Tragic Round: Canterbury slump deeper into the doghouse
Jasper Bruce |
Canterbury’s NRL season is teetering on the brink after a dismal 38-16 loss to Cronulla in the first game of Magic Round at Suncorp Stadium.
Usually competitive at least in patches, the out-of-sorts Bulldogs were never in the contest against a ruthless Sharks team who went to half-time up 30-6 on Friday night.
Premiership hopefuls to begin the season, the Bulldogs could finish the weekend as low as 15th on the ladder, with seven losses from their last eight games.
The cut-off for a finals spot last year was a 13-11 record; the Bulldogs already have seven defeats in 2026 with 14 games to play.
The returns of key men Matt Burton, Kurt Mann and Max King from injury did little to spark the Bulldogs’ attack against the Sharks, or bolster their worryingly brittle goal-line defence.
The NRL’s best defensive team last year, Canterbury defended only 14 red-zone tackles in the first half but conceded five tries for it.
They have leaked 110 points across their last three outings.
The Sharks’ fourth try looms as one of the softest of the year.
In only his third NRL start, back-up hooker Hohepa Puru flopped out of dummy half past both starting props, fullback Connor Tracey and hooker Bailey Hayward.
Nicho Hynes’ first-half try came after some similarly thin defence from the Bulldogs, the halfback leaving four defenders in his wake at close range.
His NSW State of Origin spot under the microscope, Stephen Crichton showed flashes of his best, going in for the Bulldogs’ second try from a 65-metre burst down the right edge.
But in his 150th NRL game, Crichton still appeared below his best physically following his shoulder injury.
Crichton was caught way in-field ahead of Will Kennedy’s try, with the sparkling Sharks fullback dummying straight through a hole in the Bulldogs’ right edge.
Fullback Kennedy was busy all night as the Sharks responded well from Craig Fitzgibbon’s scathing post-match critique last week.
Right winger Ronaldo Mulitalo scored two tries returning from his anterior cruciate ligament injury last October, first grabbing a Braydon Trindall cut-out pass to score the Sharks’ second try.
After three consecutive forced dropouts, Mulitalo caught a cross-field kick from Hynes to score the Sharks’ only try of a closer second half.
Trindall sent a last-ditch reminder of his talent to Queensland coach Billy Slater, scoring the first try after Kennedy outleapt Tracey and flicked out an offload.
NSW Origin contender Addin Fonua-Blake had 170 metres and 32 tackles.
AAP