Canterbury end season on a high in a thriller at Homebush

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Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs v Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles

A late Matt Burton field goal has secured a stunning 21-20 comeback win for the Canterbury Bulldogs over Manly at Olympic Park this evening.

The Manly Sea Eagles started strong, scoring the first try early when their halfback DCE crossed under the posts in the 5th minute. It was off the back of a break by Toafofoa Sipley, with Dylan Walker providing the final pass to open the points. Following the opening try, Manly found some momentum, charging down the field and piling plenty of pressure onto the Bulldogs, and as the weather continued to worsen, both sides played with remarkable discipline. 

A Daly Cherry-Evans cut out pass found his winger, Christian Tuipulotu, in the 13th minute, but his kick from the right sideline rebounded off the post and the score remained 10-0 to the Sea Eagles. Keeping their perfect completion rate, they forced a dropout, and off the back of a six-again, Marty Taupau crashed over for his team's third try of the match, in the 18th minute. DCE slotted his second conversion of the night and the lead was extended to 16-0.

Following these points, Manly developed a case of the dropsies, with Davey putting it down twice while working it off his team's own line. Canterbury just couldn't get their attack together despite the Sea Eagles constantly inviting them to their own end, but Braidon Burns finally crossed the stripe in the 29th minute off the back of a six-again call. Burton's first conversion of the night hit the post and bounced in, reducing his side's deficit to 10 points.

Joe Stimson dropped it as the Bulldog's attempted to work it off their own line following points, gifting Manly their first attacking field position in a while. They couldn't convert it into points, however, and just 5 minutes later the Bulldogs were back on the attack thanks to some good kicks from Matt Burton. Off the back of a dropout, Zach Dockar-Clay dived over from dummy-half for his first NRL try, and Burton nailed the conversion to make the half-time score 16-12 to Manly.

A 20/40 attempt that went out on the full from Dylan Walker early in the second forty allowed Canterbury some field position, but time was then called off for a few minutes as Max King was called off the field for a HIA. Following some confusion and communication between the sideline and King, he remained on the field, with seemingly nobody understanding why the game was stopped in the first place.

Both sides had attacking opportunities to start the second-half, but it was Aaron Schoupp who opened the scoring for the second period against the run of play. With Manly on the attack, he plucked the ball out of the air and ran the length of the field to score a try in the corner for Canterbury. Burton missed the conversion to keep the scores tied with 30 minutes still left in the game.

The game settled down quite noticeably following those points, with both sides going set for set. A Manly penalty gave them some field position to work with, and they forced an error in a kick contest to continue building pressure on the Bulldogs. A DCE grubber forced a dropout, and Olakau'atu crossed for a try soon after off the back of another genius kick from his halfback. 

Suddenly, momentum was back in the Sea Eagles favour. Making line breaks galore, they forced a dropout with 10 minutes left on the clock, but Burton executed a short dropout perfectly, getting the ball just over the 10m line and over the sideline. With Canterbury back with the ball, they needed to find points to close Manly's four point lead.

It was their halfback Kyle Flanagan who found the line in the 76th minute. An error from Manly in the kick contest saw the ball fall perfectly for the Bulldogs, and the scores remained level at 20 following Burton's unsuccessful conversion attempt. He made up for it though, putting up a big bomb that the rookie Sea Eagle's fullback couldn't handle, and winning a midfield scrum for his team 30m out from Manly's line with just two minutes left on the clock. 

A perfectly executed 79th minute field goal from Matt Burton followed, and Canterbury took the lead 21-20. An attempted short kick-off from Manly was successfully defused by the Bulldogs, and they ran down the clock to hold on and clinch the victory.

Both of these clubs will shift their focus to 2023 after their respective disappointing seasons, but it will be Canterbury heading into the pre-season as winners.