Seth Madex. PHOTO Tahlia Crane.
The Cootamundra Bulldogs are hoping that their momentum will be able to carry over from before the bye when they travel to Junee this Saturday to face the Diesels. Cootamundra has found form of late after getting their first win back in Group 9 against the Wagga Brothers, followed by a close loss to competition heavyweights Gundagai Tigers, and then most recently getting a comfortable win against a South City Bulls side who many had predicted to do well this season.
Cootamundra find them selves above Junee on the ladder at the moment, but with rumblings that incoming Diesels coach Ben Shea is set to make his blue and gold debut, the home side will be hoping for an instant return from one of their star signings.
David Buttriss believes his side is focused and ready for the short trip to Junee, “Going into the June long weekend it was very important for us to get that win; leading into the bye. Things are very positive around the playing group at the moment, hopefully, we can take a bit of confidence over there to Junee. They’ve strung together a couple of wins too, and now they’ve got their coaches in town, we are going to have to be on our game.”
“We played them in a trial game at home, but they had a fair few boys out from their squad that day, so we’re looking for a tough battle over there on Saturday.
“We’ve got plenty of injuries at the moment, but we’ve had some players coming out of 18s and a couple of boys from Reggies doing a good job for us. We’ll be relying on those guys again.
“I haven’t seen too much of them this year, but I know when they came here in that trial game, they had some big boys in the middle, so our middle’s going to have to be ready for that challenge. I know Daniel Foley creates a lot of strike out wide for them.
“It’ll be a very similar squad. We are struggling a little bit with our injuries at the moment, we keep getting a new one every week, unfortunately, we’ve got no one back at the moment. We just have to go over there and be confident in the guys that we have.
“The thing that the boys have been doing well the last couple of games is working hard for each other. The team’s coming together. The best-scrambled defence that I’ve seen for a while is what we’ve been doing over the last couple of games, so we’ll just carry that into this week and just go with that mentality that you just can’t let your man down next you.”
A man who both sides had a tremendous amount of respect for was big front rower Terry Douglas who tragically passed away in April last year. Cootamundra and Junee’s reserve grade teams played for the ‘Terry Douglas Memorial Shield’ in the pre-season which saw Junee take the shield home. This weekend the shield will again be competed for in reserve grade. I’m sure the Reggie’s boys will be aware of that and be up on the day to play for Terry. With big Tez playing a lot more reserve grade for both clubs and lifting the trophy for Junee, we thought it was a better idea for those guys to play for it,” Buttriss said about the match.
“It means a lot to both towns. Terry was a great bloke, and the boys are enjoying playing for the big fella.”
“The junior rugby league in Coota are going well, they’ve got a very good committee at the moment, and I know all those guys are working hard and people are enjoying going down to the juniors. They’ve had some big crowds in Coota, it’ll be nice that we’re over there on the same day on an away game and can both support each other.”
Elsewhere in Group 9, the Young Cherrypickers’ tough run of games continues as they travel to Wagga to play the Kangaroos in a Grand Final rematch, Gundagai continues their road trip, this time to South City, Tumut hosts the Wagga Brothers and Temora will hope to build off their impressive win against Young when they host Albury.
Group 9 Ladder.
1. Wagga Kangaroos, 14pts, 238.
2. Temora Dragons, 10pts, 118.
3. Gundagai Tigers, 10pts, 72.
4. Tumut Blues, 9pts, -26.
5. Young Cherrypickers, 8pts, 124.
6. Albury Thunder, 7pts, 52.
7. South City Bulls, 4pts, -62.
8. Cootamundra Bulldogs, 4pts, -74.
9. Junee Diesels, 4pts, -84.
10. Wagga Brothers, 0pts, -358.
-Tully Potts
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