Match Details
Match Date	25th May, 2002
Opponent	Northern Eagles
Result	Win 28-10
Coach	Steven Folkes
Captain	Steve Price
Venue	Gosford (NorthPower Stadium)
Crowd	6,120
Referee	Sean Hampstead

The Bulldogs have won their 8th successive premiership match with both Travis Norton and Steven Price producing big matches on the eve of the second State of Origin match.

With Queensland needing to find strike and mobile players, both Norton and Price delivered when the pressure was on and send a reminder to Queensland coach Wayne Bennett that there are players outside of the Broncos and Cowboys worthy of selection.

It was one of the Bulldogs best defensive displays to keep Manly only to one try in the 28-10 victory to firmly cement their place in the top two this season.

Norton made his intentions clear for a big match in the early stages when he was held up over the line. The Bulldogs had the scrum feed and Willie Mason standing at five-eighth produced a superb offload for Braith Anasta to score.

Manly got back into the match with two penalty goals to Tasesa Lavea but the Bulldogs surged further ahead when Hazem El Masri scored following a good work from Norton and Price to put Jamie Feeney who grubbered ahead with El Masri on the spot. El Masri added the extras to put the Bulldogs up 12-4.

Steve Menzies had a try disallowed prior to the break when the pass from Luke Dorn was ruled forward by referee Sean Hampstead.

The Bulldogs extended their lead into the second half when Feeney made another break and took on the fullback before offloading to Vagana to score his 11th try of the season.

Another Norton burst wrapped up the match for the Bulldogs when the cut up the Manly defence open to find Feeney in support who scored.

Manly scored their first try in the 74th minute when Steve Menzies scooted from dummy half and found Lenny Beckett steaming up the middle to take advantage of lazy defence from Paul Rauhihi and Beckett had too much speed for Luke Patten to score. Lavea converted the try to setup an interesting final five minutes.

The Bulldogs finally sealed the match in the final two minutes when Matt Utai took and intercept and raced 60m to score on his 21st birthday. El Masri chewed up the clock and converted the try with Canterbury winning 28-10.

Best for the Bulldogs were Feeney (who made 42 tackles), Price, Norton and Mark O'Meley. Menzies was easily the pick of the Manly players. The Bulldogs are now just one win short of equally the club record of nine successive victories.

Source: www.rleague.com

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