In the Blue Heelers’ heritage round, Bulldogs coach Nathan Heffernan said he was delighted with the team’s effort to win 40-18.

“We didn’t ambush Bombala as such, but we knew it was a big night for them with their heritage round, we just made sure we had the energy and enthusiasm to match them,” Heffernan said. 

“It was fantastic to have a game that wasn’t too close for the whole 80 minutes, we were able to relax a bit more on the sideline,” 

The Bulldogs’ combinations are starting to gel perfectly together and the visitors piled on five goals in the opening 40 minutes to set up a 28-0 lead. 

The forwards laid the groundwork with Billy Doneman, Ryan Becker and Reuben Smahel crossing early. 

Then in flew the quicks with Luke Rixon and Kyle Shepherdson adding their two cents. 

“it's not selfish footy; we let the ball do the work and anyone can score from anywhere,” Heffernan said. 

“The tries just went our way in the first half, we scored five and it was unlikely they were going to score five in the second half.” Heffernan said. 

“We knew if we could hold them for 20 minutes it would force them to play a bit desperately in catch-up.”

The Bulldogs recently lost out on hooker Jared Cole through a broken arm, but Heffernan said the club had renewed depth this year with capable players waiting in the wings. 

Blake Schafer has stepped in to the vital role, and his coach said the last two weeks have been his “best games of the season”. 

As the club eyes up the last few rounds and, hopefully a run in the finals, Heffernan said the inclusion of John Aldridge out of the Eden camp had been impactful. 

One of the best kickers in Group 16, Aldridge has come into his own setting plays for the Bulldogs’ quicks. 

“Each week he’s just getting better – he’s pumped up his fitness and his class is showing,” the coach said. “Coming into the finals he could be an X factor for us.”

In other games, the Eden-Mer-Pam combine Tigerettes league-tag roster suffered just their second loss of the season to the flawless Bombala High Heelers 12-6. 

This Sunday, league will head to Eden’s George Brown Memorial Oval for its only senior play of the year. 

The club is now excited to take on the Roosters..

The Eden-Mer-Pam combines will host Bega in all four senior grades on the day with league-tag from 10am between the Tigerettes and the Bega Chicks. 

Then at 11am the under 18s will contest the Dick Horton and Shane O’Neill Shields in an Eden v Bega clash. 

12.30 the Tigerettes play a second round against the Pink Panthers, before the reserves at 1.30pm and first grade between the Bulldogs and Roosters at 3pm.