Round 2
Penrith Panthers 40 d. Bulldogs 10

2007 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Veteran Gower and youngsters destroy 'flat' Bulldogs
Mon March 26, 2007
The Bulldogs may have been unlucky in Round 1, but come Round 2 they were nothing short of diabolical as Penrith put the cleaners through them winning 40-10 with halfback Craig Gower outstanding.

Hazem El Masri landed an early penalty goal to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead and danger signs were there for the Bulldogs when deep on the attack they took the negative option of going for two points instead of pushing ahead with the attacking chance of going for the try. That lifted Penrith and from there the Bulldogs were never a chance.

Penrith led 14-4 at half-time thanks to tries from youngsters Peter Wallace and debutant Michael Jennings when he cashed following a horrendous error from Ben Roberts.

The second half was always going to be one-way traffic with the Bulldogs unable to score a point in their previous two second half performances and Penrith led 26-4 not long into the second half and it was game over.

Andrew Ryan finally got the Bulldogs a second half try after going pointless in their previous two second halves, but Penrith again powered home with two late tries with the 40-10 scoreline not a reflection of how well Penrith played and how dreadful the Bulldogs played.

Excuses were made that the Bulldogs were flat due to playing with only 12 men last week, but that is no excuse as the Bulldogs made the Panthers look like Premiership contenders when the week before they couldn't even score a point against the Sharks.

Full credit to Penrith who took advantage of the Bulldogs performance with their rookies Jennings, Wallace, Junior Moors and Michael Gordon who landed 8 from 8 all impressing and giving coach Matthew Elliott a batch of new talent to build with for the future.

Gower was outstanding for the Panthers and put his name forward for representative selection as Andrew Johns' name is being bandied about for a comeback to the NSW State of Origin side.

The Panthers co-captain has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons recently and Elliott said of Gower, "Craig probably has to adopt a siege mentality. Look, I don't want to go too far back into that. I've seen everything that can be seen, I understand what charges may be based on, and my opinion is that Craig has my 100 per cent support as a person and as a player."

Willie Mason who has been in the headlines about a State of Origin strike was one of the Bulldogs few decent players and Mason's fire and passion despite at times being controversial and out there with his views on the game is the man who has to lift the Bulldogs through this loss. The demons of the collapse against the Broncos last year appears to be haunting them mentally when on the field and a lack of speed and youth is also hurting them. Until they are sorted out than they are in for a long season and only Mason will be in the representative sides.

One player who has to lift for the Bulldogs is Mark O'Meley and as each performance passes, he is losing worthwhile contract value. He can still take heart that there is one club who will desperately splash the big dollars at signing a Bulldogs player. Unfortunately, that club isn't Souths who have gained much more than they spent when they snared Roy Asotasi.

Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes has indicated that Brent Sherwin needs another week in Premier League. Folkes can't afford to delay Sherwin's return any longer as his direction is badly needed. Sherwin is a proven performer and still is one of the leading halfback's in the game.


Kouparitsas and Perry named in Bulldogs side for Panthers clash
Tue March 20, 2007
Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes has named Adam Perry and Nick Kouparitsas in the starting side for Friday night's crunch game against Penrith following an ankle injury to Corey Hughes and of course Sonny Bill Williams being banned for two matches.

Hughes is likely to be out of action for the next 6-8 weeks and Perry was the obvious replacement after a solid game in Premier League last week. Perry has trimmed down in the off season and it's the fittest he has been for some time.

Kouparitsas does a direct swap with Williams and played in the semi-final against Canberra last year where he performed admirably. Williams took the two match ban today, but not before comment by Chief Executive Malcolm Noad and Coach Steve Folkes about the processes and officialdom within the NRL ranks.

Noad said, "Sonny will take an early plea, however, the vision we saw reinforces our view that the tackle should have been graded 'careless' rather than 'reckless'."

"The Club also reaffirms its position that despite the unfortunate outcome the tackle did not warrant a send off, there was no swinging arm, no closed fist and Andrew Johns had been tackled by another player and was dropping. That decision by the referee has now set the precedent for the send off of players for high tackles for the rest of the season.

"The send off also effectively means that Sonny gets a week on top of the grading."

Folkes commented on the standard of refereeing in the clash where Tony Archer and Steve Clark collectively put the Bulldogs out of contention in the clash. The long-serving Bulldogs coach who played for Australia in the 1980's said, "We are disappointed with a number of decisions throughout Sunday's game and will be lodging a formal report with the NRL.

"We understand that referees are human and from time-to-time will make mistakes and because of that we are not in the habit of using referee's decisions as an excuse. However, we believe the officiating on Sunday was below NRL standard and incorrect decisions had a direct result on the outcome of the game."

It wasn't the first time that Archer has been savage on the Bulldogs with a clash against Cronulla last year reducing them to 11-men for a 10 minute period.

Friday's clash against Penrith at CUA Stadium shapes up as a very important one even at this early stage for the Bulldogs. They have to shake off the demons of surrendering big leads and get the bogey out of their system if they are to enjoy a successful 2007 season.

Ben Roberts gets another chance at halfback with Brent Sherwin not named in the first grade side whilst Trent Cutler holds onto the wing position with Matt Utai still injured.

1. Luke Patten
2. Hazem El Masri
3. Daryl Millard
4. Willie Tonga
5. Trent Cutler
6. Daniel Holdsworth
7. Ben Roberts
8. Mark O'Meley
9. Adam Perry
10. Willie Mason
11. Nick Kouparitsas
12. Andrew Ryan (c)
13. Reni Maitua

Subs:
14. Dallas McIlwain
15. Chris Armit
16. Kane Cleal
17. Jarrad Hickey

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