as we say to try and block it out, it's hard to ignore all of it," the coach said.

"Not just the outside noise, the rumours that circulate and the bullshit that gets made up. I'm really proud of this group that they just kept turning up and trusting in what we were doing but I felt a lot for them that they've had to go through that as well.

"That's probably the hardest thing around this club is when we do lose a game there's a lot of outside noise so for us to manage that and try and keep the boys off their phones and off TV ... the outside noise becomes quite debilitating for young guys.

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"I think this five weeks we've been through will be a blessing in disguise. You find out a lot about people ... we've got a really tough group.

"Some of the stuff that's been said about some of our players and our staff is totally unfair and I'm just glad we got a performance tonight that we can enjoy."

Canterbury had a stack of young players including Jack Underhill, AJ Jones and Jethro Rinakama on deck for Friday's clash with experienced stars Stephen Crichton, Viliame Kikau and Connor Tracey unavailable due to either Origin commitments or injuries.

But the player who Ciraldo believes had the most pressure on his shoulders was five-eighth Matt Burton, who has consistently been the centre of rumours about his future but produced his best performance of the season against the Storm.

Ciraldo directly explained the rumours of being "on the outer" and "getting sold" that have surrounded Burton in recent months were difficult to defend.

"Burton's one that gets tossed up a lot," he said.

"It's really disappointing when you're going through a losing streak and people decide to make up rumours about your players. It's hard for us to defend them and then some people are copping a lot of unfair criticism as well.

"I'm really proud of our coaching staff in how connected they've stayed together and how much they've trusted in what we're doing and how hard they've been working."

Canterbury take on struggling western Sydney rivals the Tigers and Eels over the next fortnight before earning a bye in round 15.