The visitors raced to a 29-0 lead by the 53rd minute, five-pointers to Isaac White, Todd Freedman, Carter Hirini and Andrew Cosgrove laying the foundation for a dominant, round one win before new five-eighth Freedman sealed the victory with his first brace in Emus’ colours late in the game.

Ringland admitted his side “slackened off” somewhat in the second period, but all in all was rapt with his side’s first outing of 2016.

“The first half hour and last 20 minutes were really good,” Ringland said.

“We felt looking at their team, we were a little bit bigger and stronger and we wanted to use that to our advantage and attack their ruck. That worked out for us.

“If you walk away from here with points you are happy, it’s a tough place to come to and it always has been. To get a bonus point anywhere is good, especially a place like Bathurst.

“There are still things to work on - we are not super happy with a few things - but overall today I am happy.”

Ringland was certainly happy to post a win away from home on the back of a solid performance from his tight five, but Bulldogs co-coach Brian Roberson found plenty of positives from his players too.

Bulldogs found themselves down by plenty but showed their determination as they prevented Emus from really blowing out the margin from there.

With the likes of Tom Hollis, Phil Tonkin, Steve Locke, Tom Joseph, Lachlan Bull and Peter Fitzsimmons - all regulars and consistently strong performers in the first XV last season - not lining up on Saturday, it was a very different looking Bulldogs side as well.

“It was absolutely a tough one to start with, but overall the boys did really well, so I am really, really pleased. There were certainly some promising signs there,” Roberson said.

“I think the first 20 minutes were telling. Emus’ scrum in that first 20 minutes was very strong - three turnover scrums there and we were back-pedaling early in the game.

“But that last 10 minutes of the first half I think we had the better of them and from there, I think we were more than competitive. 

“I am very proud of what the boys did, we do have to improve our channel defence, but that is something we can work on at training. I think Emus pilfered off our mistakes more than anything.”

As Roberson indicated, Emus laid the foundations of their winning performance in the opening quarter of the match.

They starved the home side of possession, were quick to the breakdown and worked hard to isolate players when Bulldogs did get the ball.

Both fullback Isaac White and winger Adrian Sykes crossed inside the first 17 minutes and halfback Carter Hirini added another in the 21st minute as he backed up Nigel Staniforth after he burst through the Bulldogs defence up the middle of the ruck.

That third try came shortly after Bulldogs lost a line-out ball off their own feed and it took the score to 19-0, Staniforth having converted two of them.

After that Bulldogs finally spent time inside their attacking 22 and strung some good phases together. 

But a combination of some staunch Emus defence - Nas Haleaveta at one stage making a crunching tackle on fly-half Adam Miles - knock-ons and mistimed passes left the home side unable to open its account.

Staniforth made those missed opportunities hurt even more as he kicked a penalty after the siren to make it 22-0 at the break.

Emus were the first to score once play resumed as flanker Andrew Cosgrove bullied his way over, but Bulldogs finally got on the board from the resulting kick-off thanks to Tyler Cook.

Each side scored one more try - Todd Freedman crossing for Emus while Sam Roberson scored with 14 seconds left for Bulldogs after he ran onto a nice Adam Dwyer pass.

It took the scoreline to 36-14 and showed Emus will once again be hard to beat in 2016.

ORANGE EMUS 36 (Todd Freedman, Isaac White, Adrian Sykes, Carter Hirini, Andrew Cosgrove tries; Nigel Staniforth 4 conversions; Nigel Staniforth penalty) def BATHURST BULLDOGS 14 (Tyler Cook, Sam Roberson tries; Kurt Weekes 2 conversions)