The Jersey Flegg Panthers were shut out in wet conditions on Saturday afternoon at Parker St reserve, going down to the Bulldogs, 10-0.
The Bulldogs opened the scoring in this one, a show and go from five-eighth Joseph Teaupa enough to split the defence open in the second minute. Conversion unsuccessful, 0-4.
The Panthers got back into the grind, just a few minutes later getting into attacking territory to put in a grubber, which had Taye Cochrane scrambling to get out of his own in-goal, but ended up pinning Bulldogs on their line.
A relieving penalty allowed the Bulldogs to march back upfield, and Teaupa looked like he was going to have his second before an obstruction call which denied him.
Errors crept into this game, the Bulldogs having better control and dominating field possession, but the Panthers defence held very strong in tough conditions.
Hokafonu Lemoto came onto the field and got to work, breaking tackles at will and looking very tough to handle, controlling the middle once the bench units came on.
The Panthers got some chances late in the half, but the Bulldogs defence was seemingly impenetrable, a shift to the left had the Bulldogs scrambling but the cover defence was perfect, getting to Tim Carson before he could beat Sua on the outside.
Jaxen Edgar's efforts at fullback didn’t go unnoticed, making some crucial catches in wet conditions, and scheming around the ruck having Bulldogs defenders calling his name out nearly every possession.
The second half started in similar fashion, a tough slog in slippery conditions with plenty of hard hitting.
The Bulldogs got a penalty which put them in prime position for next points, and they wasted no time shifting left on second tackle before Teaupa hit Smith on a brilliantly ran unders line to crash over. Conversion successful, 0-10.
It didn’t get any easier for the Panthers, struggling to get out of their own end with repeated errors and some brutal Bulldogs defence.
A brilliantly placed short dropout with 15 minutes left got the Panthers some possession, Samuel Lane diving on the ball between two Bulldogs defenders. A penalty followed and the Panthers had their first attacking set in 10 minutes.
The Bulldogs edge defence was too good, multiple attacking raids shut down, with the left edge and Edgar coming close on a few occasions just for the defence to aim up and hold them out.
A missed attempt at a penalty goal kept the score 10-0 with 3 minutes to go, the Bulldogs regaining possession off the dropout and having one last attacking raid, which was held out by brave Panthers defence.
