Tom Miller on the charge against the Harden Hawks in Round 12.
By Tallon Smith
The Cootamundra Bulldogs have held onto a top three position in the George Tooke Shield for another week after a 38-12 victory over the Boorowa Rovers at the Boorowa Showground on Saturday.
The Bulldogs’ victory, coupled with Harden losing to Binalong, sees the Cootamundra club remain in third position with one round left to play, with the Minor Premiership or a home final in week one still up for grabs should they beat Binalong, with the former reward also depending on Bundgendore losing to North Canberra.
Bulldogs Seniors Coach David Buttriss said that belief is strong within the club that they can end their 19-year title drought stretching back to 2005’s Group 9 triumph over Tumut.
“The match ended up panning out well for us,” he said.
“We got off to a slow start, Boorowa got the first points and then we just flicked the switch after that, the boys got some good rhythm and we ended up coming away with a good win in the end.”
“There’s a lot of belief between the group that we have, everyone really wants to do it for each other, and I don’t doubt that once we get our full strength team back on the field, we’re gonna give it a red hot crack.”
Looking ahead to the finals series, Buttriss said the prospect of hosting a home final, or even the dream scenario of hosting a Grand Final, would be a “massive” advantage.
“I think at the end of the day, any team, no matter where you live, you always want to play at home,” he said.
And especially, there’s a massive advantage in the Tooke [Shield], if you can finish top three, you’ll get an opportunity, hopefully at some stage to play for that game to host the Grand Final.”
“There’s nothing more that I would love to see than Les Boyd Oval packed on a Grand Final day.”
As for who he thinks deserves the favourites tag heading into the finals series, Buttriss said that any of the top four teams could take out the title depending on the day.
“I think any team on their day can really probably [win it],” he said.
“I’m not really wary of anyone in particular, I just think depending on injuries and how things are going with that sort of thing, whoever ends up full strength toward that back end of the year will probably end up taking it out.”
With all of their success so far this season, talk of the Bulldogs returning to Group 9 has been circulating, but the Bulldogs mentor said that any push to return to that level of football would require strong numbers emerging from the club’s pathways.
“A lot of people around town would just love for us to all be playing on the same day again,” Buttriss said.
“But you know, in regards to a return, it’s quite hard to say at the moment, I know our senior groups really enjoy the George Tooke competition, so, yeah, we’ve just got to find a way to try and make everyone happy.”
The Bulldogs’ final regular season match against Binalong is this Saturday at the Binalong Recreation Oval, with kick off set for 2:15pm.
In Round 6 the Bulldogs had a 38-20 win over the Brahmans.
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