The Bulldogs’ flimsy defence against the Eels “pi**ed off” coach Cameron Ciraldo so much that he’s hinted some big changes to the side.
The Dogs missed a whopping 54 tackles in the 34-12 loss. The coach was disappointed to say the least — and put the blowtorch on his more experienced players.
“Defensively we were terrible,” Ciraldo said.
“The 54 missed tackles shows that. A lot of lack of effort off the ball, no togetherness in our defence and just some really poor tackling which pi**es me off the most.”
“Defensively we were terrible,” Ciraldo said.
“The 54 missed tackles shows that. A lot of lack of effort off the ball, no togetherness in our defence and just some really poor tackling which pi**es me off the most.”
“I thought he started all right,” he said.
“I said to them if you’re going to make a mistake defensively tonight make it going hard and he went hard twice. He got the detail wrong but there no one inside on to help save his arse and that’s what good teams do.
“We made seven linebreaks tonight to six, they scrambled way better than we did — that’s not the team we want to be.
“We want to build this club on defence and to have that many points put on you and miss 54 tackles is not what we’re going to be about.”
Ciraldo has made several tweaks to his 17 this season and indicated more could be coming — especially after the club’s New South Wales Cup side smashed the Eels 64-12.
“We’ve got a system in place... Everyone’s been given a chance to show they can do this system but at the moment if they can’t, we’re going to have to find people that can,” he said.
“Our NSW Cup side won convincingly, they scored 64 points but it’s their defence that’s impressed me the most. Some of those guys are really putting their hand up to play NRL.
“I thought our attack looked more dangerous at times so we are getting the combinations right there in attack but defensively it’s not where it needs to be and I need to find the people that can get it to where it needs to be.”
One player that is putting their hand up is halfback-turned-hooker Kyle Flanagan, who scored four tries and set up another in the reserve grade win.
Flanagan has shifted to No.9 ever since he was dropped in Round 9 and has looked very comfortable in the new role.
“He’s training really well, he’s really bought into the new position,” Ciraldo said.
“He’s probably in an unlucky position at the moment where he’s behind our captain but he’s doing everything possible to force his way into the team... maybe at some stage that might mean a bench spot moving forward.”