NORTH Bendigo's impressive opening to the HDFNL season will face its sternest test to date when the Bulldogs clash with reigning premier White Hills on Saturday.
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Entering round three, the Bulldogs remain as one of only two teams yet to experience a defeat this season together with Elmore, which is 3-0, having played one extra game to most other teams.
The Bulldogs followed up a thrilling opening-round win over Huntly with a convincing 28 goal win in an away contest against Leitchville-Gunbower last week.
New coach Lara Daly sees no reason why her in-form side cannot continue the momentum and has welcomed the challenge against one of the league's perennial powerhouses.
"We're really excited to be coming up against White Hills, last week's big win has really given the girls a lot of confidence in what they can do when they string four quarters together," she said.
"I feel it will be a very good match-up. I went and watched White Hills' game against Elmore, they've obviously lost a few players, but they've brought up a few of their A-reserve players, which just shows the depth they have.
"They still have great chemistry having played together before. White Hills has that ability that their players all focus on the same structures and plays and they are able to inter-change really well."
The Bulldogs enter the contest with all players in solid form, but none better than Meg McGlone, who has started the season strongly in defence.
In the goal circle, the new pairing of Eaglehawk recruits Imogen Davies and Delainey Holmes has proved ultra-accurate and difficult to combat.
"Our defence is winning us games, but obviously our shooters have been converting all those turnovers we've been getting, so it's two-fold," Daly said.
"Imogen is just a class player and converting everything she gets and Meg up the other end is turning so many balls over."
Returning to the court in 2021 with only one player from their 2019 premiership line-up, White Hills coach Lauren Bowles said her players had embraced the challenge that came with such a high turnover of personnel.
"I'm really happy with where we are at as a club - we're training hard, it's a very new-look team and squads from A-grade through to B-reserve, but we're gelling nicely," she said.
"To be honest, I was happy with how we performed in our loss to Elmore, I walked away really excited, even though the scoreline didn't justify it - we weren't far off the pace.
"When you are now coming up against players like Gabe Richards, it is going take time to adjust to it, but there were a lot of positives to take out of it.
"But coming off that loss, it was really good to see the girls come back and have a really convincing win against Leitchy, so we're happy.
"We really can't afford to take any game lightly this year and North is going to be a great hit-out for us."
South Bendigo recruit Molly Johnston was among the Demons' best against the Bombers, while Bowles could not speak highly enough of skipper Danni Wee-Hee, who has stamped herself as the team's leader as the lone 2019 premiership player in this year's team.
In other games, Colbinabbin (1-1) hosts Huntly (1-1); Mount Pleasant (0-1) will look to rebound from its loss to Elmore last week against Lockington Bamawm United (0-2); and Heathcote (1-1) will look to further underline its improvement against Leitchville-Gunbower (0-2).
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