Bulldogs Celebrate 2000th Game With Inspired Win Over Storm

The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have celebrated the Club’s 2000th first-grade appearance by snapping a five-game losing streak with an inspired 30-20 win over the Melbourne Storm at Accor Stadium.

The victory was topped off with an NRL debut for 21-year-old Jed Reardon – son of Bulldogs legend Steve, who played 163 games for the Club.

Jed, who debuted off the bench, found his dad in the crowd post-game and the two had a tearful embrace before Steve followed him onto the field.

Matt Burton had his best game of the season, finishing with two linebreaks, seven tackle busts, 252 run metres and 341 kick metres.

Bronson Xerri also had arguably his finest performance as a Bulldog with a try assist, two linebreaks assists, 13 tackle busts and 20 runs for 239 metres.

The visitors opened up the scoring with back-to-back tries – both scored by Moses Leo. The first came in the third minute after Leo crossed in the corner and then nine minutes later he scooped up a loose ball after Jacob Kiraz batted back in a 40/20 attempt and crossed for his second of the night.

In the midst of this, the Dogs suffered a major blow with star second-rower Jacob Preston suffering a broken forearm, forcing bench forward Harry Hayes into the contest much earlier than expected.

Cameron Ciraldo’s men dug deep though and recovered from the loss of Preston to score the next try after a Lachlan Galvin double pump set up Enari Tuala, who beat three opposition players to score. Matt Burton converted to take the score to 12-6.

The Storm also copped an injury setback with Will Warbrick succumbing to a rib issue, but they too recovered by scoring the next try with Josh King barging through a gap. Nick Meaney added the extras to extend his side’s lead to 18-6.

The Dogs received a shot of energy when last week’s NRL debutant Jack Underhill was injected into the game. The powerful forward again made his presence known immediately with a huge one-on-one tackle that forced a Storm error.

Melbourne received a boost after the half-time break with Warbrick returning to the field but it was the boys in Blue and White that struck first with Galvin delivering a peach of a pass to a rampaging Sitili Tupouniua.

The Dogs’ momentum soon came to a halt though when the Storm extended their lead by two after a contentious penalty for a late tackle on Jahrome Hughes.

But it wasn’t long before they were back on a roll off the back of another barnstorming run from Burton. A quick play-the-ball saw Galvin spread the ball via Jaeman Salmon out to tryscorer Jethro Rinakama. While Burton missed the conversion, he eventually did add an extra two points thanks to a penalty goal to lock up scores 20-all.

20-year-old Rinakama then scored again to break the gridlock 17 minutes later before Kiraz – who shifted to fullback after Connor Tracey was ruled out due to a hamstring injury – sealed the win with a try in the 77th minute.