Deacon and Hape have Salford on the ropes

It was a demolition job the watching Junior Witter would have been proud of.

On the night the Bradford boxer paraded his newly-won WBC belt around Grattan Stadium, the City's other world champions showed their own true class to ruthlessly floor Salford City Reds and get their Grand Final attack off with a real knockout.

It wasn't a case of a quick one-two that did for the play-off new-boys, more a sustained, relentless barrage of blows that would have seen any ring official call a halt a long time before the end.

Super-confident Bulls rained down nine tries to leave punch-drunk Salford in a heap.

Steve McNamara's men had been written off in many quarters following a fourth-place finish in Super League XI but no-one can deny they know how to do the business when it comes to knockout rugby.

Bradford enjoyed probably their finest performance since dumping Aussies West Tigers to clinch the World Club Challenge title back in February and in doing so fired out a timely warning to odds-on favourites St Helens and the rest of their play-off rivals.

Red-hot Bradford were 18-0 ahead inside the first 16 minutes courtesy of tries from Mick Withers, Brett Ferres and the first of Shontayne Hape's four touchdowns.

Not even the most seasoned of play-off operators could recover from that opening blast, let alone a side playing their first top-six showdown and one which had seen its talisman stumble off after the early exchanges.

Stand-off Andrew Dunemann was the catalyst behind Salford's surprise emergence this year but he was floored and needed treatment twice after botched tackle attempts on Brad Meyers and then Hape.

The Aussie had to be led from the field in his final match before heading home to Canberra, leaving his team out of sorts, but the damage had already been done as pumped-up Bulls ripped in.

Things went right for them from the first hooter, Paul Deacon's kick-off eluding both Luke Robinson and Sean Rutgerson to force a drop-out.

They had another straight after when Dunemann was forced to palm Deacon's grubber dead and the pressure then just kept on mounting all evening as the champions demonstrated they really are still a genuine threat.

On the back of that second drop-out, Withers got Bradford's first try, leaping high above Luke Robinson to collect Deacon's bomb.

Salford had a glorious opportunity to hit straight back when hooker Malcolm Alker broke clear on halfway.

Karl Fitzpatrick and Simon Finnigan supported and a try seemed nailed on with just the covering Lesley Vainikolo to beat.

Finnigan found Aaron Moule out wide but Vainikolo had already sized up the situation and set off in pursuit, miraculously covering the ground to hunt down his man and bundle the centre into the corner flag.

That seemed to drain his side's confidence and when their other key man - Great Britain hopeful Alker - delivered two forward passes out of dummy half, you sensed not much was going to go right for the nervous visitors, who struggled to complete a set in the first half.

Bradford, on the other hand, were irresistible. They forced plenty of sorry Salford errors with some fearsome defence, while when in possession they played out their game-plan with minimum fuss and maximum reward.

On the back of a dominant forward display, Deacon kicked Salford to death, often early in the count - forcing four first-half drop-outs - and after Moule's thwarted effort, the vanquished visitors only threatened once when Fitzpatrick spilled Alker's bullet pass trying to evade Meyers' tackle.

Ferres doubled the hosts' lead when he was the first to react after Deacon's grubber was fumbled by Robinson and then Iestyn Harris's beautiful cut-out pass saw Hape get on the outside of John Wilshere to grab his first.

Meyers produced a huge hit on Stuart Littler as Salford kept bashing a brick wall and there was a real menace and urgency about the way in which Bradford set about their business.

Paul Johnson somehow off-loaded out of a three-way tackle to help lay on Hape's second, the centre stretching out of David Hodgson's tackle after the ever alert Terry Newton provided the final pass.

Withers knocked on at the restart to give Salford some much-needed field position and respite.

But they didn't get the latter. With Chris McKenna cajoling his Bulls team-mates to lift themselves for the defensive set ahead, there was no way they were going to let the visitors back in it.

Bradford were coasting at 22-0 but defended their line as if they were one up in the last minute of the Grand Final. Johnson flung himself everywhere and, after Salford gained a fortuitous repeat set, Ben Harris launched a massive tackle on Rutgerson that cleaned out the big prop.

Vainikolo did likewise to substitute Luke Adamson after the break. The Bulls were fired up all right. With Salford demoralised in the second half, they turned on the style with some free-flowing rugby. Deacon's crafty blindside burst on the last tackle put Hape in for his hat-trick inside two minutes, leaving a resigned look on the face of Salford boss Karl Harrison.

The former Bulls assistant said his side's worst performance of the year had been the 34-4 Odsal walloping in February but now that was quickly being overhauled.

Deacon was everywhere. He marshalled the champions expertly around the field before striking, whether it be with another clever kick, shimmying run or timely pass.

The little scrum half even got back to defuse a Robinson kick behind his own line, darting clear of danger, and generally proved to all the doubters that on this sort of form he is vital to the Bulls' cause.

Salford got a try out of nothing when Dream Team winger David Hodgson fielded Iestyn Harris's kick way back in his own 20 and somehow slipped through the Bulls line to spectacularly race 80 metres, ghosting around Withers as the full back unfortunately slipped.

But the hosts responded with a classic of their own, Hape and Vainikolo combining in typical electric style down the left to set up the position for Meyers to drive to the posts, off-loading out of a two-man tackle for the on-rushing Andy Lynch to cross.

Deacon then dummied his way through and could have stretched out himself but instead fed McKenna, who juggled the ball behind the line before getting it down.

Iestyn Harris sucked in the defence at dummy half from close range to send over 17-year-old Sam Burgess - again mightily impressive at prop - before Hape rounded things off when his skipper tormented Salford once more.

Either side of that, both Meyers and Vainikolo had efforts ruled out by the video referee to illustrate just how one-sided this destruction really was.

Consistency has been the biggest Bulls letdown this year but if they can repeat this scintillating performance over the next fortnight, they will be at Old Trafford.