No mercy as Bulldog dominance causes early finish

Last Saturday’s Group 4 rugby league first grade contest at Kitchener Park finished early as the Gunnedah Bulldogs crushed the Dungowan Cowboys 60-0.

With full-time called when the margin reached 60 points according to the ‘mercy rule’, the scheduled 80-minute contest was barely 45 minutes old when the hosts racked up 60 unanswered points.

Unbelievably this wasn’t even the shortest match of the round, with North Tamworth needing only 32 minutes to score 60 unanswered points against the last-placed Wee Waa.

Moree also won 60-0 against Kootingal-Moonbi – with this game lasting the full 80 minutes – after Kootingal-Moonbi beat Wee Waa 86-24 a week earlier.

The one-sided nature of the abovementioned games again revealed the gap between the top-five and the bottom-three teams, with numerous fixtures this season invoking the ‘mercy rule’.

Last Saturday was the second time this season that the Bulldogs amassed a 60-point margin, having beaten Wee Waa 66-6 with 19 minutes remaining back on May 25.

Gunnedah and Norths remained in equal-fourth place on the competition ladder; one point behind the third-placed Moree.

Last Saturday’s match at Kitchener Park was far more lopsided than the previous encounter between the Bulldogs and Cowboys, when Gunnedah won 54-16 on Dungowan soil back on May 17.

The Cowboys missed seven or eight first-choice players due to injuries and other commitments last Saturday, while several players backed up from reserve grade.

The main game was barely one minute old when Ryley Mackay registered the first try, and from then it was a procession as the hosts ran in nine more tries in the first half despite the occasional mistake.

Dylan Lake, Mckye Tucknott and Netava Naruma scored first-half doubles while Mackay, Jared Heinrich, Aidan Davis and Sunia Naruma bagged singles.

One of Lake’s tries was breathtaking as he caught the ball from a kick-off, eluded the Dungowan defence and broke away before leaving Cowboys fullback Brodie Heron clutching at air.

The half-time score was 52-0, and it could have been slightly higher considering one conversion attempt hit the crossbar while another hit an upright.

Heinrich had a try disallowed early in the second half as he stepped into touch before crossing the tryline, but it didn’t take long for the Bulldogs to stretch their lead.

Mackay bagged his second try for the game before Tucknott flashed away for his third, with the latter touching down with 35 minutes and 27 seconds remaining on the clock.

The final whistle sounded just moments later, with no need for a goal-kick.

The 60-0 result came one week after Gunnedah thrashed the previously unbeaten Werris Creek 50-10.

Gunnedah captain Callum Hayne said there was still something the Bulldogs could gain from a game such as last Saturday’s, when they scored points at will.

“You can sort of focus on your shape a bit, and just try to put into place a few things we’ve been working on at training,” he said.

“You just want to get it over and done with, no injuries and sort of get out of there if you can.”

Hayne said it was easy to lower one’s standards in those sorts of matches.

“It’s hard to get up for it, and (you tend to) sort of start playing at their level a bit at times,” he said.

“It does make it sort of hard to be motivated for the full 80 (minutes).”

Hayne said the team’s coordination and execution were as good as could be expected, despite a few errors.

“We sort of finished everything pretty good, (and) didn’t push any passes that we didn’t really need to,” he said.

Hayne said it was good to keep the Cowboys to nil, as “60-0 is a lot better than an 80-20”.

“If you can hold them out it makes it look a lot better,” he said.

Dungowan meanwhile won 28-14 in reserve grade and 36-0 in U18s, leaving Gunnedah’s reserve graders second-last while Gunnedah’s U18s remained outright fourth.

Group 4 has a general bye this weekend.