The Goannas had seemingly cemented victory when young hooker Nick Lawrence crossed with 15 minutes to go to take a 20-8 lead, but the Cessnock faithful were forced to endure another nail-biting finish.

Cessnock took the lead out beyond two converted tries soon after Lawrence's try with Cal Edwards converting a penalty.

But the Bulldogs finally produced the form which carried them to within one game of last year's grand final and ran in two tries.

Only some frantic Goannas defence held the Bulldogs out, much to the delight of the big Goannas crowd who had seen their team lose their opening two matches at the Cessnock Sportsground.

The only shadow on the memorable win was Paul Carter being place on report for making contact to the back of a Bulldogs players legs in a tackle.

The contact bent the players' legs forward but did not result in him going to the ground, however, the Goannas will be sweating on the outcome.

Carter, Cessnock captain Steve Waetford, tirless forward Brendan Hlad, Reed Hugo, Marvin Filipo, Peter Wilson, Kori Barber and Joe Woodbury all had great games.

However, Josh Charles was best afield in an awesome display of strength, speed and class in the centres.

"We got a bit of luck at the back-end of the game, which we haven't had," Cessnock coach Todd Edwards said.

"I'm really proud of the resilience we showed as Kurri are a hard team to hold out when they've got momentum.

"I'm just so proud of them. We spoke about doing whatever it takes to win and I reiterated that to them back in the rooms, particularly for that last four minutes when they were under the pump

"Today a lot of things went against us, particularly early, but we showed resilience to stick at out game plan and maybe got a bit of luck go our way.

"With Kurri, you are never safe. They can always score points."

Edwards said Charles was outstanding and Waetford had benefitted from the move back to fullback.

"Josh was great, he played very hard," he said.

"Steven's a No.1, I've tried him at No.6 but he is best at fullback as is young Harry O'Brien. They are both very good No.1s so its a nice headache to have."

Bulldogs coach Ron Griffiths said he was proud of his side's never say die effort, but they needed to have that level of intensity for the whole 80 minutes.

"Part of that is about us, but honestly I think today was more about the Goannas. They were a desperate side wanting to get a win and they played like it," he said.

"We were probably OK for a 20 minute period, that last 20. Other than that they were more desperate for the win.

"We spoke about that midweek and knew they would be. That's the way the played, they played with more desperation and desire than we did."

"I think if you look at the competition last year, how close it was last year it's rolled into the same this year.

"The only difference is probably West who look like being a bit better than everyone else.

"It's an even competition and at this level you've got to be up every game."

Griffiths said overall he was pleased with how the Bulldogs were travelling with some positives coming out of Saturday.

"It's a glitch on where we need to be, but I think there is still a lot of positivity there in some of the things we did do. A little bit of tweaking and working on a little bit of desire I think we will be OK."

Both teams have a break for the Newcastle RL representative games this weekend and will have a number of players in action.

Kurri Kurri players Tyme Dow Nikau, Mitch Cullen and Jarom Haines join Cessnock's Isiah Cooper Tetevano and Maitland's Jayden Butterfield in the Newcastle Rebels squad of 20 which will be cut to 17 for Saturday's game against Sydney's Ron Massey Cup rep side at Maitland Sportsground.

The Emerging Rebels features Maitland's Jye Bieman-King, Kamilo Tuivaiti and Matt Meafua and the Blues Tag rep team includes Kurri Kurri's Alisha Romaniuk and Maitland's Brooke Carrol

The Newcastle RL resumes with round four on April 18 with Cessnock travelling to take on Central Newcastle at St John Oval and Kurri Kurri host Maitland.