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'It was an extremely courageous effort': Bulldogs survive late bunker call and four concussions to record heroic win over Cowboys

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13th March, 2022
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The Canterbury Bulldogs have secured their first win of the season, overcoming four concussions to sneak past the North Queensland Cowboys 6-4 in Townsville.

The Cowboys were denied the win late on by the Bunker, who correctly ruled that Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow had been offside at a kick when he thought he had scored under the posts with two minutes left on the clock.

Jayden Okunbor, on the back of an excellent pass from Braidon Burns, levelled the scores in the second half after an early Tom Gilbert try had given the Cowboys the lead.

Matt Burton’s sideline conversion was ultimately the difference between the two teams on a night beset by heavy rain and early season clunkiness in attack.

North Queensland piled the pressure on the Dogs late in the piece but were unable to get over, save for the Tabuai-Fidow disallowed try.

“It was an extremely courageous effort – not by 17 players, by 18 players in the end,” said Trent Barrett, referencing that Aaron Schoupp was forced into action late on as a concussion sub.

“It was unbelievable what they did. It’s always tough to come up here to Townsville and to come through what we did – we had five HIAs, blokes out of position and using our reserve – and come away and get a win is great for us and for the players. I’m extremely proud of them.”

“They didn’t give up and that’s all I want from them. There’s certainly things that we can get better at, they’re a new group and to come together and show the grit and resolve that they did is a really good sign.”

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Cowboys coach Todd Payten was disappointed but said that the result showed progress on last season.

“It’s a tough one to take, for the fact that we contributed significantly to the result,” he said. “I thought the Dogs hung in there and we showed periods where we hung in there, but by no ways do I feel like we were beaten. It’s a game that we cost ourselves.”

“It’s a step forward because last year we were losing games in periods. We hung tough, defended our line a lot and the way that we defended, the way we jumped the fence from attack to D, was really positive for us.

“The effort was great, it’s just the execution and blokes not getting their jobs done under fatigue and pressure in the game.”

“It’s a good call, but why does it take so long?”

The new concussion rules in the NRL were a major talking point in the match after another delayed reaction HIA withdrawal, this time in the Cowboys v Bulldogs game.

Canterbury centre Braidon Burns was pulled from the game midway through the second half after copping a head knock despite playing on for several minutes.

Burns sustained the injury from a clash of heads as he tapped a pass on for Jayden Okunbor to score the Dogs’ first try, with replays showing that he was clearly injured.

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Yet it took a full five minutes between the incident occurring and Burns being withdrawn by the Bunker.

“It’s a good call, but why does it take so long?” said Steve Roach on the Fox League commentary.

Even the referee, Ben Sutton, was confused: he was asked by a Cowboys player why the game was stopped, and told him it was for a HIA – but he didn’t know who.

Earlier in the game, Chris Patolo had departed with a concussion and moments after the Burns withdrawal, Brent Naden was taken off with a head knock.

Amazingly, the Dogs lost a fourth man to a concussion with Jeremy Marshall-King being coming off in the last ten minutes of the game. Aaron Schoupp was activated as the Bulldogs concussion substitute as a result.

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