Round 6
Parramatta Eels 18 l. Bulldogs 21

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

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

ABC Grandstand Interview with Steve Folkes (Round 6)
Sun April 22, 2007
Source: www.bulldogs.com.au

ABC Grandstand spoke with Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes after the Bulldogs downed the Eels 21-18.

ABC:
Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes - Steve, you've come away with the victory this afternoon but Parramatta made you work very hard.

FOLKES:
Yeah, we were both probably as bad as each other in the first half, it was not pretty at all. We've struggled all year to find some cohesion and fluency with the football - Souths we probably found a little bit of it, but the other games, not so much. It was like a drop-athon in the first half and on top of dropped ball we were compounding that by giving away penalties - it was extremely frustrating.

ABC:
How important was it to get that try 15 seconds out from half-time?

FOLKES:
I think it proved crutial obviously as far as the scores concerned but I think just to give us a little boost going in at half-time, getting us back into the game because I think it was 14-6 then or 16-6 then so it really made a significant difference to our mindset as we went in at half-time.

ABC:
Did you have much to say to the players about the first-half performance?

FOLKES:
Yeah, you've obviously got to touch on it. I think the fact our defence was pretty solid even though they scored a couple of tries, I thought our defence was pretty solid for both halves. At half-time I guess you just try and get them up and you don't want to put too big a dampener on the fact they've scored just before half-time, so you try and temper your criticism with some positives aswell. But we just dropped too much ball and gave away too many penalties in the first half and we never looked likely until that last bit at the end.

ABC:
At 18-points-all in the second half with 15 minutes or so to go, did you have confidence in your team that they would come up with a field goal decision if it needed to be made?

FOLKES:
Yeah, Shifty and Daniel Holdsworth can certainly strike the field goals sweetly enough, it was a matter of whether we gave ourselves the opportunity to get in decent field position where we could do that without coming up with an error. I thought we probably played the last 10 or 15 minutes pretty well considering we weren't playing that well and the fact that field position was all important. We had a few sets coming off our line, Luke Patten made a very uncharacteristic error at the back and that put us under some more pressure. So all-in-all it wasn't a great performance but I'll take the two points from an ugly win.

ABC:
You touched on Luke Patten there, he probably made one mistake in the game that could have been costly. But two players, Luke Patten, his game in general and his form, and Willie Mason backing up after the Test from the other night.

FOLKES:
I think Luke Patten should be in-line for an Origin jumper. He's been our best player all year and that's probably the last couple of years aswell. He was inspirational tonight, a couple of the runs he made carrying the ball back from kick returns led to us kicking the field goal late in the game so he's been fantastic - he was our Player's Player by a mile. Mason and Bobcat backing up, Bobcat played 80 minutes on Friday night and to back-up and play 80 today, I don't think the people who schedule these games know how hard that is because it's extremely tough and it wouldn't do the people who schedule these things some harm to maybe consider playing it a different day because I think it's too hard and we play again on Friday night so we've got three games in eight days - really tough. The people that put a date down next to the game certainly don't realise that because I can't stress how hard it is, but those guys did a fantastic job again today and they'll deserve their rest over the rest of the week.

ABC:
You had a try disallowed that could have put you up 22-18, possibly 24-18, some thought on that? The play seemed to be going a while after the obstruction occurred?

FOLKES:
Yeah, well they've pretty much said that's a penalty all year so I'm happy to go with that provided that they give a penalty in round 26 or in the Grand Final under the same circumstances.

ABC:
Just finally, I was going to ask you, was Brent Sherwin always going to play this week or was that a late decision?

FOLKES:
It probably wasn't a late decision, I pretty much told Benny that I was happy for him to concentrate on his Test debut - the biggest game of his life. I didn't think mentally he would be capable of backing up with another game two days later. I just thought it wasn't fair on him and he understands where I'm coming from and he was happy to stand down.

ABC:
Well done on the victory Steve and thanks for talking to Grandstand Rugby League.

LINKS:
www.bulldogs.com.au
www.abc.net.au/rugbyleague/



Bulldogs come from 10 down to beat Eels
Sun April 22, 2007
The Bulldogs showed the true Canterbury grit of the past to claw their way back from a 10-point deficit to defeat the inform Parramatta outfit 21-18 at Parramatta Stadium.

In recent times the Bulldogs have been the masters of surrendering leads including an eight-point lead last week against the undefeated Manly. However, on this occasion the Bulldogs came from 16-6 on the stroke of half-time to upset the Eels on their home soil.

Australian Test forward Willie Mason was the standout player on the field producing two big efforts in the space of three days to help Australia and the Bulldogs to important victories. Mason powered the Bulldogs pack forward all day. Bulldogs captain Andrew Ryan wasn't far behind Mason in the Man of the Match stakes with another 80 minute workaholic effort after performing for the full 80 in the Test on Friday night. Mason who won the Channel 9 Man of the Match award donated it to one of the Cancer charities in a fine gesture.

One of the big positives for the Bulldogs was the return of star halfback Brent Sherwin after four weeks in Premier League. Sherwin's kicking game was at times off guard, but his scheming performance benefited his team-mates around him and took plenty of pressure off five-eighth Daniel Holdsworth. Sherwin also came up with a vital intercept during the second half when the Eels were on the attack and whilst the Bulldogs didn't score from that attacking raid, they were able to begin their domination of the second half.

Sherwin came into the Bulldogs side today with Kiwis Test halfback Ben Roberts rested following Friday's Test match. Sherwin trained with the Bulldogs all week and it was widely tipped that he would win a recall after training at halfback all week with the side. Sonny Bill Williams pulled out with a hamstring injury and he was replaced in the squad by Jarrad Hickey who had a strong match. Roberts is a player who simply has to be in the Bulldogs top 17 with his versatility and his individual brilliance, but Sherwin is the best man for the No.7 jersey at this point in time with his experience, kicking game and ability to guide his forwards around the park.

The Bulldogs dominated the early exchanges with Reni Maitua making a big break down the right hand side only to bomb the try. The visitors didn't have to wait long for the opening points when numbers down the right hand side saw Hazem El Masri cross for his 129th try in the top grade. El Masri converted from near the sideline for the Bulldogs to lead 6-0.

Brett Finch inspired the Eels into action setting up a try for Daniel Wagon in the 13th minute when he cut through the Bulldogs defence and offloaded to Wagon to score under the posts. Finch was the man of the moment three minutes later when he sliced past Maitua to put the Eels front. Luke Burt converted both tries for Parramatta to lead 12-6.

Burt added penalty goals in the 28th and 37th minutes to extend Parramatta's lead from 12-6 to 16-6.

As the Eels appeared headed for a comfortable half-time lead, Holdsworth put in a nice kick behind the line where Trent Cutler had far too much pace for Eric Grothe to score in the corner. El Masri landed a bottler from the sideline with the Bulldogs within four points at the break.

Burt landed another penalty goal in plum field position six minutes into the second half to push the Eels to a converted try lead.

A nice play by Corey Hughes on the try line saw Mason crash over in the 59th minute. It appeared that Mason was a blocker for Sherwin only for Hughes to deliver him a nice short ball catching the Eels defence off guard. El Masri converted from near the posts to level up the scores.

Ryan was disallowed a controversial no try moments later when Finch dived after Mason came through as a decoy. The Bulldogs continued on the same attacking play passing it around and Finch had ample opportunity to get up and make the tackle. Finch to his credit milked the rule for what it was worth and the Bulldogs were penalised for the no try. The NRL has to seriously look at the decoy option as attacking teams are now being punished for poor defensive reads. Unless a player moves out of position to take out a runner than it should go in favour of the attacking side.

Parramatta began to dominate field position following the Ryan no try incident and had opportunities to land the one-pointer, but didn't do so. The Bulldogs finally got into position and Holdsworth landed the crucial one-pointer with six minutes remaining.

The Bulldogs closed out the game from that moment in fine Canterbury tradition and El Masri added a penalty goal with a minute remaining to seal an impressive victory.

On the same day Brett Stewart scored two tries in the opening four minutes for Manly, Luke Patten showed that the contention for the NSW fullback position is strong with an outstanding display with the exception of one handling error. Patten has developed into a consistent fullback in the last two years and hasn't received his due recognition.

It wasn't the Bulldogs best performance, but it was a trademark Canterbury effort that got the job done with professionalism and the two points in the bag. On top of that they had to overcome a predictable lopsided 10-6 penalty count from Sean Hampstead.

Tue April 17, 2007
• Te Maari replaces Kouparitsas in Bulldogs squad
  

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