Canterbury skipper Michael Ennis lauded Josh Morris for his "play of the year" after the NRL-leading Bulldogs secured a hard-fought 16-12 victory over the fast-finishing Warriors on Sunday.
It took a desperate tackle from Morris on a flying Shaun Johnson with three minutes to go in Hamilton to seal the Bulldogs' seventh straight win.
"I think it was the play of the year, what Josh Morris came up with there," Ennis said.
"That was something special."
Ennis admitted that he thought Johnson was sure to go over in the corner and what Kangaroo and NSW Origin representative Morris produced was "just pure attitude".
"That's why he plays at the level that he does - playing in the Test a few weeks ago and no doubt he will be in the Origin side on Tuesday," Ennis said.
"Moments like that, when you need someone to do special things, he does it."
For the Warriors, the defeat ended a run of two wins, but coach Andrew McFadden was happy with the effort.
He said the Bulldogs deserved plenty of credit for the pressure they exerted and the Warriors didn't make things easy for themselves with their errors.
But his players still did enough to stay in touch and give themselves an opportunity to win the game.
"This is certainly not going to take away the momentum," he said.
"We're going to go back to training and train hard.
"We've got areas to work on, but certainly the effort was there - you can't question that."
The result in front of 17,673 fans at Waikato Stadium took the Bulldogs out to a four-point lead at the top of the table, although Manly can close that up again when they host Newcastle on Monday night.
In what was a home fixture, the Bulldogs, with their big pack again impressive and prop James Graham a stand-out, withstood a strong start by their opponents before gradually taking control.
The Warriors hit the front in the 12th minute when in-form second-rower Ben Matulino forced his way through three tacklers.
The Bulldogs got on the board on the half-hour thanks to a great ball from giant prop Sam Kasiano for unmarked winger Mitch Brown to dot down.
When five-eighth Josh Reynolds put Graham through a hole early in the second half, they were in front and went further ahead thanks to a try to lock Greg Eastwood.
A 10-point margin looked to be enough before Warriors centre Ben Henry scored with six minutes to go set up a grandstand finish.
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