Raiding party kills Dogs
CANBERRA RAIDERS 58 BULLDOGS 18
CANBERRA put their NRL road woes behind them to pile on the misery for the Bulldogs, who produced one of their worst performances in history to go down at ANZ Stadium tonight.
The home side was woeful, the 40-point defeat their heaviest in almost half a century.
In their worst loss since 1959, the Bulldogs 52 missed tackles as the Raiders ran in 11 tries to three - Colin Best picking up a career-best four tries and David Milne and Joe Picker registering doubles for their biggest ever win over the Canterbury side.
"It could have been 80 tonight,'' noted former premiership winner Greg Alexander on Fox Sports.
Popular opinion says you can tell how the Bulldogs are going to go by the way they start the match, and all the signs were good as they finished off their opening set with a good kick deep into Raiders territory.
Seventeen minutes later and the signs were, well, not so good, the Raiders up 16-0. The visitors scored on their first venture into the opposition's half, Joe Williams missing a simple one-on-one tackle to open up a passage for Milne.
Best and Glen Turner kept the scoreboard attendant busy, Best's 95-metre effort a contender for try of the year after young winger Justin Carney returned a Joe Williams grubber before Best, twice, and Terry Campese handled in a stunning long-ranger effort.
Even when it got better for the Bulldogs - like when Hazem El Masri leapt high for their opening try - it somehow got worse, Reni Maitua letting the ensuing kickoff bounce with Joel Monaghan regathering.
Best dived over for his second two plays later for 20-6 after 20 minutes. Raiders prop Michael Weyman dropped the ball inside his own half to give the home side some relief, the Bulldogs making him pay with Heka Nanai scoring off a brilliant Daryl Millard around the back pass.
A Corey Hughes 40-20 and the momentum had suddenly turned, Andrew Ryan barging over despite the presence of four defenders and all of a sudden it was 20-18 after 32 minutes.
Was anyone going to do some tackling?
The Raiders ensured they had a haftime lead more reflective of their first half dominance when Weyman offloaded in heavy traffic, Alan Tongue finding speed merchant Milne for his second and a eight-point buffer.
It appeared as though Canberra had made a change at the break,with their left centre suddenly resembling Mark Gasnier, Greg Inglis and Justin Hodges all rolled into one.
In reality, it was still Colin Best, the journeyman three-quarter who this week agreed to terms with South Sydney for next season busting the line twice to set up Joe Picker before crossing for his first hat-trick since he was a Cronulla Shark in 1999 for a 36-18 lead after 46 minutes.
It was enough to prompt Fox Sports sideline commentator Gary Belcher to suggest Best was a candidate for the NSW side for Origin III. At this point it must be said, Belcher is a Queensland stalwart.
Justin Carney backing up his double on debut last week with another 13 minutes from time before Best completed his memorable night three minutes from time.
The night ended on a sour note for the visitors though with Todd Carney hobbling off late in the game with a right ankle injury.
Fulltime
CANBERRA 58 (C Best 4 D Milne 2 J Picker 2 J Carney B Goodwin G Turner tries T Carney 5 T Campese 2 goals) bt BULLDOGS 18 (H El Masri H Nanai A Ryan tries H El Masri 3 goals) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: G Badger. Crowd: 9,845.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23901131-5001023,00.html
I'm pretty sure Parramatta belted them 56-4 in 05 and the Tigers beat them 54-2 a week later.. there have been others as well by more than 40 im sure.. Great research by the telecrap
![[furrycat]](/data/avatars/m/6/6602.jpg?1213416722){kind=avatar}
