Forbes brought Bathurst Bulldogs’ magical Blowes Clothing Cup post-season run to an end in Saturday’s preliminary final, setting up a mouth-watering grand final match-up with Orange Emus in the process.
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It’ll be the fourth time the two sides have met so far in 2016 with Emus enjoying most recent bragging rights after a 10-5 major semi-final win just over a week ago, the decider will reignite the two clubs’ long and fierce rivalry too.
Emus coach Paul Ringland gave Bulldogs credit following their gutsy effort in the post-season, but said Forbes’ victory certainly wasn’t an unexpected one.
Not that it matters for him, he said Emus won’t be focusing much on their opponents in the lead up anyway.
With Bulldogs’ late-season form it definitely could’ve gone either way, so I wouldn’t have been surprised it either side had won.
- Emus coach Paul Ringland
“I think there was a bit of expectation Forbes would win, but with Bulldogs’ late-season form it definitely could’ve gone either way, so I wouldn’t have been surprised it either side had won,” Ringland said.
“We’ve fallen into the trap at times this year about worrying a bit too much about what else is happening, so we’ll just be focusing on ourselves this week, working hard and controlling what we can control. That’s about all we can do this week.
“We’re confident in the side we have and that our preparation has been excellent so far, so now it comes down to getting the job done on the weekend.”
Emus will host Forbes at Endeavour Oval, kick off will be at 3.15pm.