The experienced mentor knew how hard it was to defeat the Dubbo Kangaroos at home and with Bulldogs already assured of a second-placed finish on the Blowes Clothing Cup ladder, Saturday was all about playing semi-finals type rugby.

Oxley’s side did exactly that.

In one of most complete performances of the season, the Bulldogs scored a 25-5 win over the Roos.

“We’re playing to try and get a semi-final focus and I believe we might have showed something like that today,” Oxley said after the win.

“It was a really hard-fought game … there’s no easy games and I’m really happy with the way Bulldogs played today. They got back to their structure and that’s something we’d got away from in the past four or five weeks.

“There’s a few things we need to work on but we could only do so much because Dubbo put us under a lot of pressure. But I was pleased with what we did do.”

While the result was a morale-boosting one for Bulldogs and the perfect response after last week’s draw with Forbes, the loss for Roos is a huge blow.

The result, combined with Forbes’ win over Orange Emus and Cowra’s defeat of Orange City, means the Roos must now beat the ladder-leading Emus in next weekend’s final round.

“It’s the type of crucial game we haven’t been winning all season so it was disappointing today,” Roos skipper Shaun McHugh said.

“But we’ve got to shape up next week and have a crack at Emus. If we win that we go into finals with a bit of momentum.”

The first 20 minutes on Saturday was dominated by the kicking games of Roos’ Hamish Gordon and Josh Weekes of Bulldogs and both were outstanding, the latter opening the scoring with a penalty during that period.

The Roos turned down the chance to go for three points on multiple occasions in the first 25 minutes and after failing to score they were soon made to pay.

Pat Berryman was hit hard in defence and turned the ball over in his own half and from there the Dogs got through a number of phases before eventually scoring a smart try through Adam Miles.

The visitors then lost hard-working prop Aaron Booby to injury but it didn’t stop their momentum and after stealing a Roos lineout they scored through Brad Glasson to create a 17-0 lead.

That’s what it was at the break and while the Roos were better in the second half and scored first through Tim Beach, the Dogs were in control for the rest of the contest.

“Their defence was very good and at times we did make breaks but couldn’t execute,” McHugh said.

“It was disappointing and they scored a couple of soft tries and that’s been the story of our season.”

In terms of opting against taking the points when receiving penalties in the first half, McHugh stuck by the decision to go for the try.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing but we’d been working well in training and I back the eight guys in our forward pack to execute properly there,” he said.

“But we didn’t today at crucial times and that’s the ongoing story of our season.

“When we execute we’re red hot but when you don’t against quality teams you can get educated a bit.”

Oxley was full of praise for his side’s forward pack for setting the platform, and they deserved every bit of the credit.

Representative powerhouse Peter Fitzsimmons led the way while Dylan Carter and Alex Weal were also immense in the win, giving the likes of Kurt and Josh Weekes the time and space to plan attacking raids.

Oxley also took time to speak highly of Roos’ pair Gordon and Jock Brownhill, adding there was a still a lot to like about the Dubbo side.