Canterbury Bulldogs vs Redcliffe Dolphins: NRL State Challenge live scores, blog

The Canterbury Bulldogs and Redcliffe Dolphins will battle it out on NRL grand final day for the right to be crowned the best reserve grade side in the country. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 3:40pm (AEST).

Canterbury come into the grand final having put in some excellent performances throughout the New South Wales Cup finals series.

Boosted by the return of Rhyse Martin, who was a breakout talent in the NRL this season but still played enough games in reserve grade to qualify, they have beaten the Dragons and Newtown Jets in the last two weeks.

Both games saw their defence put right to the test, and they came up with the goods every time they needed to, the victory over Newtown in front of a big crowd at Leichhardt last week being particularly impressive.

Alongside Martin, they have plenty of experience across the park with Greg Eastwood and John Olive also in the side. Mason Cerruto was Italy’s fullback at the World Cup, while Josh Cleeland has been in excellent form playing out of the halves.

Fa’amanu Brown and youngster Zac Woolford are the other members of a spine who have been in good touch.

The Dolphins, on the other hand, had a superb season. They finished with the minor premiership in the Queensland Cup and as one of the Broncos feeder teams, have put in a mighty fine effort.

They had the first week of the finals off, before coming out and beating the Bears by seven points, before beating the Easts Tigers in a high-scoring grand final, with the score reading 36-22.

Their defence must be better if they hope to shut down the dangerous spine of the Bulldogs though, and that effort will start with former Penrith player Sam Anderson alongside Toby Rudolf and Jamil Hopoate in the forward pack.

Jake Turpin, who filled in for Andrew McCullough a few weeks ago will also need to be strong at both ends of the park, but the players to watch are fullback Trai Fuller and former Titans and Manly half Cameron Cullen.

Prediction
Canterbury should have more talent across the park and so long as their forwards play to potential, they will pick up the win and take the mantle as best reserve grade team in Australia.

Bulldogs by 12.

Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this reserve grade championship match from 3:40pm (AEST) and don’t forget to get involved by dropping a comment in the section below.

Gameinfo

Kick-off: 3:40pm (AEST)
Venue: ANZ Stadium, Homebush
TV: Live, Nine, Fox
Referees: Adam Cassidy, Liam Knight

Canterbury Bulldogs
1 Mason Cerruto, 2 Joshua Bergamin, 3 Morgan Harper, 4 John Olive, 5 Jayden Okunbor, 6 Joshua Cleeland, 7 Fa’amanu Brown, 8 Renouf To’omaga, 9 Zachary Woolford, 10 Francis Tualau, 11 Ofahiki Ogden, 12 Rhyse Martin (c), 13 Greg Eastwood. Interchange: 14 Bronson Garlick, 15 Lachlan Burr, 16 Jack Nelson, 17 Christopher Smith, 19 Zac Cardassilaris, 20 Brandon Wakeham, 21 Jesse Martin, 22 D’rhys Miller

Redcliffe Dolphins
1 Trai Fuller, 2 Josh Beehag, 3 Kotoni Staggs, 4 Tom Opacic, 5 Jeremy Hawkins, 6 Bryce Donovan, 7 Cameron Cullen (c), 16 Nathan Watts, 9 Jake Turpin, 10 Sam Anderson, 14 Myles Taueli, 11 Toby Rudolf, 13 Jamil Hopoate. Interchange: 8 Nick Slyney, 12 Aaron Whitchurch, 15 James Taylor, 17 Hugh Pratt, 19 Scott Schulte, 22 Tom Geraghty