Match Details
Match Date	30th May, 2010
Opponent	Melbourne
Result	Loss 12-23
Coach	Kevin Moore
Captain	Andrew Ryan
Venue	Melbourne (AAMI Park)
Crowd	12,420
Referee	Shayne Hayne Ashley Klein

Melbourne has overcome the absence of stars Cam Smith, Billy Slater and Greg Inglis to down Canterbury-Bankstown 23-12 in a game of two halves at AAMI Park on Sunday.

Without Smith because of the elbow injury he picked up in the Anzac Test and with Slater (back), Inglis (hamstring) and Brett White (rest) all failing to back up from Origin I last Wednesday night, the Bulldogs had a golden opportunity to grab just their fourth win of 2010.

But before 12,420 fans the visitors' miserable run continued as they suffered their fourth loss in a row and eighth from 11 starts this season despite having Brett Kimmorley, Michael Ennis and Jamal Idris all backing up from Origin duty and Ben Hannant back from a knee injury.

Slater's replacement Gareth Widdop and Inglis' stand-in Chase Stanley both scored in the opening half and Dane Nielsen, Luke MacDougall also crossed before the break but the momentum swung markedly after the restart in every category except on the scoreboard.

The Storm raced to a 10-0 lead in as many minutes thanks to early four-pointers to Nielsen and Stanley - in his club debut - before MacDougall and Widdop also scored, either side of a Brett Finch field goal, for a 23-0 half-time lead.

But whatever coach Kevin Moore said at half-time worked wonders as the Bulldogs dominated the second half without converting, coming up short with several poor kicking options on last plays and denied by two desperate tackles from Matt Duffie and Widdop.

A quick play from Ryan Hoffman at dummy half and subsequent pass from Todd Lowrie set up Nielsen for the first try on six minutes and moments later Finch's switch of play back to the outside set up Stanley for 10-0.

The try of the game came in the 27th minute when Melbourne ran the ball on the last and MacDougall grubbered ahead for himself before regathering thanks to Josh Morris' fumble and ran around to score close to the posts for 16-0.

That became 17-0 when Finch potted his field goal just past the half-hour mark before a Finch inside ball and super offload from Stanley allowed Widdop to score under the posts and then convert his own try.

The Dogs were a different team in the opening stages of the second half though and were rewarded for their positive start when a flat ball from Ennis found skipper Andrew Ryan to score but minutes later Duffie's desperate defence on Yileen Gordon prevented a second try as the score remained 23-6.

Ryan Tandy missed Melbourne's best chance when he lost the ball close to the line while Canterbury continued to press but in the 64th minute was again denied by the video ref when Blake Green got over the line but lost the ball in Widdop's tackle.

The Bulldogs finally crossed again in the final 10 minutes when Cooper Cronk's last-gasp effort to deny Luke Patten came to nothing as Kimmorley scored but Bryson Goodwin's foot went into touch just before he got the ball down in the corner, preventing what would have been a tight finish.

Stanley's joy at his impressive first-half performance was quickly forgotten though after the resumption when he was forced off with a knee injury, having only returned a month ago from a shoulder operation in the pre-season.

Source: Sportal

LINE UP