It took Bulldogs 37 minutes to get themselves on the board in Saturday's game at Ashwood Park, with the team in danger of heading to the sheds down 20-0.

However, a try through the middle from captain Peter Fitzsimmons and a dazzling solo effort down the right wing from Joe Kermode gave the hosts the hope they needed after a dominant half of football from the Eagles.

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs the eight point margin ballooned back out to 20 in the new half inside the space of 12 minutes.

Cooper Sullivan completed an Eagles play down the left side and Damian Michael punished the Bathurst men for coughing up the ball close to their own line to score a try and make it 32-12.

A Cowra yellow card close to the hour mark gave Bulldogs an opening to launch a potential comeback, and just one a minute later they scored a penalty try.

Eagles fly half Will Cummins threatened to put a stop to that momentum with a try off a chargedown but the number 10 soon found himself also yellow carded for intentionally knocking down a Bulldogs pass.

Bulldogs brought the ball back up the other end and continued to apply the pressure as Hunter Davis scored to make it 39-24.

After the Eagles had a third player sent to the sideline the hosts once again found their way through for a try, this time with Tom Felsch.

But an error from the kickoff would prove to be the dagger for the Bulldogs as Cowra scored their seventh try of the day to seal the result.

"We did some really positive things out there and I've got a lot of belief in this team but there's a lot of work to be done," Bulldogs coach Dean Oxley said.

"We need to stick with our process and be confident in those because there were times where we were under pressure and we shouldn't have been.

"Cowra are a strong side and I was expecting to be physical and the started the game very strongly in their set piece, plus their defence was very good.

"They held us from scoring on a number of occasions when we would have scored against most other sides, so all credit goes to them. They've demonstrated why they won the Blowes Cup last season and they're the ones to chase at the top of the table."