Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo says Friday night’s loss to Manly was the first time he’s been disappointed with his side this season, but is confident it’s an “easy fix” ahead of finals.
Canterbury were handed a 34-22 reality check in front of a record crowd at Accor Stadium which all but kissed their top four hopes goodbye.
The result brought a five-game winning streak to a screeching halt but Ciraldo suggested it was the loss his side needed to have ahead of the club’s drought-breaking finals berth.
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Bulldogs forward Max King joins the Fox League podcast to go inside the Bulldogs’ remarkable 2024 revival and chat about the impact of coach Cameron Ciraldo, captain Stephen Crichton and the club’s renowned defensive system
“We probably left some cues there last week that they took advantage of today and I’m glad we learned those lessons tonight,” Ciraldo said.
“We let in six tries, I really didn’t like that, and the way we let them in was really poor.
It was sort of a reflection of how committed we were to defence.
“It’s a pretty easy fix to be honest, we believe in the system we’re doing, it was just really poor decisions tonight around tackling and off the ball. We’ll address it and I’d like to think it won’t happen again next week.
“It’s the first time this year I’ve walked off and been really disappointed in our defence. “We’ve been really consistent, our effort and our attitude has been really high but we missed the mark tonight.”
Bloodied & bruised Turbo badly hurt? | 01:09
Canterbury five-eighth Matt Burton left the game with a category two HIA but Ciraldo is confident they can bounce back next week without him.
“It’s not ideal if Burto is missing but there’s a lot of purpose around our game next week,” Burton said.
“We’re back at home, we’re not happy with how it went tonight, so hopefully we get a big crowd again and can repay the fans.
“Definitely (good to have this loss now instead of finals). We got some reminders on some really simple things that win footy games that Manly did better than us.
“I’m not that disappointed, we know what we need to fix and we’ll get to work Monday and fix it.”
‘First time this year’ Ciraldo’s concern | 06:47
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Bulldogs stand-in skipper Reed Mahoney put the loss down to poor decisions from individuals, but was also confident it was a quick fix.
“We let six tries in which is not us and individually we made some poor decisions but those things are a choice and they are also things that can be easily flipped,” he said.
“Plenty of lessons ahead of next week.”
Source Agencies
