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The boos from their fans said it all. Misery loves company, and the Bulldogs let the Wests Tigers know they weren’t alone this weekend.
Less than 24 hours after the Tigers copped a 74-point hammering, Canterbury were also hammered and held scoreless, going down 66-0 to the Knights in a club-record win for the visitors at Accor Stadium.
After all the talk calling for coach Adam O’Brien to be sacked, along with it being Beanies for Brain Cancer Round led by former Knights fan favourite Mark Hughes, it helped make the win on Sunday extra special.
“It’s been an emotional week for the team, for the club, for myself,” said O’Brien. “Just really proud to get the result and get a smile on everyone’s face for a couple of hours.
“The record win is something for this group to hang onto. It’s a great piece of history for the players.”
Not everyone loved the historical match, unable to endure the entire 80-minute annihilation, with many of the blue and white army leaving well before the final whistle.
The Knights ran riot, continuously piercing through the Bulldogs’ paper-thin defence. Kalyn Ponga couldn’t put a foot wrong during his side’s 11 tries to zip thumping, finishing the day with three try assists, nine tackle breaks and two line breaks. And just for fun, he kicked 11/11.
“To get that win is pretty special,” said Ponga. “Things just kept flowing for us.”
On the flip side, the Bulldogs just couldn’t seem to do anything right, and their disgusted fans let them know.
It was a woeful display from the home side on both sides of the ball, completing at just 64 per cent, missing a whopping 66 tackles, and making just one line break compared to the Knights’ 13.
“Defensively from the Dogs, they are one of the worst in the competition,” said Fox League’s Corey Parker at half-time. “And today, they are showing us why.”
Both teams came into this game with just five wins on the board in 2023, with the Knights just a nose in front on the ladder thanks to a draw with the Sea Eagles in Round 5. Despite sitting next to each other in spots 12 and 13, the teams looked worlds apart as the Knights put on try after try with ease. At one point Fox League commentator Steve Roach even called the Bulldogs’ efforts “too hard to watch.”
“It was one of those games where the harder we tried the worse it got,” said Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo.
“It’s an embarrassing moment, it’s a disappointing moment. We knew things would be hard at different times this year but probably not this hard.”
While the opening stages were scattered with errors from both sides, once the Knights got going there was no stopping them. Jackson Hastings opened the scoring in the 15th minute after breaking through the defensive line, and it wasn’t long before the Newcastle attack was at it again, with a double pump from Ponga close to the line getting the Bulldogs in two minds before he offloaded to Bradman Best to stroll over for the visitor’s second try.
The four-pointers kept coming for the Knights as Lachlan Fitzgibbon spun his way across the try line in his first game back from a concussion. Capitalising on another Bulldogs error, Ponga found Phoenix Crossland backing up on the inside to dive over the try line.
The Knights fullback was weaving his magic once more, again breaking through to set up Best for his second try of the day and see the Knights take a 30-0 lead at halftime.
The pain continued for the home side straight after the break, with Kurt Mann joining the score sheet. Bulldogs fans breathed a sigh of relief when Best was denied a third try after the bunker found a knock-on in the lead-up, but he earnt himself a try assist in the next set when he sent winger Greg Marzhew over in the corner.
Hastings soon crossed for the Knights eighth try of the day, while Best followed it up by finally getting his first career hat-trick in the 56th minute Enari Tuala helped his team reach 60, followed by Crossland grabbing his second and his team 11th try.
The day was summed up perfectly when the Bulldogs looked certain to post their first points of the game with a consolation try as the clock ticked down, only for the replay to show Crossland hand held up the ball over the line as the siren sounded, denying the try and leaving the home side stranded on zero.
Dog day afternoon indeed.
There were big expectations on the back of the Bulldogs heading into this season. With a new coach coming across from the premiers along with more big names from across the competition, fans had their sights set on their first top-eight appearance in a long time.
But another poor performance resulting in an embarrassing loss has supporters screaming from the rooftops for changes to the team sheet. But Ciraldo believes that quick fixes and cuts are not the answer.
“It’s not changes that are going to fix this. This is a cultural thing that has happened for years and years now – the habit of losing.
“Obviously today is worse than most weeks, but we want to change the culture of the place from the ground up. We are not going to look for short-term fixes or changes, that might get us a little result next week. We want to change the culture of the club into a winning culture.”
Skipper Reed Mahoney admitted he could hear the boos as he made his way from the ground and acknowledged the frustration from the fans.
“They are upset and frustrated, and so are we,” said Mahoney. “We don’t want that to happen, we want them behind us.
“The fans don’t have the right to do that. Well they do in a way, but we are working really hard and it is not easy at the moment.
“We are trying really hard … we need our members and our fans to get behind us because we are working really hard.”
How do you feel about that, Doggies fans?
After a tough season with a concussion issue and a controversial positional change, the Newcastle marquee player was back to his sensational best with the number one on his back.
All seemed right with the world again as Ponga produced a perfect 80 minutes to get his side back in the winner’s circle.
While rugby league coaches sometimes need to tinker with the team and create some interesting calls, it’s safe to say that the Ponga five-eighth experiment is dead and buried, never to be spoken about again.