Melbourne Storm v Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs
Round 18, 2011
Adelaide Oval
Melbourne made it six wins in a row and hammered another nail into Canterbury’s finals coffin with a 28-18 victory in Adelaide in Round 18 last season.
Round 18, 2011
Adelaide Oval
Melbourne made it six wins in a row and hammered another nail into Canterbury’s finals coffin with a 28-18 victory in Adelaide in Round 18 last season.
It was a sloppy and error-riddled Bulldogs outfit that slumped to their seventh win in nine outings – their ailing confidence highlighted early when fullback Ben Barba let a high ball bounce and Jesse Bromwich capitalised to score for the visiting Storm.
Barba made amends soon after when he latched onto a short ball and had too much pace for the defence. But Melbourne had soon regained the ascendency with Cooper Cronk stepping through to score and Sisa Waqa adding another to make it 16-6 at half-time.
A rare period of sustained pressure straight after the break saw the gap reduced to four when David Stagg crossed, however the result was soon decided when Cronk sent a well-placed kick to the corner for Matt Duffie to score in the 60th minute. The classy halfback then added a second try of his own six minutes later to seal the deal.
Canterbury winger Steve Turner scored a consolation try with minutes remaining to make the scoreline somewhat respectable.
Melbourne completed 35 of their 40 sets (88 per cent) and ran for 1571 metres to the Bulldogs’ 1308, with Billy Slater among the standouts (197 metres, seven tackle-breaks and a line-break).
Andrew Ryan made 51 tackles and David Stagg 46 for the Bulldogs.
