Sport

Bulldogs unchained

June 23, 2021

THE Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs threatened to pull off one of the upsets of the season as they scrambled to a first-half lead before the Parramatta Eels piled on 30 unanswered points in their 36-10 win at Bankwest Stadium on Sunday.
Six weeks after he avoided the sin bin for a high shot on James Tedesco which started the mid-season crackdown, Eels forward Marata Niukore was banished for 10 minutes for a tackle on Josh Jackson as the Bulldogs finished the night farewelling Dallin Watene-Zelezniak.
The New Zealand international was given a haka in the Canterbury change-rooms before his mid-season switch to the Warriors.
But it was Bulldogs Coach Trent Barrett who was left seething when Luke Thompson was sin-binned for a tackle on Dylan Brown with the Bulldogs trailing 18-10 in the second half and fighting to stay in the contest.
Canterbury had wingers Nick Cotric and Tui Katoa taken from the field for concussion assessments as the Bulldogs struggled to stop the Eels juggernaut.
“I’m disappointed with the 8-2 six-agains against us, a lot of them on the fourth and fifth tackles,” Barrett said.

“I’m disappointed with the 4-1 penalty count against us. We have to fight extremely hard to beat those good teams and we need a few things to go our way.
“It seems we worked really hard against a big physical team to win some tackles and there was no reward for it.
“There will be a few questions I will be asking this week. We didn’t get a chance to get in the game in the second half. Look, we’ve got some work to do. We were poor in the air … but we took a really good team to a place not too many teams have been able to.”
The Bulldogs take on Manly on Saturday, July 3, from 3pm at Bankwest Stadium.

“I’m disappointed with the 4-1 penalty count against us. We have to fight extremely hard to beat those good teams and we need a few things to go our way.
“It seems we worked really hard against a big physical team to win some tackles and there was no reward for it.
“There will be a few questions I will be asking this week. We didn’t get a chance to get in the game in the second half. Look, we’ve got some work to do. We were poor in the air … but we took a really good team to a place not too many teams have been able to.”
The Bulldogs take on Manly on Saturday, July 3, from 3pm at Bankwest Stadium.

You may also like