Gold Coast Titans head coach Des Hasler has slammed his side's execution in attack after their third straight loss to start the 2024 NRL season.
It has been a miserable start to the new year for the Gold Coast, with Hasler's side conceding at least 30 points in all three games they have played to date.
The added concern for the Titans has been that those games have been against the St George Illawarra Dragons, Canterbury Bulldogs and now The Dolphins, with the Titans at one stage leading their clash against the Dolphins on Saturday evening 10 points to 0.
They also had the added advantage of Dolphins' forward Max Plath being sin binned during the first half, but failed to capitalise on their lead and advantage, eventually falling 30 points to 14.
Hasler said his side simply aren't good enough yet.
"You could probably copy and paste last week. We are not putting two halves together, we aren't executing well. I thought there at one stage during the first half we had a good opportunity to put them away. They had one in the sin bin, but we came up with dropped balls and leg up penalties," Hasler said during his post-match press conference.
"12-10 at halftime, then we start the same process as last week where we just aren't good enough yet. We are still growing. Defensively we need to not have so much pressure, but it's all to do with our attack. I thought we had a little bit better shape today, but just inexcusable where we are turning over possession.
"It's part and parcel of the game. We have to get better at that. We haven't put two halves together and it's something that we have to keep working at.
"I can line up the excuses with a list this long but what's the point? There is enough there that we are sort of showing, but we just have to get better at it. There are parts there like I said last week, but again, we have leaked 30 points.
"There is plenty there to build on, but we start well, we create some good platforms and then we give it all away. It's not going to get any easier."
The Titans made 11 errors during the game, and missed 39 tackles compared to the Dolphins' eight errors and 18 missed tackles.
By the time it was all said and done, the Titans had just 47 per cent of the ball, and captain Kieran Foran said it was simply a result of his side putting themselves under pressure through mistakes.
"I think we just aren't consistent enough with our attack. We are coming up with silly errors early on, and when we do get an opportunity we do come away with points, but we aren't down there enough and then eventually, we get too exhausted from defending that we leak points," Foran said.
"We need to find a way to control the ball better, get more sets down there and we just aren't doing that at the moment. It just feels like we are constantly on the back foot defending."
The Titans, who are glued to the bottom of the ladder, don't have it any easier in the next fortnight either with trips away to play the North Queensland Cowboys and Canberra Raiders, before they play the Manly Sea Eagles at home and New Zealand Warriors away on Anzac Day.
