Canterbury-Bankstown are the latest NRL club to take advantage of the region's facilities for some pre-season training.
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The Bulldogs will be calling Tamworth, more specifically the Mecure and Scully Park, home for the next week as they prepare for their first trial against the Newcastle Knights on February 21.
The Knights have also spent time in the region over the pre-season, training for a week in Armidale and then heading to Lake Keepit before a COVID outbreak ultimately cut their stay short.
"We thought it was a good time away for us, to get out of Sydney and get some work done," Bulldogs coach Trent Barrett told The Leader while enjoying an afternoon at the races.
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"We've got to play our first trial in three weeks and we've got a busy week."
The camp is a continuation of the club's relationship with the area after entering a partnership with the Greater Northern Tigers in 2019.
Only last month Bulldogs players Corey Allan and Braidon Burns came up to assist at the GNT under-16 and under-18s selection trials and talk to the players.
"We've got a fair few players from up this way in our club and in our system as well so it's good to get up here," Barrett said.
He and the staff came up on Saturday to get everything organised with the players arriving Sunday ready to hit the training paddock on Monday.
Barrett said it will be "a hard week" for the players with "a lot of stuff we need to get done".
And while the "main focus" will be "what happens on the field", with a lot of new players in the squad he said it is a good opportunity for them to spend some good time together.
The Bulldogs had a horror 2021, finishing with the wooden spoon and just three wins for the year but are heading into 2022 with plenty of optimism on the back of a number of high-profile signings.
Panthers' trio Matt Burton, Tevita Pangai Jr and Brent Naden, Storm superstar Josh Addo-Carr and Dragons fullback Matt Dufty are among the notable additions to the Dogs' roster.
Barrett, in his second year in charge, acknowledges they have still "got some work to do" and are "certainly not the finished product yet", but sees plenty of reason to believe that will perform better.
"A lot of the young guys we blooded into first grade last year are a year older and a lot more experienced," he said.
"And then the players we've brought into the club have all come from successful clubs and successful teams. Already they've added a hell of a lot in terms of experience and knowledge and I guess individually in their own right they're some of the best players in their positions in the comp so we we can tell straight away at training the influence they have on the team."
