In the club’s fourth-straight loss by less than six points, the Bulldogs were again left painfully short of a win against the Moruya Sharks, going down 32-28. 

Ahead of round five the results mean the Bulldogs have bottomed out on the competition ladder in seventh place just behind the Cooma Stallions, who have one win on the board early in the season. 

Bulldogs coach Nathan Heffernan will be left fuming from the weekend’s result because the coach knows the club can not give up points at home, particularly when there is only 12 rounds to vie for competition points. 

It was a harsh reminder for the Bulldogs that they will need to start getting quite a roll on from round five if they hope to have a shot at this year’s finals series. 

The game against the Shark itself was a bumpy ride for fans with some great runs keeping the Bulldogs in the contest, while lax defense – particularly on the left edge – saw the visitors running through tries with seemingly little resistance. 

Moruya’s winger Shaun Staples led the charge, picking up two tries for the visiting club. 

The Sharks had stormed home a number of tries in the first half to secure a 20-6 lead with just a few minutes remaining before the half. 

A lot of the pressure had stemmed from Moruya’s monster forward pack featuring Tim Weyman, but the Sharks were also ably led by the spot-on kicking efforts of Dennis Green.

Hooker Jacob Hill was also impactful on play, while the Bulldogs were hampered by an injury to their own number nine Jarrod Cole in the first half. 

A Liam Beazley try late in the first half brought the Bulldogs back into the fold with the scores settling at 20-12 at the break.

Unfortunately the Sharks had the Merimbula-Pambula big men in Grant Moon and Ryan Becker marked and neither of the props were able to make much forward momentum. 

The Bulldogs did rally together some strong plays, but momentum was regularly hampered by penalties or errors forcing handovers. 

The Sharks pushed ahead again in the second half through Staples and half-back Sam Howlett to lead 32-16. 

It was in the dying minutes the Bulldogs found their stride and successive tries to John Aldridge and a second to Beazley got them within striking distance. 

Unfortunately, the Bulldogs ran out of time to close the gap and the final siren sounded with the hosts four points in arrears of their opponents. 

Earlier, the Bulldogs had taken the two points off the Sharks in a high-scoring reserve grade encounter that favoured the hosts 54-30.

The ladies had a bye. 

This Saturday the Bulldogs host Narooma at the ‘Dog Pound’ with first grade to kick off at 4.30pm.