Canterbury will need to overcome 80 years of history to revive their premiership hopes, after losing 20-6 to fierce NRL rivals Manly on Friday night at ANZ Stadium.
The Sea Eagles, sparked by a brilliant performance from incumbent NSW fullback Brett Stewart, continued their hot start to 2013 with the three tries to one win.
It consigns last year’s grand finalists to their fourth loss from the opening five rounds.
Only the Sydney Roosters in 2002 have endured an equally horror start to a season and recovered to win the title – and before them it was Newtown in 1933.
Compounding Canterbury’s woes was another indifferent night from star fullback Ben Barba, who struggled to impart himself on the game and also copped a knock to his ankle.
The Sea Eagles, who secured their fourth win, set the win up with an 18-point first half, which included a brace of tries to winger Jorge Taufua.
Stewart laid on two tries in a sublime first half to put his name forward to retain the Blues No.1 jersey.
Stewart helped open the scoring when he threw a beautiful cut-out pass for Taufua’s opening try before the disappointing crowd of 18,563 after just eight minutes.
Soon after Stewart produced a scything 35-metre run before linking up with Jamie Lyon, who sold a dummy and snuck past four Bulldogs defenders to score next to the posts.
Lyon kicked four from five, including a penalty which constituted Manly’s only second-half points, for a personal haul of 12 points.
Manly’s forward pack, led by a stellar performance from Anthony Watmough, completely outmuscled a Canterbury pack desperately missing star props Sam Kasiano (leg) and James Graham (suspension).
The Bulldogs were uncharacteristically sloppy, making seven first-half errors and regularly inviting Manly into their red zone.
The hosts scored a consolation try to captain Michael Ennis with eight minutes to go, but it is unlikely to be enough to placate coach Des Hasler.
Imposing Bulldogs second-rower Tony Williams continued his lacklustre start to the season – making just 51 metres in his first match against his former club.
Hasler lamented his side’s miserable first half and admitted they were never in the contest.
“I thought we were off tonight, I thought we were a bit poor particularly in the first half,” Hasler, who described Williams’ form as “steady”, said.
“A lot of our options (were poor), we only got through about eight sets from 14, we were probably a bit better than that in the second half but Manly were too good for us tonight, they were the better side.
“I guess it’s the fact that we’ve probably been up for quite a while, but it was evident tonight.”
Coach Geoff Toovey was delighted with Manly’s brilliant defence, which has conceded a competition-best five tries and 36 points across the first five rounds.
They were on the verge of holding a third team to zero points, having already shut out Newcastle and Wests Tigers, and Toovey pointed to the defence as a key factor to their impressive start.
“Yeah it was (close to another shut out) but that’s terribly difficult in today’s competition,” Toovey said.
“They’re all quality teams so it’s always very difficult to hold a team out to zero.”
Hasler refused to put the loss down to missing key troops, which also included the suspended Krisnan Inu and lock Greg Eastwood, who pulled out of the match on game day due to personal issues.
Pot Stirrer
Guest
thers no doubt that graham and kasiano will make a difference to the dogs as will barba in a couple weeks. i thought it was a good manly performance and the result is what you would expect from both line ups both teams put on the field.
Pot Stirrer
Guest
i thought the crowd was quoted at 12000, pretty ordinary for a team that has half of qld and the games best player and the aust props
The Spectator
Roar Guru
T rest was lucky that matai was off on Fri night, blessed actually..
The Spectator
Roar Guru
Not a team in Queensland is on the radar for the big day u can understand there frustration at another 3-4 year's of manly domination, our buys in off season saved manly salary cap, giddy up!
The Spectator
Roar Guru
Mainly forwards a're so impressive, kyte started to coach the forwards in the off season, kyte isn't missed in view tireless club forward,
The Spectator
Roar Guru
Your spot on. Buy of the year looking at manly hands down and it's only round five,
planko
Guest
Your point is interesting upelican cause Manly has lot of fans outside of the Beaches who buy foxtel
Lou
Guest
MAAAAAAAAAAAANLYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Lou
Guest
Why do you care? Crawl back under your rock worm !!
Lou
Guest
Monopoly tool , why are you trolling NRL blogs ? Il tell ya cause your a closet fan !! Wonderful start to the year aie worm
uPelican
Guest
terrykidd, couldn't agee more. I'll be surprised if we see him next year.
terrykidd
Roar Pro
Williams was an expensive 80 minute passenger last night. On at least 3 occasions he was so flat footed he was actually in front of the player he was supporting. Why the hell isn't he sharing some of the hit up load, coming from deep using his size speed and power? I can't believe that he is playing to instructions, and if he isn't then he should be dropped.
uPelican
Guest
Although Manly supporters don't cross the Spit Bridge , I live in Brisbane and went down to Robina last year ( missed this year) to watch them play the Gold Coast .I reckon there were more Manly supporters there than for the GC. The GC really needs the locals to get behind them, the Stadium is great and the stadium staff actually wished everyone good night and thanks for coming as the crowd was leaving. Its a pleasure to go there, as it is go to Suncorp as well which another great venue. I thought the dogs were unlucky that the score wasn't closer, I didn't think they played all that badly against the Boys , I think we'll see a lot more from the Dogs as the season progresses. Desi probably needs to start ripping a couple of doors off the hinges.
Wilson Flatley
Roar Rookie
If Sydney had one NRL team they would get 70k to every home game; Broncos crowds are very poor, they should be averaging over 40k at least, if not selling out Suncorp regularly.
Meesta Cool
Guest
Broncos have scored eight tries in the second half of their last two games,, wonder what's in their orange juice at half time?..
Meesta Cool
Guest
Don't be too quick to write off the Bulldogs (or Dessi), if I remember rightly they were also behind the eight ball at the mid way mark of last season, What I do feel is that Storm showed everyone how to beat them in the GF, .. they used the same 'inyer face' tactics that gave Manly success lat night, Barba is not match ready and it showed last night.. but once again, he was not allowed to move!. I watched the game last night and was amazed at the energy shown by the Sea Eagles in the second half, I wonder what they are taking?... lol
Worlds biggest
Guest
Reckon 4 Grand Finals in 6 years suggests Dessie knows what he doing !!
John 360180
Guest
Could Des be a myth?
eagleJack
Guest
I'm well aware of the other teams in Brisbane, Ken. But I would still label Brisbane as League mad, with only the Reds pulling bigger crowds after their 2011 efforts. As opposed to Melbourne which is AFL mad, meaning Storm crowds will always be on the lower end of the scale. It is an interesting point you do raise though Ken. That of sports cannibalising crowds of other codes. You mention 4 teams from 4 codes in Brisbane. Comparatively Sydney has 9 x NRL, 2 x AFL, 2 x A-League and 1 x Super Rugby. 14 teams from 4 codes. While many follow multiple codes you still only have a finite number of people to draw a crowd from. Anyway that's it from me on crowds. As someone who attends all 4 codes regularly, I know I'm doing my bit. And it's the on field action I'm there to see.
Worlds biggest
Guest
Sea Eagles look impressive, there intensity is what stands out. The prop Laurence has been outstanding, good pick up. The Dogs are missing troops and look a bit disjointed. They keep turning up each week and are gritty however they re far removed from the 2012 version, I'm sure they will turn it around once all hands are on deck but at this point they've got a lo work to do.