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From smh;
Canterbury's butterfingers are slowly but surely hurting the club's aspirations to win a first NRL premiership since 2004.
Thursday's error-riddled 24-16 loss to North Queensland could be the final blow, given the Bulldogs surrendered their place in the top four to the Cowboys.
Des Hasler's team is now staring at the near impossible task of winning the competition from outside the top four. The club managed it in 1995, but no team has repeated that feat in the intervening years.
The Bulldogs are unlikely to run deep into the finals, unless they arrest an alarming six-week spike in handling errors that is ruining their ability to compete with the top teams.
Since the bye in round 19, Canterbury have averaged 11.5 errors a game.
For the entire year prior to that crucial fracture in their season the Bulldogs were only making 7.6 mistakes each game, playing a no-nonsense brand of rugby league built on high completion rates and efficient ball use.
The knock-on effect of giving away cheap possession is particularly telling.
It means more defence, quite often in their own half, and an exhausted pack of forwards in the last 20 minutes of the second half.
Up until the round-19 bye, Canterbury were making about 281 tackles a game. Over the past six games, that figure is almost 350.
Curiously the Bulldogs are not missing any more tackles despite the extra workload, and that was demonstrated on Thursday night as Canterbury survived six back-to-back Cowboys sets on their own line.
That was an ironman effort leading into half-time, but it was energy-sapping and it told after the break.
"Any back-to-back sets, especially six of them, you make an extra 200 tackles and it really gasses you at the end of the game," Canterbury's Greg Eastwood said.
"I thought coming off last week against the Broncos we'd done the same, we ran out of gas there. Guys like Johnathan Thurston and [Michael] Morgan make you pay and that's what they did.
"The first half of the year we were great with the ball. Leading to the back of the year we've slackened off a bit.
"It's the individual wanting to hold the ball and make sure they play it correctly. We've had a few unforced errors lately and it's not like us," Eastwood said.
"We've just got to make sure that we're completing well and making sure we give [ourselves] chances for the full 80 [minutes] ... just staying in the grind and hopefully we can do that the next couple of weeks."
The Bulldogs close out the regular season on Friday night against South Sydney. They need a win and other results to go their way to sneak back into the top four.
More likely is an elimination final in the first week of the play-offs, against either Penrith or the Gold Coast. But Hasler isn't looking that far ahead. He just wants his team to eliminate the errors.
"The players are disappointed and more so probably a little frustrated because a lot of it is self-inflicted," Hasler said.
"They're basic, fundamental errors. It's a play the ball, it's a loose carry, it's a pushed pass, it's an offload.
"Underneath it all there lies the potential to turn it. There's enough experience and enough ability in this team to do that.
"We just need to manage 80 minutes of footy which we're not doing, we're a long way off."
Canterbury's butterfingers are slowly but surely hurting the club's aspirations to win a first NRL premiership since 2004.
Thursday's error-riddled 24-16 loss to North Queensland could be the final blow, given the Bulldogs surrendered their place in the top four to the Cowboys.
Des Hasler's team is now staring at the near impossible task of winning the competition from outside the top four. The club managed it in 1995, but no team has repeated that feat in the intervening years.
The Bulldogs are unlikely to run deep into the finals, unless they arrest an alarming six-week spike in handling errors that is ruining their ability to compete with the top teams.
Since the bye in round 19, Canterbury have averaged 11.5 errors a game.
For the entire year prior to that crucial fracture in their season the Bulldogs were only making 7.6 mistakes each game, playing a no-nonsense brand of rugby league built on high completion rates and efficient ball use.
The knock-on effect of giving away cheap possession is particularly telling.
It means more defence, quite often in their own half, and an exhausted pack of forwards in the last 20 minutes of the second half.
Up until the round-19 bye, Canterbury were making about 281 tackles a game. Over the past six games, that figure is almost 350.
Curiously the Bulldogs are not missing any more tackles despite the extra workload, and that was demonstrated on Thursday night as Canterbury survived six back-to-back Cowboys sets on their own line.
That was an ironman effort leading into half-time, but it was energy-sapping and it told after the break.
"Any back-to-back sets, especially six of them, you make an extra 200 tackles and it really gasses you at the end of the game," Canterbury's Greg Eastwood said.
"I thought coming off last week against the Broncos we'd done the same, we ran out of gas there. Guys like Johnathan Thurston and [Michael] Morgan make you pay and that's what they did.
"The first half of the year we were great with the ball. Leading to the back of the year we've slackened off a bit.
"It's the individual wanting to hold the ball and make sure they play it correctly. We've had a few unforced errors lately and it's not like us," Eastwood said.
"We've just got to make sure that we're completing well and making sure we give [ourselves] chances for the full 80 [minutes] ... just staying in the grind and hopefully we can do that the next couple of weeks."
The Bulldogs close out the regular season on Friday night against South Sydney. They need a win and other results to go their way to sneak back into the top four.
More likely is an elimination final in the first week of the play-offs, against either Penrith or the Gold Coast. But Hasler isn't looking that far ahead. He just wants his team to eliminate the errors.
"The players are disappointed and more so probably a little frustrated because a lot of it is self-inflicted," Hasler said.
"They're basic, fundamental errors. It's a play the ball, it's a loose carry, it's a pushed pass, it's an offload.
"Underneath it all there lies the potential to turn it. There's enough experience and enough ability in this team to do that.
"We just need to manage 80 minutes of footy which we're not doing, we're a long way off."
