Lachie Galvin has conducted media interviews to put forward his side of the story after his bitter split from the Wests Tigers to join Canterbury mid-season.
The 19-year-old five-eighth has denied Benji Marshall’s coaching ability was the reason behind his decision to turn his back on the Tigers and also poured cold water on suggestions he had a feud with his teammates, including co-captain Jarome Luai.
There has been a huge backlash from Wests fans in the wake of Galvin telling the club he was not interested in re-signing on a multimillion-dollar deal and then his manager threatened legal action over claims of bullying after Luai and two other teammates expressed their dismay at the young playmaker on social media.
“I understand where [Tigers fans] are coming from. I think they can have their opinion, and they can have their hatred and that against me. I understand that,” Galvin told Nine News.
“The main thing is I never wanted to disrespect the club, I never wanted to hurt the club. I was doing this for my best interests and I hope [for] success for the whole club.”
Galvin said his controversial manager Isaac Moses had acted on his instructions, not the other way around.
“This whole thing was my decision. I had told Isaac what I wanted, and he says ‘yes’. I’ve run this thing, I’ve backed myself, and I’m a pretty confident kid in that way. I’ve chosen what I’ve wanted, and obviously we’ve got all this backlash from it, and I’ll take that on the chin because it’s something I’ve driven.”
On the topic of Marshall and Luai, he was full of praise for their influence.
“Benji was great to me, I’m so grateful for Benji giving me my debut,” Galvin said.
“It wasn’t coaching, it was more just developing, and that was all on me. I wanted a change, and I just felt a change would get me out of my comfort zone.
“Jarome [and I] got on fine. We probably weren’t going over each other’s houses, having sleepovers and that. People like to think that we never got on, but behind the scenes we were always talking and never got to a point where we hated or never spoke to each other.”
Deciding between the Dogs and Parramatta was a difficult choice for Galvin, who grew up supporting the Eels and spent a couple of years at the club in the Harold Matthews Cup ranks.
“I was back and forth with the Doggies and Eels,’’ Galvin told The Daily Telegraph.
“We just went through the positives and negatives and put them all together. I wrote a lot of stuff down.
“I think if you write it down and look at it from both angles, both positives and negatives on the piece of paper — and I’m not saying there were more negatives at Parra, but I just came up with my final decision and it was the Dogs.
“The main thing is, it was never because of Benji or the club.”
Galvin backed up Phil Gould’s claim that he did not meet the Canterbury general manager during contract negotiations.
“I actually met Phil at training [on Saturday]. That was honestly for the first time. He came up to me and it was good to meet him. I was pretty nervous to be honest.
“He said he was excited for me to be at the club.”
Now that he is at Belmore, he is keen to get stuck in and has told coach Cameron Ciraldo that he is prepared to start in the NSW Cup to earn his spot – the Dogs take on Parramatta on Easter Monday before a bumper crowd at Accor Stadium.
“If he wants me to play on the wing, I’ll do whatever. I prefer playing in the halves. If that’s seven or six, I’m just going to put my best foot forward and work hard.
“I’ve spoken to Ciro about going back to reserve grade and if I need to, I will. It’s his decision.
“The Dogs are coming first, they’re the best team in the comp at the moment. There’s no way I can expect to come into that team straight away.’
“I’m going to do everything I can to win, to keep the season rolling.”
The Roarhttps://www.theroar.com.au/2025/06/03/never-because-of-benji-galvin-explains-tigers-exit-feud-with-teammates-dogs-ambition-and-meeting-gus/‘Never because of Benji: Galvin explains Tigers exit, ‘feud’ with teammates, Dogs ambition and meeting Gus
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