The Dragons scored first but the Bulldogs hit back six minutes later with call-up Toby Sexton fashioning a clever kick into the in-goal for Matt Burton to put down just before the line.
With the score at 12-6 in the Dragons’ favour returning to the second half, the Bulldogs were quick to explode through a gap to score. Burton kicked to lock the score 12-12.
The Bulldogs backrower made it a double just six minutes later, finishing off some slick passing from Jacob Kiraz and Reed Mahoney to steal the lead from St George.
Come the 57th minute and winger Kiraz got one of his own after Stephen Crichton found some space down the right edge and the Dogs skipped out to a 24-12 lead.
Next to join the party was young gun Jacob Preston after Mahoney scooted out from dummy half to send the barnstorming backrower over from close range.
The St George Dragons night went from bad to worse when they lost a winger for a professional foul and the Bulldogs upped the tempo, with Burton and Crichton bagging tries for a 40-12 lead.
With a minute left, the Bulldogs once more stamped their authority with Kiraz making it a double to ice the 44-12 victory.
Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo said they had a simple game coming in but played with a lot of freedom in the second half.
“We’ve been building to that,” he said.
“We had a couple of tough losses but in those losses, we’ve done a lot of things right so we understand that we’ve got to keep putting ourselves in the picture and take those opportunities.”
The Bulldogs next head to Newcastle to meet the Knights from 8pm on Friday night.
Dogs slay Dragons in thrilling skirmish
A SLOW start did little to dim the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs’ fire last Thursday night as a second-half blitz saw them smash St George Illawarra 44-12 at Accor Stadium.
