Canterbury Bulldogs head coach Cameron Ciraldo has hammered his team for their 44 points to 8 loss against the Dolphins on Thursday evening.
Despite having a long list of unavailabilities, and having to battle horror conditions, the Bulldogs finished the game extremely poorly and only just stopped short of conceding 50 points.
The table-topping Bulldogs, who lost just their second game of the season in the heavy defeat, conceded four tries in the final 17 minutes, and three of those in the final seven.
Ciraldo admitted conditions were tough, but said the Dolphins beat his outfit in 'every part of the game'.
"They were tough conditions out there, but I thought the Dolphins handled them a lot better than we did," Ciraldo said during his post-match press conference.
"They were the much better team, beat us in every part of the game. They took their chances when they earned field possession, and were way more desperate defensively. That was disappointing from our point of view, but a lot of guys got an opportunity tonight and I'm sure they will learn from it."
Asked whether he thought the fatigue of the season's start was an issue, Ciraldo said it wasn't.
"We should have played better than that. You can't make 16 errors and make poor decisions like that. Fatigue is not an excuse," he added.
Ciraldo took exception with an overruled try against Jake Turpin in the final 20 minutes, which would have brought the Bulldogs to within six points of the Dolphins, but said his side simply couldn't finish the way they did.
"I didn't think it was forward [the Turpin try], but I just said to them they were the much better team. We weren't playing well, but we gave ourselves an opportunity to be only one try behind, and that was a good sign, I thought," Ciraldo said.
"I thought we were on top there for that little period; that was one of the times in the game where I thought we were on top. I thought that was a try and would have made the game more interesting, but at the end of the day, you can't finish like the way we did.
"We can't worry about decisions, the Dolphins got some decisions go against them last week and copped it on the chin. That might have been one that went against us and a couple of others, but we didn't deserve to win."
Matt Burton, who came off during the first half with a HIA before returning, was among the Bulldogs' best, and when asked about his condition, Ciraldo took the opportunity to slam a number of his players.
"He's good. I thought Burto was one of our best; he was competing till the end, even with the scoreboard the way it was. I think he just got a clip to the jaw and got checked, but I thought he was outstanding and I thought there were a few others in the team who let blokes like Burto down, so a good learning experience," the coach said.
Canterbury, who had 11 of their top 30 missing for the game against the Dolphins, have the bye next weekend before playing on Monday, June 9, against the Parramatta Eels.
