The Canterbury Bulldogs will have to showcase their ‘dogs of war’ spirit if they are to upset the undefeated Melbourne Storm away from home. Join us for live scores and commentary from 5.30pm AEST.
After a great start to their 2012 campaign under new coach Des Hasler, the Canterbury Bulldogs have lost their way over the last few weeks, with bad habits from last season creeping into their play.
Their loss to the Rabbitohs last week was easily their worst performance of the season. Hasler, predictably, came out and attacked the performance of the referees.
However, it was impossible to gloss over how badly the Bulldogs played last week.
This week Canterbury face the only undefeated team left in the competition.
When writing about the Storm, it would be difficult to overstate how good they have actually been this season. They basically hit the ground running, and even in their closer games, they have looked a class above every one of their opponents.
The Storm have an incredible record at home at AAMI Park and it is impossible to tip against them in this game.
I think we will see the Bulldogs improve on their performance last week but I still can’t see them troubling the Storm all that much.
I’m tipping the Storm to win 32-18.
You can join me, The Glorious League Freak, right here on The Roar for my live blog of this game on Saturday afternoon at 5.30pm AEST.
King of the Gorgonites
Roar Guru
Top crowd. Good loyal following down there. Even your sharks are pulling huge crowds!
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
KOGS The crowd 14,912 and the Dogs brought few to the game. An excellent game of sustained attack and defence.The barkers were in it to the death.
eclipz
Guest
Thanks for the blog League Freak. Coundn't get to the ground, so tried two local pubs/clubs in my area and still unable to view the game. It's great to be able read the blow by blow. Sounds like a close one. Go Storm !!
King of the Gorgonites
Roar Guru
Geez they are a good team! What was the crowd?
League Freak
Roar Guru
So the Storm with 12 - 6 over the Bulldogs. I hope you've enjoyed this live blog. You can get more League Freak in your life by visiting my web site at http://www.leaguefreak.com You can also find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/leaguefreak Enjoy your night Roarsters!
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - Bulldogs will get a lot out of that game. At the end of the day their halves didn't give them enough. They lost composure on the last tackle a few times there. Too much for Ben Barba to do.
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - The Storm werent at their best tonight but still got the win. Hard to pick a man of the match. Smith played well as did Pritchard.
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - Melbourne slow it right down. Chuck it under their jumper. The siren sounds and Melbourne have won the game. Tough game this one. 7 in a row by the Storm now.
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - Bulldogs go wide and Marris gets 45 out from his line. They go to the other side of the ield and almost go over the sideline. 40 out from the Storm line. Bulldogs attacking here, nice offloads and second man plays. They are doing everything to keep it aloive. Middle of the iels now. Barba goes to Goodwin who had NO room to move anjd he is smashed over the sideline! 30 seconds left.
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - Another penalty against the Dogs. A strip, two in the tackle. The Storm kick deep into the Bulldogs half. They are 20 out from the Bulldogs line on tackle one. Keeping is simple here now.3 minutes let and they go left wthrough Bromwich. They work towards the posts. Slow play the ball. Slater almost vaught them napping there. Almost a try. Its a change over though. Only 2 minutes left.
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - Scrum win Melbourne. A Scrum penalty for the Dogs taking too long to pack the scrum. terrible! Storm kick for touch. Hurts as much as the time lost there. Storm 30 out from their line.
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - 6 minutes left now as the Bulldogs are deep in Storm territory. They get a penalty late in the count and tap the ball. They are just 10 meters out now as they come center field.A run around by Ennis and they are 3 meters out. Then they lose it, knock on right at the try line. Bad play. Ennis is playing poorly. 5 minutes left.
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - Storm over half way keeping it simple. Then Cronk goes for a massivce field goal from about half way, but it went wide. Wow. 48 out that attempt.
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - 9 minutes remaining and its a good kick. The Dogs 35 meters out now. They keep going up the middle. Then going right, Toleman tackles 20 out. The go close to scopring through Reynolds. Hes slow to play it. They spread it left as they go to Goodwin on the wing, he offloads and its back to center field on the 5th. Its sloppu now. They kick and Slater cleans up 10 out from his own line. 8 and a half meters left now.
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - Storm at the half way line now. They kick ealy and Goodwin runs it back. Barba gets the pass and looks dangerous but they shut him down. The Dogs offload and aee at half way now. Good forward play gets them 35 out from Storms line. A bomb goes up. Duffie loses it backwards and it goes over the dead ball line. The Storm will drop it out from their own line.
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - 67 minutes gone here. Scrum win to the Dogs. They go to the right and tackles 15 out from their line.Keeping it simple here through Eastwood. They now look to go right and Morris causes problems as they get over half way. They are 40 out now and their offload gets knocked back to themselves and now have posession.
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - Ryles double movement from hell and knocked it on anyway. Horrible....
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - Scrum win to Storm. They go short side and are 10 meters out. Coming back left now to the center of the field. A nice run and offload. They are just 2 meters out. They go to the center of the field here and Ryles spins in the tackle, looked to have scored but it looks like a douyble movement. Video referee now...
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - Storm over half way now. They go wide, Chambers flick pass and they are 20 meters out now. They go let. Numbers out wide. Hoffman passes and the Dogs knock it down. Try saving move there. They were lining up to score!
League Freak
Roar Guru
Melbourne Storm 12 Canterbury Bulldogs 6 - The Dogs take the kick at half way. Great charge by Eastwood gets them back to the 30. Toleman almost through Hoffman. They are offloading reallu well but one goes to ground and the Storm dive on it!