Match Details
Match Date	22nd Aug, 2004
Opponent	Melbourne
Result	Loss 12-22
Coach	Steven Folkes
Captain	Steve Price
Venue	Melbourne (Olympic Park)
Crowd	9,973
Referee	Sean Hampstead

Willie Tonga suffered a brief memory lapse as Melbourne ended the Bulldogs' 10-game winning streak, knocked them off the top of the table and perhaps cost them the minor premiership.

After promising so much against top sides this season only to wilt in the closing stages of matches, the Storm yesterday scored two tries while Dogs winger Matt Utai was in the sin bin for a professional foul in the second half to stun the title favourites 22-12.

It was Melbourne's first win over the Belmore team in four years, and gave departing forwards Stephen Kearney, Rodney Howe and Kirk Reynoldson a memorable send-off from Olympic Park.

Utai was given his marching orders with 14 minutes to go after he pushed Storm five-eighth Scott Hill to the ground 10 metres out with a try looking certain.

Melbourne's Matt Orford kicked the penalty to put his team 10-8 up, and the Storm moved further ahead when Hill scored soon afterwards, before Tonga found himself trying to clean up another kick to Utai's vacant wing.

Tonga could not figure out where Utai was and, by the time he got to the ball, it had been snatched up by Bell, who combined with Hill to put lock Dallas Johnson over.

"I looked back and saw where the fullback was and I looked for Matty and didn't see him," Tonga said later.

"I was thinking, 'I've got to get on my bike here'. It was just one of those things. You don't really see a lot of wingers get 10 minutes in the bin, so ..."

The Storm led 8-6 at the end of a rain-affected first half, then won the game off Orford's judicious boot.

"Two tries from kicks - obviously they took full advantage of Matty Utai being in the bin," said Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes.

Craig Bellamy smiled when he said: "They were lucky bounces. Obviously with Matt in the bin, you'd be silly if you didn't kick it down there."

The Bulldogs weren't crying foul about the end of their unbeaten run of 10 weeks against all comers and nine matches against Melbourne, but captain Steve Price did question the punishment meted out to Utai.

"I said to the referee, I thought it was a similar situation when [Melbourne second-rower] David Kidwell was caught in the play-the-ball area," said Price.

"The funny thing this year is that when teams are in an attacking position like that, straight away referees are putting players in the bin for 10 minutes.

"But similar things happen during games when there are no clear breaks. The rule is equal - whether you score or you don't score. It did make a big difference in the game, and we probably didn't react to it as well as we could have."

Late in the first term, the Storm camped deep in Bulldogs territory thanks to two line drop-outs, a Bulldogs fumble and a penalty - but the home team could manage to score only two points.

The second half was slippery, tough and mistake-ridden until Utai's spell gave the Melbourne players their chance to manufacture a winning lead.

"They're really important guys to the club: Howey and Stephen, and probably Kirk to a lesser extent; he hasn't been there that long," Bellamy said of his three forwards. "They've helped provide the culture here ... it was good that the guys came out and played really well for them today. I don't want to say it wasn't talked about - it was. With our grim determination today we were like the Bulldogs, hopefully. We want to be like them. Two weeks ago we were in danger of going out the back door."

Bulldogs interchange forward Dennis Scott will have an MRI scan on a torn muscle in his foot later today. "It happened in the last tackle of the first half," Scott said.

Folkes put the loss down to the weather: "We played well enough to keep it [the winning run] going. [It was] the conditions ... we haven't seen rain for four months, probably." he said.

Source: www.abc.net.au

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