BATHURST Bulldogs’ Mark Donnelly has won his share of derby clashes against CSU and he’s eager to add another to his name this Saturday.
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The Bulldogs hooker and his team are looking to extend their winning record against CSU to five years when they take to the field at University Oval.
Given the record Bulldogs boast so far this season, and a 48-point win over CSU earlier this year, they will be strong favourites on the students’ home turf.
Donnelly said Bulldogs are pleased to be sitting third heading into the second Bathurst derby of the year.
“We had a talk about that at training on Tuesday night, about how we feel with our position at the halfway mark,” he said.
“We’re feeling really confident heading into the second half of the season. Even though we didn’t get the result we wanted against Forbes or Emus we’re looking strong.
“The game against Emus gave us a good gauge of where we were at and what we need to be doing.
“This is the strongest start to a season that we’ve had in a long time. At the midway point of the season you can sometimes plateau a bit, but we’ve always had a lot of guys turn up at training and everyone’s always keen to improve.
“CSU will look to play a quick game but they’ve got some strong forwards too. I don’t think they’re far off winning a few games in this second round.”
Bulldogs won seven games in a row to start their season before going down to both Forbes Platypi and Orange Emus in their latest matches.
Across their encouraging season Bulldogs have utilised several different combinations in key positions.
This Saturday the young pairing of Josh Oxley and Brad Glasson will continue to wear the nine and 10 respectively, in the absence of Scott Johnston.
Donnelly said the younger members of the club, coming up from both colts and second grade, have made their mark in 2017.
“The younger guys in the team have done a great job,” he said.
“Brad Glasson has shown he’s a tough player. Josh Weekes has played well and Kurt has been great off the bench.”
Bulldogs have undergone a raft of changes for Saturday’s clash.
Izaak Breen returns to the side while a new pair of starting props will take to the field. Joel Harper moves back to the starting loosehead prop in the absence of Chris Plunkett and Brad Donnelly takes the spot of Sean Fogarty at tighthead prop.
Play begins 3.15pm.