As the Bulldogs celebrated their first win of the season, the Panthers were licking their wounds after star halfback Nathan Cleary went down with a knee injury.

After being injured just over 10 minutes into the match, the NSW State of Origin aspirant played through until halftime before being pulled by medical staff with a medial ligament injury.

Expected to miss two to four weeks, his side missed his influence in the second stanza as they failed to come from behind as they had the first two weeks.

Mbye was immense, crossing for two tries including the opener, making three line breaks, busting 11 tackles and running for 116 metres - including a scintillating break which led to his second four-pointer.

After being moved all over the park throughout his career, he looks to have found a home at fullback after being shifted there by coach Pay in the pre-season.

"I have, yeah - he's a runner," Pay said when asked if he had always believed Mbye was best suited to fullback.

"Any sort of open field or broken play, he's dynamic in what he does.

"He's improving every week, he plays there and getting a bit more confidence."

The Bulldogs scored first when Mbye burst through a hole close to the line, however the decision was dubious after lead runner Will Hopoate appeared to obstruct James Maloney in the defensive line.

The Panthers were shaking their heads the next set after Maloney was pinged for a similar obstruction.

"It was an obstruction. I'm not whingeing about the result but that's why they brought the obstruction rule in," Panthers coach Anthony Griffin said.

"If a lead runner hit the inside runner of Maloney like that, it didn't give him a chance to get out and they scored in the same hole.

"I thought it was just a classic obstruction."

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 14-0 lead and normally would have been pretty comfortable were it not for the fact the Panthers had come back from that exact deficit the previous two weeks.

After hauling in Parramatta and South Sydney in the first two rounds, they pulled themselves back into the contest when back-rower Isaah Yeo burnt Kieran Foran for speed and found Maloney on the inside.

The Dogs led 20-12 at halftime and Josh Mansour came up with a spectacular put-down in the 73rd minute and Maloney converted from the sideline to set up a grandstand finish, but it wasn't to be.

Canterbury's Josh Morris celebrated his 200th NRL game with an early try, intercepting a Cleary pass and running 90 metres to score.

Jeremy Marshall-King, in his first game as a starting half, was dynamic for the Dogs and, at times, looked shades of his half-brother Benji Marshall.

Australian Associated Press