It was the Bulldogs prized recruit Brett Kimmorley who shone tonight, the tireless Noddy in everything to ensure the Bulldogs went to the joint lead of the NRL table courtesy of a 28-4 win over the lowly and extremely disappointing Sydney Roosters at ANZ Stadium on Monday night.
The Roosters were so bad it was horrible. Consistent dropped ball, lack of intensity in defence – you name it, they did it wrong.
According to sources close to the Bondi camp, apparently Freddy has allowed the players to ‘run their own sessions’ this week as the changing of the guard nears in 2 weeks time.
It certainly looked that way tonight, the headless Chooks easily accounted for by a Bulldogs side in cruise control.
Kimmorley kicked, ran and dummied to perfection to run the Roosters side ragged, the old school no.7 given a well earned rest by Kevin Moore after involvement in 4 of the 5 Canterbury tries tonight. The in-form half also shining with the boot, kicking a handy 40/20 for his side.
While only a training run for the Bulldogs, it does bring them level with Saints on 36 competition points, the only difference is the points for and against.
The other stand-out for Dogs fans was another veteran, Luke Patten. The general involved regularly in attacking raids and playing very well positionally in defence.
Luke Patten touched down for tries twice in the opening quarter, the custodian running off Kimmorley well and having a double to his name in no time at all.
At times it looked like the Dogs could rack up a cricket score, but so bad were the Roosters – that the continuous stop start just killed everybody, fans included.
Kimmorley nailed a nice 40-20 kick only 6 minutes after the restart and, shortly after setup Daniel Holdsworth to eventually put Josh Morris over.
He completed the job when he put Greg Eastwood into a gap for Hazem El Masri to score to go ahead of Dragons rival Jamie Soward at the top of the points scoring charts.