David Buttriss (holding headgear) after the 2005 Group 9 GF.
A lot has rightfully been made of the Bulldogs’ return to Group 9 this season, but an aspect some may overlook is the team continuing to host a side largely made up of locals.
A recent trend among local football clubs has been sacrificing their homegrown talent in search of players from elsewhere who give them a better chance at winning, even if it means taking scraps off of a once fierce rival.
Luckily for the Bulldogs, they can continue to play players brought up wearing blue and white without any handicap to them as a team, the side has found a perfect balance between integrating new, imported talent whilst maintaining the principles that have served the Club greatly for over 100 years, something that others close by have failed to emulate.
At the forefront of the Bulldogs initiative is coach David ‘DB’ Buttriss, who took charge of his beloved Bulldogs in 2024 after coaching the reserve grade side in 2019, and having both first grade coaching and playing caps in seasons thereafter. Buttriss is hoping to bring them back to Group 9 glory shortly.
An extremely popular team member of any side he has been part of, and a perfect example of a man with a ‘team first’ attitude. Coach of the 2005 Grand Final winning Bulldogs Scotty England placed his faith in a headgear-wearing, fear-less teenager to do a job for him on the wing, DB not letting England down.
DB spent some time away, winning a premiership with Sawtell and making a name for himself in Group 2, his hard running and outrageously hard hitting defence making him someone to remember for those who hadn’t met him already – those who had would find it hard to forget the happy-go-lucky, loud and extremely confident guy who was the life of any party. Moving home and creating a very successful business and beautiful family, DB has gone out of his way to play his part in reviving the club.
His personality is contagious, making everyone smile around him, despite turning into an animal once wearing the Bulldog across his chest.
David spoke with the Times about how his footballing career led him back home to coach his beloved Bulldogs.
“When I was younger, I was playing soccer and then after two years of that, my brother decided to go play rugby league; being my older brother I followed him in what he did and ended up playing from Under 7’s through to seniors. All my junior football was played here in Coota. Then I got to play seniors and then when I was 18, I moved over to Canberra to give it a crack over there,” David said.
“Looking back on my career I’d say one of the best moments was one of the earliest. I won the 2005 grand final with Coota early in my senior career, and then after I went to Canberra where it didn’t quite work out. I ended up in Sawtell and won two grand finals there. We had really good teams, but it was a really good social side at the same time. Everyone got along well and we were a tight-knit bunch of boys, I feel like that’s what we’ve got here this year. The boys are just buying in on everything and socially we are really all coming to-gether which is a great start. We know it’s going to be hard and it’s a tougher competition than where we have been previously, but, I think we’re going to be competitive this year and we’re going to start and see some results go our way through the season,” he added.
David says playing in the back row helped prolong his playing career.
“It’s not the hardest position. It’s one of those positions where it is quite tough, but you get a little bit of a breather out there now and then. The boys in the middle always do the hardest work and then your halves are always steering the team around, so the pressure is on them,” he continued.
Having won plenty over his career including the last Group 9 premiership to be put in the Bulldogs cabinet 20 years ago. David believes with a bit of hard work his current side can recapture those heights.
“I feel like back then there was a lot of older, tougher, fellas around that just played footy old school and these days it’s a bit more of you have to be a lot fitter, the game is a lot faster. There’s a lot more skills involved. Back then if you had some tough old heads, you were going to go a long way. 20 years ago it (Group 9) was tougher but I feel like now it is a lot faster in regards to the game itself.
“I didn’t mind the old school way of being a little bit slower, it probably suited the style that I used to play myself, but these days with the limited interchange, you see blokes that are a lot fitter coming into it, especially in the back end of the halves.
“I feel that George Tooke was good for the local boys that we had, most of them are still here now, which is great. It was just a good way for them to get used to all playing together and that prepared them now for what is ahead in Group 9.
“I went to Canberra when I was 18 and only had two years there and moved up to Sawtell when I was 21 and we won it in 2009 and 2011.
“I don’t think Group 2 was better than Group 9, but it was very physical up there and you had to be pre-pared to take a bit of a beating.
“I was fortunate enough to be coached by and play alongside great players and people like Scotty England, Anthony Grounds, Rohan Louton and Ryan Previtt. Who taught me plenty.”
-Tully Potts
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