Gunnedah will get another reminder of what their veteran centre Aaron Donnelly calls the "closest comp in a lot of years" when they meet Moree at Kitchener Park on Sunday afternoon.
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The clash comes a week after Gunnedah lost 30-24 away to Narrabri, in a match Donnelly labelled the Bulldogs' "toughest of the year".
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Moree - back in Goup 4 after a long absence - scared North Tamworth at Jack Woolaston Oval last round, before the Bears kicked away late in the match and won 34-16.
Donnelly said: "This is the closest I've seen the comp in a lot, a lot of years. So it's really good."
After five rounds, only four points separate first-placed North Tamworth and sixth-placed Boggabri. Three sides - Norths, Kootingal-Moonbi and Narrabri - are on eight points, while fourth-placed Gunnedah are on six points.
Donnelly said Gunnedah took positives out of the narrow loss to Narrabri.
"It probably would have done us the world of good winning it," he said. "But those tough games, losses like that, you can build from it.
"Especially the younger kids in the team. That was probably the hardest game they've had with us so far. So it will do them the world of good as well."
Donnelly said Gunnedah were improving - the result of "working really hard at training".
"It's a slow process, but we are getting better," he said, adding: "We need to start putting some things together.
"If we don't start winning more games, it's gonna be pretty hard at the end of the year to try and go for that one or two."
Gunnedah: 1 Dylan Lake, 2 Kih McDonald, 3 Dylan O'Brien, 4 Aaron Donnelly, 5 Paul Sharpley, 6 Reece Jaeger (c), 7 Nick White, 8 Lincon Smith, 9 Liam Ireland, 10 KC Edmonds, 11 Zak Turnbull, 12 Nick Altman, 13 Hayden Jaeger, 14 Aiden Davis, 15 Ben Gardner, 16 Rory Harding, 17 Dylan Smith. Coach: Mick Schmiedel.
Moree: 1 Tom Ryan, 2 Alex Lawrence, 3 Ben Williams (c/c), 4 Brett Wright, 5 Silas Haines, 6 Brenton Cochrane, 7 Michael Watton, 8 Hayden Wiblen, 9 Stan Swan, 10 Marshall Barker, 11 Chad Banks, 12 Mark Pegus, 13 Brad McDonald, 14 Holt Cubis, 15 Anthony Williams, 16 Josh Cochrane, 17 TBA.
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Mark Bode
I’m passionate about writing stories that resonate with people. And I’m genuinely interested in the people I interview; I want to know about them and present their stories in a meaningful way.
I’m passionate about writing stories that resonate with people. And I’m genuinely interested in the people I interview; I want to know about them and present their stories in a meaningful way.
