The Canterbury Bulldogs have enjoyed a victorious return to Belmore with a dominant 16-point win over the Melbourne Storm.
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The Bulldogs completely outclassed their opponents in a one-sided game.
After just 15 minutes you could see there was only going to be one winner.
The victory takes the Bulldogs into the top eight with 18 points.
The Dogs now have the same amount of points as the Warriors in seventh and Melbourne in sixth, and are eight points behind league leaders the Brisbane Broncos.
The Storm, on the other hand, will be disappointed with such a flat display after they were unlucky against Parramatta.
With no Billy Slater but the likes of Cameron Smith back, they were just not competitive against the Dogs.
Close to 17,000 fans were on hand to see the Bulldogs back at Belmore, their suburban home ground.
The Dogs rarely play there anymore, with ANZ Stadium their usual home ground, but perhaps they should considering the supporters’ response and the performance.
Canterbury controlled things from the very beginning, as Brett Morris touched down early.
A Curtis Rona kick was perfectly weighted towards Morris.
A few minutes later and the Dogs were in again.
Shaun Lane got his first-ever try in the NRL with a strong run.
It’s surely a moment the young forward will remember for a long time.
Sam Perrett added the third try with a nice finish.
It was all too easy for the Bulldogs.
The Storm were 16-0 down and trying desperately to hold on.
But the Bulldogs were enjoying huge amounts of possession and putting their opponents under a lot of pressure.
The score remained at 16-0 at half-time.
In the second half the game descended into a midfield grind and the possession stats evened up.
The home team were content with their strong lead and Melbourne couldn’t create any good attacking opportunities.
Josh Morris killed off the Storm’s hopes with this try.
He was found in space on the left wing excellently by big Sam Kasiano.
The match was sewn up as the Storm could offer little.
Melbourne finally got a repreive right before full-time.
Marika Korobiete touched down on the right flank to restore some pride.
Smith couldn’t add the extras from the sideline after the buzzer, so the score remained 20-4.
It was an excellent night for the blue and white who maintained their record as being the only NRL side with a winning record against the Storm.
But for Melbourne, Craig Bellamy has an extra headache with prop Jordan McLean suffering a suspected medial strain on his return from a hamstring strain.
The Storm coach will want his side to break out of its losing funk soon.
Next weekend Melbourne has the bye and time off to work on their game, thanks to Origin Game III.
The Bulldogs also have the weekend off with the shortened round 17.
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