Canterbury Bulldogs

Playing as well as ever in his 13th season in the National Rugby League, 32-year-old Johnson came up with two try assists, two forced dropouts and 722 kick metres as the Warriors racked up their sixth win of 2023.

"Shaun leads with his voice and he leads with his actions and that's very powerful when a player can do that," Warriors coach Andrew Webster said post-match.

This isn’t your typical rugby league bad boy story. Suli never breached the NRL’s code of conduct. There was no wild bender. No off-field misdemeanour. He’s a good kid.

But to put it simply, his heart just wasn’t in it. He lacked the desire to uphold standards required to play in the NRL and now finds himself on the brink of being lost to the game for good despite enormous talent.

When he was sent packing from the Wests Tigers just a month ago, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs did their due diligence. They had heard the stories.

Lawyers acting for Hasler filed a statement of claim in the NSW Supreme Court this week.

Hasler was sacked in September just five months after the Bulldogs announced he had signed a two-year extension to his contract.

In response, club chairman Ray Dib said the club was preparing a legal defence.

It took a Shaun Johnson field goal in the 69th minute to give the home side some breathing space.

A dart from dummy-half by skipper Roger Tuivasa-Sheck six minutes from time and Johnson's conversion virtually sealed victory at Mt Smart Stadium on Friday night.

The result keeps the Warriors - who had started the round in 11th place, one place ahead of the Bulldogs - within touching distance of the top eight.

But it was tempered by injury to hooker Issac Luke, who dislocated his shoulder in the 33rd minute after what seemed like an innocuous tackle.

With Reynolds' NRL future uncertain after the Bulldogs were linked with Foran, a deal worth a reported $3.2 million was too much to resist for the fiery No.6.

The Dogs had in the past few weeks been deep in negotiations with the former NSW playmaker but admitted they were unable to match the money on offer from the Tigers, who have entered the market aggressively after the loss of Mitchell Moses, Aaron Woods and James Tedesco.

The NRL's player musical chairs is now in full swing with Foran expected to soon join Woods at the Dogs under respected coach Des Hasler.

Extending their incredible streak was an impressive feat on the road in front of a hostile home crowd and in tough wet-weather conditions. 

However, it is only Round 1 and captain Cameron Smith knows there's a long way to go for Melbourne to return to the Telstra Premiership decider. 

"I don't think I've ever played a Round 1 game and come away and thought 'it can't get any better than that'," Smith said. 

"I think there are some fundamental things we need to improve on – there's no doubt about that."

Hasler looked set to lose his job almost a fortnight ago amid unrest from some sections of the Bulldogs board, namely club legend Steve Mortimer.

Instead, the two-time NRL premiership-winning coach survived - for at least another season - with Mortimer delivering on his promise to resign should former Manly Sea Eagles boss Hasler be retained.

The situation has threatened to unravel the Bulldogs, but Graham says his team-mates are ready to fight for Hasler in 2017.

 The Panthers ran in five tries to two to in what was a comprehensive win led by a man-of-the-match effort from skipper Matt Moylan.

The young, inexperienced Panthers were down 6-4 at the half-time break, but dominated the second half with the sort of freewheeling football that propelled them to a sixth-place at the end of the season, to run away with victory thanks to four second half tries.

Penrith centre Tyrone Peachey said they had a clear plan heading into the match and stuck to it.

Morris has been in scintillating form since returning from a long-term knee injury in Round 16, scoring nine tries in seven games including a double on Thursday night in a golden point win against Manly that shored up his team's top-four hopes.