Match Details
Match Date	2nd Aug, 2009
Opponent	South Sydney
Result	Win 26-18
Coach	Kevin Moore
Captain	Andrew Ryan
Venue	Homebush (ANZ Stadium)
Crowd	24,217
Referee	Gavin Badger Ashley Klein

It was a game of two halves but, more crucially, a game of two plays. This match felt like a semi-final, and it was decided by two semi-final plays – which, as you’d expect, went the way of the team most capable of playing semi-final football.

‘‘I’ve seen ‘Besty’ there, and he’s called for it,’’ John Sutton recalled of the moment that turned the game. ‘‘I went to pass it, and he’s just taken off on me. I passed it and it just set up Hazem [El Masri]. I thought he [Colin Best] was standing there, but he was on the run. It was a big mistake from me. It was disappointing, because most of the game, I thought we were better than them.’’

The Rabbitohs probably were, but, after 52 minutes, Sutton fielded a Brett Kimmorley kick and, as he was being shunted in goal, he attempted to find Best. The ball went loose, and El Masri scored as the Rabbitohs lost their grip on the encounter.

‘‘It was just an error in judgment, I guess,’’ Best said. ‘‘It comes off 90 times out of a hundred. It wasn’t to be.’’

But 10 minutes later, brain-snap became brilliance. El Masri’s try had brought the Bulldogs – who had trailed by 12 points early and then eight at half-time – back to within two points of the Rabbitohs, and Bryson Goodwin’s circus act of contortionism, scoring with so little room to move he must have felt claustrophobic, put them in the lead.

‘‘I just had nowhere to go,’’ Goodwin said. ‘‘I just thought I’d have a go in the corner.’’

‘‘It was outstanding,’’ Bulldogs coach Kevin Moore added. ‘‘He’s got the biggest hands I’ve ever shaken so he’s got a fair advantage, but he uses them pretty well.’’

The difference between the two sides was never more evident than in those two plays. The experience of the Bulldogs overcame the enthusiasm of the Rabbitohs, who could not post a single point in the second half.

That second term could have made or broken the Bulldogs. Had they capitulated, it would have been two consecutive defeats and, perhaps, the onset of the rot – but in producing the semi-final grind, they completely altered their momentum. They clearly lifted the intensity in the second half, following a week when Moore did the same to their training after easing the workload slightly in previous weeks.

‘‘The noses are back to the grindstone, and we need to work really hard over the next few weeks,’’ Moore said. ‘‘I can see that the more footy we play, the better we’re going to get. We’ve been a bit kind to them over the last few weeks. Leading up to the game this week, we really put the foot down with some really good intensity through the week.

‘‘We’ve just got to make sure we keep doing that ... you don’t want an easy run into the semi-finals. You want teams who are fighting for their survival.’’

Whether the Rabbitohs’ fight will be – like their second half – pointless is up for debate. The result, coupled with a costly draw earlier in the campaign, means the side will struggle to make the top eight. Not that it was coach Jason Taylor’s great concern.

‘‘It’s irrelevant,’’ he said. ‘‘What matters is how we played [yesterday] and how we play next week. We’ve got to learn from that.’’

It was a frenetic and frantic match, quick and energetic, and one of those encounters that is over too quickly. It was played at such a breakneck speed that, at one stage, the officials couldn’t keep up. Rabbitohs prop Luke Stuart was placed on report for a tackle which concussed Bulldogs lock David Stagg, but it appeared the officials got the wrong man. Fellow forward Ben Lowe was involved in the tackle, along with Issac Luke, while it was also debatable whether the tackle was even illegal. ‘‘It didn’t look like a problem to me,’’ Taylor said. ‘‘I’m a bit in the dark as to what happened.’’

So after such intensity during the week and during the game, will Moore give his players a well-earned rest? ‘‘I think you ease it off, just taper,’’ skipper Andrew Ryan joked when asked if they would continue to put their feet to the floor.

No such luck. ‘‘I think you’ve got to be building momentum at this time of year, so that’s the plan,’’ Moore said.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

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