Michael Ennis has thrown his support behind under-fire Canterbury coach Kevin Moore and says the players must shoulder the blame for the club's poor recent form.

Despite shelling out for the likes of Frank Pritchard, Aiden Tolman, Kris Keating and Trent Hodkinson in the off-season to bolster an already-powerful squad, the Bulldogs sit in seventh spot on the NRL ladder, just two points ahead of 10th-placed Penrith.

Speculation is mounting Moore will be shown the door following his side's woeful performance in Saturday's 38-4 hammering by Manly at ANZ Stadium.

However Ennis backed the coach to turn things around, and admitted the players need to improve and ease the pressure on Moore.

"Things like this always pop up when the side is not going well, we are not playing as well as we would like to," Ennis told AAP.

"But Kevin is not the one who is running out onto the field and turning the ball over and conceding soft penalties.

"All those key errors we have come up with over the past few weeks are down to the playing group and we need to improve on that."

Injuries to props Aiden Tolman and Mickey Paea have hurt the Bulldogs, but Ennis refused to use their absence against Manly as a reason for the team's poorest performance of the 2011 campaign.

"We are a bit light up front due to some injuries, but that is no excuse, we are better than we have shown in recent weeks," he said.

"We are on the back foot as a side, and we certainly were on Saturday against Manly and while the coach seems to be the one copping it, it is down to us as players to get better."

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