Bulldogs skipper Stephen Crichton says his side has to snap out of the hot and cold form that has plagued them for the past month, echoing his coach’s concerns that some players are starting to get “comfortable” just weeks out from the finals.
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A frustrated Cameron Ciraldo took the blame for some aspects of their loss to the Roosters last week but was also disappointed with several players for not maintaining their intensity for the entire 80 minutes.
Consistency built on defensive grit has been the foundation of their success this season, but there have been worrying signs in the past few weeks where they’ve had great wins over Manly and the Warriors coupled with ugly losses to the Tigers and Roosters.
“When the intensity went up, a few guys didn’t want to go with it,” Ciraldo said after Friday’s loss.
“We’ve had consistency for three quarters of the year. The last month has been disappointing.
“I sort of blame myself there because we’ve got some guys carrying niggles, and they just get through training instead of actually training.
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“I’m going to stop that. If you can’t train, it sort of results in a performance like that.”
Crichton is expecting a much improved training week ahead of their trip to Melbourne as they look to keep their top-two hopes alive against a team flying high after four-straight wins.
“I feel like the game that we play right now, we always fall back to our preparation,” the star centre said.
“A few of the boys that had sickness and stuff like that couldn’t train properly and that filtered into the game as well.
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“(Those comments) send a massive message to our boys that you shouldn’t be comfortable with your position, regardless of if you’re in the starting team or not because there are a lot of good players in our squad, so if you can’t do the job, we’ve got a lot of NSW Cup boys knocking on the door.
“A lot of the boys definitely heard that (message).”
Crichton knows what success looks like which is why he and his fellow leaders in the playing group have vowed to not let complacency creep in after such a strong start to the season.
The Bulldogs finish the year with games against the Storm, Panthers and Sharks, with a home preliminary final on offer if they can recapture their early season form.
“We’re probably getting a little too comfortable in that sense,” Crichton said, urging his teammates to ignore the external noise over key changes to the spine with Lachlan Galvin and Bailey Hayward now starting.
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“We’re at the serious end of the season now leading into finals so it’s on the individual to train the way that you play and bring that (to a game). I feel like a lot of our players do that, but it’s a team job to go out there and put a performance on.
“We’ve played two really good footy games and two really bad footy games so it’s about tapping into the mindset of where your mind was for those two games.
“In these big games, nothing is given to you so you have to earn everything. I felt like we earned it in the first 20 minutes but then went away from it so it’s a good stepping stone for us and a good learning.
“Hopefully we learn our lesson this week because the exact same thing is coming against Melbourne.”
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