Tallon Smith

Competition leader Cootamundra has kept its perfect start to the Group 9 season intact with a 32-16 victory over the Tumut Blues at Les Boyd Oval on Saturday.

Two tries to Joe Ward and Sam Bragg in the first 10 minutes of the second half saw the Bulldogs establish control of the match, with the side going on to record a third straight victory to begin the campaign, equalling its win tally from the whole of last year.

After having the better of the early exchanges, an error from Bulldogs winger Matt Forsyth on kick receipt invited Tumut back down Cootamundra’s end, and the Blues made them pay with Josh Smith opening the scoring off a left side raid in the 15th minute.

The Bulldogs hit back nine minutes later, when a quick shift saw Harry Boxsell cross in the corner, before a downfield penalty for a late hit on captain Joe Ward presented James Paterson with a golden opportunity to dive over from dummy half for a 10-4 advantage in the ensuing set.

However, after Tumut forced a repeat set, a show and go close to the line from front rower Jordy Maher saw the Blues level the scores at 10-all heading into the break.

The Bulldogs emerged with all the running out of half time however, and Ward capitalised on the early momentum and field position, collecting a ricochet off his own kick and beating multiple defenders on a crossfield run to score a stunning try out wide, before Bragg spun his way over a few minutes later to open up a 22-10 lead.

A potential match-turning moment followed soon after when Bragg was sin binned for holding down Jack Hillier following a line break, but as it has done many times this year, Cootamundra withstood the adversity and capitalised despite being a man down when Ollie Hall finished a long-range team effort.

Fynn Debono hit back for Tumut to reduce the margin to 12, but the Bulldogs put the game to bed when a beautiful short ball from back rower Tom Miller put Ward through a gap, with the halfback racing away to score and seal the game and a third straight win for Cootamundra.

Cootamundra coach Luke Berkrey said he was happy with the Bulldogs’ performance in their first home game of the season, and believes his side’s confident approach to the game is playing a large part in its success to begin the year.

“We had a really good crowd there, the community is getting right behind us, so it was good to have another decent performance at home and keep everyone’s confidence pumping,” he said.

“I’m happy with the style of footy we’re playing, there was a lot of back and forth in that game to start the first half.

“That sort of footy is great for us coming into a tough month.”

The star of the show for the Bulldogs was halfback Ward, who had a strong afternoon with the boot in general play and crossed for two tries, including the match sealer.

Berkrey said that he has been impressed with the way his halfback has both taken charge of leading the Bulldogs around the field and combined with young five-eighth Ollie Hall.

“Wardy has been incredible for us, he has become a real leader in this team, today was an unbelievable game from him, he was the best player on the field today by a mile,” he said.

“He has certainly grown in confidence each week, and he is really owning the team and really getting us around the park with Ollie.

“I couldn’t be happier with his form.”

One thing that made Cootamundra’s win all the more impressive was the fact that the side did it without representative front rower Tai Vaavale, who was sidelined for the first of three matches after being suspended in the Bulldogs’ clash with Junee.

Berkrey said that while the unavailability of Vaavale has no doubt impacted the strength of the side’s line-up, he was impressed with the way the rest of the team stepped up in his absence.

“Everyone just probably had to add a little bit more into their game [on Saturday], I thought we covered for him pretty well [but] we certainly look forward to having him back, don’t get me wrong,” he said.

“He is obviously a big loss to the team, [and] he has been good around the team doing everything he can.”

Another challenge the Bulldogs overcame was again being reduced to 12 men when Bragg was sin-binned in the second half.

After having to get through an extended period a man down against Junee last week, Berkrey said that his side used the learnings from that situation, and was able to not only weather the Blues’ attack but score points of their own.

“We had another little scenario today where we had a man in the bin and we won that period 6-0, so I think we learnt from the week before how to deal with [those] sort of situations,” he said.

Looking around the grounds at round three scores, the Saturday’s other matches saw the Wagga Kangaroos bounce back from last week’s loss to South City with a 30-16 win over Wagga Brothers and Young Cherrypickers get the win over the Junee Diesels 36-26, while Sunday’s action saw the South City Bulls score a late try to defeat Temora 26-22 and Gundagai cruise to a 28-6 victory over Albury.

COOTAMUNDRA 32 (J. Ward 2, H.Boxsell, S. Bragg, O. Hall tries; B. Kelleher 3, O. Hall goals) defeated TUMUT 32 (J. Smith, J. Maher, F. Debono tries; C. Rossiter 2 goals).