Bathurst Bulldogs relish chance to claim back-to-back Blowes Cup titles on home soil

The 24-10 victory for the Bulldogs on Saturday over the Orange Emus in the major semi-final gives the club a rare opportunity to claim back-to-back premierships on home soil.

Bulldogs coach Dean Oxley said it was difficult to put into words what having two straight years of grand finals at Ashwood Park means to the club.

"We've had two grand finals at home over the last 20 years. Other clubs have been successful in getting back-to-backs and hosting a lot more in that time," he said.

"This club's incredibly strong. We've had 50 wins out of 54 games contested in round games, so it's been an outstanding year. To be able to get Bathurst around us again is great, and something really special is happening here.

"I want this group to really enjoy the day and put their best foot forward."

It was a former clubman, and one of Australia's latest Rugby World Cup call ups, who acted as a motivator for the Bulldogs in Saturday's win.

"We channelled Tom Hooper, who was an inspiration for us today," Oxley said.

"He's going to a big stage, and we've got a big stage of our own in a couple of weeks' time.

"He's the same age and is good mates with a lot of the boys in this first grade side, and we used him as inspiration to move forward and to get the job done."

It could have been easy for the Bulldogs to lose their way in the second half after they entered the break behind on the scoreboard, despite having a big possession advantage.

Oxley admired that the team could get on top of their mistakes in a high pressure situation.

"I said to the boys 'This is not a round game, don't think going out there doing the same stuff is going to get it done', and it wouldn't. They were down 10-7 at half-time when they had the wind advantage and all the opportunities to score," he said.

"Digby dived underneath Nashy and saves a try which was impossible, I thought, but apparently not. Once again, after that, we've been turned around without points again.

"If we didn't have belief in what we were doing then that really would have hurt us.

"We have a chance now to go back-to-back, which is something that was a goal for us at the start of the year, but no-one hands these over. We had to earn it today."

Emus' excellent defensive effort, especially in the first half, was a reminder to the Bulldogs that if they are to meet the greens again in the grand final they'll need to keep up the tempo.

Oxley said the Orange men disrupted his side's rhythm constantly throughout the game.

"The defence of Emus was outstanding. We have two outstanding centres but they defended so well against the boys. We couldn't play our normal football and their lineout was outstanding," he said.

"I thought our scrum was outstanding and helped us neutralise the strength that Emus have in their lineout.

"We got into a passage of play in the second half, right from the kick-off actually, where we were able to just hold onto the football and play our footy, which is something Emus didn't allow us to do much of today.

"They attacked the football and attacked the breakdown really well."

The Bulldogs will be chasing their first back-to-back premierships in first grade since they won three straight in 1996, '97 and '98.

Bulldogs' second grade side will join their clubmates on grand final day after they also took down Emus on Saturday.

The first grade side will take on the winner of this Saturday's game between the Emus and Cowra Eagles.

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