SEASON 2017, Edwina Ulberg makes her debut for the Bathurst Bulldogs and sets up a try with her first touch of the ball to help her side to victory over Orange Emus.
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Fast-forward to 2019 and now not only has Ulberg set up and scored plenty more tries on the back of her trademark fend and strong running, but she's earned Central West representative duties and won two premierships with the Bulldogs.
Come Saturday morning at Ashwood Park when Ulberg aims for her third consecutive title with Bulldogs, it will be the Emus that stand in between her and Ferguson Cup glory.
She's hoping she can again aid a Bulldogs victory and make a bright start to what is a bumper day for the Bathurst club.
"I'm keen as, I'm getting butterflies," she said.
"It's just amazing how all five of us Bulldogs teams made it. On the day we'll have to step up because we'll be the first show, we'll be the first out of the gate, so we will have to lift and lead from the front.
"Hopefully we can win and it will trickle down to all our other teams. It will be a great weekend."
After making the move to Oberon from Porirua, Ulberg initially played league tag.
But when she discovered one of her team-mates played rugby for Bulldogs - a sport she'd played in New Zealand - Ulberg was keen to sign up.
"I went to watch one of their games and I didn't realise they were only 20 minutes back then. I got there and asked 'When does the game start?' and they were like 'It's already finished'," she said.
"I was like 'What?' I had no idea the games were that short."
But Ulberg came back and made her debut for Bulldogs. Since then the games have gotten longer - Saturday's grand final to be contested over four periods of 10 minutes - while there are more teams competing as well.
"It's a lot better to have more competition now compared to the first year. Every year, we've never gone through with clean sweeps, we've always had losses and we've never come minor premiers - first year it was Cowra, second year West Wyalong and now Emus," she said.
"Emus, they've got a lot of new players in their side which helps them a lot. It's good to see, it helps grow the game."
As happy as she is to see the growth of the competition, finishing 2019 as the best of the 15 hopefuls is Ulberg's goal for Saturday.
She feels Bulldogs have the talent to make that happen.
"I reckon we just need to communicate with each other and play as a team and that will get us through to the final whistle," she said.
"There's so much potential in our team - obviously Jakiya [Whitfeld], but then Courtney [Auld] and Kirsten [Howard] they are speedsters as well. Ebony [Fenton] she's improved so much, she's really stepped up.
"Everyone has stepped up, we've got the job done and a lot of senior players have really led the way. It's been very handy to have Mandy [Scott] and Marita [Shoulders] back as well."
Kick-off in Saturday's Ferguson Cup grand final at Ashwood Park between Bulldogs and Emus is 9.30am.
