Bulldogs leave winless Dragons anchored alone to bottom of ladder
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With Paul McGregor's career prospects seemingly circling the drain, his Dragons players may just have flushed them through following a listless 22-2 loss to Canterbury.
The Bulldogs broke through for their first win of 2020 to leave St George Illawarra on their own at the foot of the NRL ladder, celebrating Kieran Foran's 200th outing and return from injury with a face-saving, but hardly portrait-worthy triumph at Bankwest Stadium.
McGregor, meanwhile, now sits with an 0-4 record and just one more game – against archrivals Cronulla – before a scheduled June 16 board meeting where his future surely goes under the microscope.
With no crowd at Bankwest Stadium, this had the feel of schoolboy footy, and some of the errors from the Dragons' most senior men were made to match.
Between the 27th and 58th minute, they made nine of them.
Match: Bulldogs v Dragons
Round 4 -
home Team
Bulldogs
12th Position
away Team
Dragons
16th Position
Venue: CommBank Stadium, Sydney
Even before that stretch, one Cameron McInnes pass went behind marquee half Ben Hunt on the fourth tackle, the million-dollar half throwing his hands to the air in exasperation.
On the next play he took his turn to throw nothing at the Dogs defence, taking a short-side tackle instead of a kick.
Later in the half Hunt came again down the same channel, this time piloting a pinpoint pass directly onto the chest of Bulldogs winger Jake Averillo.
So when Canterbury's own passes began to stick the contest was done.
Adam Elliott prompted the beginning of the end when he powered through the Dragons middle after 19 minutes.
A couple of Nick Meaney penalty goals pushed the Dogs out to a 10-2 halftime lead.
Elliott catches the Dragons defence on the back foot
The second came after Issac Luke was offside as Corey Norman took a drop-out from between his own posts.
Meaney helped himself to more points after the break, on the end of Canterbury's slickest play of the day when Foran, Lachlan Lewis and Will Hopoate combined from close range for a 16-2 advantage.
Sitting behind the posts amongst the cardboard cut-outs, Fox Sports' analyst Cooper Cronk was closer than any to the all-too-regular Dragons huddle beneath the uprights.
"I could hear a pin drop," Cronk reported.
Unfortunately, the Steedens went the same way. Euan Aitken finished with a hat-trick of mistakes in less than 40 minutes of footy, Tariq Sims and Zac Lomax each finished with a pair.
Winger Jordan Pereira was hard done by to have three to his tally, the last of which was a spectacular put-down that was just denied as he grounded the ball touch-in-goal in his bid for a flying four-pointer.
Set play provides points through Meaney
That error column was the one facet where the Dragons pulled in the same direction.
For McGregor – despite being just four games into a two-year extension – it has him heading the same way.
