Souths have strolled to victory over a decimated Canterbury team, with Damien Cook proving the difference-maker in the Good Friday clash at Accor Stadium.
The Bunnies hooker managed a hat-trick of tries – the first by a rake in more than five years – and was the standout on ground in a 36-16 victory.
Jason Demetriou spoke after the game about the influence that his 9 had, and the kick-on that came from winning the forward battle comprehensively.
“He was very important,” said the Souths coach. “Liam Knight and Hame Sele were outstanding off the bench and played a big part in what Cooky was able to do off the back of that.
“There’s been a lot of talk about Cody (Walker) and what he’s able to do, and a lot of that is to do with what defences have been doing.
“We saw tonight that if defences are going to open up and leave space through that middle third, it’ll create space for Damien.”
Despite the comfortable win, Souths will still see plenty of room for improvement, but are now sitting at 3-3 and with some of their hardest fixtures of the year behind them.
The coach said that the movement was positive, with decent performances in games that didn’t go their way now turning into wins.
“Preseason didn’t lend us to being at our best and at the start we had was always going to be difficult,” said Demeteriou.
“I can’t commend these guys enough. We were beaten in golden point in Melbourne and an intercept try in Brisbane, then we’ve won three of our last four. We’re heading in the right direction.”
The Dogs were partly the architects of their own downfall – discipline was a major issue – but also very unlucky, losing forward Chris Patolo after a shocking head clash with captain Josh Jackson and Braidon Burns to a hamstring injury.
Bulldogs coach Trent Barrett has also endured a nightmare draw and said that he could learn a lot from those games, despite his team’s 1-5 record.
“In terms of competing with really good sides, we’ve copped a whole lot of them,” he said. “Manly away, Melbourne away, Penrith and then Souths. It’s the whole top four, so we know where we’re at.
“Take out Melbourne (where the Dogs lost 44-0) and we were competitive in all of them. But we’re coming into a block of six or seven where we can win. We’ve just got to find a bit more consistency and get through tough periods.”
Barrett wasn’t happy about his team’s inability to make the most of when they were good – the first quarter of the match – and then struggled when they were on the back foot.
“It was pleasing in the first 20, we’ve stuck it to good sides for periods, but not for long enough,” he said.
“I spoke pregame about putting 80 minutes together. You put four blocks of that first 20 together and we’re looking OK, but we’ve got to learn to do it, and learn to get through the tough periods.
“At the moment we’re not getting through them and we’re conceding ordinary tries that we just can’t.”
The game hinged on a crucial 10-minute period in which Canterbury conceded three tries with Jeremy Marshall-King in the bin.
The decision to sit the Bulldogs hooker down was entirely justified, with Canterbury clearly employing stalling tactics that irritated the officials. Josh Jackson confirmed that his team had been warned before the referee intervened more harshly.
With a man down, Bunnies enjoyed 14 of 15 sets and ran in a three try blitz that essentially ended the game before halftime.
“It was a really good 20 minute period, but the sin-binning didn’t help,” said Barrett. “We’ve got to show more resolve through those periods.
“There’s some tries then and in the second half that we should have stopped. You stop a couple and you’re still in the game at the back end.
“A lot of the missed opportunities when we had the ball – held up three or four times, forward pass, the Naden decision (from the bunker) – we’re not getting those go our way at the moment and we need those. Who knows where the game goes if we get them.
“The sin-binning was a tough one, but in saying that, you’ve got to roll your sleeves up and get through those periods. You’ll never play a perfect game of footy. Ever.”
It had been a strong start for Canterbury, with Kyle Flanagan producing a superb long pass for Brent Naden to get the Dogs on the board, but they couldn’t keep it up.
Their defensive tactics repeatedly drew the ire of referee Gerard Sutton, who waved six set restarts against them in the first 25 minutes. Eventually he lost patience with Marshall-King paying the price.
After surviving a bunker decision, Souths managed to get on the board via a dummy half dart from Cook. Moments later, Lachlan Ilias put Campbell Graham through a hole and he fed Cook to go under the posts again.
They got their breath back a little as Patolo and Jackson suffered a nasty head clash, but that only gave Souths time to put on a set move, resulting in Blake Taaffe putting Alex Johnston in at the corner on the stroke of halftime.
Things went from bad to worse for the Bulldogs. They were forced into a total reshuffle in defence, with Burns forced off and Patolo already missing with a head knock. Their lack of organisation was ruthlessly exposed as Cody Walker put Johnston over again early on.
Canterbury then thought they had scored, only for the bunker to call back another Flanagan-Naden cooperation for the smallest of knock ons.
The resistance from the Dogs was admirable, but they were clearly tiring. Cook completed his trifecta by scooting in from the back of a scrum, before Canterbury hit back.
It was Josh Addo-Carr’s first try in blue and white – and Matt Burton’s first assist – though it would be hard to say that they celebrated it.
Isaiah Tass, on debut, plonked the footy down for a fairytale try, before Marshall-King grabbed a final score in garbage time.
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