Bulldogs Back With a Vengeance

The Canterbury Bulldogs have rushed back into finals calculations this afternoon breaking Manly’s run of 11 straight wins at home with a 31-12 victory in front of 14,429 diehard fans at a rain soaked Brookvale Oval.

The victory makes it two in a row for the Bulldogs to leave them just a point out of the top eight and the club still has plenty of improvement left in them with an abundance of player firepower expected back in the lineup over the coming weeks.

After a week of heavy media scrutiny Braith Anasta put it all behind him to claim man of the match honours, making the assertion from his peers that he is the games most overrated player look rather silly.

The Bulldogs lock turned the momentum in his teams favour early in the second half setting up a superb try that put Canterbury in front for the first time in the match and this was followed later in the game with a field goal that sealed the win.

With the sun bathing Brookvale Oval early in the match Manly played some brilliant free flowing football and were rewarded with the first try after a well worked backline move saw winger Chris Hicks dive over in the right hand corner.

Michael Witt made no mistake with his attempt giving the Sea Eagles a 6-0 lead after just 10 minutes.

Canterbury got themselves back on level terms five minutes later thanks to their defence with a massive hit on Manly centre Terry Hill jolting the ball free and the Bulldogs speedsters capitalized spreading the ball wide quickly for centre Jamaal Lolesi to scoot over the tryline.

A piece of supreme athleticism got the Sea Eagles their second try with bustling forward Anthony Watmough chasing down a Michael Monaghan kick and somehow managing to place the ball down as he was falling out the field of play.

Witt made it two from two giving the Sea Eagles a six point advantage after 28 minutes.

Once again the Bulldogs hit straight back again with hooker Adam Brideson scoring a simple try from a dummy half run.

After making his first attempt Hazem El Masri was just off with his second shot to leave the Bulldogs trailing by two points heading into the break.

Canterbury’s Origin players combined to put them front early in the second half with Braith Anasta chipping and regathering before placing a perfectly placed grubber for his captain Andrew Ryan to score out wide.

El Masri made no mistakes with the conversion sending his side out to a four point lead.

With half an hour to go the heavens opened up turning the match into a very dour, defensive affair, something the Bulldogs handled with great aplomb.

El Masri extended Canterbury’s advantage to a converted try with a penalty goal in the 67th minute and Anasta wrapped up the two competition points five minutes later when he snapped a field goal straight between the posts from 25 metres out.

Late tries to replacement forward Dallas McIlwain and fullback Luke Patten were icing on the cake for the Bulldogs and their traveling fans.