Steve Georgallis believes the Bulldogs were right to reject a penalty goal shot to tie the scores midway through the second half of an 18-16 loss to the Eels on Sunday.
With Canterbury having already scored three unanswered tries, prop Aiden Tolman opted to keep up the pressure when he took a tap instead of allowing Jake Averillo to boot two points from in front.
The interim coach was comfortable with the call despite it proving crucial in his team falling short of a fantastic comeback.
"That was the players. I've told the players to play how they feel, and they felt at the time that Parramatta were under pressure," he said.
"I don't think making it 18-all with two points was going to win us the game. I think they made the right call. In hindsight, you look back now and the score ends up 18-16, but at the time with 23, 24 minutes to go, I thought they made the right decision."
Match Highlights: Bulldogs v Eels
However, Georgallis did have a gripe with his side's decision-making: he wanted them to use a captain's challenge when referee Chris Sutton ruled an obstruction that cost Marcelo Montoya a first-half try.
"We were yelling to challenge it. Obviously [Parramatta] knew that they played for [a penalty] and they wanted to get on with the game pretty quick," Georgallis said.
"Obviously in the second half they tried the same thing and this time they were able to look at it [in the Bunker] and award the try. It's a bit of a grey area in our game.
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"But I don't think that's what put us in that position anyway. Errors and penalties early in that game really put us on the back foot. Zapped our energy a little bit."
Despite the disappointment of the result at ANZ Stadium, Georgallis said he "couldn't be prouder" of the team's efforts.
"When they were 18-nil down they still had the football to get back into that game. I just said we've got to be a smarter football team. The first half cost us the game," he said.
"We've been clear for the last two or three weeks about winning games. I'm about coaching them to win games."
