Canterbury Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo has hinted that substantial changes to the team may be needed after the club suffered its third consecutive loss to the North Queensland Cowboys.

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Happy with the team’s performance in the opening 60 minutes of the match, Ciraldo couldn’t say the same about the final 20.

With scores level heading into the final 30 minutes of the match, the Bulldogs conceded three quick tries to Scott Drinkwater, Jake Clifford and Braidon Burns, which handed their opponents the win.

“For 60 minutes that looked like our style of game. It wasn’t perfect but it was 12-all with 20 minutes left and we’re probably exactly where we wanted to be, where we prided ourselves on over the last couple of years,” Ciraldo said.

“There will be a lot of positives that we’ll look at from there but very disappointing the way we finished to let in three really soft tries.

“It’s not good enough but we’re in a bit of a spot at the moment where cleary we’re a bit low on confidence and we need to remember that there was a lot of good stuff in our first 60 minutes.

“We have to put the shovel down ourselves first because some of what we’re doing to ourselves, whether that’s just taking plays off and that third try to the Cowboys came through that.

“But if we put the shovel down ourselves, that might help.”

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Only winning three of their opening eight matches, the Bulldogs have a tough road ahead against the Dolphins, Sharks and Storm, but all those matches are winnable if they don’t have lapses on the field as they did against the Cowboys.

Asked if changes needed to be made to the squad, Ciraldo said, “Possibly. We don’t have a lot of players either.

“Sean O’Sullivan came back to NSW Cup today. He was suspended for a couple of weeks and we’ve just lost Jake Turpin again. He looks like he’s torn his biceps.

“Changes might help and will definitely look at that but it’s not going to be the solution. We need to get everyone playing closer to their potential individually and that will help us as a team.

“But we’ve also got to stop having those moments in the last 20 minutes where we don’t stay present and we stop competing.”