Celebrating 40 years, the team wore special jumpers for the day, while Jill Overend and Bernie Maher were named life members of the club.

Despite a physical encounter through the middle, the Bulldogs took the most from their opportunities to pile on tries and lead 30-6 at the break before going on to a 44-12 win at the Dogpound.

The win has the Bulldogs holding equal second in line with the Cooma Stallions, but the Merimbula-Pambula Club still has a catch-up game up its sleeve with a rescheduled clash with Moruya still to go ahead.

A win over the Sharkies could see the club heading to outright second, or equal first as the Group 16 season reaches the pointy end of things with just a few rounds remaining.

The Bulldogs opened well against the bears with gutsy runs out of hard-working forwards Jack McGuire and Grant Moon with Blake Schafer in the number 13 jumper also finding some valuable metres against the sizable Snowy River front row.

However, after the Bulldogs had put on their first couple of tries, things quickly went awry for the Snowy River Bears.

A few ball fumbles saw the hosts coming up with possession in good field position with Jack McGuire rewarded for his hard-running with an early double to set up a lead in the opening 20 minutes.

Play settled into an arm wrestle through the middle for a short time, before the Bears became visibly frustrated and began chatting back at the ref, who did not hesitate to march the club for back-talking.

This only served to provide the Bulldogs even better field position to run in a series of tries and take a strong advantage into the half.

Billy Doneman picked up a pair before securing a third in the second half, while Bulldogs winger Tom Grant also nabbed a pair.

The edges were a dominant region for the Bulldogs who also pushed some options to the left in the second half where Jake Mikula was rewarded with a handy four-pointer.

The club cleverly sets play makers to both sides with Aidan aitken able to direct play out through captain-coach Daniel Cronk, while Luke Rixon provides a speedy side-to-side option for the club to attack from either fringe.

Trent Casey had a good show on the day with some good metres from bursts out of dummy half, while also providing good defensive tackling throughout.

With the Bears out of the way, the Bulldogs now look to a pivotal showdown this weekend as they head to Cooma to take on the Stallions.

The Cooma club were a dominant force at the start of the season and will be tough to beat on their home turf.