The Dragons were taken down by Canterbury 46-10 at McCredie Park on Saturday evening in their final regular season outing of the year.
Despite the result, the Dragons were still able to lock up the No.2 seed heading into next week's postseason and will face Parramatta at Jubilee Stadium.
The clash marked Western Suburbs Red Devils junior Kade Reed's Knock-On Effect NSW Cup debut – a fitting reward for the teenager who has pieced together a stellar Jersey Flegg campaign.
Match: Bulldogs v Dragons
Round 26 -
home Team
Bulldogs
8th Position
away Team
Dragons
2nd Position
Venue: McCredie Park, Sydney
Canterbury opened their account just three minutes in with Enari Tuala stepping his way to the line off a slick, left-side shift.
The Bulldogs produced an effort from inside their own half shortly after to extend their lead with a nice Blake Taaffe delivery sending Jethro Rinakama down the left flank as Jonathan Sua finished things off back inside to make it a double-digit difference.
The Dragons manufactured a needed answer moments later with Cody Ramsey sweeping down the left to strip the Bulldogs' edge for numbers and send Jesse Williams over in the left-hand corner.
Ramsey nabbed a try of his own a half-hour in off a spilt Lachlan Ilias bomb with Kade Reed adding the extras to cut the deficit back to two for the visitors.
Canterbury found a key try prior to the break with Sua showing off his combination of speed and footwork to finish off an individual, long-range effort and extend his side's lead back beyond a converted try heading into the half.
The Bulldogs came out of the half-time break full of energy with Jed Reardon steaming through a hole to push them further ahead.
Their next set, Blake Wilson wore a shot and got back to his feet to dive over in the right-hand corner off some nice lead-up work and grow the Bulldogs' edge into an imposing one.
Tuala nabbed his second an hour in after Reardon make another break and fashioned a late flick pass as the scoreline ballooned out to 34-10.
Knock-On Effect NSW Cup Highlights: Round 26 v Bulldogs
Canterbury were not yet content however with Sua and Rinakama again combining – the former this time putting the latter over down the left-hand flank.
The hosts put the icing on the cake late courtesy of a chaotic, sideline-to-sideline sequence in which saw Reardon again pour into space, draw and pass to Joseph O'Neill who dove over.
