Even then they still penalise for it and given the context it was a professional foul.
The referees just missed it.
I can only imagine what the Dragons fans are going through. Their side was the better team for the majority of that first half but they just couldn't buy a try to save themselves. They just can't execute at crucial times and the only team Benji is fooling is his own. He is killing a ton of chances down in the Bulldogs red-zone. To make matters worse, neither Quinlan or Widdop are playing that well either so they can't rely on anyone to get the team over the line.
The Dogs have been fairly impressive in defence, but their attack is all over the shop. The two tries were just freak plays, Morris had no idea who he was throwing that ball to and he was just fortunate it found the hands of a team-mate. While the Kasiano try was from a Perrett break which came about due to the Dragons chase more than anything else.
Dragons probably would have got it if Marshall didn't throw that pass 5 minutes out from full time. There really wasn't anything on there. The gap was closed. Should have taken the tackle and worked on building more pressure.
Well it was certainly closer than I expected, that's for sure.
The Dragons muscled up tonight and gave the Bulldogs pack plenty to think about. The likes of Russell Packer, Michael Cooper and Tariq Sims kept the Dragons in the contest and had the Bulldogs in all sorts.
It's a game that really got away from them in the end. If they had have just converted one of their opportunities, if Jason Nightingale had just planted the ball down off that Morris mistake or Thompson crawled that extra inch, it would have been their game for the taking.
In the end, it wasn't a pretty win, but this is the type of victory the Bulldogs have built their success on. Just being able to endure wave after wave of attack, turn the opposition around and power through the middle. They weren't executing at a 100% tonight, in fact I'd go as far to say they as many brain fades as any in the competition. But when it comes to those one or two big defensive efforts, they seem to generally deliver and get away with a win.
Just when you think the Panthers are building towards something, they're back to square one. It's been a real sloppy effort from them so far and if it wasn't for some desperate goal-line defence the scoreline would be much higher.
Still plenty of time for them to comeback, it's just a matter of drawing first blood in the second half.
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