R6 Bulldogs v Panthers - Game Day Thread

2026 Game Day Archive
1
Canterbury Bulldogs
Penrith Panthers
Telstra Premiership Round 6
Accor Stadium
April 9 7:50 PM
Canterbury Bulldogs
badge.svg100×100 1.16 KB
 Telstra Premiership
Round 6
Penrith Panthers
Accor Stadium
April 9 7:50 PM

Game Day Information
:rugby_football: Match Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs v Penrith Panthers
:stadium: Venue Accor Stadium, Homebush NSW
:clock10: Time Thursday, 9 April 2026 7:50pm
:tickets: Tickets Tickets via Ticketek
:rugby_football: Other Matches NSWCUP Canterbury Bulldogs v Penrith Panthers 10/4 5:20pm1
JFLEGG Canterbury Bulldogs v Penrith Panthers 10/4 7:15pm1
:sun_behind_rain_cloud: Weather
Loading weather…
:tv: Broadcast :tv: Channel 9 (Channel 90 HD / 91 SD) [LIVE]
:tv: Fox League (Channel 502) [LIVE]
:kayo: Kayo Sports [LIVE]
:desktop_computer: NRL Live Pass [LIVE]
:radio: ABC Sydney 702AM [LIVE]
:radio: MMM Sydney 104.9FM [LIVE]

(1) NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg Cup to be played at Belmore Sports Ground

:rugby_football: Telstra Premiership | Full Time
/50px Penrith Panthers 16 Tries Thomas Jenkins (2), Dylan Edwards.
Goals Nathan Cleary (2/3)
/50px Canterbury Bulldogs 32 Tries Viliame Kikau, Jacob Kiraz, Samuel Hughes, Jacob Preston, Sitili Tupouniua.
Goals Matt Burton (6/7)

:rugby_football: Knock On Effect NSW Cup | Full Time
/50px Penrith Panthers 42 Tries Patrick Moimoi (3), Jaxen Edgar (2), Jack Cogger (2), Jesse McLean.
Goals Zakauri Clarke (5/8)
/50px Canterbury Bulldogs 10 Tries Cooper Toy, Logan Spinks.
Goals Sean O’Sullivan (1/2)

:rugby_football: Jersey Flegg Cup | Full Time
/50px Penrith Panthers 0 Tries
Goals
/50px Canterbury Bulldogs 28 Tries Patrick Young, Alex Conti, Aaymon Fitzgibbon, Lyncoln Cliffe, Finau Latu.
Goals Alex Conti (4/5)

Postgame Media

MATCH REPORT

PRESS CONFERENCE

HIGHLIGHTS

FULL MATCH REPLAY

PANTHER PRIDE PLAYERS RANKINGS

2

Teams & Match Officials

Telstra Premiership

Canterbury Bulldogs Penrith Panthers
TEAM
Connor Tracey 1 FB 1 Dylan Edwards
Jacob Kiraz 2 WG 2 Thomas Jenkins
Enari Tuala 3 CE 3 Paul Alamoti
Bronson Xerri 4 WG 4 Casey McLean
Marcelo Montoya 5 CE 5 Brian Tơo
Matt Burton 6 FE 6 Blaize Talagi
Lachlan Galvin 7 HB 7 Nathan Cleary ©
Max King 8 FW 8 Moses Leota
Bailey Hayward 9 HK 9 Mitch Kenny
Samuel Hughes 10 FW 10 Lindsay Smith
Viliame Kikau 11 SR 11 Isaiah Papalit
Jacob Preston 12 SR 12 Liam Martin
Jaeman Salmon 13 LK 13 Isaah Yeo ©
INTERCHANGE
Kurt Mann 14 IN 14 Jack Cogger
Sitili Tupouniua 15 IN 15 Billy Phillips
Harry Hayes 16 IN 16 Scott Sorensen
Sean O’Sullivan 17 IN 17 Luke Garner
Jake Turpin 19 IN 18 Izack Tago
Lipoi Hopoi 20 IN 19 Freddy Lussick
RESERVES
Alekolasimi Jones 21 RS 20 Sione Fonua
Logan Spinks 22 RS 21 Kalani Going :red_triangle_pointed_down:
Jethro Rinakama 23 RS 22 Jack Cole :red_triangle_pointed_down:
COACH
Cameron Ciraldo HC HC Ivan Cleary

NSWRL Matches

Knock on Effect NSW Cup Jersey Flegg Cup
:rugby_football: Bulldogs v Panthers :rugby_football: Bulldogs v Panthers
:clock3: Friday 10/4 5:00pm :clock3: Friday 10/4 7:15pm
:stadium: Belmore Sports Ground :stadium: Belmore Sports Ground
TEAM TEAM
1. Jaxen Edgar 1. Cameron Kanaan
2. Jesse Mclean 2. Harry Wald
3. Sione Fonua 3. Tua Patea
4. Patrick Moimoi 4. Josh Debritt
5. Jirah Liddiard 5. Ranui Kapua
6. Jack Cole 6. Harrison Bull
7. Kurt Falls 7. Haami Loza ©
8. Jakeb Vailalo 8. Hokafonu Lemoto
9. Billy Scott 9. Ryan Goodsell
10. Tom Ale 10. Isaiah Scanlan
11. Zakauri Clarke 11. Tyson Sangalang
12. Delahia Wigmore 12. Harry Armstrong
13. Kalani Leuluai-Going 13. Kye Raven
INTERCHANGE INTERCHANGE
14. Lufusi Tapa’Atoutai 14. Isaiah Cochrane
15. Toby Crosby 15. Jack Ewer
16. Josh Ruxton 16. Lucas Rossi
17. Nick Murphy 17. Judah Galuvao
RESERVES RESERVES
18. Elie El-Zakhem 18. Danny Johnstone
19. Josiah Vahaakolo-Fifita
COACH COACH
HC TBA HC Scott Thompson

:small_red_triangle::small_red_triangle_down: Promoted/Relegated | :small_orange_diamond: Positional Change

Match Officials

Telstra Premiership K.O.E NSW Cup Jersey Flegg Cup
Referee Gerard Sutton TBA TBA
Sideline Official Drew Oultram TBA TBA
Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski TBA TBA
Video Referee Liam Kennedy - -

Referee Success Rate

Referee Active Since 2026 Overall Pen. For Pen. Against Ratio
Gerard Sutton 2009 (-/-) -% (36/59) 61.02% 240 246.5 0.97
3

:mega: Teams and Match Officials have been updated.

TELSTRA PREMIERSHIP

OPPOSITION TEAM

KNOCK ON EFFECT NSW CUP

JERSEY FLEGG CUP

4

Updated Team List

Panthers coach Ivan Cleary has updated his squad for Thursday night’s Round 6 clash against the Bulldogs at Accor Stadium.

5

The Bulldogs have come to play, but we have held our nerve & got back into the game.

I have no idea how McLean got 10 in the bin, but Mann didn’t for an almost identical hit!!!

1 Like
6

That first 20 minutes was hard to watch, but we clicked into gear for the second 20.

Was that the first time Leota has played a full 40 minutes?

1 Like
7

Too many uncharacteristic errors. We didn’t do ourselves too many favours.

8

Tago may get a game next week

9

:mega: Submit your Panther Pride Player Ratings! Ratings poll for Round 6 open now here.

10

Even when they lose, Milky still gets his double.

1 Like
11

Gee Wiz, there were some mistakes and in particular by our key players. I was a bit confused with the game plan and all the short kicks. I would have thought that once they were behind Cleary would kick into the corners and keep the Dogs in their own half.

The loss is probably a good realty check and I would hate to be playing us over the coming week.

Big shout out to Papali’i. He has been amazing this year and was definitely the best last night.

Congrats to Nathan on 200 games.

2 Likes
12

Well, the old adage if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.

So for now, I’m going to say nothing.

I’ll get back to you about this one.

2 Likes
13

Well, that was a dog’s breakfast; from the penthouse to the basement in the blink of an eye. Of all teams to lose to, losing to the scumdogs is the most unbearable. We hear about our vaunted attention to detail; that was surely missing for much that game.

Martin stuffs up a play-the-ball; again. Cleary gives 6-again on the 5th tackle (as did Yeo, I think). Talagi passes straight to the opponents twice. The left side reverted to a defensive turnstile. Jenkins dropped two bombs. The missed tackle count would have been high. Cleary twice tried grubbers in desperation; neither was executed well. Phillips might look good in a winning side, but he was regularly monstered when he tried to push through their line. We probably made more errors in that game than in the preceding 5 weeks in total.

It was interesting how McLean was sin-binned, but Mann was let go for what appeared to be more than a little similar. Even the bounce of the ball was a killer.

This is one week when I won’t need Kayo to enjoy the replay. But they say that you learn more from adversity than otherwise, so we’ll see. Maybe the only positive note is that a few players might have cruelled their SOO chances, so we might not be so toothless over the SOO period.

2 Likes
14

It is hard to believe that they could go from clinical to keystone cops in one week. I thought that the team was over going into games believing that they are already won.

2 Likes
15

I see that McLean is facing a ban after being sin binned. While Mann avoids sin bin and a ban. It is good to see the NRL treating teams equally.

1 Like
16

I have a feeling we may have been more interested celebrating Cleary’s 200th than actually playing the game. It seemed like almost no one had their minds on the job at hand.

17

Honestly?

It was ugly.

I’m also kind of happy it happened. The applauds we got after dominating the Storm and all other teams for the first 5 weeks was making me worried we were going to burn out in April. From the first 5 weeks, I’d easily say the premiership is ours barring injury and form consistency.

Hopefully this is an opportunity to ground ourselves and get back to it.

It was a shamozzle on a number of fronts.

FaulcoPete touched on two grubbers. Were they the ones about 15 minutes to go? Honestly….. Cleary looked unnecessarily desperate. We were battling for momentum and field position, and Cleary was kicking high and relatively short, giving the dogs a better start. In the last 20 we just needed to stick to the program: kick deep and grind them into the ground. To my eyes we were gaining ascendancy and had time on our side. What really killed our momentum that we never recovered from was the loss of that challenge. I 100% believe it went backwards, but those ‘marginally back’ ones always get pinged as a knock on (one recent exception to note). It killed our momentum and gave the Dogs the rest they needed.

Can’t blame it on that though, we looked off across the park.

The Dogs really exploited our left edge. That weakness has always been there and is why Tago + Alamoti played finals last year.

It was a game where all of our weaknesses were on show combined with uncharacteristic errors from scoreboard pressure.

Martin: has it in him
Talagi: has it in him
Left edge defence: not the strongest
Cleary: Not sure who he passed it to, was he expecting To’o to be there, even though he passed the ball to him? Looked desperate in his decision making 15 minutes out when only 1 try behind. Raced out in defence to shut down a play that didn’t happen.
Edwards: A misread or two leading to tries

I think Moses would have to be about the best on field for us last night. Happy to be corrected there though, likely easily forgetting someone.

I’ve rambled.

I think at the end of the day, we were rattled early, never fully recovered and then felt pressure and did uncharacteristic things, namely pushing too hard, instead of sticking to the script.

I must commend Luke Garner though!!! Gee wiz, to not leap or reach out and plant the ball so close to the line was either dumb luck or some fantastic discipline.

4 Likes
18

Jenkins obviously scored a spectacular try on the next play, but i don’t understand how that wasn’t a sin bin, or at least a six-again/penalty at minimum. Dogs down a player for the next 10 minutes could have really swung the game in our favour.

Anyways, its only round 6. Hopefully that chat around the team dies off a bit now. It would be so hard to ignore that level of hype.

2 Likes
19

Tago was pulled out of the NSW squad tonight. I think they are anticipating at least a week on the sideline for McLean.

Personally I thought it was rather tame compared to the contact by Mann. Sadly we were on the wrong side of the whistle all night.

3 Likes
20

It is obvious that the nrl does not want to see Panthers go on another dynasty. Puts too many other fans offside.

2 Likes