Gunnedah found their bark early against the Tamworth Swans on Saturday, a 50-point first quarter setting them on their way to a 17.14-116 to 10.11-71 win.
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It was a similar story to the corresponding clash in Gunnedah.
Then the Bulldogs blew the Swans away with a 10 goal first term effort.
On Saturday they kicked eight to take a 34 point lead into the first break.
“We had a pretty good first quarter. We probably steadied up a bit after that,” Bulldogs coach Andrew George said.
He had asked for them to move the ball cleanly and work hard to be as accountable as possible when they didn’t have the ball, and in the first quarter they did that.
“We had clean skills and good run,” he said.
The ensuing three-quarters weren’t as clean, but they never really allowed the Swans to get back into the contest and generally made the most of their opportunities when they went forward.
Brad Jenkinson was central to that, enjoying the opportunity facilitated by a bit of a change up in the attack with George pushing Mitchell Swain out to the wing and putting him up front.
“It worked well,” George said, although he wasn’t able to see it for the whole game with Swain unable to play the second half after a losing a couple of teeth courtesy of a collision.
The move was inspired after watching Swain when they were doing some field kicking drills at training on Thursday.
“He was kicking probably the best out of anyone,” George said.
“That’s where the move came from.
“Obviously that then left a spot forward line and we needed a bit of speed and experience.”
Enter Jenkinson.
Being his first game back for a little while, George “wanted to ease him back into it”.
He finished with four while Mark Ewington, Ben Maher and Jacob Spackman all booted three.
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“Brent Hartley was really good again and Benny (Maher) went really well,” George said.
“John Woolaston also had a good game in the backs.”
Chris Walker was the Swans’ best kicking three.
Marli Gobbert meanwhile kicked six and Chris Whitton four as Inverell accounted for the Tamworth Kangaroos 20.21-141 to 8.5-53 to maintain top spot.
In the other game, the New England Nomads bounced back to form in emphatic fashion, thrashing the Narrabri Eagles 25.37-187 to 4.1-25.
Nick Locke led the charge for the Nomads with five while Dave Richards and Harry Wakefield chimed in with four.
