Gunnedah will take away a lot of lessons from Saturday's Group 4 women's nine season opener.
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It was a tough start for the Bulldogs women, who travelled over to Tamworth with only 10 players and finished the game with no subs.
Facing Werris Creek, the Bulldogs found themselves down 10-nil midway through the first half but scored two late tries to fight back to within two points at the break.
"We just changed a few things. We started to get on the ball a bit, slowed the play the ball down a bit and got the ball moving a bit quicker," coach Bobby Price said.
But the extra effort required only having the one sub took it's toll in the second half and they ran out of legs, Tobi-Lee Clough's long range effort after the siren sealing a 38-8 win for the Magpies.
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It was for around half the Bulldogs their first experience of tackle league, and for their first hit-out and under the circumstances, Price "couldn't have been more proud" of their efforts.
"With 10 players, one sub, it's pretty hard for anyone. Even first grade footballers find it hard," he said.
"All the girls had a really good game today and dug in for the 30 minutes."
A couple of mistakes from the kick-off in the second half didn't help their cause, allowing the Magpies to build sustained pressure on them.
That will be one of the things they will look to work on at training before their next game against South West Robins on October 26.
"To actually play a game, and to lose a game we can actually go back and work on the little things we did wrong, like stopping the ball with our feet - we had a few knock-ons from the kick-off, and just working together in tackles," Price said.