{"id":672566,"date":"2026-05-15T12:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/672566\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T12:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:43:12","slug":"would-be-bullst-ciraldos-brutal-call-over-dogs-excuses-as-ugly-reality-sinks-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/672566\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Would be bulls**t\u2019: Ciraldo\u2019s brutal call over Dogs \u2018excuses\u2019 as ugly reality sinks in"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo labelled any excuses for his team\u2019s defensive struggles \u201cwould be bulls**t\u201d following the club\u2019s fifth straight loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bulldogs were soundly beaten 38-16 by the Sharks to open up Magic Round at Suncorp Stadium. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Dogs have been renowned for their defensive prowess since Ciraldo arrived at the club, but this season, that aspect of their game has declined sharply.<\/p>\n

On Friday night, the Bulldogs conceded five tries in the first 35 minutes. While the Sharks looked sharp, there were two or three tries that simply should not have been allowed thanks to some major defensive lapses. <\/p>\n

It was a far cry from the team who conceded just 17 points per game last year.<\/p>\n

Ciraldo was asked to explain some of those effort from his side, but he couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t, it\u2019s hard to explain,\u201d Ciraldo said bluntly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some very ugly moments, but I think the possession was like 65-35 against us at that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I want to make an excuse, maybe it was fatigue, but it\u2019d be bulls**t anyway. We need to do better.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is, defence is all about attitude, and we\u2019re very good for long periods defensively, and then we take a moment off, or we have an individual take a moment off, and it\u2019s hurting.<\/p>\n

\u201dThere was a lot we were doing right in the first half. It sounds silly when you let in 30 points, but the stats were really even. Run meters, line breaks, tackle breaks.<\/p>\n

\u201cKick diffusal though was just way off where it needed to be. That gave the Sharks possession and field position. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been a good team at that sort of stuff for a long time and we made it hard on ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronaldo return upstaged by penalty try | 00:37<\/p>\n

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Captain Stephen Crichton echoed his coach\u2019s sentiments but feels the Bulldogs need to adjust to the increased pace of the game, with some lazy moments being punished.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re training really well and practice those scenarios at training, but like coach said, when you think that the ball\u2019s not going to come, you try and take a play off,\u201d Crichton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game\u2019s really fast now, and little moments like that just come back to bite you, so you\u2019ve just got to get back to training, work hard and get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was Crichton\u2019s last chance to stake his claim for a spot in Laurie Daley\u2019s Blues backline for Game I, with Origin teams announced on Monday. <\/p>\n

At the start of the season, he would\u2019ve been unbackable odds to retain his spot, but it just hasn\u2019t been his year so far and it\u2019s being reported he is just behind Kotoni Staggs <\/a>in the race for the NSW right centre position.<\/p>\n

Despite the loss, Crichton did his chances no harm, scoring a try, running for 136 metres and recording six tackle busts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t really spoken to him (Daley) or haven\u2019t really thought of it,\u201d Crichton said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just been thinking about my performances with the Dogs, and like we always say, you perform well at club land, you get those calls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bulldogs suffer 5th straight loss | 01:35<\/p>\n

Next up, the Bulldogs will face the Storm, who will likely be without Harry Grant and Cam Munster.<\/p>\n

Ciraldo believes being back at home will boost his side significantly, calling on the club\u2019s passionate fan base to head out to Accor Stadium next Friday night.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve had a lot of travel. We\u2019ve been in Vegas, Canberra. We\u2019ve travelled to Brisbane three times in four weeks. Agains, that is no excuse, but we\u2019re pretty keen to get back home next week and play in front of our home fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the boys have given our fans a lot to cheer about over the last two years, and we need some energy from our fans next week at Accor Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys are trying, they\u2019re preparing their arses off. I\u2019s not happening on the field right now, but it\u2019d be great to get a big crowd there and support the boys and give them some energy next Friday night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo labelled any excuses for his team\u2019s defensive struggles \u201cwould be bulls**t\u201d following the club\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,689,651,7618,147893,23296,11096,277712,101928,324532,14348,17341,5092,761,762,158,677,254120,39570,668,701,324531,85,324533,257037,11375],"class_list":["post-672566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-brisbane","tag-cameron-ciraldo","tag-centre-position","tag-club-land","tag-daniel-nuttall","tag-defensive-lapses","tag-defensive-prowess","tag-defensive-struggles","tag-disappointing-loss","tag-home-fans","tag-line-breaks","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-passionate-fan-base","tag-penalty-try","tag-press-conference","tag-queensland","tag-run-meters","tag-sports","tag-stephen-crichton-blues","tag-straight-loss","tag-tackle-busts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}