Canterbury give Newcastle a brutal footy fundamentals lesson

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Newcastle Knights v Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs

Despite missing Matt Burton, Stephen Crichton and Viliame Kikau, the Bulldogs have given the Knights a brutal rugby league lesson on their home turf to the tune of 32-2.

It was a frantic start with both sides tempted to play the game at a high intensity going from end to end. However, a penalty against the Dogs after 5 minutes gave the Knights an early chance. A trick shot for David Armstrong just misfired, but there was a clear reason why. Connor Tracey overran the play and played the man, forcing Armstrong off course and the bunker dispatched the Canterbury custodian to the sin-bin. Jackson Hastings added a penalty goal for a 2-0 lead early on.

Despite being a man down, the Dogs wanted to get adventurous, but the link up with Drew Hutchison and Bronson Xerri fell short and Dane Gagai sprinted away before being stopped 10 metres out. Fortunately, the Dogs scrambled well on the ensuing play when Greg Marzhew was playing hero ball and was taken in a brilliant try-saving tackle by Jacob Preston and the score remained 2-0.

Right as the bin period was over, the Bulldogs struck with force and speed. A shift down the left edge saw Josh Addo-Carr get some early ball on the last tackle. The Fox chipped over the top of the defence, left Armstrong looking like Bambi on ice-skates and collected the ball to score the opener. Toby Sexton converted for a 6-2 lead.

After forcing a mistake from the rookie fullback Armstrong, Canterbury showed their skills and crossed for number two after some silky link up on the left edge. Toby Sexton straightened the attack, found Drew Hutchison who did a bounce pass to find Addo-Carr who crossed in the corner for his second. Sexton's conversion hit the post and it was 10-2. Newcastle weren't without chances to end the half, Dylan Lucas was denied in a tenacious goal-line defensive effort by the Dogs as they were determined to leave the Knights stranded on 2 points at the break.

The second half began much the same as the first ended, with the Knights making some poor attacking choices and silly mistakes coming out of their own end. A brilliant short ball from Tracey earned the full-back redemption from his first-half sin-bin and Jacob Preston delivered, crashing over for a pretty easy try. Sexton for the second time tonight doinked the posts and it was 14-2.

Canterbury soon found themselves again down to 12 men. After conceding 3 six agains in 20 seconds, Sexton was guilty of a professional foul after making an offside tackle in a potential try-scoring situation and he was dispatched for 10. The Dogs capitalised on some horrific Newcastle attack while down to 12 men. Mahoney's clever grubber was ricochet off Brailey and was kicked forward by Josh Curran. The big forward won the race to the ball with a spectacular dive for the ball.

Off yet another Newcastle mistake seven minutes later. Canterbury went right this time, and Mahoney again put boot to ball. Preston was able to get through and beat two Newcastle players to ground the football for his second try of the contest. Sexton got the radar on and nailed the kick for a 22 point lead as the Knights fans headed for the exit. Bronson Xerri crashed over with just over 5 to go for the Dogs to hit 30 for the fourth occasion in 2024. The night ended on a sour note with Jacob Saifiti binned for the dumbest play of 2024 with a headbutt on the serial pest Mahoney. Sexton added two points on full-time for a massacre in Newcastle.