Cronulla Sharks coach Shane Flanagan believes his side was its own worst enemy in the scrappy 24-8 loss to the Bulldogs at Bluetongue Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Sharks pivot Todd Carney created two breakaway scoring opportunities for his outside backs in the first half only to see them blow the chances with poor last passes.
Two more deft passes from Carney mid-way through the second half saw Paul Gallen and then Wade Graham spill the ball with the try-line begging as the Cronulla side let the Bulldogs off the hook.
"We had our chances in the first half that is for sure," Flanagan said after the match.
"We had two real clear opportunities and our skill level was poor in the first half and they should have been tries. I feel we were our own worst enemy and we gave it to them today.
Skipper Gallen agreed with his coach.
"It is like all our losses - we have been in all our games but simple errors like two-on-one passes for tries have let us down, it is simply not good enough for first grade," he said.
"We are playing really well in patches and poor in others and it is costing us. We are working really hard to give ourselves opportunities but unfortunately that last pass isn't sticking at the moment. It has been the same in all of our losses."
After trailing 12-2 at the half-time break the Sharks fought back early in the second half and looked like they could go on with it.
But the combination of dropped ball and a couple of 50-50 refereeing decisions going against them saw the Cronulla side fall away.
"It was tough (the ref's calls) but you need to be able to roll with those ones," Flanagan said.
"I thought we had a few on the try-line there that we defended but that was a tough call and we are not playing well enough at the moment to get on top of those ones.
"As I said we were our own worst enemy today, we dropped the ball and we wasted too many opportunities."
The Sharks coach admitted the on-field performance reflected the low level of confidence his players are feeling, but refused to comment whether their mindset had anything to do with the on-going ASADA investigation into drug supplements at the club.
"It probably is (confidence)," he said of their on-field fortunes.
"Some of the last passes we put down today some of them was the quality of our skill execution wasn't there. When you are going well they sometimes stick but they didn't stick today.
"I am not talking about ASADA. I am sick of talking about it. I am not talking about ASADA, neither is Paul and neither is anyone in our organisation. It has been spoken about for six months.
"We will prepare for the next game as we would for any other game."
Flanagan reserved one final blast for the club's decision to allow the match to be moved away from their home ground at Cronulla to Bluetongue Stadium on the Central Coast.
"I am not happy about it," he said.
"For us the advantage of Shark Park is massive and I know it might be a good financial decision but for me as a coach I'd rather be sitting at Shark Park now."