Anasta out, Thurston starting at pivot

18 September 2004


The Bulldogs have suffered a body blow before Sunday's must-win NRL semi-final against Melbourne when star pivot Braith Anasta was ruled out after failing to overcome a sternum injury.

Anasta flunked a fitness test on Saturday morning, ensuring 18th man Johnathan Thurston will step up to play five-eighth at Aussie Stadium on Sunday.

Thurston will start and will share pivot duties with reserve Reni Maitua.

Anasta suffered sternum bruising during the Bulldogs' shock qualifying final loss to the North Queensland Cowboys last Saturday night.

Anasta struggled during the game but looked set to play in the crucial clash against Melbourne after showing improvement at training this week.

However, Anasta couldn't complete his first contact session of the week on Saturday morning, opening the door for youngster Thurston.

"He trained during the week but he was unable to take any contact at all. That makes it a bit difficult in a game of rugby league," Bulldogs football manager Brad Clyde said.

did you bulldogs supporters see the program yesterday on ABC's Stateline on Hazem El Magic?

Nah I havent I was in sleepingland

What was it about?

the ultimate grudge match next weekend when the roosters take on the cowboys. should be an interesting game, i hope they bash each other up real goot.

i was impressed with the cowboy's defence last night, they made a lot of handling errors and at times i thought 'gee they're shooting themselves in the foot' but somehow they managed to hold brisbane off. i think they revel in the underdog mentality, and who wouldnt? i remember in the past when we were scrapping into the top eight and i'd go into seige mode cursing the journo's as i read their articles and how they wouldnt give us a chance in hell. that made victory a heluva lot sweeter.

i hope a week of criticisms and sudden death finals football will bring out the best in the 'dogs. anasta is gonesky but we should be okay if maitua and thurston (provided he doesnt keep slipping) play well, they're both good players. it's a shame we let travis norton go last year, he's a real good ball player and would have come in real handy right now.

bulldogs are winning 22-6 half time

its 34-6 now and they are still playing. the doggies have it in the bag now.

hazem just kicked to a world record of 300, most goals in a season!

WOOHOOOOOO!!

18/36

Its not over till its over

brilliant tackle

Alhumdulilah im very happy with today's results...

It was one freaky, exciting game

Sherwin was awesome! and Thurstone was tops also, and hazem kicked the recordd of most goals in a seasonn

They were all great today! as for Melbourne...well what can i say.. Melbourne Storm= crappy WEATHER (as melbourne has) = crappy TEAM

LOL @ pun of words with storm and weather.

Just be happy it was a good game. : )

Alhumdulilah
I have to admit, Melbourne scared me a little today, coz they have a tendency to catch up in the most crucial freakiest moments in the game, but alhumdulilah bulldogs were not puppies today (like last week)

Now its the panthers... final...should be interesting.

GOOOO THE DOGGIES WOOOOHOOOO!!

BRING ON THE PANTHERS!

ya, the 'dogs played well today. sherwin was tops, and our forwards were pretty good today as well.

wohoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

What a game I was jumpin screaming and Alhamdulillah the dogs won and what a score in the 2nd half i thought storm is gonna catch up as they always put down a couple of tries in the last minutes.but not today hehehhehehehe

DOGS FINALS CAMPAIGN BACK ON TRACK
The Mitsubishi Electric Bulldogs have advanced to a Preliminary Final showdown with the defending premiers, the Penrith Panthers, after a convincing 43-18 win over the Melbourne Storm at Aussie Stadium this afternoon.

After enduring a long week of lingering doubts over their ability to step up to finals footy, the Dogs put all the knockers and so-called experts aside and put together one of their finest performances of the year. Going into the game without Braith Anasta, the Bulldogs were led around the paddock by half-back Brent Sherwin who put in a man of the match performance.

Anasta was replaced in the line-up by Reni Maitua who shared the pivot role with Tony Grimaldi in the first quarter of the game. Both players provided excellent distribution to their outside backs on either side of the ruck before Johnathan was injected into the game with an enormous impact finishing with two tries.

A dream start saw the Bulldogs cross for three tries within a 9 minute period to jump out to a 16-0 lead after just 12 minutes of the first-half. Adam Perry was the first to cross after just three minutes when he supported fullback Luke Patten who made a quick dart out of dummy half. Andrew Ryan continued his try scoring spree of 2004 by crossing in the 9th minute after a great chip[ and re-gather by Sherwin. Sherwin was at it again just 3 minutes later when he laid on a miraculous flick pass for Hazem El Masri to score. With the try El Masri became the first player to pass the magical 300 point mark for the season. El Masri converted two of the first three tries.

The Storm were able to hit back when Steven Bell crossed in the 17th minute after great lead up working from Scott Hill. Matt Orford converted to put the Storm back in the picture at 16-6.

Both teams slugged it out for the next 20 minutes until the Dogs were able to extend their lead back out to 16 points when Willie Tonga finished off some fine Bulldogs attack. El Masri was on target to see the Bulldogs out to a 22-6 lead at the break.

The Bulldogs came out early in the second half with the same intensity that set-up their dominance in the first-half. Tries to Johnathan Thurston in the 48th minute and Luke Patten in the 52nd minute that were both converted by El Masri saw the Dogs out to a 34-6 lead.

Any advantage that the Bulldogs got from the two converted tries was quickly neutralized when the Storm replied within 4 minutes with two of their own converted tries. It was another drop in concentration by the Bulldogs that allowed the Storm to narrow the margin back to 16 points. Steven Bell crossed for his second 4 pointer in the 56th minute before Billy Slater dived over just two minutes later. Orford potted over both conversions to see the scoreline at 34-18.

A penalty goal by El Masri in the 64th minute extended the Bulldogs out to a 18 point margin and when Brent Sherwin calmly slotted a field goal in the 71st minute the Bulldogs were headed to next weeks preliminary final whilst the Storm were heading for an early off-season.

Johnathan Thurston darted over for his second try just before the siren and when El Masri completed the scoring the Dogs could celebrate their win and look towards their finals campaign being back on track.

Bulldogs forwards Steve Price (26 tackles, 23 hit-ups, 196 metres), Mark O’Meley (16 tackles, 17 hit-ups, 149 metres), Andrew Ryan (20 tackles, 8 hit-ups, 72 metres), Willie Mason (14 tackles, 13 hit-ups, 119 metres), Roy Asotasi (10 tackles, 14 hit-ups, 121 metres) and Sonny Bill Williams (13 tackles, 15 hit-ups, 144 metres) dominated play and their low mistake rate and second phase play provided plenty of go forward.

Hazem El Masri completed another outstanding scoring achievement when he scored 18 points taking his season tally to a record 312 points. El Masri also took his season tally goals to 132 which broke the previous record of 129 that El Masri set last season.



Mitsubishi Electric Bulldogs 22
Tries: Adam Perry (3m), Andrew Ryan (9m), Hazem El Masri (12m), Willie Tonga (35m), Johnathan Thurston (48m, 80m), Luke Patten (52m)
Goals: Hazem El Masri 7

defeated

Melbourne Storm 6
Tries: Steven Bell (17m, 56m), Billy Slater (58m)
Goals: Matt Orford 3

Dogs one game from NRL grand final

19 September 2004


The Bulldogs are only one win away from their first grand final in six years after crafty halfback Brent Sherwin led the club to a 43-18 victory over Melbourne in their NRL semi-final at Aussie Stadium.

The 'Dogs will play Penrith on Saturday night at Aussie Stadium for the right to meet the winner of the Sydney Roosters-North Queensland game in the premiership decider.

Melbourne was still in the game at halftime, but two Bulldogs tries in the opening 12 minutes of the second half ensured there would be no comeback.

Five-eighth Johnathan Thurston, who won a call-up when Braith Anasta was ruled out with a sternum injury, came off the bench to put the Storm to the sword.

The classy Queenslander accepted a Steve Price pass and stepped around Dallas Johnson to make the score 28-6 in the 48th minute and then created a try for fullback Luke Patten four minutes later which secured the win.

Melbourne centre Steven Bell found a reply in the 56th minute, scoring his second try of the match when he accepted a Matt Orford pass.

Two minutes later the Storm was in again, this time through fullback Billy Slater.

But a Hazem El Masri penalty in the 62nd minute slowed the Storm's momentum and Sherwin put the icing on the cake with nine minutes remaining, sliding out of dummy half and piloting over a field goal to give his side an unassailable 19-point lead.

Sherwin and Thurston then combined in the last minute to rub salt into the Storm's wounds.

The Bulldogs, who lost to North Queensland in their opening finals game last weekend, last played in a grand final in 1998 - when they lost to Brisbane.

While the Bulldogs were celebrating, the game marked an unhappy ending for Melbourne captain Stephen Kearney, who was outstanding, and prop Rodney Howe.

Kearney will join English club Hull next season while Howe is likely to retire.

The first half featured outstanding individual performances, particular from the two No.7s - Sherwin and Orford.

Sherwin played a part in three of the Bulldogs' four first-half tries while Orford was a constant threat.

Patten created the game's opening try for hooker Adam Perry in the third minute before Sherwin went to work.

Sherwin was at the heart of the 'Dogs second try, kicking ahead and re-gathering to send Andrew Ryan over, El Masri again converting to make the score 12-0.

Sherwin and the 'Dogs weren't finished there though and the classy half was involved in the lead-up to El Masri's 11th minute try which gave the Belmore-based side a 16-0 lead.

The Storm needed to hit back and they did five minutes later when centre Bell sprinted between Willie Mason and Ryan to score under the posts.

But the Bulldogs had the last laugh in the first half in the 35th minute when centre Willie Tonga finished off a backline movement involving Sherwin, Price, Thurston and Ryan, El Masri converting to give the `Dogs a commanding lead for the second half.

it was funny listening to phil gould's commentry yesterday, he tipped melbourne to win. it must have really hurt his ego.

me thinks he's still bitter about being sacked in 1989 and replaced with chris anderson. he was a factor in getting graham murray (current cowboys coach) removed from the roosters helm even though he took the team to its first grand final in yonks (the next year the roosters won under ricky stuart).

haha i know! I loved the commentry.

Yeh it was a good one wasnt it.lolll

isnt it funny how Muslims will give an Islamic answer to a win just because there is a muslim player. An 8 year old informed me yesterday that the reason why the Bulldogs won was that because the Muslims believe a lot in "patience" (and by default they assume Bulldogs is Muslim because of Hazem) and because they are, Allah made them win and not the Melbourne Storm.

Peace
Hanan

Awwwwwwwwwwwww
How cute But I Must admit he/she could be right

or maybe they were a team who played really well.

and now this 8 year old wants me to purchase them a Bulldogs jersey (and the 8 year old is a she).

lolll
Just ask the team to get a signed one for her or ask Hazem
I bought one for my 1 year old daughter so adorable.
The jerseys are so small and cute.

Thurston happy to vacate spot for Anasta

Stop-gap Bulldogs five-eighth Johnathan Thurston says he's happy to watch next weekend's NRL preliminary final against Penrith to pave the way for Braith Anasta's return.

Thurston and Reni Maitua shared the pivot duties today in the 'Dogs' 43-18 semi-final victory over Melbourne at Aussie Stadium.

But Anasta is expected to return from a sternum injury for his side's meeting with the Panthers in Saturday night's preliminary final at the same ground, leaving Thurston out in the cold.

"Braith's a big part of this club and he's pretty much our main man," said Thurston, who will join North Queensland at the end of this season.

"As long as he's in the side, he brings a lot to it. If I have to get dropped for that then I'm more than happy to sit on the sideline and watch.

"It's a bit tough but I missed 12 weeks out (with an ankle injury) during the year and we won a fair few of our games.

"That makes it fairly hard (to cement a spot in first grade) but all I can do is just wait."



Thurston frequently troubled the Storm's defence today, scoring two tries in the second half to contribute strongly to the 25-point thrashing.

"It was very nerve-racking sitting on the sideline but once I got out there it was very fast and that's what we train all year for," said the Queenslander, who started on the bench.

Thurston spoke about his Bulldogs teammates feeding off each other's good work today as the forwards dominated, laying the platform for the 21-year-old and halfback Brent Sherwin to wreak havoc.

"We're a very close bunch of guys. There were a few big hits out there and we all just thrive on it," said Thurston.

"That's what semi-final football is all about. It was good to get out there and have a run."

Sherwin fit and raring to play against Panthers

Bulldogs halfback Brent Sherwin was able to jog lightly today - a major breakthrough in his battle to overcome a troublesome hip injury.

"It's the first time I've been able to run straight after the game so it's feeling great," said Sherwin, his side's best in its 43-18 NRL semi-final victory over Melbourne at Aussie Stadium yesterday.

"Last week I was walking around and it was hurting. Today I thought I'd jog a little bit and see how it went and it went great."

The hip problem flared again five minutes into the clash with the Storm but fortunately it eased just as quickly, enabling Sherwin to lay on three of the Bulldog's four tries in the opening half.

He was aided by a dominate display from his forwards as Willie Mason, Steve Price and Mark O'Meley smashed their opponents into submission.



The pressure for Sherwin to produce a big game against the Storm was enormous.

The Bulldogs were missing their chief playmaker Braith Anasta (sternum injury) and Sherwin had played poorly in the 30-22 loss to North Queensland the week before.

Sherwin revelled in the extra responsibility, but he still wants Anasta back in the side for Saturday night's preliminary final against premiers Penrith at Aussie Stadium to help ease the pressure on him.

"I take a little bit more responsibility (without Anasta) and I like that," said Sherwin, who also booted a 71st minute field goal and set up a late try for Johnathan Thurston yesterday.

"When Braith's there it does give me a break and he takes some pressure off me.

"Hopefully this week he'll be back. We're expecting a big game from Penrith."

Sherwin said he had worked hard on his kicking game in the lead-up to the Storm game.

"When my kicking game is going well, I start playing a bit better," said the 26-year-old after a recovery session at Canterbury Pool today.

"I wasn't happy with myself (against the Cowboys) and a big part of it is the kicking game.

"I thought if I can get a good kicking game away then that's half the game and the boys did the rest."

New Zealand international Sonny Bill Williams, who made a comeback from a long-term ankle injury against the Panthers in round 21, said today the Bulldogs played better when Sherwin was on song.

"When he's on fire we're all on fire," noted Williams.

"Because Braith was out he took it upon himself to get more involved. It just goes to show how good he can play. He just went awesome.

"He's got one of the best kicking games in the NRL and he showed that yesterday."

if i buy 1, there will be a riot as the other 2 sisters aged 5.5 and 4.5 want one too that would kill the budget so i suggested that i buy 1 for the eldest girl's size, and the younger ones can wear it too as pyjamas or something inside the home .

i am not a big fan of signatured clothing, even though i am a fan of the doggies.

Peace
Hanan

lollll
Oh thats gonna be so hard to make a decision on that one.
Insha Allah you will find a good solution

BULLDOGS SEEK FANS SUPPORT

Malcolm Noad, CEO of the Bulldogs, has today re-issued his call to all fans to help the Club and the NRL identify the person responsible for disrupting yesterday’s game at Aussie Stadium.

“These people are not true Bulldogs supporters and the Club is fed up with these people impacting upon all the good work Steve Price and the team are putting in on the field. One or two idiots are behind this and we want to make sure that they never attend a game again.”

Mr Noad has met with representatives of the Bulldog Army this morning with Greg “Ace” Steele throwing his support behind the club. “These people must understand that their actions continue to damage the Club and the team. It is up to us as fans to help the Club identify these trouble makers.

If you have any information about these people, please contact the Club on 9789 2922 or on email info@bulldogs.com.au

Has anybody noticed the mind games happening in the sporst section of the news? All they seem to mention are the 3 Penrith players, who are injured and cannot play in Saturday's match...

I hope the Bulldogs don't fall for this mind game, and slack off

hazem, willie tonga and mark o'meley won the footy show's positional awards positional awards last night.

there's a lot in papers about the bulldogs, hardly anything about the panthers and its making me nervy. we're going in firm favorites, its much easier going in as underdogs (even for the fans). but the community spirit is on a high, drive around the area and u'll see ppl walking the streets in their jerseys.. if we make the grand final the streets will be blue and white; streemers, banners, flags etc.

cant wait.

Insha`Allah..
Its great that we have alot of positive reasons which are meant to make us advantaged.. but thats the freaky thing, as i said, "Mind Games".

We have this friend of a family friend, who is old in age (but young at heart) who swore to paint his white car with blue stripes if the bulldogs win

I loved the footy show last night. hahah.. the baked beans.

my bulldogs flag has officially moved from my bedroom window (where it sits all year round) to the balcony. i tied it to the railing.

I couldn't get tickets to the doggies game but am going to the roosters/cowboys game on sunday.

sold out is it? i heard they were going to have a big crowd in, didnt think it'd sell out.

i might be having a grand final bbq at my place (if the 'dogs make it ofcourse) and i'll try to get my hands on a projector so i can set it up in the backyard too... more on it later though, insha'Allah.

Hahahaha, thats the way

i'm waiting for the drive by peep peep's and the peep peep pip pip pip peep peep, which is a bit more difficult to master but once perfected it is music to the ears.

Its true. ahaha, ur spirit is acknowleged. It looks like you took alot of time in trying to get it roped around.

it's a great engineering feat, 'cause as u would have noticed, the flag is hanging at an angle so not only did i have to secure the flag to the rail but also make sure that the angle is maintained. ;D

lol that deserves a round of applause

/me admires it, ahhh now that's ART! lolllll

If I saw that I would walk past, casually positioning myself directly beneath the flag, casually light up a lighter for no reason what so ever, and ofcourse, casually, stretch so that my arm reaches beneath the flag.



Just jokes ofcourse. And no soulja, no half truths in this one.

then DesertRose` casually approaches Sista...the rest i'll leave to your imaginations... LOL

I can't wait for this... its going to be a nasty 80 minutes with 2 penrith supporters in the from my sisters hubby and brother...
Insha`Allah it doesnt get violent

With I had the freedom to utter some anti-doggy remarks....lol

Few years ago, I said something about the bulldogs to one of my close habib-friend and he really really got upset with me…….from that time, I stopped dogs-bagging infront of its fans lol sometimes its hard to tell how much each of those fans like the team to what extend....!

QUOTE(souLja @ Sep 23 2004, 08:31 PM)
...
i might be having a grand final bbq at my place (if the 'dogs make it ofcourse) and i'll try to get my hands on a projector so i can set it up in the backyard too... more on it later though, insha'Allah.
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FYI Bro, and that's a very very very BIG IF

Although my modesty compels me to say 'May the best team wins', but those recent Pantherfied (oops ... I mean glorified) history makes me to remind you of some terrifying facts

Remember this?


And This

Captain Craig Gower of the Panthers
lifts the trophy as NRL CEO
David Gallop and Prime Minister
John Howard look on. The Panthers
defeated the Roosters 18-6.

and for a sneak preview of 2morow night picture this!


So here is a (winning) tip for you doggie fan(atics) out there, plzzzzzzzz Don't get your hopes up 4 your overrated team, coz U aint seen nothing like the Panthers mauling yet

QUOTE(Wolf @ Sep 23 2004, 08:28 PM)
I couldn't get tickets to the doggies game but am going to the roosters/cowboys game on sunday.
[right][snapback]89069[/snapback][/right]


What for ... Bro?

Are the Roosters fans missing their Westies friends?

mayte, that was last year.

edit: i just saw johnathon thurston at chullora marketplace. too bad he's a cowboy next year.