Griffiths was disappointed in the result but rapt in his team’s performance in their 32-12 loss to South Newcastle and is looking forward to Saturday’s Coalfields clash against Cessnock at Kurri Kurri Sportsground.

“Sometimes you don’t win the game, but you play better than your opposition,” Griffiths said of the result.

“It was one of those days. I felt we won even though we didn’t win on the scoreboard.

“If we play like that we are going to win more games than we lose.

“We got back to what we’ve done well all year, the things that take a lot of talent, commitment, effort that was us today. 

“Despite the score it was a really good defensive effort. They scored five tries, but three of those were through kicks and two through intercepts.

“One of those intercepts was effectively a 12-point play just before the break. If they don’t intercept the ball we score, they do and they score at the other end.”

Instead of leading, the Bulldogs trailed 22-12 at half-time and in an arm-wrestle went down 32-12.

The Bulldogs are sixth on the table, equal on points with Central Newcastle, but with a game in hand after their round seven games against West Newcastle was rescheduled to the spare weekend on August 4.

Coming off the bye, the Bulldogs were without a game for two weekends and struggled to get on the field to train because of rain.

Their first game back was the 42-6 drubbing by Maitland at the Maitland Sportsground.

Griffiths said the contrasting results showed just how difficult it was to manage such a large break during the season.

“I think it highlights what the break did to our mindset, not being able to get on to the ground because it was too wet. Being able to play some footy over the past two weeks has started to get us back we’re we need to be.

“We spoke about there is a lot of hard work still to do, but we had the mindset and mentality that we know what is required and went out there and tried to fulfill it to the best of our ability.”

Griffiths was full of praise for his forwards performance against a huge Souths pack.

“It was probably the best game by our forwards all year,” he said.

“Souths have a huge pack and our boys took it right up to them. They are a big pack and came to play and our guys accepted the challenge and rose to the occasion. 

“They deserve the credit for keeping us in the game. It’s hard to single anyone out, I thought our forward pack in general were outstanding.”