Bulldogs rule out Belmore for NRL clash

New CEO Raelene Castle says Canterbury won't be moving its round 25 clash with Penrith to Belmore after it was bumped from ANZ Stadium by the AFL.

New Canterbury boss Raelene Castle has ruled out Belmore Oval as an alternative venue for the Bulldogs' round 25 clash with Penrith after it was embarrassingly bumped from ANZ Stadium by the AFL.

The NRL is scrambling to re-schedule the August 30 match after the AFL announced on Tuesday the former Olympic stadium would host Sydney and Hawthorn in a final-round blockbuster on the same night.

Castle, who took over from Todd Greenberg as chief executive on Monday, said the fixture bungle had put the Bulldogs in a "very challenging situation" because any solution had to be favourable to all parties involved - including the Nine Network and Fox Sports.

"We're talking to Paul Kind at the NRL and he's liaising with the two broadcasters to make sure that we can get the right outcome," she told Triple M on Wednesday.

"It gets really complicated because it's about highlight games, live games, delayed games.

"When you throw a combination of all of those things in with the AFL and NRL not having fixed schedules for those last set of games, it makes the puzzle very complicated."

Possible options are to move the match to Thursday night or switch venues if it is to remain a Friday fixture.

But Castle said hosting the match at the Bulldogs' traditional home ground at Belmore was not on the cards.

"That's something that the board have talked about, some day in the future taking an NRL game back to Belmore is something the Bulldogs would like to do," she said.

"Right at the moment, the ground is not quite in the right place to host an NRL game of this quality."


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Source: AAP


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