Knights let Dally M leader go to Dogs on $40k

Bulldogs supremo Phil Gould has revealed how the club came to sign shock Dally M leader Jacob Kiraz on a paltry $40,000 deal, declaring that the move has made him "look a genius".Kiraz has enjoyed an outstanding start to the season, playing a starring role for the 2-1 Bulldogs through the first three rounds. He sits atop the Dally M leaderboard with 11 points, two ahead of Payne Haas and Tino Fa'asuamaleaui.The 21-year-old returned to the club that knocked him back twice as a junior on a $1000-per-year train-and-trial deal, before making his debut last season and has not looked back since.Gould described Kiraz as a "great kid", adding that he was "wholehearted" and revealed his stunned reaction to seeing the powerful winger in action for the first time on the training track."I'd never seen him play, so I did some homework on him," he told Wide World of Sports' Six Tackles With Gus podcast."He came down to us on $40,000."I remember walking into training around Christmas time ... I'm sitting there in the heat and this big gangly thing just goes loping past and I said, 'Who the hell is that?', and they said, 'That's that boy from Newcastle, Kiraz'. I said, 'That's him?' He said, 'Yeah'. I said, 'Wow, he's going to make me look a genius'.