Penrith has hammered an injury-hit Bulldogs outfit 30-4 in an impressive performance at ANZ Stadium tonight, moving the Panthers into the top eight for the first time this season.
With Sonny Bill Williams, Luke Patten and Ben Roberts all late withdrawals, the Bulldogs appeared bereft of ideas in attack, and although they battled valiantly for the 80 minutes, they were never in the contest against a much slicker Panthers outfit..
The Panthers looked dangerous from the opening whistle despite a late reshuffle that saw Luke Lewis shifted into the halfback role and rookie sensation Jarrod Sammut dumped from the side altogether.
Lewis was simply stunning in the number seven jersey, scoring via an electrifying 30 metre run to the line, before orchestrating the outstanding play of the game, a freakish try to winger Michael 'Flash' Gordon.
The City representative provided a clever last-tackle kick to the wing of Gordon, that was toed through by the fleet-footed winger, who outsprinted Matt Utai to dive on the ball in the in-goal to make it 22-nil and effectively kill off the contest in the 60th minute.
The versatile Lewis had no problems being branded the Panthers Mr Fix-it, after again playing a new position in the win.
"I've got a new motto about football - wherever I get put, just play.
"If I get the chance to do it again I'd love to do it again and if I get put there for a while I'll take the opportunity with two hands and just try and learn as much as I can."
The Panthers opened the contest in fine form, a perfectly timed short-ball from Luke Priddis put Rhys Wesser through a gap, with the fullback who screaming into open space before linking with Brad Tighe, who dummied before going over in the corner.
Michael Gordon's conversion making it 6-nil to the Panthers after just 10 minutes.
Poor ball handing was hurting both sides, with the Panthers, then the Bulldogs both bombing golden tryscoring opportunities when they were unable to ground kicks in the in-goal, but it was only a momentary aberration for the Panthers, who got back on track through Lewis shortly after.
Gordon's conversion of the Lewis try gave the Panthers with a handy 12-nil lead after 35 minutes, a lead the visitors took to the break.
It was all Penrith in the second stanza, although it did take until the 55th minute for the visitors to extend their lead.
Some impressive second-phase play from the Panthers took the ball into Bulldogs territory, before Petero Civoniceva sold an impressive dummy to slice through the Dogs defence, before delivering a one-armed offload to a rampaging Frank Pritchard to put the Penrith side further in front.
Gordon slotted the straightforward conversion attempt to extend the Panthers lead to 18-nil after 57 minutes.
Gordon converted his own piece of magic in the 62nd minute to make it 24-nil to the Panthers, with Brad Tighe adding another four-pointer via an intercept, before Gordon's extras took the score to 30-nil.
Utai added a consolation in the 79th minute to ensure the Bulldogs weren't held scoreless for the first time since round 24 in 2006, but it was the Panthers night, scoring a comprehensive five-tries-to-one victory.
The Bulldogs have now dropped four of their last five and, despite the return of stars Reni Maitua and Hazem El Masri, coach Steve Folkes made it clear the club is enduring a tough time.
"It was a bit of a nightmare, wasn't it?" Folkes said.
"I guess the club's going through a bit of a transition period and a tough period."
Despite the heavy loss, Folkes praised his side's effort.
"They tried really hard. The harder they tried, the worse they got," he said.
"We don't want to be morbid, we're not dead, it's just a little sick at present."