- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Canterbury Bulldogs have pulled off one of their best results in recent years, defeating the Sydney Roosters 16-12 to pick up their first win since the opening round.
It required a late rearguard action, a very late bunker decision and a gutload of courage, but Canterbury got there in the end.
The Dogs have endured a horror series of fixtures, playing all of last year’s top four in five weeks, but have shown improvement throughout. They got their reward today.
Trent Barrett, who spent the game prowling the touchline rather than in the coach’s box, was very proud of his players.
“We played for 80 minutes,” he said. “I’ve never been disappointed by the team’s effort to their teammates and the club. We haven’t been able to hang on for that long and we really needed it.
“You could say that this has been an ordinary week, but it’s been a good week in terms of bringing everyone together. They showed that tonight and we needed it desperately.
“It was about consistent effort across the 80 minutes, and across individuals more than team. Little things like having more jumpers in the picture than them: nothing scientific, but effort for longer periods of time.
“It’s about doing things together and not trying to solve things on your own. You can’t handle a Tedesco on your own, it’s a team job. And that’s what we’re starting to do.”
Since their 44-0 hammering down in Melbourne, the Dogs played 20 good minutes against Penrith, 40 good minutes against Souths, 60 good minutes against the Broncos and now this, their best showing of the year, against the Roosters.
It was
Matt Burton’s kicking was excellent, and he was afforded space by a collective pack performance that saw Tevita Pangai Junior, Luke Thompson and Paul Vaughan all running over 100m.
Corey Waddell and Jeremy Marshall-King contributing massively in defence, with Kyle Flanagan making 21 tackles and no misses.
Canterbury can often be very conservative at times, but in a game like this, they doubled down on the style by fighting for every metre, tackling everything that moved and kicking long. They were far from functional in attack, but scored enough in the end.
The Roosters, James Tedesco aside, were very poor. They will worry about the contribution of Joey Manu, who barely got a touch of the football all night.
They completed less than 60% in the second half, with Luke Keary throwing uncharacteristic forward passes and Sam Walker going missing.
“It was tough,” said Trent Robinson. “I feel like we had enough opportunity to execute but we’re not finding that ability to pressure teams, score tries and put pressure back on teams.
“We’re working hard but there’s quite a few areas that we need to improve to nail those opportunities. By the end, we only had three line breaks and most of them were Teddy.
“We’re not creating off combination play. It’s not months and months, attack turns around quicker than D, but there’s a couple of different areas that we’re talking about and working hard on.
“We see it, but we’re not nailing it at the moment. It’s not far away. We’ve identified but we didn’t do it tonight.
“I feel for most of the guys. I know they’re working hard, and they’re wondering why it isn’t coming together. That’s on the coach. I have to find a way. That’s the life of a footy season and the life of a coach.”
There were early auspicious signs that the Dogs attacking issues were rearing their ugly head again.
With plenty of hefty pressure early on, the Bulldogs failed to get over the stripe and when Roosters got within 20, Walker slipped a kick through and Sitili Tuiponiua very nearly scored.
It took an uncharacteristic error to get the Dogs on the board. Joey Manu, having effected a tackle, was slack getting back to the tryline and presented an opportunity for Josh Addo-Carr to sneak behind him. For Trent
Matt Burton, who kicks at 20% worse over his career than Kyle Flanagan, sent the kick wide.
Sometimes in life, you have to work for your luck, and the Dogs were certainly doing that. With the Roosters on the attack, Sam Walker lofted his trademark harbour bridge pass and Addo-Carr read it perfectly. With 95m to run, nobody could get near the Fox.
Roosters couldn’t catch a break: they broke up the middle with James Tedesco halted by a superb Matt Dufty tackle. When they spread left, Tevita Pangai Jnr was wandering back onside and was hit by the ball.
The referee deemed it accidental and kept the Bulldog out of the bin, which was compounded when Walker’s pass made it over Addo-Carr, only to be dropped by Joseph Suaali.
Another chance would come and the Roosters could not miss. Dufty dropped the ball into contact and invited pressure on, and despite excellent desperation from the Dogs defence, a Keary kick was fielded by Suaali to get the Chooks on the board before half time. It’s enough to drive Trent Barrett insane.
The Roosters had brought Adam Keighran back into the team but elected to maintain Sam Walker as a goalkicker. He missed.
The Dogs, who had thrown everything defensively in the first half, fell apart at the start of the second. As James Tedesco threatened the line, Ava Seumanufagai clattered into Dufty, clearing a road for the fullback to score.
The Dogs were livid: it was revealed on video that Angus Crichton had lost the ball in the play before, but beyond the scope of the bunker. Keighran did get a shot at the conversion, but he missed too.
This Dogs team are made of stern stuff, but have often lacked in quality in 2022. They extended their lead in a manner that belied that notion.
Matt Burton produced one of the best 40/20s of the season, a characteristic spiral kick with a wicked left bounce towards the touchline, and from the resultant field position, Matt Dufty threw a superb long pass for Jayden Okunbor.
Burton even goaled off the touchline. Everything was falling for Canterbury: the Roosters sent the kick off out on the full.
The Dogs might well have added more. They got three set restarts on the Roosters line, but their gun-shy ways returned and the Chooks turned them away.
It very nearly cost them. Tedesco, easily the best on ground for his side, nearly broke but was just about hauled down.
Canterbury were into hanging on mode. They were tackling and tackling, and the Roosters were failing to optimise themselves offensively.
Clunky shape gave the defence too long to look at the motion in front of them and, when they did make space, errors got in the way.
The Roosters finally made a breakthrough. Despite a strong suspicion of a forward pass in the build-up, Sitili Tupouniua was able to score at the corner after Okunbor had spilled a kick. From the touchline, Keighran missed again and it was a four point game.
The Roosters would make the most of it. Manu, who had done nothing all night, got space on the right and flicked the ball out of the back door for Suaali.
There was a blue in the corner between Manu and Aaron Schoupp, Trent Barrett was losing his mind on the sideline and amidst it all, the camera stopped on the referee. The bunker was calling.
First the crowd thought it was a lead runner, but instead, it was Matt Burton who had made the late effort to put Suaali’s foot into touch.
It was appropriate that it was a superhuman piece of effort footy that made the difference. One could never accuse the Bulldogs of lacking effort, and they finally snagged the win they needed.