KURT Weekes is a man who knows how to slot a goal under pressure for Bathurst Bulldogs.
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He did it on Blowes Cup grand final day last year as Bulldogs beat Orange Emus and he did it on Saturday as Bathurst beat the greens 25-20 in round one of the new season.
The opening round fixture at Orange's Endeavour Oval was a willing affair with three yellow cards awarded and several scuffles breaking out as the two sides went full throttle.
An even first half saw Emus carry a narrow 14-12 lead into the break, with the highlight a length of the field effort by outside centre Harry Cummins.
But in the second half a yellow card to Emus prop Tim Hebert for a ruck infringement didn't help the home side's cause and the Bulldogs pressed home their advantage with a try and penalty goal.
Orange managed two more penalty goals but Bathurst had the same idea, kicker and scrumhalf Weekes slotting two penalties of his own as well as a conversion to keep Emus at bay.
The crucial try was spectacular with inside centre Hunter Davis regathering his chip before an Emus dropped ball a minute later fell fortuitously into the arms of the Bulldogs' open-side flanker Jarrod Zuvela.
Weekes said he knew he had to nail his kicks with an Emus resurgence on the cards.
"I knew if we could get one we'd get out by a converted try so we could have a bit of breathing room," he said.
"We knew they were going to come home strong as they always do. It was good to hold them off and get some points.
"We knew it was always gong to be tough. I think the biggest thing for both teams was match fitness, we can build from there.
"It was tough, really tough."
Emus co-coach Nigel Staniforth was upbeat but pointed to some simple fixes for his side.
"Footy is on. That's the starting line right there, Bathurst will definitely be up there," he said.
"At the end of the day it's 25-20, it was just that weird try at the end that killed us a bit.
"There's a few things we didn't do, we were really dumb around the ruck.
"We didn't get through our phases enough and then there's a few interesting referee choices where I'm just not sure what we're doing wrong but we'll work that out during the week."
It was a Bulldogs whitewash at Endeavour Oval with the women's game ending 38-5 to Bathurst while the visitors also took out second and third grade 16-10 and 33-7 respectively.