Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo was uncertain if Josh Addo-Carr’s roadside drug test saga impacted his side ahead their finals clash, but admitted it had taken a personal toll on him.

Addo-Carr stood himself down from Canterbury-Bankstown’s fixture against the Sea Eagles in the wake of reports he had tested positive on a roadside drug test.

The gun winger has maintained he hadn’t taken any illegal substances, however his secondary test also returned a positive result for cocaine.

“I know I’ve done nothing wrong and my name will be cleared in time,” he said in a statement.

Speaking following the Bulldogs’ 24-22 loss to the Sea Eagles, their first finals appearance since 2016, Ciraldo was unsure whether the off-field drama hampered his players.

“It’s hard to say whether it has had an impact or not,” Ciraldo said.

“What I will say is I thought we handled it great. I thought having a leader like Gus (Gould) was awesome for myself and the playing group.

“You are always looking at the playing group and thinking ‘how has it affected them?’. They came to me and said ‘this is not a distraction for us, we are right to go’.

“I think it showed out there tonight how well they prepared all week, it’s a credit to these players and our leaders they were able to shift any focus on that on to trying to get the job done tonight.”

When asked if the situation had affected him, Ciraldo said: “Yeah, obviously the main concern is for Josh and his family, once that’s done I had a job to do with the team,

“I was really lucky the leaders, like Stephen, helped me with that.

“So we were really excited about finals footy, that was the main thing during the week and I was really happy with how we prepared.”