This weekend’s match between the Queanbeyan Blues and the Goulburn Bulldogs was poised to deliver a showdown between the tournament favourites and talented underdogs, and it certainly delivered.
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The crowd at the Workers Arena in Goulburn was treated to some highly competitive footy, particularly in the first half, before a Terry Campese spree saw the Blues race away from the Bulldogs in the final 40 minutes.
Although Campese did not personally cross the line for his team, Bulldogs coach Adam Kyle noted that the former Australia and Canberra Raiders representative was involved in setting up almost every score, and kicked four goals to boot.
“[They were] very, very strong,” Kyle said.
“When you’ve got a player of Terry Campese’s experience in the side, pretty much every single try come off something that he did yesterday.
“We identified that during the week, and like I said the first half I thought we managed to stick to our game plan and really hold him pretty quiet in that first half.”
The key to victory for the Blues was a gap in Goulburn’s defence, Campese said, and his contribution to the game was actually less than usual.
“In all honesty we played up the other side of the field, so I wasn’t involved as much as I normally am,” Campese said.
“We found some weakness in their left side defence, we’d seen that on video, and that’s where we went.
“I think we ended up scoring six tries over on that edge … it just comes down to kicking game for my side of things yesterday which I thought was pretty good.
“We got a few repeat sets and scored a couple of tries off our kicks as well, so that was my main contribution.”
The first half of the game was a tense affair; both teams crossed the line multiple times and neither seemed to have a firm grip on the game, with the score sitting at 14-10 in favour of the Blues.
“It took a while for the boys to warm up, the first half wasn’t how we like to play, but they come out in the second half and played to their ability which is great,” Campese said.
That all changed as the second half begun, after an error from the Bulldogs forced a turnover and allowed Queanbeyan to break through for the first of five unanswered tries.
Although Queanbeyan upped the ante in the second half, Kyle also noted that the Bulldogs’ youth and inexperience has played a role in their losses this season.
“Our biggest issue, and it’s happened over the last two weeks, our ability to put polish on a game,” Kyle said.
“At half time we were right in the mix, and we made an error in the first set after half time last week and the same this week and we didn’t touch the ball for ten minutes.
“It’s our inability to reload and get back in the game.
“It’s just experience, it’s our experience at the moment. We’ve got a really young side, very energetic, very enthusiastic about what we’re doing, but our actual football game knowledge is really letting us down, and that just comes on experience.”
The match finished with the score at 40-10, and the Bulldogs will now head into a bye to focus on mitigating these lapses.
