On a balmy Easter Thursday night in front of a good crowd, Daniel Abraham won the toss and choose to run uphill in the first half.

Early in the half a nice break up the middle by Daniel Abraham then onto Ben Wyborn then Neenan Simpson put the dogs in a strong attacking position, on the next tackle a wide pass from Ben Wyborn put Lachlan Shipard over in the corner.

In the 10th minute an early break by man of the match Mitch Cullen set up play on Maitland’s 15-metre mark from the ongoing tackle Neenan Simpson chipped out wide for winger Ryan Heath to take the ball on the full and score, Lachlan Shipard converted from on the touchline to lead 10-nil.

The Bulldogs were completing their sets and defending well in the half, when a break by Hayden Jeans came to nothing.

In the last 10 minutes of the half Maitland had plenty of the ball and their big front rowers powered over the line twice to put Maitland in front 12-10 at the break.

After losing Ben Wyborn just on half time to injury, a couple of minutes into the second half centre Damien Walters suffered a possible season ending injury.

While in a straight forward tackle his left leg buckled and he suffered a broken tibia, fibia and ankle. 

Damien was operated on on Saturday, with a pin placed in his leg. He was expected to be out of hospital on Monday. 

He is said to be in good spirits and has taken the injury in his stride.

The Bulldogs seemed to go off the boil after Damien’s injury and Maitland struck twice to race out to a lead of 22-10.

A big break from a kick return from Neenan Simpson  (already nicknamed Preston Campbell from some parts of the crowd) let the Bulldogs into an attacking position and from 30-metres out Mitch Cullen dummied and sliced through to score the first of his hat trick.

In the following set from the kick off, a penalty on the fourth tackle of the set put the dogs into attacking position and in a repeat of his first try, Mitch Cullen dummied and swerved past some tiring forwards to score again near the posts.

The conversion had the game wrapped at 22 all with 10 minutes to go.

Maitland created an overlap and appeared certain to score when Ryan Heath managed to get his hands on the ball and prevent it.

With six minutes left and Kurri deep in Maitland’s territory, Mitch Cullen came to the fore again and  in a replica of his first two tries went through untouched to score again near the posts, the try was converted and the final score of 28-22 to Kurri.

Strong performances from the Bulldogs were handed in by Mitch Cullen, Jay Stevens, Dane Thorogood at dummy half and Hayden Jeans for the second half. 

The reserve grade game went back and forward with both sides leading at different stages and the final score of 22 all was a fair result. Best players for the Bulldogs were Clint Toaeva in the pack, Lachie MacBeth, Matt Pearce and Simon Craig.

The under 23s, were never in front for the game until a controversial penalty on the bell allowed Jai Hancock to convert the penalty from 30 metres out and allow the Bulldogs a 24-22 victory. Top performances were handed in by Aden Barry, Joab Eastley and under-18 players Jackson Cluff and Nic Scott.

The Bulldog’s next game is against Macquarie at Toronto on Saturday. After the game the Kurri and Macquarie players will join the Kurri Mongrels at the Toronto Club in a fundraiser for the Mark Hughes foundation. 

This will be the fourth of a five day ride for the Mongrels in their fundraising efforts for the foundation. They return home from Toronto to Kurri on Sunday and anyone interested in riding home for the day are most welcome to join.

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As part of a joint effort between the Kurri Bulldogs and the Cessnock Goanna’s a framed one-off jumper is also being designed combining the two great clubs. 

The jumper will serve as a raffle prize for the Coalfields clash on May 3 at Kurri. All proceeds will be donated to the families of Jamie Mitchell and Phillip Grant, who both lost their lives recently at Austar coal mine.