The Bathurst Bulldogs may have put 50 points on the Dubbo Roos during Saturday's match but they know their opposition is as good a side as any in the Blowes Cup.
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Bulldogs were in town to take on the Dubbo Roos, with the latter coming into the match off the back of four consecutive wins but the unbeaten Bulldogs were way too good.
Running away with a 59-0 win, Bulldogs captain Peter Fitzsimmons felt Dubbo are capable of causing a lot of problems during the rest of the season.
"They are definitely the team to watch because we spoke about before the game if we didn't win the first 10 minutes then they would get a roll on," he said.
"That's dangerous, especially here at Dubbo. They just turn into different blokes, for 80 minutes they are coming at you hard.
"We just played with pace and support, it's the way we are training really.
"We are training for everything that we want to put into practice really and when we get it right it just gets out of control for some teams.
"But Dubbo is definitely the best we have seen, it just came down to the first 10 minutes really."
On the Roos' Old Boy's Day, the first grade side was presented their jerseys for the day by a relative of Marty Tink before running out through a massive tunnel mixed of current and former players, with the day also part of Gotcha4Life Mental Fitness Round.
From the opening whistle, both teams bashed each other, particularly in the forwards before a string of penalties gave the Bulldogs easy passage downfield.
Bulldogs flyhalf Brad Glasson crossed in the fourth minute to open the scoring before the Roos did all they could to get back in the match.
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Glasson's Dubbo counterpart Nate Ambler left the field early with a wrist injury before Aiden Miller also picked up an injury.
From there, Bathurst and Dubbo threw everything they had at each other with neither side giving an inch until Zac Taylor crossed to score for the Bulldogs.
Bathurst scrumhalf Kurt Weekes made no mistake with the conversion from in front before being required to add the extras again after Glasson threw a clever dummy pass before darting over.
The Bulldogs' 17-0 lead soon grew out further with another converted Taylor try ending the half.
Second half tries to Fitzsimmons, Jason Corliss, Bryce Rue, Sione Naufahu and Daniel Woods sealed the win for Bathurst, as they head into the general bye well clear in first place.
A humble Bathurst captain could be forgiven for being a little too confident after yet another win, but he is anything but that.
"No one really gave an edge, we are leading the competition but we are training like we are chasing someone," he said.
"We are doing extra fitness and other stuff that we could easily not do but without a don't think we are the same team.
"We've done nothing, we don't want the conversation to be 'they played good for a half of the season'.
"We want to keep it rolling so that's the goal."
Dubbo captain Tom Koerstz believes his side just weren't able to get the game to be played on their terms.
"I think you've got to give credit to Bathurst, they are at the top and are the benchmark for a reason," he said.
"You can't take anything away from the way they played. They were clinical, they probably did to us what we wanted to do to them.
Still, in second place on the ladder, some of the Roos' squad will head to Tamworth next week to link up with the Central West Blue Bulls.
After a gruelling clash, Keorstz knows things won't get any easier in two weeks.
"It was physical, I had to make too many tackles so I'll be sore tomorrow," he said.
"I can't fault the effort of the boys but it's just those little things we need to improve on.
"But we know that, we are feeling it in there and the challenge is how we respond with the week off and then taking on Cowra in Cowra which will be a big test."
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