Match Details
Match Date	4th Apr, 2016
Opponent	Canberra
Result	Loss 8-22
Coach	Des Hasler
Captain	James Graham
Venue	Belmore Sports Ground
Crowd	13,463
Referee	Ashley Klein Adam Gee

Pitched right in the middle of what is now a near mind-numbing Sydney stadium debate – or should that be being kept at arm’s length? – Todd Greenberg finds himself standing right in the middle of what the sport (apparently) stands for.

A couple of steps away from influential Bulldogs chairman Ray Dib and near the halfway line of rugby league suburbia, trains rattling past and a steep embankment crammed with blue and white passengers on the Canterbury express.

‘‘We trust you to take the game forward,’’ Dib bellows pre-game, formally congratulating the ex-Bulldogs chief with his ascension to the game’s top job. But which way is forward? East? West?

Or status quo in every rugby league pocket in this great city, just like Belmore? Greenberg knows. Or is about to figure it out. Dib will be pointing him one direction. For now though, Greenberg is reflecting. ‘‘It’s really important to understand where you came from,’’ he tells the 13,463 jammed in for the Back To Belmore game on Monday night. ‘‘This is a very special place.’’

Try telling the Raiders that. Or at least they didn’t think it was special. A 22-8 win, just their second in 13 visits to the Dogs’ spiritual home, might start changing that perception, although their bench was the subject of another bottle-throwing incident late in the second half.

The Raiders, who lost Sia Soliola to a broken arm, vaulted above the Bulldogs into third on the back of Jarrod Croker’s personal 18-point haul. An at-times frantic game saw the comical sin-binning of Josh Jackson for a professional foul midway through the second half, after Josh Reynolds had mistakenly made his way from the field.

Croker’s second try while Jackson was absent iced the game for the visitors – who welcomed back first-choice halves and State of Origin hopefuls Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer – despite Will Hopoate scoring in a fifth straight game for his new club.

Outmuscled and outhustled, the Bulldogs gave up a 14-point lead just after the half-hour. And it was a former junior who rubbed salt into the wound, the returning Sezer releasing Josh Papalii who sent Croker racing away to score inside seven minutes.

Josh Hodgson dabbed a kick behind the Bulldogs line for Jack Wighton to pounce as the Raiders kept pace with the clock early on. It was one way to mute the rabid terraces. Reynolds swivelled his way over before the break to bring the beleaguered Belmore faithful to life. Tony Williams, who earlier appeared to trip Austin, finally faced the wrath of the whistle blowers when put on report alongside Sam Kasiano for a crusher tackle in the first half.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

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