Knights' hooking curse worsens as Bulldogs stun top-four contenders
Newcastle's No.9 curse has become all the more grim as the top-four contenders lost Andrew McCullough and Connor Watson to serious injuries in one of the biggest boilovers of the NRL season.
Watson (achilles) is almost certain to be sidelined for the rest of the year and McCullough faces a battle to play again this season after sustaining a serious hamstring injury in the Knights' 18-12 loss to cellar dwellers Canterbury on Sunday.
Caretaker Bulldogs coach Steve Georgallis notched his first win since Dean Pay's exit - in the same week the club confirmed Trent Barrett would take over in 2021 - to help the Bulldogs inch closer to avoiding the wooden spoon.
Newcastle took more than an hour to register their first points in driving rain at McDonald Jones Stadium, but Adam O'Brien has a far greater headache finding a fix in the hooking role.
Mid-season recruit McCullough and Watson both had to be carried from the field with O'Brien already without first-choice No.9 Jayden Brailey, who tore his ACL in the final match before the season's suspension in March.
Free agent Kieran Foran, who has been offered a substantially reduced deal to stay at the Bulldogs under Barrett, starred for the inspired visitors, who registered their second win of the campaign. They are now two points adrift of the second-from-bottom Broncos.
Andrew McCullough on the McDonald Jones Stadium turf after sustaining a serious hamstring injury.Credit:Getty
Newcastle squandered a chance to move back into the top four and extended a bizarre win-loss sequence stretching back to round four.
Kurt Mann filled in at dummy-half after the injuries to McCullough and Watson, and O'Brien might have no choice but to use him there on a more permanent basis despite the former Storm and Dragons utility making himself a home at five-eighth.
Early second-half tries to Raymond Faitala-Mariner and Jake Averillo, who butchered a certain four-pointer in the first half, handed the Bulldogs an 18-0 lead just 10 minutes after the break.
It came after Aiden Tolman's early try, the first he has scored in almost three years, was the only score of the first half.
Hymel Hunt and Sione Mata'utia dragged Newcastle back into the contest and laid siege to the Bulldogs line in the final 10 minutes, but couldn't find the clinical blow to send the match into golden point.
CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS 18 (Aiden Tolman, Raymond Faitala-Mariner, Jake Averillo tries; Jake Averillo 2, Nick Meaney goals) defeated NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS 12 (Hymel Hunt try; Kalyn Ponga goal) at McDonald Jones Stadium. Referee: Matt Cecchin.
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