Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo used his post-match press conference to deliver a stern warning to his players after a shock upset against the Eels.

Ciraldo started by saying his side was “way off our best” after finishing with a 75 per cent completion rate and conceding six penalties along with 13 errors.

The Dogs were coming off a shock win over Penrith and were the hot favourites on Sunday considering Parramatta’s dire injury crisis and form.

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Ciraldo admitted there’s a chance complacency crept into his side.

Cameron Ciraldo speaks to the media post-match.  Nine

“I’d like to think not but that’s certainly what it looked like,” he said bluntly.

The coach also rued his side’s resilience when those errors and penalties compounded.

“I thought we started well, we started with good energy and intent. But any sort of error and penalty we had, we just showed no resilience to defend it. The scoreboard ticked over,” he said.

“I thought Parra were really good, exactly what we expected them to be. So deserved the win but we were way off our best.”

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Seven rounds into the season, the Bulldogs sit 10th on the ladder and have struggled to score with only the Dragons registering a worse points-for stat.

Ciraldo said he’d have to get a “psychology degree” to figure out how to bridge the gap between his side’s best and worst.

“Our best is good enough to challenge anyone. Our worst is a long way off that so we want to be consistent, we want to be playing close to our best every week but today was far from it and we need to figure out why,” he said.

The Bulldogs will now have a short turnaround, playing the Broncos in Brisbane on Friday.

If there are any excuses to not turn up there, Ciraldo isn’t using them and warned if the same happens again, it will spell problems.

“Who cares how long the turnaround is,” he said.

“If we turn up with the right mindset, we’ll give ourselves a chance. If we turn up with that crap, we’ll get what we deserve.”