Match Details
Match Date	14th Apr, 2012
Opponent	Melbourne
Result	Loss 6-12
Coach	Des Hasler
Captain	Michael Ennis
Venue	Melbourne (AAMI Park)
Crowd	14,192
Referee	Matt Cecchin Adam Devcich

The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have shown real character in pushing the Melbourne Storm all the way before eventually going down 12 points to six in a tight tussle at AAMI Park.

In a performance Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy rated the toughest his side has faced this season, the Bulldogs led early and only fell behind after a Ryan Hoffman try that came two plays after an apparent knock on from Storm substitute Siosaia Vave.

Bulldogs coach Des Hasler says while his side still has plenty to work on, particularly in the eradication of errors, he was encouraged by the fight shown by his players.

There was probably a couple of options there that if we had our chance we wouldn't have pushed that pass or taken the wrong option, Hasler said post match.

But at the same time we're a young side and we're a work in progress.

I thought the two points were there for us to take tonight. That's where we've got to get to. But they're a good side, an experienced side, and they hung on.

We played enough footy to win the game, but we'll just keep working at it. It's encouraging. But we've got to be consistent about it now, and come up with another game like that, keep doing what we're doing, keep learning.

Bulldogs captain Michael Ennis, who was impressive in his personal battle with Storm rake and opposing captain Cameron Smith, agreed.

Melbourne are a very good defensive side and have been for a long time, Ennis said.

I think it was just a combination of a few things, but it comes down to just individual lapses and moments . As Des said, we're a young side and we're working hard on our game at the moment, fortunately it's round seven and we've plenty of improvement in us.

There's a lot of will in this team to continue to compete and I thought we did that tonight. I was really proud of the way the boys continually stayed in the arm wrestle.

The Bulldogs started positively and continued in the same vein over the course of the match, bouncing back with plenty in attack whilst also boasting the starch in defence that was missing last week against South Sydney.

First points came after 15 minutes on the back of a repeat set and a dropped ball deep in Storm territory, with Greg Eastwood hitting a neat Ennis face ball to score next to the posts.

Steve Turner had the easiest of conversions to give the Bulldogs an early 6-nil lead.

The Bulldogs outstanding effort in defence continued until the Storm were handed a scrum feed on the Dogs 40 after a series of errors from both sides.

At the end of that set the Storm caught the Bulldogs defence short with Ryan Hinchcliffe planting to ball for Smith to convert, levelling things up on the half hour at 6-apiece.

There it stayed until two minutes into the second half, when the Storm won a re-start after Ben Barba and Vave had heavy contact in the air off a Cooper Cronk bomb.

Midway through the next set Vave appeared to knock on into the body of Aiden Tolman, however the match officials allowed play to continue and two plays later the Storm had their second through Hoffman.

Trailing 12-6 the Bulldogs threw everything they had at the Storm for no reward, the bulk of the Bulldogs errors for the game coming as they desperately searched for the equaliser.

In the end the visitors would have to console themselves with testing the now seven and 0 Storm more than they had been in their past six matches.

Obviously, it was a lot different game to our last six games, you know, Bellamy said. Certainly I feel a lot better about our side when they go out and defend really well like they did tonight.

At the end of the day, that sort of game tonight is like the games you're going to play at the end of the season. I was really proud of the way the boys defended but I think it's a good sign for our team that when it turns into a slugfest we can handle that as well.

Source: AAP

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