Canterbury Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo has refused to blame injuries or a five-day turnaround for his side conceding 50 points at the hands of the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Good Friday.
The Bulldogs, who started each half of the game well, conceded three tries in ten minutes before halftime, and five tries in a 15-minute period during the final quarter of the game.
Latrell Mitchell and Campbell Graham both scored hat-tricks in the rout, with Canterbury also losing Josh Addo-Carr in the first half - something that Ciraldo did admit impacted his team, even if he refused to let it be the blame.
Instead, Ciraldo said it was about his team not doing as they had practiced.
"Not that much to do with it," Ciraldo said when asked whether injuries and a tight turnaround had impacted his side.
"It's just not doing the basics well in that period. We could have clawed it back if we had have done what we practiced, what we talk about all the time, but we didn't."
Ciraldo's comments post-game follows those from Bulldogs' director of football Phil Gould during the week suggesting the NRL had made an oversight in scheduling his side for a five-day turnaround leading into Good Friday.
"We've got a lot of players out, but we've been that way pretty much most of the season, and we had some more injuries the other night," Gould told Wide World of Sports' Six Tackles with Gus podcast during the week.
"It's a very short turnaround. We go from playing the last game on Sunday night to Friday afternoon.
"It's a four-day recovery, it's ridiculous.
"People want to talk about welfare, and the RLPA want to argue about time off during the holidays. What about this?
"We've got the two teams that played Sunday night having to back up and play on Friday.
"What sort of scheduling is that compared to everyone else? And why does that happen?"
Zero Tackle's pre-season analysis shows every club in the competition will have at least one five-day turnaround this season, with the Parramatta Eels and Sydney Roosters having three of them.
The Bulldogs, Titans, Sea Eagles, Storm, Warriors, Cowboys, Panthers, Rabbitohs and Tigers all have two, while the remaining clubs are subject to the five-day turnaround just once.
Adding to the issues for Canterbury was the early injury to winger Josh Addo-Carr, who is now set to spend up to eight weeks on the sideline as he recovers from a syndesmosis injury and MCL issue in his right knee.
Ciraldo said the injury did impact his rotations in the loss.
"It hurt the rotation a little bit. We wanted to use Jackson Topine through the middle and back-row and give some guys a rest there, but him having to go to left centre and Paul Alamoti to the wing probably hurt us more than anything," Ciraldo said.
"But that's footy. People get injured and you have to shuffle the decks and stick to your principles, and we didn't do that today.
"It was disappointing to lose Fox, but we didn't do what we needed to do."
The loss leaves the Bulldogs with a three and three record, sitting just outside the top eight, with what will now be a nine-day turnaround to next Sunday's clash against the Parramatta Eels.
