Bulldogs surge back, knock-off Brisbane

Look out football world – the Bulldogs are back!

That is the biggest story to come out of Canterbury's entertaining 29-22 victory over the Brisbane Broncos at Telstra Stadium in Sydney tonight.

The result sees the reigning premiers surge into the top eight, leapfrogging the six teams locked on 22 competition points into fifth spot on the ladder.

Despite the result, Brisbane still find themselves comfortably on top of the ladder. But the Dogs have finally climbed into the eight and with the explosive Sonny Bill Williams and the steady Luke Patten to return, the premiership defence is starting to build some serious momentum.

Bronco Shaun Berrigan will be ruing his botched attempt to ground a grubber kick over the try line in the 65th minute. Instead of breaking the 22-all deadlock, Brisbane then fell behind minutes later when Brent Sherwin scampered in under the posts. The Broncos then watched helplessly as Braith Anasta drilled a field goal with three minutes left in the match.

Both teams went on the attack from the start, looking for an early try. The Bulldogs kept pressing the Broncos line in the opening twelve minutes but, typically, Brisbane kept them out and went on to score the first try. A perfectly weighted grubber kick to the in-goal area was met perfectly by a flying Shaun Berrigan to score a spectacular try and a 6-0 lead.

Justin Hodges soon extended that lead to ten points, receiving a nice cut-out pass from Karmichael Hunt to finish in the corner. But two Bulldog tries in five minutes stalled Brisbane's momentum.

Firstly, Canterbury tore through the middle of the Brisbane defence, Nate Myles pulled down short of the line. From the play-the-ball, quick hands out wide ended up with Matt Utai crossing for his side's first points of the night. Just on the half-hour mark, Tony Grimaldi caught Hunt on a kick chase and stripped the fullback of the ball, running 30 metres untouched to give the Dogs the lead at 12-10.

Minutes before half-time, it was a triple-treat for the Bulldog fans when Brent Sherwin lobbed a high kick to the right corner. Jamaal Lolesi collected the spilled ball and touched down in the corner for a handy 16-10 lead at the main break.

The Bulldogs made it four straight tries ten minutes after the restart a short kick rebounded off the goal post and into the path of prop Mark O'Meley to score a rare try. But as you would expect from the clear competition leaders, it did not take long for the Broncos to strike back.

A Brisbane break up the middle had the Dogs back peddling, skipper Darren Lockyer finding David Stagg running in support and a short pass gave him a clear path to the line. Then Tonie Carroll bulldozed his way over from close range and with twenty minutes left, the scores were lock at 22-all.

But as soon as Shaun Berrigan's grounding of a grubber kicked was ruled no try by the video referee, the Bulldogs lifted and Sherwin's try, plus the Anasta field goal, proved the difference. The night was further soured for the visitors when Justin Hodges and Corey Parker were placed on report for a dangerous tackle just before full-time.

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