Griffiths said the Bulldogs defence lacked cohesion, communication and determination as Kurri surrendered an early 12 point lead to be over-run by the Seagulls in the second half.

The Bulldogs were able to score enough points in the absence of star playmaker Terence Seu Seu, but missed his defensive grit and organisational skills.

Seu Seu will be missing again this week for the Bulldogs Old Boys’ Day game against Macquarie Scorpions and Griffiths has called on senior players to tighten up the defence and improve on-field communication.

“They scored a couple of easy tries towards the end of the first half which were through our lack of desire in defence,” Griffiths said.

“But full credit to our guys we certainly created some good opportunities to put points on the board to go into half-time with the lead.

“Up until that time we had been reasonably good in defence.

“At half-time we thought if we focused on our effort in the second half it would hold us in good stead.”

However, the chinks exposed in the Bulldogs defensive armour became holes and Lakes took full advantage to score five second half tries.

“I think our ineffective tackles hurt us, there were just too many of them. Our first up contact wasn’t good enough, we were falling off a fair bit,” Griffiths said.

“They were able to gain some momentum from that. 

“Once we lost one tackle we couldn’t reel the set back in and they were just able to carry more football and take advantage of our fatigue at the end.”

Griffiths said the Bulldogs looked more enterprising in attack but couldn’t match Lakes’ desire for hard work.

“I thought we constructed better tries but they worked harder for their tries and showed more desire. We didn’t have enough desire in defence,” he said.

“That was the most disappointing thing. Even when we’ve been beaten I’ve liked our effort, but it was missing there on the weekend.

“Our communication was right down across the park, obviously we were missing Terence but in saying that they were missing their hooker Chris Adams as well.

“Terence challenges the other players to go with him in defence and I thought that was something we missed.”

Griffiths said he was pleased with the continued good form of fullback Jarom Haines, five-eighth Ryan Walsh and back-rower Brady Hammond who were the Bulldogs’ best on Sunday.

“Brady is just unassuming, he turns up and does the same thing for you each week. He doesn’t take much maintenance, he has a reasonable understanding of the game and gets through his work,” Griffiths said

“Ryan has consistently been our best back and that was Jarom’s fourth game for us and his relationship is really starting to flourish with Ryan.”