Phil Gould concedes it may take up to six years for Canterbury to rise from their NRL rut, insisting it was only a matter of time before the club suffered a catastrophic loss like they did at the weekend.
The Bulldogs' 66-0 rout against the Knights on Sunday was one of the side's heaviest defeats in history, matching their loss against Manly two years ago.
Only an 87-7 defeat to Eastern Suburbs in 1935 and a 91-6 drubbing to St George in that same debut season eclipsed those losses.
But the horror scoreline wasn't a surprise for legendary coach and Bulldogs head of football Phil Gould, who admitted he had long expected the young side to suffer a hefty defeat.
"It's sort of the breaking point for our club," he said on Tuesday.
"Players have probably been exposed to the top grade before their time. We just had too many of those there on the weekend at one time.
"And others too are in their first season, and they can't keep going forever at that rate."
Had the club made tough decisions to improve the quality of the roster years ago they wouldn't be in the position today, Gould said, with injuries to Luke Thompson and Viliame Kikau also casting a shadow over their season.
"Someone has to come in and make the tough decisions and realise that this is going to be tough for a while," Gould said.
"My aim is that they're not in this position in five or six year's time.
"With the roster and where we are in this timeline, this year was always going to be a difficult year."
The Bulldogs have been linked to experienced hands Ben Hunt, Matt Lodge and Luke Brooks in recent times.
But Gould insisted he wasn't looking for a quick fix, despite the club having some wriggle room in its salary cap.
"We don't want to go out and have knee-jerk reactions in the marketplace. We need to plan what we're going to do," Gould said.
"The next great Bulldogs team will be built from within ... and that will give them long-term sustainable success."
Gould, who set back-to-back reigning premiers Penrith on the path to success as head of football before he departed in 2019, is looking to do the same with the beleaguered Bulldogs.
He praised the club's developmental pathways program as the best way to setting it up for future success.
"We can't cut corners on the process because as soon as you do, you put yourself further behind. It hurts you in the long term," he said.
The journey to rebuilding the club has begun with the signing of Toby Sexton from Gold Coast and plans to better utilise 18-year-old Karl Oloapu, lured from Brisbane on big money this season.
The third-last ladder team will return to the scene of their heavy loss to face South Sydney on Saturday.
