Bulldogs have beaten the Melbourne Storm 18-12 at AAMI Park

MELBOURNE’S attack was the best it has been all season yet they still came away with an 18-12 loss against the Bulldogs at AAMI Park.

Round 6 - Melbourne Storm v Canterbury Bulldogs, at AAMI Park, Cooper Cronk tackled high by Josh Reynolds with no penalty. 11th April 2016. Picture: Colleen Petch.

UPDATE: IT was almost everything Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy had asked for.

His side’s attack has been off for some time now, but on Monday night Storm was energetic, lively and far less predictable with the ball in hand.

It was the best it has looked in attack all season, yet ironically Melbourne still came away with an 18-12 loss to a Canterbury side that has tormented it for a number of years now.

The Bulldog’ forward pack have bullied Storm since 2013, but there was none of that at AAMI Park on Monday night.

They defended superbly and had to fight tooth and nail to hold off a Storm side that threatened to run over the top of them on a number of occasions.

The visitors were also aided by the fact Storm’s execution still left a bit to be desired at crucial moments with a number of bombed tries.

All the same, most Storm supporters would have walked away confident that their side is not far off the mark.

Bellamy said his team did everything but win Monday night’s game, which was the club’s first defeat at AAMI Park this season.

“I thought our performance was pretty good actually,” he said.

“It is a bit frustrating to play like that and lose.

“We would have won most stat counts except the scoreboard, but you have to hand it to the Bulldogs because they defended really well and we knew they would.

“We had plenty of ball up in the 20m zone, but we just have to get better there as we’re lacking a bit of finish and timing.”

Aiden Tolman is tackled by Jesse Bromwich.

Storm made a strong start with skipper Cameron Smith craftily booting a 40/20 in the first minute.

The home side took an early penalty goal, but the Bulldogs were able to post the first try against the run of play.

Bulldogs halfback Moses Mbye cleverly got his boot to a Blake Green grubber kick and picked it up to run the length of the field for the opener.

Melbourne dominated the early possession and looked lively in attack, but it had little to show for it.

The Bulldogs’ unlikely lead then ballooned to 10 points when a high-flying Sam Perrett leapt over Marika Koroibete in the corner to take down a Josh Reynolds cross-field kick.

Storm frustrated by wasting a number of opportunities in attack, including a Cooper Cronk try that was disallowed due to an obstruction ruling against Kevin Proctor.

Melbourne finally scored its first try just two minutes before the break when forward Tohu Harris pushed his way over the line.

Cooper Cronk is tackled high by Josh Reynolds. Picture: Colleen Petch.

It almost had its second try right on halftime when a runaway Green put a kick on for Koroibete.

The Fijian was unable to ground the ball over the line, which meant the Bulldogs led by four points at halftime.

When asked if it was his side’s best performance of the season to date despite already chalking up four wins, Bellamy replied:

“It was certainly one of our most consistent performances defensively and most of the time with the ball.

“We weren;’t great with the ball all the time, but we took a few steps forward there.

“It is hard to say it was our best performance of the season when we’ve lost.

“We’ve won three or four others (games), but that was pretty close as the Bulldogs are a very experienced side and when they got to 12-2 it was always going to be really tough then.

“To our credit we were really persistent and got right back into the game.”

Bulldogs coach Des Hasler said his side had to work extremely hard to escape AAMI Park with the victory.

“It is always tough playing Melbourne and especially in Melbourne,” Hasler said.

“You can’t come down here half-tuned and we really had to graph one out tonight.

“You probably think for a fair bit of the game they had a lot of momentum and the field position, but I thought our defensive effort was pretty brave to keep turning them away.

“We got away with the win.”

Storm struck first in the second half courtesy of a flash of Young Tonumaipea brilliance.

The Victorian got on the end of a Cronk kick and beat two Bulldogs players to score Melbourne’s second four-pointer.

The home side continued to attack with ferocity, but the Bulldogs absorbed the pressure and then landed a telling blow with Kerrod Holland scoring his side’s third try with 20 minutes to go.

Melbourne battled hard to level the match but the Bulldogs held off the desperate final charge.

Storm’s next clash will be against Wests Tigers at Leichardt Oval on Sunday.

Originally published as Bulldogs have beaten the Melbourne Storm 18-12 at AAMI Park