Pay sees light at end of Dogs’ kennel

CANTERBURY coach Dean Pay can finally start to see some light at the end of the tunnel after the Bulldogs went within two minutes of recording their first back-to-back wins of 2018.

Canterbury’s 32-28 loss to Canberra on Saturday was easily their toughest of the season after they led 28-14 with six minutes to play.

Rhyse Martin’s 24 points was a record haul for any player in a losing side in premierTHE ship history, according to Fox Sports Stats.

But it was the Bulldogs’ second strong showing in a row, after they beat Newcastle 36-16 the previous round.

The two performances have come since both Aaron Woods and Moses Mbye left the club for salary cap reasons, with the June 30 deadline having passed and players finally feeling some stability for the first time this year.

They are also in direct contrast to Canterbury’s previous performance at Belmore, a 32-10 loss to the Gold Coast which marked a fourthstraight loss in the week before the departure of Woods and Mbye.

“I feel like there is a bit of tension gone out of the place and the boys are a little more settled,” Pay said.

“You can say it doesn’t affect you but I think it does.

“The Titans game wasn’t good enough and we’ve spoken about that.

“We’ve moved on. We played some good footy last week and in patches tonight we played some terrific football.”

Martin was superb for the Dogs on Saturday night, scoring his first career hat-trick in just his sixth game.

His opening try was easily his best, running through three defenders and beating two others to the line as he gave Canterbury the lead early in the second half.

“He played a fantastic game Rhyse,” Pay said.

“Twenty-four points is pretty hard to come by, especially one person in the NRL.”