Hodkinson Field Goal Secures Epic Golden Point Win

The Canterbury Bulldogs have progressed to next week's preliminary final following their epic 18-17 win during golden point in front of 28,000 fans at Allianz Stadium.

The opening 20 minutes was blistering from the Bulldogs, with the Blue and White's scoring three tries in the space of nine minutes.

Mitch Brown opened the scoring down the left following a beautiful set piece play, this was followed by two more tries from set plays, firstly from Corey Thompson down the right before Sam Perrett scored straight up the guts of the field to take the score out to 16-0 with Trent Hodkinson kicking 1 goal and Tim Lafai converting the Perrett try.

Luckily for the Sea Eagles, the Bulldogs weren't able to capitalise on the extra man after Manly's Josh Starling was sent to the sin bin under the one punch rule.

Manly bounced back on the stroke of half time when Jayden Hodges caught the Bulldogs markers napping to score near the uprights and when Jamie Lyon converted the score was 16-6 at the break.

The second half was another epic affair with yet another one-punch sin bin this time against the Bulldogs then a run of tries and field goals to send the game to golden point.

The tries in the second half for the Sea Eagles came from Brett Stewart who snaked his way through some weak defence before Cheyse Blair got a gift try after two Bulldogs defenders couldn't clean up the bouncing ball, the try wasn't without its moment of heat, after both sides came together in which Reni Maitua was sent to the bin under the one punch rule.

The most controversial moment of the game came when a Josh Reynolds kick hit referee Gerard Sutton, who after a moment of confusion gave the Dogs a scrum feed due to the interference, this gave the Bulldogs another set of six and it was from this set when Trent Hodkinson slotted the first of his field goals, that was not the only field goal within the last 5 minutes, when just moments from full time Daly Cherry-Evans put the ball over to level the scores at 17 all.

In a scenario which could've gone all night, the Bulldogs needed just 3 minutes of Golden Point, when Trent Hodkinson slotted the match winning field goal to take it to 18-17.

With that result, the Bulldogs now play the Penrith Panthers next Saturday night at ANZ Stadium, which marks a decade since the last preliminary final the Panthers played in also against the Bulldogs meanwhile, the year ends for the Manly Sea Eagles who finished third in the regular season.

MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES (17)
Tries: Jayden Hodges, Brett Stewart, Cheyse Blair
Field Goals: Daly Cherry-Evans (1/1)
Conversions: Jamie Lyon (2/3)
Penalty Goals:

CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS (18)
Tries: Mitch Brown, Corey Thompson, Sam Perrett
Field Goals: Trent Hodkinson (2/2)
Conversions: Trent Hodkinson (1/2), Timoteo Lafai (1/1)
Penalty Goals:

LATE MAIL: Sea Eagles - Jorge Taufua has been ruled out to give Cheyse Blair a start on the wing. Jayden Hodges moves to the bench with Daniel Harrison promoted to dummy half

LATE MAIL: Bulldogs - Moses Mbye and Harlan Alaalatoa drop out of the side to give the Bulldogs, 1-17.

Here come the Bulldogs down the race at Allianz Stadium, Baha Men pumping and could it be Michael Ennis' last time as the Bulldogs captain?

Now here come the Sea Eagles through the banner celebrating Brett Stewart's 200th game tonight

Gerard Sutton calls time on and its the Bulldogs who have first possession, Bulldogs defending the SCG (Southern End) of the ground in the first half

1: Good first set from the Bulldogs, travel 51m before a kick that Cheyse Blair cleans up on his own 10m line

2: UNFORCED ERROR MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Jamie Lyon makes an unforced error.
Jamie Lyon flies high off the bomb but can't control the ball and Bulldogs get the changeover

4: UNFORCED ERROR CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Mitch Brown makes an unforced error.
Poor pass from Trent Hodkinson can't be cleaned up by Mitch Brown and Gerard Sutton calls a double knock on

5: Sam Perrett loses the ball in the lights and the ball bounces but luckily it bounces favourably for Mitch Brown

6: Poor kick from the Bulldogs and Peta Hiku gets a free run to the 20m line after taking a catch ingoal

7: UNFORCED ERROR MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Daly Cherry-Evans makes an unforced error.
Daly Cherry-Evans runs it on the last after finding a hole but his offload was ruled to have gone forward by Gerard Sutton

8: Josh Reynolds takes the quick tap and catches the Manly defence napping after the penalty for a high shot

9: Repeat set for the Bulldogs after Brett Stewart pushes the ball dead

11: TRY CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Scored by Mitch Brown. Kick to come.
Mitch Brown gets the opening 4 pointer for the Bulldogs, an excellent second phase play in the setup and Brown gets the TRY

12: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Conversion attempt by Trent Hodkinson unsuccessful.
Trent Hodkinson puts a shocking kick in by his standard, put it to the left and it never came back

13: PENALTY BULLDOGS: Bulldogs get a penalty after Jamie Lyon couldn't get his leg out of the ruck and no surprise Lyon wasn't happy with the call

14: VIDEO REFEREE: Gerard Sutton not quite ready to award the try to Corey Thompson, needs Ashley Klein to approve it, Sutton says TRY

14: TRY CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Scored by Corey Thompson. Kick to come.
Corey Thompson gets the green lights after a good play from the Bulldogs exploits space on the Manly extremities

15: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Conversion attempt by Trent Hodkinson successful.
A better kick from the other side of the field and Trent Hodkinson adds the extra 2 to extend the lead

17: A perfect set from the Bulldogs sees them go well upfield and then a good kick forces Peta Hiku to go into in his own ingoal

17: Not good news for Bulldogs fans, Trent Hodkinson is down with a knee injury

18: TRY CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Scored by Sam Perrett. Kick to come.
Sam Perrett goes through some flimsy defence and a third similar play leads to a third try this time down the middle

19: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Conversion attempt by Timoteo Lafai successful.
Tim Lafai has no problems from in front to push the lead out again

21: UNFORCED ERROR MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Daly Cherry-Evans makes an unforced error.
Manly in all sorts at the moment, DCE drops the ball on the last tackle

23: Bulldogs try some expansive play before Greg Eastwood puts a grubber kick in that goes into touch 10m out from the Manly line

23: Light it up is the finals slogan - and this has flared

23: PUNCH THROWN

23: SIN BIN
Josh Starling is sent to the sin bin.
Josh Starling is off to the sin bin after being ruled to have thrown a punch

23: In the mean time Josh Jackson is on report after the inital chicken wing tackle

25: PENALTY MANLY: Josh Jackson penalised for laying in the ruck, too help the Sea Eagles out of trouble

26: Josh Reynolds races 60m downfield after Cheyse Blair taps the cross-field kick straight into Reynolds arms

27: VIDEO REFEREE: Josh Jackson dives on a loose ball to score, Checking whether Josh Reynolds knocked the ball on OR it was stripped, Gerard Sutton says NO TRY

27: UNFORCED ERROR CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Josh Reynolds makes an unforced error.
NO TRY the ruling from the Video Refs, Loose Carry is the ruling from the men in the box

30: Trent Hodkinson found open space yet didn't look to be moving too freely

31: PENALTY BULLDOGS: Jayden Hodges penalised by Gerard Sutton for having a hand on the ball

33: Josh Reynolds puts the grubber through on the last and leads the chase to trap Brett Stewart ingoal

34: And thats the 10 minutes done for Josh Starling, luckily for Manly no points conceded

36: Bulldogs go 70m up-field thanks to a Sam Perrett catch and dash upfield and the Bulldogs beat 8 defenders in the process

38: Some luck there for the Bulldogs, Josh Starling kicks the ball on the last and Corey Thompson has a foot on the line which is good enough for a 20m restart

40: Another poor last tackle kick from the Bulldogs lets pressure off the Sea Eagles

40: TRY MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Scored by Jayden Hodges. Kick to come.
Jayden Hodges sees the markers from the Bulldogs in all sorts of problems and he scores near the uprights

40: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Conversion attempt by Jamie Lyon successful.
Jamie Lyon has no problems converting from close range after the siren

43: Manly go on the attack yet again after the line dropout

44: UNFORCED ERROR MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Jamie Lyon makes an unforced error.
Jamie Lyon holds the ball in his left hand and tries running with it, unsurprisingly he drops it

45: Josh Reynolds goes high with the kick but Cheyse Blair takes it easily under very little pressure

46: A good kick on the last tackle forces Sam Perrett deep into his own ingoal to pick the ball up but has no problems getting into the field of play

46: Bulldogs spread it to the left and Josh Morris puts the kick in but Hiku takes it comfortably on the full

48: Some pressure at the back for the Bulldogs but a Jayden Hodges grubber rolls dead and pressure is relieved

49: Josh Reynolds puts a kick in towards the posts but with the chasers called offside, Brett Stewart allows the ball to go dead under no pressure

50: Justin Horo puts a kick in just before getting tackled from behind

52: Another kick goes dead and another 7 tackle restart

53: PENALTY BULLDOGS: Manly penalised for being too slow in the ruck, which is followed by a warning from Ben Cummins to not be a D (fill in the rest)

55: Jamie Lyon cleans up the kick and looks like he'll get back into the ingoal but loses his footing and its a drop-out

56: Manly deep in attack after a beautiful front rower burst from Josh Starling from the kick

57: A beautiful ball on the last tackle doesn't end up working with Brett Suttor putting the flag up ruling the Manly attacker into touch

59: Manly trying everything to get back into this but can't get the eggshell to crack

60: Michael Ennis tries for an academy award after the kick but his performance isn't well recieved from the match officials

61: James Graham down clutching at his jaw/chin, likely penalty coming

62: No penalty awarded to James Graham after that tackle

64: A bit of luck for the Sea Eagles, Bulldogs ruled to have knocked the high kick on and Manly get the 20m restart

65: TRY MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Scored by Brett Stewart. Kick to come.
The man they call Snake slithered his way through some poor defence and scores next to the uprights

66: SUCCESSFUL CONVERSION MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Conversion attempt by Jamie Lyon successful.
Jamie Lyon converts the try from next to the upright

68: UNFORCED ERROR CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Sam Perrett makes an unforced error.
Sam Perrett loses the ball close to his own line off the bomb and Manly get to level the scores

69: Bulldogs survive that raid but the bombardments are still coming with the Bulldogs only getting to their own 20m after their full set

70: IT'S ON AGAIN

70: VIDEO REFEREE: Checking some push and shove after the try scored

72: TRY MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Scored by Cheyse Blair. Kick to come.
Cheyse Blair gets the fortunate luck of the bounce of the ball

72: SIN BIN
Reni Maitua is sent to the sin bin.
Reni Maitua is off to the sin bin after throwing the punch, that's his normal time done

73: UNSUCCESSFUL CONVERSION MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Conversion attempt by Jamie Lyon unsuccessful.
Jamie Lyon pushes the ball left and WE ARE ALL LEVEL

74: DCE goes high with the kick and Mitch Brown takes it under no pressure

75: SIX AGAIN for Bulldogs, Josh Reynolds kick has hit Gerard Sutton, BULLDOGS SCRUM

76: SUCCESSFUL FIELD GOAL CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Field goal attempt by Trent Hodkinson successful.
The bizarre play sets up the Dogs for another set and Hodkinson puts the field goal over

78: Tom Symonds milks a penalty but its not forthcoming

79: Peta Hiku gets Manly over halfway after starting from his own 10m

80: SUCCESSFUL FIELD GOAL MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
Field goal attempt by Daly Cherry-Evans successful.
As cool as a cucumber - DCE hits the ball sweetly and gets the field goal

80: GOLDEN POINT HERE WE COME - Manly comeback from 16-0 down to force us to extra time, locked up at 17-17

80: Just a reminder that in the finals the rules are similar to normal season - Play first half of 5 minutes then from the second half it is unlimited until we have a winner, so could be hours or could be less than a minute

80: Manly take the first possession of golden point - they continue defending the SCG end of the ground

81: Reni Maitua back on the field after his sin bin finished

81: Bulldogs will look to be in the best spot though the field goal is charged down

81: Manly now in the best position, DCE will be about 20m out

82: DCE doesn't take it when there's an opportunity and it ends up with Brett Stewart who pushes the ball wide

83: Bulldogs have a 7 tackle set and they will go from 30m out

83: SUCCESSFUL FIELD GOAL CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Field goal attempt by Trent Hodkinson successful.
BULLDOGS WIN!!! TRENT HODKINSON KICKS THE BULLDOGS TO A 1 POINT WIN