Match Details
Match Date	9th Jul, 2011
Opponent	Melbourne
Result	Loss 18-28
Coach	Kevin Moore
Captain	Andrew Ryan
Venue	Adelaide Oval
Crowd	9,963
Referee	Steve Lyons Chris James

A more enthusiastic and direct performance from the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs has been cancelled out by a series of crucial errors in a 28-18 defeat at the hands of the Melbourne Storm at the Adelaide Oval.

The Bulldogs crossed for three tries to rack up more points against the competition's top team than any of their past five opponents, stretching back to their last loss against the Canberra Raiders in round 10.

However any advances from last week's disappointment against Penrith were nullified by errors, and in particular a horror night under the high ball from the Bulldogs back three.

That and a number of poor fifth tackle options let the Bulldogs down on a night in which 9,936 South Australians braved the cold and the rain to show their support for Rugby League at their states one true iconic sporting venue.

The Bulldogs were forced into making a raft of changes leading into the match, headed up by the throat injury suffered by hooker Michael Ennis early in State of Origin three on Wednesday night.

Dene Halatau playing in his 150th NRL match slotted into hooker while Ben Roberts started at five eighth, pushing Kris Keating to the interchange alongside another call up in Gary Warburton, who was a late replacement for the Tonsillitis-struck Corey Payne.

The Storm on the other hand had all three of their big guns Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and two-try halfback Cooper Cronk in their side, with Smith's shift to the interchange bench their only shuffle prior to kick off.

And the competition leaders had done their homework on a Bulldogs side lacking confidence, with the high ball reaping rewards more often than not over the course of the match.

One such drop in front of the Bulldogs posts gave the Storm the first opportunity to score and they did just that on five minutes, with prop Jesse Bromwich reaching a speculative arm out of the tackle to plant the ball under the posts under the nose of the Dogs defence.

Gareth Widdop converted for a 6-nil lead after as many minutes.

The Bulldogs worked hard to get themselves into the contest and they got themselves on the board with a quarter of the match gone, Ben Barba scooping up a Cronk chip on his own 40 and sprinting away to score his 13th try of the year.

Steve Turner converted to put the match back on level terms.

Energised by their opening try the Storm continued to pepper the Dogs line with high bombs, and the Dogs replied on no less than four occasions during the half with drops on their own line.

On the fourth time around they got the reward, with Cronk stepping through some tiring defence to score the Storm's second try, establishing a 12-6 buffer.

Another try to Sisa Waqa sent the Storm into the break leading 16-6, which was a just lead following 40 minutes in which the Storm enjoyed 62% of possession.

The Bulldogs survived a couple of scares to post first points in the second half, with David Stagg crossing for his first try since 2009 off a neat passing move 14 minutes after the resumption.

Turner's conversion narrowed the gap to just four points at 16-12.

The Storm continued to go to the air and it paid dividends twice over through the middle period of the half, establishing what would later prove to be a match winning lead.

Matt Duffie did brilliantly in the 61st minute of play when he soared over Jonathan Wright to take a Cronk cross field kick, the winger then somehow getting his arms free to tocuh down as Wright bundled him over the touchline.

Smith added insult to injury by converting from the sideline for a 22-12 buffer.

Six minutes later Cronk put the icing on the cake for the Melburnians, slicing over to make it 28-12.

With the score stacked against them, two instances late in the match proved the Dogs would fight until the end, with the first coming when Turner swooped on a loose ball to sprint over 60 metres to score his side's third try three minutes from time.

He then added the extras to finish with a 100% record for the night, taking the score to 28-18.

Then with less than a minute remaining Turner and Jamal Idris chased down Billy Slater just as the Queensland fullback looked set to score, with Turner winning the race to a rushed Slater grubber to force the ball over the dead ball line.

The Bulldogs however had fallen ten points short, losing their ninth match of the season ahead of next Friday night's clash with the New Zealand Warriors in Auckland.

Source: AAP

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