Match Details
Match Date	19th Jul, 2002
Opponent	Sydney Roosters
Result	Win 24-12
Coach	Steven Folkes
Captain	Steve Price
Venue	Sydney Showground Homebush
Crowd	15,343
Referee	Steve Clark

Bulldogs halfback Brent Sherwin set up all but one of his side's tries in a rugged victory over the Sydney Roosters last night - but still got a dose of criticism from his coach as he came off.

Playing against a Roosters combination desperate to end the Belmore side's 14-match winning streak and protect the 19-game streak of their own 1975 line-up, the Dogs absorbed extraordinary pressure on the way to a 22-12 win at Sydney Showground.

Forward Glen Hughes (hamstring) and centre Willie Talau (shoulder) will be out for at least two weeks, while hooker Adam Perry (ankle) and lock Travis Norton (biceps) will have scans today.

"The call came out late in the game that we had no replacements left," captain Steve Price said.

Sherwin's impressive display means the Bulldogs joined the 1995 Manly outfit as the side with the second-longest winning streak and now need just four more victories to equal the record of the '75 Roosters.

While happy to praise his No7, Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes made it clear he was less than impressed with an attempted field goal in the 63rd minute when the home side was ahead by six.

"That field goal attempt 17 minutes out, I think that's a fairly negative approach," Folkes said.

"We discussed that a while ago. He thought it was the right thing to do at the time but I think in hindsight he might change that opinion.

"It's experience - you learn what to do in certain situations. Even if it goes over ... the opposition thinks you believe you have to get the field goal to win, you're not going to win by more than one."

Roosters coach Ricky Stuart, having watched his side play so well he quantified it as a 58-point better showing than the previous week's loss to Melbourne, seemed to confirm the theory by saying the drop goal shot showed his side was in the hunt.

"It was semi-final type football out there tonight, and they proved to me that if we get into semi-finals we can compete," he said.

"We were playing against a side that had had 14 wins in a row and they were kicking for field goal with 20 minutes left."

Roosters lock Luke Ricketson was reported for a head-slam during the emotional encounter, while late inclusion Bryan Fletcher was warned about comments which referee Steve Clark felt might have been directed at him.

After calling Fletcher out for a high tackle on Steve Reardon, Clark told him: "I hope for your sake you weren't talking to me over there. If you were, be very, very careful."

With Fletcher and fullback Luke Phillips cleared to play yesterday, the Roosters got off to the best possible start when winger Anthony Minichiello scored in the fifth minute and second-rower Craig Fitzgibbon converted from near the sideline.

But the Bulldogs hit back just four minutes later with five-eighth Braith Anasta swooping on a grubber-kick from Sherwin, who had beaten Fitzgibbon and Peter Cusack after Sydney skipper Brad Fittler had raced out of the defensive line.

A late tackle on Darren Smith by Roosters centre Shannon Hegarty led to the home side's next try in the 18th minute, Kiwi international Willie Talau crossing unmarked in the corner.

Video referee Ian Parnaby awarded the try after deciding that Anasta had pulled back from a Norton pass and the ball had then come off Nigel Vagana's knee before being picked up by Reardon and sent on to Talau.

The tensions between the two sides boiled to the surface a few minutes later when Price took exception to a tackle by Ricketson and the pair traded punches on the ground.

Fittler had earlier complained to Clark about "swinging arms in every tackle" by the Bulldogs, and when the referee told Ricketson he was on report for a head slam, Price said: "You've been doing it all year, mate."

Fittler again clashed with Clark after a 33rd-minute penalty against Hegarty for a deliberate forward pass, the referee saying: "I'm trying to give you some respect, you give me some back."

A minute later, Vagana scored to put the Bulldogs ahead 16-6 after a Sherwin cross-field kick to unmarked winger Hazem El Masri.

With Norton joining replacement Perry on the sideline, Craig Wing scored under the posts in the 52nd minute from a perfectly timed dummy-half run by Hegarty to put the Roosters back in the game.

But El Masri put the result beyond doubt when, in a virtual carbon copy of Vagana's try, he fielded a Sherwin kick without any pressure from defenders and casually strolled over to score two minutes before full-time.

Despite the defeat, Stuart said the Roosters' performance had been a massive turnaround from last weekend, when they were thrashed 48-10 in Melbourne.

"It was a very a confident performance and a big improvement on last week," Stuart said. "If we had played like that last week, we would have won by 20."

Source: www.smh.com.au

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