Brett Morris has moved to defend firebrand teammate Josh Reynolds following his emotional self-criticism in the wake of their NRL opening round loss to Melbourne.
A frustrated Reynolds tore strips off himself in a sideline radio interview and apologised to Bulldogs teammates in the dressing room after the 12-6 defeat.
The tenacious Bulldogs five-eighth is known for letting his emotions get the better of him and slammed his own performance despite scoring his side's only try.
While he did come up with a number of critical dropped balls with the game on the line, winger Morris said he shouldn't carry the blame.
"Joshy did (apologise) but Joshy was trying hard the whole game," Morris said.
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"You can't fault his effort. It was across the park, it wasn't just Josh mate. Errors on catches or passes, it wasn't just Joshy's fault."
Reynolds told Triple M "I blame myself a lot", he was "sick of being rash" and "I'm really shitty on myself" following his side's first-up performance.
Morris said the loss had more to do with the two tries they conceded in the first eight minutes and called for a more resolute opening stanza against the Sydney Roosters on Thursday night.
"We didn't start very well on the weekend," Morris conceded.
"That's something we need to fix. We came up against a Storm side and defence is what they're renowned for.
"We threw a lot of footy at them. There were parts of the game where we lacked execution, that final pass went to ground or was dropped.
"They're scoring opportunities and we didn't make the most of them."
