You wouldn’t have known the Bulldogs were missing two of their best, or had two spine players sent to the sin bin, as they left a rested Knights outfit in the dust in Newcastle to claim their sixth win of the season.
Canterbury’s 32-2 victory is their first away from home this year, and sends a clear message to rivals that they’re a threat in this competition, even when Stephen Crichton and Matt Burton are off on Origin duties.
The Bulldogs were too good for Newcastle on Friday night.Credit: Getty
Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo said it was one of his team’s most pleasing performances all year.
“I thought our defence has been building all year, something we’ve worked really hard on over the last 18 months,” Ciraldo said.
“It wasn’t all perfect tonight, we missed a lot of tackles, but we scrambled and worked hard for each other.”
The only dampener for the Bulldogs, besides the relentless rain, was flyer Josh Addo-Carr leaving the field early in the second half after suffering a hamstring injury.
It was a blow for Addo-Carr, who sent a message to Blues coach Michael Maguire with a first-half double after being left out of the NSW team for game one next week.
Ciraldo said they didn’t yet know the severity of Addo-Carr’s injury.
“He’s alright, he’s moving OK – hopefully it’s nothing too serious, but obviously it wasn’t a good sign that he couldn’t finish the game,” he said.
But the injury to their star winger didn’t slow Canterbury down, with Jacob Preston also bagging a double before the end of the match.
Jacob Preston goes over for a try against the Knights. Credit: Getty
Every time you thought it couldn’t get any worse for the Knights, it did. A dropped ball, incorrect restart and illegal strip wasn’t even the half of it, for a team that should have walked away with a comfortable win after the bye last week and an extra man on the field for 20 minutes of the match after Connor Tracey and Toby Sexton had stints in the sin bin - both for professional fouls.
Kalyn Ponga was caught on the Fox broadcast pulling his beanie over his eyes as he watched on in the coaches’ box, a gesture that summed up the thoughts of the Newcastle crowd who started exiting the stadium before full-time after enduring hours in the pouring rain.
Knights coach Adam O’Brien was visibly deflated after the game, and said his team lacked the creativity to win momentum.
“Disappointed, bad, bad night…there was plenty of effort no doubt, but effort on its own is not going to win you the game,” O’Brien said.
“We just didn’t generate any momentum in attack. I thought there were periods where we defended really well, but our attack was a bit lacklustre.”
A headbutt from Jacob Saifiti on Reed Mahoney sent him to the sin bin with a minute left in the match, and summarised 78 minutes of frustration for the home team.
The Bulldogs now surge into the top eight with Parramatta the next team in their sights. Ciraldo said Friday’s win keeps the team in the fight.
“The most important thing for us tonight was us coming up here and winning,” Ciraldo said.
“Going in six [wins] from 12 now, sort of staying in the fight and giving ourselves a chance there [is what matters].”