Canterbury coach Kevin Moore was left to lament his side's sluggish start to the season after the Bulldogs exited the 2010 season with an unexpected 30-24 win over a flat Manly at Brookvale Oval.

The Dogs won just three of their first 12 games before staging a mini recovery to notch up victories in six of their last 11 matches.

It still left Canterbury – one win away from the grand final last year – a distant 13th on the table, six points shy of the top eight.

But it also showed what might have been.

"We only won three of our first 12 so that just meant we were under the pump," Moore explained.

"You're always playing nervous when you're in that sort of situation."

"We lost some confidence and cohesion."

"We played our best footy at the back-end."

But Moore conceded it was too little, too late.

"That's the season – it goes for 26 rounds – and we didn't accumulate enough points to be there where it matters," he said.

"It's disappointing. I think we showed the last few weeks we could have made an impact if we had of been there."

Asked why there had been such a downturn in the club's fortunes in just 12 month, Moore replied: "We had a lot of injuries up front. That's been one of the big differences between last year to this year."

The Bulldogs were terrific against the Sea Eagles in a game where Manly was the team with everything to play for.

Even when they fell behind, Canterbury always found a way back and kept fighting to the death.

Their spirit was epitomised in the final seconds when Luke Patten, playing his last game for the club, launched a desperate cover tackle to prevent Michael Robertson from scoring in the corner.

If not for the full-back's heroics, the match could have gone into golden point extra-time.

The victory ensured Patten and Brett Kimmorley, playing his 307th and final NRL game, departed victors.

"It shows the esteem those two blokes are held in," Moore said.

"The boys just wanted to send them off on a good note."