Gunnedah full forward Mitchell Swain has described the competition as being in a transitional period infused with developing young talent.
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He commented after the competition-leading Bulldogs won their fifth straight match, in a 169-point mauling of the Tamworth Kangaroos at Wolseley Oval on Saturday.
The final score was 31.22-208 to 6.3-39.
Jake Spackman and Scott Hardy kicked six and five majors while Swain and Mark Ewington booted four each.
Bulldogs veteran Andrew George, the new coach of the reigning premiers, had thought the side might struggle this season because it had lost a spate of players.
But after a strong start to the season, he now believes that the side have benefited from the weakness of other outfits.
Swain concurred. He said that while the Bulldogs had lost a number of players from their premiership side, they had retained several experienced players.
“I think Andrew [George] touched on it earlier in the week,” he said, “but I think probably the level of the competition [is down]. I think a few blokes have retired from a few teams.
“There’s a lot of young blokes that are still developing. [There are] obviously a lot of young blokes within the Gunnedah side. A fair few are talented sportsmen, but they just haven’t picked up the game [yet].”
The Kangaroos, with two wins from six matches heading into the match, brought only 17 players to Gunnedah while the Bulldogs fielded 22.
Gunnedah booted eight goals and seven behinds in the first quarter to lead by 55 points, with Tamworth did not troubling the scorer.
It was 14.13-97 to 3.1-19 at the main break and 21.19-145 to 4.2-26 going into the final term.