Canterbury Bulldogs coach Dean Pay has described his side's performance as "poor" citing a lack of discipline behind the 26-10 loss to the Canberra Raiders at GIO Stadium on Thursday.
The loss has consigned the Bulldogs to a 1-4 record to start the Telstra Premiership season, a record that will only change with an improvement in game management according to Pay.
"We were making too many errors and it's just not putting us in the contest," Pay said.
"We're giving away too many dumb penalties and that's hurting us too."
The Raiders exploited space in behind Canterbury's defensive line with Aidan Sezer kicks helping set up three of the home side's four tries.
Pay said his side cannot allow defensive lapses to continue to be exploited throughout the course of a game.
Match: Raiders v Bulldogs
Round 5 -
home Team
Raiders
13th Position
away Team
Bulldogs
15th Position
Venue: GIO Stadium, Canberra
"There's a lot area to improve on, they scored three tries off kicks and run 100 metres off the one other one," he said.
"So, we're doing a lot of good things, but we're just killing ourselves with errors and penalties."
Canterbury captain Josh Jackson will be waiting on the outcome of the NRL's match review committee meeting after being placed on report for a late tackle on Sezer with two minutes left in the game.
Despite the loss there were encouraging signs moving forward for the Dogs, with David Klemmer getting through a mountain of work - 18 runs for 193 metres alongside 27 tackles.
Centre Will Hopoate was also dangerous with the ball in hand to finish with 170 metres for the night.
However, a frustrated Pay said the good work was constantly being undone by ill-discipline.
"There's some boys that are really busting their arse each and every week, and we're not getting our reward for what we're doing because we're coming up with poor play and coming up with errors and letting them off the hook," Pay said.
Bulldogs press conference - Round 5
