Canterbury Bulldogs head coach Cameron Ciraldo has handed his team a reality check after their heavy loss to the Canberra Raiders on Friday evening in Brisbane.
The opening game of Magic Round saw the Bulldogs claw their way back into the contest against Ricky Stuart's green machine, but ultimately leak 34 points before losing by four.
The loss leaves the Bulldogs dropping dangerously close to the bottom four on the NRL ladder with four losses in their last five games.
The coach admitted that his side, who had a chance to win the game at the end of the contest, never deserved to be in that position.
“The fact we had a chance there at the end, well we didn't deserve that,” Ciraldo said in his post-match press conference.
“We didn't really nail it at the end when we did have a chance.
“Raiders were much better than us. They outcompeted us on every level.
“We were so far away from it and that was right from the first whistle. I'm disappointed.”
With missed tackles and lazy defence seemingly a theme of the night, Ciraldo simply said too many of his players weren't doing their job during the loss, with it being a theme haunting the club over the last month.
“I can't put it down to one thing … There's too many people not doing their job,” Ciraldo said
“To come out and start the game the way we did, yeah, terrible.
“We've shown we can do it (start games well). We want to build a winning culture and that means 17 players turn up.
“Too many soft options, too many guys looking for shortcuts.
“We shouldn't be outcompeted. A lot of people were off tonight.”
The game came off a five-day turnaround following the Bulldogs' victory over the St George Illawarra Dragons last Sunday afternoon in Wollongong.
