Hasler: Why we lost on Sunday

Coach Des Hasler explains why his side lost to the Tigers on Sunday and why the refereeing was a concern.

Bulldogs coach Des Hasler admitted his team weren’t good enough against the Wests Tigers on Sunday, but only because they never got the chance to prove otherwise. 

After going into the sheds with a hard fought 18-16 lead, Hasler watched his team allow the Tigers to score 30 unanswered points in the second half and eventually go down 46-18 in what can only be described as their worse defensive performance of the year.

“The players as a group were very disappointed with the performance. We have covered off the areas that need fixing and have made one another very accountable for it,” said Hasler.

The performance against the Tigers was not the Bulldogs everyone has come to know them as and there were a number of factors that contributed to the lost with the refereeing one of them.

Admitting he has never been a fan of the two-man refereeing system, Hasler had several queries for referees boss Tony Archer following his team's defeat to the Tigers last weekend when his team lost the penalty count and had a mere 38 per cent possession throughout the game.

"I thought the referees were really guilty of refereeing just one side in the ruck ," Hasler said.

"I can cop the mandatory penalties, I can cop the trips, I can cop the head highs but when you don't see infringements going both ways... the refereeing becomes a little bit inadequate so that's what I've alerted dear Tony about."

That said, Hasler didn't heap blame entirely onto the referees following the Bulldogs' 46-18 capitulation to the Tigers, noting that "hopefully it was a one-off".

The 46 points they conceded last Sunday against the West Tigers was easily a season-high and came exactly seven days after they put up a stoic performance in Melbourne, winning 6-4.