“We had to make a call in reserve grade whether to forfeit,” first grade coach Simon Vanzanten said. 

First grade players made that decision a lot easier for the club and offered to fill in for the reserves immediately prior to their own game. 

In total, 11 players played two games.

In the first grade game the team started extremely well against the second placed Tigers.  

The Bulldogs led early on when debutante Harrison Howse crossed out wide. Gundagai clawed their way back and were in front by a small margin at half time. 

Playing two games back-to-back took its toll in the second half and fatigue set in. 

Gundagai took control of the match and the score blew out. While disappointed with the result, Vanzanten was keen to emphasise “how big the effort was”.

“Paddy Cameron was unreal playing two full games. James Smith was a standout … it’s pretty impressive really.” 

The gutsy effort by Bulldogs players did not go unnoticed. Gundagai supporters were full of praise on Facebook.

“You should be proud of yourselves to turn up every week,” one supporter wrote. 

Looking to next weekend, club officials will make a decision on Tuesday about how many teams they’ll send to Southcity to play on Sunday.  

With player welfare a major concern, the club wants to avoid players playing more than one game. As a result, the club may not field four teams this weekend. It’s not an ideal situation that the club finds itself in but work is already under way to improve things for next year.

“We’re looking at ways to fix it,” Vanzanten said. 

Next weekend’s games will be another challenge for the Bulldogs.

Southcity sits in either first or second in first grade, reserve grade and the under 18s but with the passion the boys demonstrated last weekend an upset is always on the cards.