Cameron Ciraldo was left fuming following Thursday night’s 44-12 loss to the Dolphins, with the Dogs coach feeling his side didn’t get the rub of the green from the refs.
The Bulldogs led 8-0 and 12-4 as an array of penalties and set restarts saw them gain the upper hand early.
But that would all change when just before half-time, Jacob Preston was sin-binned for a late shot on Isaiya Katoa.
That would be the catalyst for the Dolphins to gain momentum and storm over the top of a listless Canterbury outfit, handing them their seventh loss in eight games.
Yet while admitting his side’s edge defence wasn’t good enough, Ciraldo felt the Preston sin bin and the run of penalties cost his side.
“I don’t know what he wanted him to do,” Ciraldo said of the Preston tackle.
“Katoa has got the ball, he’s going to tackle him and then he releases it in a millisecond before he hits him.
You can watch the Jacob Preston incident in the player above.
“I don’t understand it, but we had to be tougher through that period. We defended great for a couple of minutes after that and then after 10 plays or so we let in just a soft try.
“I can’t control that, but I can control us being a bit tougher for longer after that.”
As for the penalty count in the second half, he was left scratching his head.
“I just mean like 6-2 penalty count and 5-0 restarts in that 40 minute period, I’m just not watching the game thinking we are so ill-disciplined here and we just continually get hammered by penalties,” Ciraldo said.
“So I need to get clarification on why we’re the most penalised side in those periods, especially inside 20, like they’re massive momentum swinging penalties and the boys are working really hard to earn that field position and then like goes down grabs his neck or find a little offside penalty where the opposition’s been offside a number of times.
“They’re the things that we’re just not getting at the moment and again there’s parts we need to control, but I feel like we’re an easy target at times as well.”
