What Brad Arthur would do for Des Hasler's type of halves problem. Bulldogs young gun Moses Mbye watched on as Josh Reynolds and Trent Hodkinson reprised their old club and state combination to lead Canterbury to a 28-4 win against Parramatta at ANZ Stadium on Friday night.
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Bulldogs beat wounded Eels
After a sloppy first half, Canterbury blow Parramatta off the park in the second. The Eels lose a number of players to injury, while Chris Sandow and Josh Reynolds could be facing suspensions.
Hodkinson and Reynolds laid on a try each in a polished performance, while their opposites, Chris Sandow and Luke Kelly struggled. It may have been Sandow's last outing in Eels colours as he continues to agitate for a release to join English Super League club Warrington.
The five-tries-to-one loss will likely see Parramatta fall four points outside the top eight by the end of the weekends rounds while the Bulldogs keep their faint top four hopes alive.
To echo the words of Sandow earlier this year; the Eels looked at their best when they were unstructured in the first half. It was a statement which earned the ire of Arthur but the Eels' ad-lib second-phase play caused the Bulldogs some headaches.
Structurally they misfired. Sweeping plays failed to find their player - with some passed heading over the try line – while Kelly fired a nonchalant grubber out on the full. To compound the Eels' woes Corey Norman – who has been their best player this year – limped off midway through the second half with a possible damaged posterior cruciate ligament which could sideline him for six weeks.  Anthony Watmough also left the field late.
Frank Pritchard scored two tries for the second time this year, in a game where teammate Sam Kasiano limped from the field early in the second half in front of 17,082 people.
The Eels started the match in bizarre fashion. After failing to secure the kick-off Junior Paulo retrieved the ball just before it went dead, only to be dragged over the side line. While the Eels were not made to pay for their early error, it would be the Bulldogs to score first.
A clever dummy by Hodkinson saw him cut through Tepai Moeroa before drawing in Norman to hand Pritchard a run away try to complete the 60 metre movement and give Canterbury a 6-0 lead after 21 minutes. The Bulldogs were denied an earlier try when James Graham was ruled to be inside the 10 metres from a Reynolds grubber kick.
After a scrappy opening 40 minutes, the Eels kept within striking distance of the Bulldogs when Semi Radradra surged to the top of the NRL's try-scoring list with his 17th try – and his 12th in the past five games. Radradra's try saw the Eels trailing 6-4 at half-time.
The Bulldogs would not take long to extend their lead with the Bulldogs over half setting up Pritchard for his double in the 47th minute. A well placed low cross field last tackle kick by Reynolds allowed Pritchard to jump above Eels players and plant the ball down over the try line to give the Bulldogs a 12-4 lead.
Josh Jackson – arguably the Bulldogs best - would score five minutes later to extend Canterbury's lead by 14. An 80-metre kick return from Brett Morris added more points for the Bulldogs.
Winger Curtis Rona would re-join Radradra on top of the top scorers list with a try in the final play of the game.
Parramatta's David Gower was placed on report for an innocuous crusher tackle on Brett Morris while Reynolds could come under scrutiny for a trip on Sandow.
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