Canterbury coach Des Hasler insists he isn't concerned about his job security despite their NRL season all but going up in flames following a 16-8 loss to Penrith.
The Bulldogs once again struggled in attack to fall to their fourth defeat in five matches, leaving them six points out of the top eight with five games remaining in the regular season.
A day after he refused to believe their season was over, Hasler finally conceded his streak of 12 straight finals appearances as a head coach had also come to an end.
"It's going to be hard from here," Hasler said.
"They always have a good crack. The effort's been always been there. I thought we had opportunities tonight, Penrith gave us a few. We just weren't quite able to execute."
After leading the club to five straight finals campaigns - including two grand finals - since shifting to Belmore in 2012, questions are certain to again be asked about Hasler's future.
It was believed his tenure was raised at a board meeting this week, however the two-time premiership-winning coach was unmoved after the loss to the Panthers.
"What's the point of worrying? You can only really play what's in front. Why should I be worried? I tend not to listen," he said.
"I'll have to let it settle, strip back and find reasons why. What's important is what we're going to make of the end. There's still five games to go. We've got to finish those."
Skipper James Graham was at a loss to explain the run of defeats.
"Obviously the results speak for themselves sometimes but I thought the effort was there tonight. I'm not sure, I can't put a finger on why we lost that game tonight," he said.
Hasler said the club would monitor injuries to Sam Kasiano (sternum) and Adam Elliott (cork) before figuring out how to approach the final five weeks of the season.
He indicated continuing with the experiment of Moses Mbye at hooker, which has limited Michael Lichaa to less than five minutes over the past fortnight.
"I think he's transitioned there well. He played the GF at hooker and he certainly offers something out of there, that's for sure," Hasler said.
"It's something we can experiment week-to-week with. It's something we can look at going forward, definitely."
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