Ruthless Dogs put Brisbane's finals hopes on life support

Embed from Getty Images

Brisbane Broncos v Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs

Canterbury have inflicted a Suncorp Stadium ambush on the Brisbane Broncos with a ruthless 41-16 win over last year's grand finalists, as their finals hopes remain on life support as we approach the business end of the season. 

The match was played at an entertaining and frantic pace throughout the opening half as both sides were playing with so much on the line. After dominating the early exchanges and forcing the Broncos to work it deep out of their own end. The Bulldogs crossed for the opening try, a brilliant kick return from Jeral Skelton and Jacob Kiraz after 11 minutes set the Dogs up in terrific attacking field position. The next play saw a terrific shift which saw Connor Tracey and Bronson Xerri and the flying former Shark crossed for opening points.

Brisbane's backs were in the wars with Jesse Arthars and Selwyn Cobbo down with injuries, but they battled on. Canterbury's early domination continued as Cam Ciraldo's men were fully intent on completing a Brisbane ambush five minutes later. A clever grubber from Toby Sexton caught Reece Walsh out of position in the line and Connor Tracey got a room-service bounce to extend Canterbury's buffer. Matt Burton converted both for a 12-0 lead.

Ten minutes later, the Canterbury side were going back to the 80's with some enthralling attacking play. Burton's bomb was allowed to bounce, Blake Wilson batted it back to Villiame Kikau, he got it to Reed Mahoney who kicked cross-field, he finds Jacob Kiraz who reels it in ONE HANDED, finding Jeral Skelton to score a classic try that'll make the 1980 Dogs proud and the Broncos were rattled.

Brisbane had to score next and they went to their star man Reece Walsh to make it a reality. After a strong Kotoni Staggs turn-over tackle, Walsh took matters into his own hands on the half-hour mark. Walsh injected himself into the contest with an individual try, he beat Burton and got past three other tacklers to put Brisbane on the board.

Right on the half, Brisbane continued their brilliant attack and scored one of the great long range tries. Billy Walters went for an excursion, he offloaded to Reynolds who found Mam. Mam grubber kicked in behind, Kotoni Staggs picked it up and turned on the gets. Staggs beat the cover to score a sensational rugby league try to make it a 6 point game at oranges.

Straight after the break, Canterbury were back playing their entertaining brand of footy. Jacob Preston broke through some poor defence and got right up to the goal-line. The Dogs quickly shifted to the left and Tracey got a terrific offload to Kikau to score and make it a 12 point game. Brisbane were intent on reducing the margin, but their efforts early were met with a stern resistance by the resurgent Bulldogs defence.

Canterbury again took their chances down the right as Xerri and Wilson combined to send the flying Wilson down the sideline. Wilson then linked up with Tracey who beat the cover to score, the referee and Mam had a slight collision with the referee and Tracey then crossed for his second try. Grant Atkins ruled that his contact with Mam was incidental and had no impact on the try being scored, Burton added a conversion to put the game out to three converted tries. Four minutes later, Kiraz added a try after breaking through three tackles to put the game beyond Brisbane's reach.

The Dogs added further salt into the wound. Sexton delivered a magical short-ball to Preston who broke further into space, he found Reed Mahoney then delivered it onto Tracey who crossed for his maiden NRL hattrick. Burton converted for a 30 point deficit. Brisbane finished with a consolation try for their home faithful that remained at the ground. A great short ball from Reynolds found a charging Martin Taupau to cross in game 250 to add some respectability on the score-board. Burton added a disrspectful field-goal to make it a 25 point win. Brisbane's season remains on life support and they have further injury concerns with Deine Mariner assisted from the field, as their defence continues to leak points at will. Meanwhile, Canterbury were ruthless and entertaining away from home, the NRL should be careful of these Bulldogs as we approach September.