- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The weekend of stunning fightbacks continued, highlighted by a massive second-half turnaround by the ladder-leading Bulldogs.
Cameron Ciraldo’s side overcame a 20-point deficit with 32 unanswered points after the break to storm home and extend their lead on top of the table.
The Cowboys also staged a late comeback after trailing by 12 late in the game, the North Queenslanders drew level at 30-30 to send it to Golden Point.
Neither team were able to take their field goal chances as the game finished in rare draw.
In the other game, the Dragons gave the Warriors a scare, in a low-scoring game in Wollongong keeping the New Zealanders scoreless after the break until a late Luke Metcalf field goal broke the deadlock for a 15-14 win.
It was a first half to forget for the Bulldogs, no possession, a poor 61% completion and 31 missed tackles.
But the moment the Dogs took the field after the break it was a new look side. It wasn’t just the halftime message from coach Cameron Ciraldo but also the leadership of Stephen Crichton.
Stephen Crichton of the Bulldogs. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
He scored almost five minutes into the half, and from there it was all one way traffic for the Bulldogs.
The captain had 12 of his teams points, and in addition to his own try, he had two try assists and three line breaks. He could have had another try assist if not for an Ethan Strange desperation tackle to hold up Connor Tracey millimetres off the turf.
After the game, Reed Mahoney praised his skipper for inspiring the performance – in his own unique way.
“That was the best game that I have ever seen him play to be honest,” Mahoney told Fox League.
“To be down 20-0 and to come out after half time and grab the game by the balls and go ‘get on the back of my shoulders’, it’s unbelievable.
“The rest of us just followed, so outstanding from him today.”
He would have to be a near certainty for the Blues Origin side, but the way that he has inspired the Bulldogs this year with his mental resilience learnt at the Panthers.
It’s not just his on-field skills but attitude to strive for perfection.
“We get a lot of pats on the back being a top-four side, but we literally had to look at ourselves in the mirror when we came in (at halftime),” Crichton said.
“Our mentality going into the second half was a lot better than the first half so, yeah, it was credit to the boys there.”
He may just be the Bulldogs buy of the decade.
If playing out a 30-all draw when you had multiple chances to win wasn’t frustrating enough, both coaches later slammed the officiating.
Todd Payten couldn’t wait to stick the boot in and show his anger; while his captain Tom Dearden was addressing a question over fixing the poor starts, the coach interjected.
“One of the tries was off a forward pass. I’ll tell you how to fix that, make the f***ing, sorry, make the right call,” Payten said, narrowly saving himself from actually saying the expletive.
“It was right in front of the touch judge and half a metre to a metre forward.”
He was referring to Penrith’s opening try to Isaiah Papali’I, but it wasn’t the only decision he was fired up over.
“That’s what they are paid to do, make the right call at the right time,” the Cowboys coach said.
“Murray Taulagi got penalised where the bloke fell into his chest and then Viliami Vailea less than five minutes later had his head taken off and it was in front of the touch judge with no call, which was wrong.
“Then there was a flop on the 40 metre line that if made any later it would have been tomorrow.
“So, frustrated, we want consistency and we’re not getting it. I am confused at what’s a high shot and what is not.
“I’ll talk to the NRL and go through the right channels, but it’s just white noise. No one is held accountable.”
Ivan Cleary was also critical of the officials, but he had his own list of grievances – particularly late in the game when Scott Drinkwater appeared to touch the ball with his boot and a teammate picked it up in front of him.
That would have given the Panthers a shot at a penalty goal with around 90 seconds remaining.
“It was offside, it was obvious,” Cleary said.
“I just want to see them make the calls they should. There was at least three kick pressure penalties we should have got as well – they’re no brainers.
“There’s a lot of other calls throughout the game but it hurts a bit more when you see one that you could have won the game with. It was so obvious.”
The Raiders were unbeaten at home this year and began like a house on fire, and looked destined for the top of the ladder.
They were wearing the Bulldogs down with sheer physicality and energy early, and on the back of repeat sets and dazzling line breaks forcing repeat sets the hosts stormed to a 20-nil halftime lead.
It was what the Bulldogs had been doing to sides this year, ambushing early and then tightening things up. The only problem was the Green Machine broke down after 40 minutes, and they were unable to do the second part of the job.
It was 32-unanswered points in the second half, and not for the first time this season, it was only half a game from the Raiders.
Against the Dolphins, Canberra conceded 28 points before a second half fightback, then they had to rely on a miracle try and penalties to beat the Storm after letting them get out to a handy Magic Round lead. This time it was a first half blinder before fading badly.
The frustrating thing for Ricky Stuart is that he has a finals team – even a top four contender – but at the moment they cannot finish the full 80 minutes. Whether it is either a strong first half or second half, it’s rarely been both.
“We weren’t good in a big part of that game, but it’s round 10,” Stuart said.
“I said before the game, I was worried about Crichton and (Villiame) Kikau. I said we had to defend those players.
“We missed too many tackles on those two individually, but you have to look at what happened at the ruck previously.
“Yeah, some of the boys should have made tackles one on one, but when they are getting momentum and coming at you with such pace and they are big men.”
Bulldogs Matt Burton against Canberra. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
The scoreline was just one-point in the end, which immediately makes it seem like a close thriller. But it was more of the fact that neither team was able to go after the game and take their chances.
The Dragons shot themselves in the foot more than once in the game and are a team that currently playing like they have forgotten how to close out games. Their tries coming down to defensive lapses rather than any attacking brilliance.
It is often the Red V’s stars letting them down. Early in the first half a try went begging off a line break when Clint Gutherson stumbled and couldn’t link up with support.
The entire backline with the exception of five-eighth Kyle Flanagan had at least one handling error.
After the Warriors kicked 15-14 ahead, the Dragons had a shot at field goal with five minutes to go, but Valentine Holmes sent it wide and then their next attacking set went begging without getting another attempt away.
Rather than trying to set up for a field goal the play went towards the sideline and an error was made as the Dragons crumbled under the pressure.
“It’s the second game this year we have scored more tries than the opposition and haven’t won the footy game, and that really hurts,” coach Shane Flanagan said.
“There were a couple of decisions that made it hard for us, not just from the referee but from us. We bombed a couple of tries.
“In the end we had the opportunity to kick goals and kick field goals and we didn’t do it.
“The effort is there, they are trying hard. Execution I can question, but not effort.”
It makes three straight losses for Flanagan’s side.
The Panthers have a new star in the making – and possibly a long-term partner for Nathan Cleary in the halves.
At just 20 years old, Blaize Talagi played a role in all of his team’s tries – with assists for the first four before scoring his own when North Queensland winger Robert Derby made a blunder on his own line.
But his coach Ivan Cleary wasn’t getting too carried away, keeping a level head about his development in the team.
“He’s certainly on the right trajectory,” the Panthers coach said.
“At the moment when he gets the ball both coaches hold their breaths.
“That’s what you love about him. He just comes into the game and gets better all the time.”
Almost the entire rugby league world remembers back to 2022 when Ricky Stuart sensationally called the then-Panther a “weak gutted dog” at a post-game press conference, stemming back to an issue the pair had when the Bulldog was a junior.
The Raiders coach was handed an unprecedented one-match ban and $25,000 fine over the comments, and apologised.
Everyone seems to have moved on given it was two and a half years ago – except Salmon himself it seems.
After scoring the Bulldogs second try after halftime, the forward pointed to the Bulldogs logo on his jersey and directly looked at the camera in the corner, explicitly making sure everyone understood the words “WEAK GUTTED DOG”.
Stuart was asked about the try ‘celebration’ in his post-match presser, but showed great restraint and maturity, choosing to be the bigger man.
“Honestly. How much do you really think I care about that?” He laughed it off.
I think Stuart is like all rugby league fans, please put this matter to bed Jaeman, this feud does not need to continue any further.
– with AAP
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.