THE Bathurst Bulldogs get the home advantage for Saturday's Blowes Clothing Cup game at Ashwood Park, and it is one they will most certainly need to put to use if they are to get the better of the visiting Dubbo Kangaroos.
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Prior to the Easter break, the Kangaroos ended a remarkable undefeated streak of defending premiers Orange City Lions.
Dubbo’s 47-12 win was the first time any team had defeated the Lions in more than two years.
But while the Kangaroos will arrive at Ashwood Park full of confidence, the Bulldogs have had a mixed start to their 2014 campaign.
Round one was a win over the Orange Emus at home, but the Bulldogs let things get out of hand early and were forced to chase the lead.
It was a similar case in the following game against Parkes as the Bathurst side were again slow to work their way into the contest.
However, this time the board had put on too many early points and the Bulldogs suffered their first defeat of the year.
Should that trend of slow starts continue on Saturday, the Bulldogs could be in for a very long afternoon.
Bulldogs co-coach Scott Johnston said he had the Roos pinned as the biggest title contenders pre-season.
“Dubbo were always going to be the team to beat. They were always going to be the tough match whether they beat Orange City or not,” he said.
“They are a hard, physical side. They’ve got a lot of big players especially in their forward pack. There’s also two centres that are very hard to contain.”
Johnston believes the only way to get the better of such a strong unit is to try and fight fire with fire. He has ordered his men to muscle up.
“You have to be physical with them. If you want to beat them you have to match that physicality. We have that skill to match it,” he said.
“We’ve had problems just executing our game plan. As I’ve said before we’re a relatively new side playing together, with different players in new positions. The longer the season goes on, the better I feel we’ll start to play.”
However, Bulldogs must also adjust to a reshuffled line-up with injuries and unavailability having forced some unwanted changes.
Brodie Scott returns to fullback while an injury to dynamic centre Tom Joseph brings Alex Weal into the team. Adam Myles gets the promotion to the starting wing spot.
The match starts at 3.15pm at Ashwood Park.
BATHURST BULLDOGS: 1 Chris Plunkett, 2 Mark Donnelley, 3 Sean Fogarty, 4 Alistair Fryer, 5 Izzac Breen, 6 Matt Boyle, 7 Adam Dwyer, 8 Hayden Tidswell, 9 Tom Hollis, 10 Steven Locke, 11 Adam Myles, 12 Alex Weal, 13 Jack Roberson, 14 Josh Lee, 15 Brodie Scott.