HAVING lost its first encounter against one of its rival “big four” opponents, North Bendigo is hungry to atone on Saturday when it takes on Huntly in the Heathcote District league’s match of the round.
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The Bulldogs opened their season against another of the “big four” – Leitchville-Gunbower – a fortnight ago in a 25-point defeat.
“Huntly has been touted as one of the big sides in the competition this year, so it’s going to be a great challenge for us on Saturday,” North Bendigo coach Matt Dillon said on Friday.
“Against Leitchville in round one we played well for three-and-a-bit quarters, but couldn’t finish the game off, so we know we will have to be on our game for the the full four quarters against these sorts of sides like Huntly.”
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Given Colbinabbin, Leitchville-Gunbower, Huntly and North Bendigo have wasted little time in imposing themselves on the competition – all have percentages above 200 already – it’s tussles like Saturday that are going to be critical in obtaining the double chance given four doesn’t go into three.
“These are the games that will, hopefully, help you finish in the top three and get the double chance and we’re really primed to have a crack at Huntly,” Dillon said.
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“They are quality opposition with a lot of good players in their side and no doubt there will be plenty of pressure and whichever team handles it best will come out on top.”
The Bulldogs rebounded from their round one loss to Leitchville-Gunbower with a 137-point thrashing of Mount Pleasant last week.
Following the departures of key forwards Sam Barnes, Brady Herdman and Rhys Ford from last season, the Bulldogs are going to be reliant on a spread of players to carry the load inside 50.
Last week the Bulldogs had 10 goalkickers – seven who contributed multiples – which included Tyson Findlay bagging seven and the returning Jeremy Mills slotting five.
The sour note of last week’s win for the Bulldogs was a broken ankle suffered by Jordan Collins.
Huntly under new coach Denis Grinton has made a 2-0 start to the season with wins over White Hills (54 points) and LBU (46).
“We’re ticking along okay at the moment, but we’ve still got a lot to work on,” Grinton said.
“We’ve played patches of good footy so far, but we will need to do that for a longer period of time on Saturday and that’s why this is a good game for us because we’ll get to see where we sit in the scheme of things against a really good side.”
The Golden City Cup, which is held by North Bendigo, will be up for grabs on Saturday at Huntly.
• Saturday’s games – Leitchville-Gunbower v Heathcote, Huntly v North Bendigo, White Hills v LBU, Mount Pleasant v Elmore. Colbinabbin bye.