Match Details
Match Date	27th Apr, 2012
Opponent	Manly
Result	Loss 10-12
Coach	Des Hasler
Captain	Michael Ennis
Venue	Homebush (ANZ Stadium)
Crowd	24,743
Referee	Shayne Hayne Brett Suttor

The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have fallen tantalisingly short of victory in their round eight grudge match against reigning Premiers Manly, losing 12-10 in front of a blockbuster Friday night crowd of almost 25,000 at ANZ Stadium.

Adding injury to insult, the Bulldogs lost winger Steve Turner one of their stars this season and a double try scorer for City Origin in Mudgee last week to a patella injury that threatens to rule him out for an extended period.

A Ben Barba try saw the Bulldogs lead a dour yet absorbing encounter by four points to nil for all but four minutes of the first half, before slipping behind by two early in the second when opposite number Brett Stewart crossed in his return from a rib injury.

Stewart claimed man of the match honours while brother Glenn also making his return from injury was a handful for the victors, while Josh Reynolds and Barba were the standouts in a beaten Bulldogs side.

While never far away from a win throughout the match, the loss is the Bulldogs fourth in their last five starts and sees them slip to sixth on the ladder with four games in round eight still to play with a four and four record for the season.

Against quality sides you have got to be consistent and play the 80 minutes, Bulldogs coach Des Hasler said post match. I thought we probably made a few crucial errors in key parts of the field, and we caused a couple of real momentum swings, and then we couldn't capitalise on them.

We're a work in progress, I was really pleased with the boys effort. I thought it was a tough game, I thought it was a dour game, but those grinding games usually are. We'll take a lot out of that, and we've got to come back next week and start again against Parramatta.

Bulldogs captain Michael Ennis says while his side's last two games against Manly and Melbourne have shown that the Bulldogs can compete, clinical finishing skills are what's lacking at present.

Really disappointed, to be honest, Ennis said. The effort's there, the boys are really turning up and working hard for each other. But we just can't capitalise at the moment, and we're just coming up with errors at the wrong time. That's the disappointing part.

The last two games have been really enjoyable to play, real tough contests, end to end footy, it's good to be a part of.

Defensively we were really good for the majority of the game tonight and we were against Melbourne too. So we take a lot out of that. But I think there's a few areas in attack where we need to be a bit more composed and controlled, to be honest.

It was far from all doom and gloom for much of the match for the Bulldogs, and it didn't take long for them to break open the Manly defence.

When it came it was all Barba, who claimed the ball near his own 40 metre line before easily slipping the first line defence of Steve Matai . Eventually he bamboozled Brett Stewart to touch down wide out, giving the Bulldogs an early 4-nil lead.

It gave way to a grinding, entertaining but sometimes bizarre half in which defence largely dominated attack.

The bizarre in the equation came through the mid point of the stanza when both sides went close only to see chances slip through their fingers, Manly having one try rightfully disallowed by the video referee when Jamie Lyon and Glenn Stewart got muddled up to know on after 17 minutes.

Soon it was Canterbury's turn to miss out, with Turner robbed by the bounce of a Reynolds-kicked ball approaching the half hour.

With the Bulldogs completing at 82% in the first half they continued to ask questions in attack, but ultimately it was their defence that stood tall and maintained them a half time lead, albeit slender, of two points.

At one point Manly had two straight sets on the Dogs line without result, and in the end they settled for a Jamie Lyon penalty goal after the half time siren to open their account.

Manly forced a repeat set on the Bulldogs early in the second forty and it gained immediate results, with fullback Stewart snaking his way over the line to give the visitors a 6-4 lead after 45 minutes.

To make matters worse the Bulldogs then Turner, who will undergo scans in coming days, forcing a shift that saw Dene Halatau push out to the centres and Jono Wright to the wing.

The Bulldogs best chance of the half to date came when Josh Morris found space on the left edge after 15 minutes, only to see him pulled down 10 metres short of the line.

Long range looked to be the option for both sides Stewart went long and then so did Reynolds but the biggest chance up to that point went the way of Bryson Goodwin with 12 minutes remaining, who made the most of a lapse in concentration from Lyon to win the race to a Michael Ennis grubber.

Video referee Phil Cooley correctly rule that one no try, and it seemed all hope was lost for the Bulldogs three minutes from time when Matai scythed over to stretch Manly's lead to 12-4.

However the Bulldogs and Goodwin came again, and this time there was no trouble with the put down as the winger scored and converted to set up a heart stopping final 90 seconds.

It was as close as the Bulldogs got, as they competed hard but ultimately went down 12-10.

In the wash up, Hasler says being in the contest is simply not enough. 

It's all right to be competitive,he said. We've been more than competitive the last two weeks. We need to convert that into some points now.

Source: AAP

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