Match Details
Match Date	27th Sep, 2003
Opponent	Sydney Roosters
Result	Loss 18-28
Coach	Steven Folkes
Captain	Steve Price
Venue	Sydney Football Stadium
Crowd	41,123
Referee	Bill Harrigan

The Sydney Roosters wanted to prove a point last night. They did it in emphatic fashion as they beat the Bulldogs 28-18 with a powerhouse performance to become the first team through to the grand final.

It was a message to all those people who thought the Bulldogs - and not the Roosters - would have won last year's premiership had they not been relegated to the foot of the competition table for salary cap breaches.

Now the Roosters will go for back-to-back titles in the big one at Telstra Stadium next Sunday, against the winner of today's second preliminary final between Penrith and the New Zealand Warriors.

Hooker Craig Wing was superb for a Roosters side that jumped out to a 16-0 lead and didn't allow the Bulldogs to get any closer than 10 points from there.

The Roosters will have to check centre Shannon Hegarty, who suffered a rib injury that could keep him out of the grand final.

The Roosters started the game with stunning intensity. Their coach Ricky Stuart wanted his team to make a powerful impression early and to help facilitate that he kept nominated halfback Brett Finch on the bench and sent rough-and-tumble reserve forward Michael Crocker out instead.

The Roosters rolled through with six running forwards and Wing at dummy-half.

Stuart kept mixing up his team with changes designed to keep up the pace of the game and run the Bulldogs off their legs.

At one stage during the first half, Roosters starting props Jason Cayless and Ned Catic and reserve prop Andrew Lomu were all on the bench.

The Roosters started monstering the Bulldogs with their smashing defence in the first set of the match. Bulldogs halfback Brent Sherwin was forced to kick early in the tackle count from just 17m off his line to try to take the heat off, and when the Bulldogs got the ball for their second set, they were under enormous pressure again. This time, five-eighth Braith Anasta's clearing kick was charged down and the Roosters started 40m out from the opposition line.

Bulldogs prop and captain Steve Price was penalised for delaying the play-the-ball in the fifth minute and the points started coming for the Roosters from that point, with second-rower Craig Fitzgibbon kicking a penalty goal.

Finch was introduced in the 10th minute, replacing Catic, and

the Roosters started turning the pressure into tries when lock Luke Ricketson did well to get a ball away in a tackle to fullback Anthony Minichiello and centre Hegarty scored out wide in the 17th minute.

Eight minutes later they were in again when five-eighth Brad Fittler, after juggling the ball several times, got control of it just in time to pass ahead of being crunched by the defence. Walker took the pass on the inside and then he found replacement Chris Flannery back on the outside for the try.

Fitzgibbon's conversion made it 14-0 and in the 32nd minute he kicked another penalty goal for 16-0.

The Bulldogs finally scored through a charge from close range by prop Mark O'Meley three minutes from the break.

The conversion by winger Hazem El Masri cut the deficit to 10 points. The Bulldogs had a brief chance to score off a scrum in the last 30 seconds before half-time, but Anasta's grubber kick into the in-goal was knocked dead by the Roosters.

There were only seven seconds left when the Roosters took the goal-line drop-out and the half ended with Anasta taking the strange option of a shot at field goal. He missed.

Source: www.smh.com.au

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