The Newcastle Knights have been convincingly beaten 32-6 in the Harold Matthew Cup grand final, unable to halt a powerful Canterbury outfit at Leichhardt Oval on Saturday.
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The Knights, vying for their first title in the under-17 competition since 2019, had beaten Canterbury 20-12 back in round three on their way to finishing the regular season second, but it counted for little in the decider.
The Bulldogs, who finished fourth, were coming off consecutive finals victories and appeared to carry that momentum into match.
Newcastle started strongly and captain Connor Votano crossed for the first points midway through the first half, but they conceded five unanswered tries and were blown away in the second half.
Canterbury only led 8-6 at half-time and while Newcastle had their chances after the break, the Bulldogs proved too strong in wet and drizzly conditions.
It had been a stop-start affair early in the first half with both sides making multiple errors and forcing them out of each other with solid defence.
Votano opened the scoring 15 minutes in when he cut through a gap from about 20 metres out and completed a sleek fast-running try on the right flank.
Copping boos from the Canterbury fans in attendance, the fullback converted his own try from a metre inside the sideline to put Newcastle ahead 6-0.
With the club's first-grade side watching on from the grandstand, Canterbury began to build some ascendancy and five minutes out from half-time fullback Tallis McEwen-Welsh scored to help level the scores following a conversion.
The Bulldogs edged in front a couple of minutes later after kicking a penalty goal.
Votano had a chance to level the scores with a penalty kick himself on the stroke of half-time but put it wide on a difficult angle.
The Knights went close to scoring a few minutes after the break but were stopped just centimetres from the try-line in the middle of the park.
They then pulled off a couple of try-saving tackles at the other end to keep Canterbury at bay.
But the Bulldogs began to get the upper hand midway through the second stanza and they scored their second in the 42nd minute through prop Mohamed Hadid.
Trailing 14-6 with about 15 minutes left to play, the Knights began to throw the ball around but they couldn't find the try-line.
Canterbury scored a further two tries in the space of four minutes to move to a commanding 24-6 lead and they crossed again with a minute to go.
The victory secured the Bulldogs their fourth Harold Matthews title.
Newcastle's SG Ball side were due to play in their grand final afterwards.
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