Star’s calf ‘sniped’ as Bulldogs survive two in the bin to win
Jacob Liddle may have played his final game of the season after the Dragons hooker was assisted off with a calf injury in the first half of his side’s 44-14 loss to the Bulldogs on Saturday.
Liddle was jogging back to join his defensive line and had turned to push forward again when he went down untouched with a lower-leg concern while the Bulldogs ran through the middle via Jaemon Salmon.
Liddle speaks with a trainer after going down with a leg concern. Getty Images
Salmon eventually gave in to a tackle. Jacob Preston scored on the next play. The Dragons were left to defend that try with just 12 men due to Liddle being down in the back of play.
As the conversion was taken by Stephen Crichton, trainers came to the field to assist Liddle to the sheds.
“Gee, it must be a bad one. He got sniped,” Andrew Johns said on Nine.
“Fingers crossed it is nothing too severe.”
The Bulldogs, who had been reduced to 12 men earlier in the half due to a hip-drop tackle by Jonathan Sua on Moses Suli, then crossed via Matt Burton.
A 24-point lead heading into the half-time break left the Dragons with several defensive and attacking answers to discover.
The side was also then brought the news that Liddle would not be returning to the field due to a calf injury. He is expected to go for scans in the coming days.
While the first half was not as the hosts had hoped, the Dragons did manage to snatch the first points of the second half thanks to the brilliance of Val Holmes.
But the Bulldogs struck again through Max King and Lachlan Galvin.
Things then fell in favour of the hosts as Burton was sent to the sin bin for a professional foul, opening the door for Mathew Feagai to score twice.
“On the scoreboard they are getting lapped, but they haven’t been that bad tonight,” Johns said as Feagai scored.
“They have not given up. The effort has been there.”
As soon as Burton returned to the field, momentum shifted back in favour of the Bulldogs, who darted over the tryline via fullback Connor Tracey.
The Dragons then lost Suli to the sin bin with three seconds left on the clock. Crichton slotted a two-point penalty goal to seal victory with a 44-14 scoreline.
