Tom McKenzie had a dream debut for Kurri Kurri scoring the winning try in a sterling come-from-behind win against South Newcastle on Saturday.
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Former Cessnock Goanna Zeb Dunstan also earned his stripes with a best on ground performance playing at centre and new halves partnering Jade Porter and Sam Wooden showed they will be a dangerous combination.
The Graveyard was rocking after the Bulldogs scored 12 unanswered points in the second half to win 16-10.
The Bulldogs trailed 4-10 at half-time but with their parochial home crowd and plenty of run, after a tough pre-season behind them, they prevailed in a tough encounter.
Wooden and Porter combined to score Cessnock’s opening try after the Lions opened the scoring to lead 6-0.
Wooden placed a kick into the end-goal and Porter dived on it to score.
Young local Lachie Macbeth scored the Bulldogs second try to take the score to 8-10 and a penalty goal evened the scores.
Enter McKenzie and his converted try in the dying minutes ensured the Bulldogs got the two points.
“Tom was over the moon there was a lot of family there supporting him. To get the try that seals the game is pretty special at Kurri,” Bulldogs coach Ron Griffiths said.
“Zeb Dunstan’s work rate was phenomenal, he was extremely strong for us all day. When we needed someone to cart the ball forward he kept putting his hand up.”
Griffiths was delighted with the first try worked by Porter and Wooden.
“You watch Jade and Sam working together at training and it was nice to see them come up with a try between themselves,” he said.
“They work a lot together in addition to what we do with the main group on the track.”
Griffiths said the Bulldogs defensive effort was tremendous.
“The game was very physical and importantly defensively we kept turning up for each other,” he said.
“Our defensive resilience was really good. We have worked a lot over summer about turning up in defence for each other and it showed.
“It was a really tough game, we made a few errors but we were able to defend them.
“There was plenty of room for improvement, but it was excellent to start the season with a win.”
The Bulldogs face the Cessnock Goannas next week at Cessnock and Griffiths expects a fired up Goannas after their 36-0 drubbing by Maitland.
“We’ve got them next week, so we get them at a good time obviously,” he said with a liberal dose of irony. “Being beaten like that your always up.
