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Canterbury responded from their thrashing last week at the hands of Newcastle to grab a dramatic 36-32 win over South Sydney in an entertaining clash at Accor Stadium.
New signing Toby Sexton was the star, adding much needed control to the Bulldogs, with his halves partner Matt Burton able to show all his skills off the back of his new partner’s organisation, with a heap of points the result.
“Having Toby there freed Burto up to play his natural game, but even if Toby wasn’t there, I think Burto had a point to prove,” said coach Cameron Ciraldo. “I’m happy with the way he went.
“Toby did a lot of the organising and took the pressure off. He’s had two sessions with us and didn’t look out of place. He’s got that character where you feel like he’s been around a lot longer with us. He’s fit right in.”
This was a game with a bit of everything: a controversial sin bin, a heap of tries, some breakout performances from youngsters and even a laser-pen incident that saw a teenager ejected from the ground.
It was as if the NRL cameras had shown up to cover a NSW Cup game: nine of the 34 on show played on Good Friday when these two met – but in the curtain raiser, rather than the main event.
At times, the tackling did tell that story. The Dogs have been involved in two 60+ point games in a row, but at least this time they came out on top.
Blake Wilson, one of that nine, got a hat trick, while Tyrone Munro, who scored twice, played Jersey Flegg that weekend. Blake Taaffe also scored twice and was Souths’ best player.
The Bunnies were right up against it from the start. They were missing five to Origin – Cam Murray, Cody Walker, Keaon Kolomatangi and Damien Cook – plus Latrell Mitchell to injury.
Ultimately, it was insurmountable: even though this Dogs side have been bang out of form, they had too much for a Souths team with just one member of their starting spine left.
They were aided in that by a confusing, Bunker-assisted sin bin. Ryan Sutton was caught high by Taane Milne, with the contact ending the English forward’s night and seeing the Souths man sent to the bin. Sutton was taken to hospital with a neck injury.
Though there was no doubt that it was a penalty, there was doubt that it was forceful – Milne was retreating – and questions about the process, as the player was put on report, then binned several minutes later while the medicab waited on Sutton.
Whether it was merited or not can be debated, but what is clear that had the game not been delayed for the injury for an extended period, there was no chance that the sin bin would have occurred.
Jason Demetriou was incensed in the post-game press conference.
“We’re finding things to do,” said of the Bunker. “We’re finding ways to get people who aren’t even on the field to make big decisions. The live decision was what it was. For whatever reason, we want to slow it down again and again, manufacture an opinion and send a bloke in the sin bin.
“We’re out there with more than half our cap missing and we can’t get a fair crack. I’d be very surprised if Taane got anything to answer. It’s a collision, it’s unfortunate, but it’s not a head knock.”
“Anyone who watches that can clearly see that the injury doesn’t come from Taane Milne. I’ve got my contacts in, so I’m pretty sure I can see it: there is no way that comes from Taane Milne.”
As soon as Canterbury got any field position, their new-look attack came right to the fore, with a level of inventiveness that has been missing for months.
That creativity came twofold: not only was Sexton exceptional on debut, his move into the halfback role freed Matt Burton up for his best game in a long time, with more licence to play the game as he saw it.
Sexton, while he has not always impressed in first grade, has long possessed one of the best short-kicking games in the comp and did the bulk of the work with the boot here.
His presence allowed Burton, again, to improve: he could pick and choose his moments to unleash the big bomb without the pressure of being in charge of all the other stuff that, patently, is not his strength.
The organisational levels improved, too, and the ability to get outside players involved came with it.
Jake Averillo, back at the back after a season in the centres, was also excellent. It does beg the question of why he hasn’t played there all year, with his finest work in a Bulldogs jersey coming as a fullback and Hayze Perham one dimensional in his stead.
Perham, who has plenty of running but no pass, was shown up by some of the ball-playing on display from his replacement. He scored in reserve grade, where he played in the centres with Khaled Rajab preferred in the 1.
If we’re being polite about this time of year, it’s a time to shine for those who don’t always get their spot in first grade.
That has been the case for some of Souths’ back-up options. With Latrell gone, Blake Taaffe has rarely let the Bunnies down, and his contributions here were consistently good.
Realistically, he is never going to replace Mitchell at the back, and when he does play, he doesn’t try to do what the superstar does. Taaffe is more about his speed on the edge and his ability to go both ways with the ball, busting the line on several occasions.
He also showed the smarts to continually target the Dogs’ rookie edge of Wilson and Ethan Quai-Ward, who he made look quite silly at times.
Taaffe is in a strange position. He’s clearly far too good to play reggies, and likely believes that he is plenty good enough to get a game at Souths. His style probably suits a team that plays in the style that Souths do, too.
With Mitchell guaranteed to miss ten games a year minimum through one of injury, suspension and Origin, there will always be a place at South Sydney for a good deputy fullback who can kick goals, but that probably won’t satisfy him anymore.
With his contract up in October, Taaffe either needs to find a secondary position to allow him the 14 jumper every week – he was a junior half – or decide which club would best suit how he plays his footy.
The Dragons already have a livewire, lightweight fullback in Tyrell Sloan, the Dogs are signing Stephen Crichton to play 1 and about the only shining light this year for the Tigers has been Jahream Bula.
Given the lack of halves depth and the stated desire for an ‘x-factor’, it would be interesting to see what Parramatta think of him.