Kurri trailed 12-10 at half-time and 22-10 early in the second half but three unanswered tries to hooker Mitch Cullen saw the Bulldogs run out 28-22 winners.

The Bulldogs also had to overcome the loss of centre Damien Walters with a severely broken leg and fight-eighth Ben Wyborn with a corked thigh.

It was Williams’ first win as Kurri coach and said he was proud of his team’s fightback.

“It’s just a testament to the quality of blokes we have in this football team,” he said.

“We put in a lot of hard work in the off season and it was a credit to the whole club, not just first grade.

“We grafted our way back into it and went through a bit of adversity but we got there.”

Kurri were forced to shift Cullen to five-eighth after half-time due to Wyborn’s injury and the switch paid off as he scored a hat-trick of tries.

The Bulldogs led 10-0 early and dominated most of the first half but found themselves trailing at the break.

Williams said he was happy with his team’s performance but said they would continue to improve.

“I thought we controlled the first half hour and I said to the boys at half-time I don’t know how we’re in this position,” he said.

“But we made a couple of mistakes and had to get out of it.”

Williams said the loss of Walters was a blow but praised the way the team overcame the setback.

“He still hasn’t had the operation for the pin or the rod but he’s had it put back in place,” he said.

“I went and saw him on Friday and he was in pain obviously but in good spirits although he sounded a bit down on Saturday night when I spoke to him.

“It was a great effort from our blokes to overcome seeing that, you could see it took us about five minutes to settle back down.”