The Coota Bulldogs claim their first win of 2025 in their return to Group 9 defeating Wagga Brothers 34-12.
It was an historic outing at Geohex Stadium in Wagga for the Cootamundra Bulldogs over the weekend, with the Club recording their first win in the storied Group 9 competition in just under 6 years.
The game would have been circled by the Cootamundra faithful as a potential one to get the proverbial monkey off their backs; given the Wagga Brothers have struggled for some time in Group 9.
The game looked to be the Bulldogs to lose from the outset with the travelling side laying it on thick and fast though the middle of the park, eating metres like they were getting a two-for-one special on them.
The clash had barely gone 100 seconds before first blood was drawn, with star half Joe Ward shuffling through the Brothers defence and crashing over the line to Cootamundra’s gleam. Sam Gash was wide on the conversion, keeping the Dogs lead at four.
Cootamundra continued to play right through the heart of Wagga, with the home side struggling to make any in roads against a stout blue and white defence.
Ward was once again the orchestrator to a Bulldogs try, this time giving the eyes to the Brothers’ defence before sending big Faafetai Vaavale over to claim the second four-pointer of the match. Gash nailed the conversion and the Bulldogs found themselves with a double digit lead after just 15 minutes of action.
Summing up the Brothers’ season perfectly, the resulting kick-off was dropped by the home side, with the Bulldogs sinking their teeth into the gift offered to them.
Sam Gash took his points tally to eight for the day, crossing the line and nailing the conversion. Just like that the Bulldogs had opened up a 16-0 lead and were scoring a point a minute.
The hosts showed great resilience, refusing to lay down and die, and due to lapses in concentration by the Bulldogs, were able to pull back two converted tries before halftime, going to the inter-mission trailing 16-12. A score line not necessarily reflective of the game.
The second half, much like the first, was dominated early by the Bulldogs, who got a tow into the game from their big forwards who continued to be excellent. Second half tries to Nikola Sovatabua, Sam Gash and Jacob Maher helped secure the two points for the Bulldogs quite convincingly with a 34-12 scoreline.
Coach David Buttriss was pleased with the result and says the day marked a momentous occasion for the Club.
“It’s a really good feelingseeing everyone involved in the club in the sheds after the game and just enjoying a beer, everyone was that happy, big smiles on everyone’s faces. I’m amazed at the number of messages that I’ve received from people around the town, just how much it means to them as well,” Buttriss said.
“It was a bit of a mix. It wasn’t only my friends but a lot of ex-Bulldogs players from back in the day, 20 years ago, that played, just receiving messages from them, it just shows you how much it means to the whole club.
“I think the big reason that a lot of people are back around the club at the moment is that they can see the effort put in from everyone involved, and everyone wants to be down there around it. It’s a good vibe at the moment, and it’s just reeling in a lot of older players throughout all grades.
We flew out of the blocks, got to a 16-0 lead after 20 minutes, then we got a lit-tle bit too excited and started throwing the ball around a bit. Brothers ended up retaliating with two tries of their own in the next ten and then credit to the boys, they defended their line for the last 10 minutes of that first half, and I think in the end, looking back, that’s probably won won us the game.
“If Brothers had of got that late try they could have been leading at half time, but credit to the boys they defended their line well and then we sat down and had a good chat at half time and then ended up going out winning the second half 18-0.
“That (Bulldog) mentality is starting to come back to the club, not only us but throughout all teams, we try and be resilient and work hard for each other. It’s just a shame that we are doing a few silly things with the ball at the moment, which are creating a few errors that let all that hard work go to waste.
“We trained well during the week, and we just spoke about getting used to playing the boring game because in Group Nine, it nearly comes down to who is making the most of errors on the day, and unfortunately, we haven’t been well with our completions.”
Buttriss says the Bulldogs can be confident, but not be caught in ecstasy ahead of their clash against Group 9 Goliath Gundagai Tigers.
“We will be looking forward to getting back to training this week, take a bit of confidence out of that game, we know heading over to Gundagai is going to be very tough over there on Sunday. But we’ll take the positives out of that win on the weekend and hopefully get over there and give it a good shake,” he continued “Gundagai are in sixth spot on the ladder, but they are going pretty well as they beat Young the previous week. They will take a lot of confidence out of that.
“It was just a good day for the whole club, just to see all the people involved, it was a well deserved win for everyone. We needed it and we enjoyed it.
“Another great thing that we got to do yesterday was give Ollie Hall a debut. He ended up playing about 60 minutes at fullback after we got an injury.”
Hall (18), is yet another example of Cootamundra’s conscious effort at installing their youth ranks into their first grade side.
“That has been one of the things that I enjoyed this year is that the 18’s and 16’s have done it quite hard travelling over the last couple of years and just to be all back as one and have those boys there on game day and lot of those guys are great players and we’ve given three players out of the 18s this year a debut.
“Our president Stephen Howse has put in a lot of work and he made that decision five years ago to go to George Tooke to save the club and it was the right move but he always said that we’d have a four or five year plan to get back into Group Nine and him and a lot of other committee members have made that happen. And you can see the benefit from it now. As hard as it was at the time, you can just see how well the club’s doing at the moment and how much everyone’s enjoying.”
Elsewhere in Group 9 the Young Cherrypickers channeled their inner Lane Frost, as they handily took care of the South City Bulls, Gundagai weathered the storm in Albury, Tumut were too classy for Junee and in the match of the round, the Wagga Kangaroos continued their undefeated start to the season, with a close win against the Temora Dragons.
Group 9 Ladder.
1 Wagga Kangaroos, 10pts, 122.
2 Tumut Blues, 9pts, 34.
3 Young Cherrypickers, 8pts, 128.
4 Temora Dragons, 6pts, 106.
5 Gundagai Tigers, 6pts, 18.
6 Albury Thunder, 5pts, 50.
7 South City Bulls, 2pts, -44.
8 Junee Diesels, 2pts, -82.
9 Cootamundra Bulldogs, 2pts, -82.
10 Wagga Brothers, 0pts, -246.
Group 9 Draw Saturday May 24 – Sunday May 25.
South City Bulls vs Albury Thunder.
Junee Diesels vs Young Cherrypickers.
Gundagai Tigers vs Cootamundra Bulldogs
Sunday 2:35 pm at Anzac Park.
Wagga Kangaroos vs Wagga Brothers.
Tumut Blues vs Temora Dragons.
-Tully Potts
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