Frustrated Canterbury-Bankstown coach Kevin Moore has blasted referees Tony Archer and Matt Cecchin over their handling of Friday's blockbuster clash against St George Illawarra at WIN Stadium.
For the second straight week, the Bulldogs crawled out of the blocks to trail a clinical Dragons side that was clearly the better team on the night by 16 points after 17 minutes.
But Moore was left fuming after his charges finished on the wrong end of a nine-to-three penalty count on the way to a second straight loss to start the 2010 season.
"Sometimes it feels like you can't get a fair crack of the whip," Moore growled.
"I just thought some of the decisions tonight were unacceptable at this level of footy honestly - and that was both ways."
"Missing that knock-on from 'General' (Luke Patten) for example - and I think I'm being fair here - the refereeing I thought was very unacceptable."
"Some of those decisions like the penalty on Noddy (Brett Kimmorley for disrupting the play-the-ball) on the fifth play, he (the Dragons player) just dropped the ball."
"The flop on Gary Warburton, when you're getting on top and it's 16-6 and your kick-chase game is coming together and you're putting pressure on the opposition, if you tackle a player around the legs and he's still rolling I think you're entitled to dive on it."
Knee injuries to Michael Hodgson and Mickey Paea compounded the loss with both men suffering suspected medial ligament damage.
Despite his obvious disappointment over the loss, the coach could not fault the efforts of his charges.
"Getting to 16-0 after about 17 minutes hurt us," he said.
"I thought there wasn't a lot in the rest of the game. I really think in the last 65 minutes of the game we created a lot of opportunities and we had chances to put points on the board."
"Our execution at the moment is a bit off, particularly against a team that's one of the best defensive sides in the competition, you've got to be spot on with your execution."
"But overall I thought the effort was good but they were too good on the night."
Meanwhile, Moore insists revelations that prop Ben Hannant is homesick and wants out of the club to return to the Gold Coast were not a distraction after the story broke on the eve of the game.
"That's a situation that we've been aware of for the last five or six weeks," he said.
"Myself and CEO Todd (Greenberg) have had a number of discussions with both Ben and his manager George Mimis and I've spoken to the senior players about it."
"So everyone in the club are aware of it and they're understanding to Ben's situation."
"He's not going to shirk the task, he's a professional he'll keep putting in and the players know that so it's not an issue."