Bulldogs strike first in NRL finals with 16-10 win over Sea Eagles
Roar Guru By The Roar, 7 Sep 2012
- Tagged:
- Ben Barba, Canterbury Bulldogs, Josh Morris, Manly Sea Eagles, NRL, NRL finals
Ben Barba attacks. AAP Image/Action Photographics, Renee McKay
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Minor Premiers Canterbury Bulldogs are now one win away from the NRL Grand Final after a gritty 16-10 victory over the Manly Sea Eagles, who will be left counting the cost of a bruising 80 minutes of rugby league.
Geoff Toovey will wait nervously on the availability of several key players ahead of a sudden-death final next weekend, with Jamie Lyon picking up a leg injury and Jason King and Steve Matai both placed on report.
Despite finishing the season in top spot the Bulldogs came into this one as underdogs, with the Sea Eagles seemingly rediscovering the form that saw them crowned 2011 Premiers.
But pre-match expectations appeared unfounded when Bulldogs flyer Josh Morris sliced through some questionable Sea Eagles defence and set up winger Jonathan Wright to cross the tryline on the Bulldogs’ first meaningful attack of the night.
Manly slowly began to win the arm wrestle and were dominating possession without hurting the Bulldogs on the scoreboard, and the frustration began to show.
Jason King was the first to be placed on report after an errant high shot on James Graham and serial offender Steve Matai followed minutes later after another reckless effort that is certain to attract the scrutiny of the NRL judiciary.
A promising opening 20 minutes had all of a sudden turned sour for the Sea Eagles, and when Lyon limped off with a calf injury before the half hour it looked a long way back for the boys from Brookvale.
But a rapid-fire one-two punch from Mark Taufua and Brett Stewart turned the contest on its head within the space of five minutes and the Sea Eagles went into the break with a 10-6 lead and all the momentum.
The second half opened much like the first, with both sides trading punches in a tight, classically finals-like contest, before a superb solo effort from Bulldogs halfback Kris Keating put Des Hasler’s men back in the lead.
It seemed to invigorate the Bulldogs after the shock of the two first-half Sea Eagles tries and the Bulldogs’ two chief destroyers were at it again soon afterwards.
Morris and Barba have lit up defences throughout the season and they linked again to scorch Manly in a length-of-the-field try following an ineffective Daly Cherry-Evans kick.
The Dally M Medallist had his opponents at sixes and sevens and looked to have crossed again five minutes later, but video referee Steve Clark ruled that Cherry-Evans had been impeded in what appeared another controversial application of the obstruction rule.
The six-point margin proved enough for the Dogs, who showed the composure and professionalism that has served them so well througout the season to close out the final quarter of an hour and seal the 16-10 victory.
- Explore:
- Ben Barba, Canterbury Bulldogs, Josh Morris, Manly Sea Eagles, NRL, NRL finals
September 7th 2012 @ 10:07pm
Maroon Blood said | September 7th 2012 @ 10:07pm | Report comment
How many so called experts that gave the Dogs no chance now are eating humble pie! As a neutral watching this, I thought th Dogs were easily the better team and some of the refereeing, especially in the first ten minutes, was rubbish and gave Manly several undeserved leg-ups. It was a sign of how much Manly were being outplayed that they had to resort to niggling, grubby tactics several times during the game. Great win by the men in blue & white and totally deserved. My Bankstown-born wife is one happy camper!!
September 7th 2012 @ 10:18pm
NF said | September 7th 2012 @ 10:18pm | Report comment
36k for Dogs/Manly should of been 40k aleast should of been better considering it’s 2011 Premiers vs this year minor premiers makes it even worse to be honest. Good on Doggies for the win whomever wins out of Cows/Broncos got there hands full with Manly next week. What does it take to get people to games for god sakes even finals can’t bring them out.
September 8th 2012 @ 12:38am
James D said | September 8th 2012 @ 12:38am | Report comment
cant blame the bulldogs supporters they turned up in numbers manly on the other hand had that small section on the eastern side probs five thousand of them and thats it.
September 8th 2012 @ 1:00am
JVGO said | September 8th 2012 @ 1:00am | Report comment
Getting from the beaches to Homebush on a Friday night is such fun isn’t it, hardly surprising. Very good game though, some great long range tries and breaks. i didn’t think the Dogs were quite that good, cherry Evans and Foran seemed a bit lost, they are struggling. Manly on that form are beatable, by anybody.
September 8th 2012 @ 9:39am
Michael said | September 8th 2012 @ 9:39am | Report comment
I get the point about traveling from Manly, but what about the neutrals? Surely there’d be people in Sydney within comfortable distance of homebush that would want to see a cracking game of football?
September 8th 2012 @ 11:38am
James D said | September 8th 2012 @ 11:38am | Report comment
Thats true but i guess with rugby league having that tribal feel to it you wouldn’t really see that neutral support i guess, ill put my hand up now if souths arn’t playing then you wont see me there i do watch the games of other teams on tv but thats as far as my neutral support goes haha
September 8th 2012 @ 1:35pm
JVGO said | September 8th 2012 @ 1:35pm | Report comment
I believe we’ve established in other discussions that Dee Why to Homebush on public transport is 2 hrs one way, just not feasible on a Friday night. I’m sure the ratings were good.
September 8th 2012 @ 2:09pm
yewonk said | September 8th 2012 @ 2:09pm | Report comment
if manly cant reach basic crowd levels for a first grade competion they should be kicked out.
if it was the knights they would have travelled, st george travelled last week.
September 8th 2012 @ 10:20am
Mals said | September 8th 2012 @ 10:20am | Report comment
As it was the Dogs home game & first finals appearance for some time I would have expected more of them to attend. Manly had more than 5K supporters there.
September 8th 2012 @ 1:56pm
janet said | September 8th 2012 @ 1:56pm | Report comment
Poor attendance u r right! Give Queensland all the final games and we will show u how its done!
September 7th 2012 @ 10:51pm
eagleJack said | September 7th 2012 @ 10:51pm | Report comment
Not sure how you can describe the Barba no-try as “what appeared another controversial application of the obstruction rule”. Seemed pretty clear cut to me. Very similar to the 2 Manly had disallowed in the Cowboys game. Lead runner can’t come into contact with the defensive line. Doesn’t matter if you think the impeded player will get to the ball runner or not. Simple.
Dogs were the better team no doubt. Lot of work for Manly to do in relation to their lackadaisical 2nd halves. People will probably write them off now which is how they prefer it. Broncos or Cowboys at SFS next week should be an interesting proposition. Manly never play that badly 2 weeks in a row.
September 7th 2012 @ 11:19pm
glacier said | September 7th 2012 @ 11:19pm | Report comment
NF
“Should of ‘ is not correct English grammar and therefore what you say is meaningless. It is ‘should’ve” that is in long form ‘should have’.
September 7th 2012 @ 11:23pm
NF said | September 7th 2012 @ 11:23pm | Report comment
My mistake I tend to use the ‘should of’ instead of ‘should have’ every now & again human error. But you cannot deny glacier that the Dogs/Manly crowd is disappointing for 2 Sydney teams, finals, 1 vs 4 only 36k. Tomorrow DFS will be to capacity for the QLD derby that’s for sure.
September 7th 2012 @ 11:33pm
hatamahata said | September 7th 2012 @ 11:33pm | Report comment
Hope Manly don’t win the GF with those dirty tactics. That would be a joke.
September 8th 2012 @ 12:21am
Queensland's Game Is Rugby League said | September 8th 2012 @ 12:21am | Report comment
Is the Manly Warringah club in bed with Bill Harrigan?
The amount of decisions that go Manly’s way is unbelievable.
Matai should be suspended for a couple of weeks for the shot he put on Perritt.
Hopefully the Cowbys will knock over the Broncos tomorrow night. I reckon they are in the right form to knock the Sea Eagles out of the finals. I can see them putting 30 or 40 points on Manly if all things go to plan, especially if Lyons and Matai are out and the refs don’t stuff up.
September 8th 2012 @ 6:24am
eagleJack said | September 8th 2012 @ 6:24am | Report comment
Yeah I distinctly remember Cowboys fans saying the exact same thing last year. Correct me if I’m
wrong but Manly won that 42-8 right? Sydney doesn’t agree with the Cowboys, 16% win rate over the last 4 years is testament to that.
September 8th 2012 @ 12:50pm
Stanza said | September 8th 2012 @ 12:50pm | Report comment
I think Manly may be a bit more vulnerable than last year considering injuries and suspension to Lyon, Galuvao and Matai. Also noticed Cherry Evans was off his game last night,form issues perhaps or one off? Not saying the Cows will win but it won’t be like last year’s flogging. I also think the NQ forwards can stand up to the aggressive nature of Manly’s forwards but… we have to Beat the Broncs tonight for this to happen!
September 8th 2012 @ 10:21pm
Queensland's Game Is Rugby League said | September 8th 2012 @ 10:21pm | Report comment
Cowboys were all over the unskilled Sea Eagles for the first 50 minutes. Then the grubby Manly forwards started holding down the Cowboys players in the play-the-ball so they could get an unfair advantage. The ref allowed it to happen. Manly didn’t get onto the board until they started doing that.
It didn’t help that we lost one of our second-rowers to a serious neck injury at that stage of the game. Hard to beat a team that has a grubby forward pack when there’s one less second rower on the bench. The fatigue from having one less big man to rotate the fowards around, combined with the extra energy our fowards had to use in the play-the-ball due to Manly holding down longer than is legal, really hurt us. The ARLC should strip Manly of their 2011 Premiership for being a grubby team of cheats and putting the game into disrespute through their unsportsmanlike conduct.
September 9th 2012 @ 7:59pm
Wests Life Member said | September 9th 2012 @ 7:59pm | Report comment
Qld’s Game is Rugby League……..you are very limited in your views. Manly smashed the Cowboys last year and to say it was due to ‘grubby tactics’ is pathetic. Please take emotion out of your posts.
Manly face a tough prospect next week and yes they are physical but please….. all teams play dirty to fit their needs. Bulldogs were very grubby themselves. Did you notice Michael Ennis at all??????
September 10th 2012 @ 12:04am
Queensland's Game Is Rugby League said | September 10th 2012 @ 12:04am | Report comment
“Manly smashed the Cowboys last year”
Only when the refs started allowing the cheats to hold down in the tackle longer than is legal.
September 8th 2012 @ 1:02am
Michael said | September 8th 2012 @ 1:02am | Report comment
Many biased refereeing decisions in favor of Manly.
September 10th 2012 @ 2:16pm
planko said | September 10th 2012 @ 2:16pm | Report comment
Examples please ?
September 8th 2012 @ 1:34am
beamz said | September 8th 2012 @ 1:34am | Report comment
Embarrassingly small crowd, collingwood v hawthorn got 86k when it was a rainy and extreamly windy day, neither of those clubs are reigning premiers as well
September 8th 2012 @ 7:36am
Gazman said | September 8th 2012 @ 7:36am | Report comment
You reckon last night’s crowd was bad? Wait till Manly play Cowboys/Broncos in Sydney next week.
September 8th 2012 @ 2:04pm
yewonk said | September 8th 2012 @ 2:04pm | Report comment
manly broncos got thirty five last year and it was fifty fifty.
September 8th 2012 @ 2:20pm
yewonk said | September 8th 2012 @ 2:20pm | Report comment
most left the stadium with there faces covered and those who did not had red cheeks, very very embarrassing
September 8th 2012 @ 5:43am
Mike from tari said | September 8th 2012 @ 5:43am | Report comment
Stewart’s forearm to the Back of the Poms head accidental, I don’t think so, Manly tried everything, good play,bad play & dirty play, should be interesting when they play the Cowboys next week.