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BY JUSTIN RAKE

Bunbury Bulldogs FC

The Bunbury Bulldogs Football Club is gearing up for a big season ahead, and after making a preliminary final in 2012, will be looking to go one up on last season’s performance.

Club President Tom Busher is looking forward to the upcoming season, and believes the Bulldogs preseason has been an excellent start to the year.

Busher believes the preseason of youngsters Cody Thomson, Jayden Glass, Ashley Eades, Brad Blake and Riley Hutchison have been nothing short of impressive.

Bunbury will begin their season with a blinding opening match against Carey Park in two weeks.

With the return of Liam McGuire from Carey Park and the addition of Troy Rake from Harvey, Bunbury will be looking to make a dominant stand against the Panthers in round 1.

The last flag for the Bulldogs came in 2001, which Busher declared a “long time between drinks”. However Bunbury will be eyeing that elusive premiership this season, and with the talent they put forth on the field it’s easy to see why.

Key recruits Jordan Adamson-Holmes, Sam Miles and Marc Re have all stayed on board this year, slotting in well with the abundance of local talent Bunbury holds.

Jesse Gribble will again lead the command, with the help of David Butler and Blake in the midfield.

Key backs Thomson and Travis Gray will also play a big part for the Bulldogs defence.

However the Bulldogs realise that the competition this year will be a hard bunch to beat.

“Whoever comes together the best and plays well as a team will be the best this season.” Busher said. “We’re obviously hoping to go one more than last year’s preliminary final, but I think the main aim is to just play finals football.”

Eades and Hutchison will be players to watch out for this year, with a solid preseason under their belts and a bit of pace to go with it.

Eades is a well-known surname at the Bunbury Football Club, and Ashley is quickly becoming a favourite among the Bulldogs supporters.

Busher states the key to success for his team this year will be “playing as a group”, which they did very well in the later stages of 2012.

The Bulldogs will be a force to be reckoned with this year in the SWFL, and are a genuine contender for the premiership.

Hi Justin,
Do you write this for a publication of just for this site?

Hi Sportslover!

I write for the Bunbury Msil and post my write ups on here, I have two coming on shortly, but I've decided not to post them until Wednesday's as that is the day the Bunbury Mail comes out.

Thanks mate. Seems like a good assessment of what's happening at Bunbury Bulldogs. They did well to get the the preliminary final last year and gave it a good crack. I don't think anyone really expected them to get as far as they did but some good recruiting through the season certainly helped! They seemed to gel more and more as the season progressed. Some good kids coming through.

No worries. And yeah I watched their entire finals campaign and especially the five goal win over Eaton in the semi was a massive testament to how far they'd come in a short amount of time since being upset by Donnybrook. A lot of credit should go to Ryan Pitts the head coach, the way he handles the young talent and mixes it in with the experienced boys is great for the team. Definitely a big flag contender this year along with Eaton.

Hi Justin

Have you got a similar assessment of the other SWFL teams coming up or do you have an affiliation with Bunbury?

Hi FootyFanatic,

I have done two other teams' assessments, Carey Park and Harvey Bulls. I will be posting them tomorrow along with the write ups for the Preseason Cup which Eaton won, and the Fevola Cup between HBL and Busselton which HBL won.

Blake Broadhurst playing for Bunbury!!!!
He and Re kicked 8 between them!
Subi must be DARK about that!!!

A shame they still got tuned up Sportslover haha. I expected much and more from Bunbury but then again it is only round 1. Carey Park looked very deadly with their run though, and Matt Martin kicked 8 on his own opposed to Re and Broadhurst sharing the goals!

Bunbury had trouble getting it out of the centre. Carey Park cleared it out time after time and had good delivery to the forwards as well as pace all over the field. Bunbury couldn't keep up with them!