It has been a long and arduous road, but Footscray is finally in the winners’ circle after 12 rounds of the Rugby Victoria Dewar Shield.
The Bulldogs certainly did it the hard way, coming from nine points down at half-time to beat Endeavour Hills 43-28 at Henry Turner South Reserve.
It leaves Endeavour Hills rock bottom and the only winless team in the competition.
The Bulldogs and Endeavour Hills played out a draw in their first meeting earlier in the season.
Bulldogs fly half Martin Naufahu admitted that it was “good just to get a win”.
“It took a long time,” he said. “We didn’t want to go throughout the whole year without getting a win, so it was good to get one.
“For both of our teams, it was a game to see who could fight to stay on top of each other and avoid that wooden spoon.
“We didn’t want to end up on the bottom, so it was win-win for us.”
Footscray played a little too conservatively in the first half and struggled to penetrate.
Staring a 21-12 deficit in the face at half-time, the message from coach Tia Suemai was to be more bold and expansive with their attack.
The Bulldogs stuck to the call and produced a magnificent second half, piling on 31 points.
“We started to spread the ball out wide and looked better,” Naufahu said. “We actually used the ball instead of trying to go through them because they’re bigger players.
“It made them work a lot more by getting the ball out wide to our fast wingers.”
Leading the way for Footscray was young gun Ajay Ameto who bravely attacked the line and was handsomely rewarded with two tries.
“He showed the rest of us how to play rugby with a lot of confidence,” Naufahu said.
“For me, he was our MVP on the day.
“He’s got a big future.”
Flanker Faimata Nimarota made some good carries to have Footscray on the front foot.
Lock Sau Ofahengaue was often involved in plays leading up to Bulldogs’ tries.
If you think Footscray is satisfied with a single win, think again.
The Bulldogs will be approaching their final two matches of the season against finals hopeful Power House away on Saturday and top-of-the-ladder Melbourne in the final round as games they can win.
“We can’t make the top four or anything like that, but we still want to finish off on a good note,” Naufahu said.
“It’s a good test against two really good teams and if we can play well and finish off the year with two more wins then it will be good for us to build towards next year.”
Naufahu was confident the disastrous 2018 season was an aberration. He said there was a bright future for the Bulldogs’ top side and is impressed with the talent coming through.
“We’re building a new core group that will stay around and hold the team together,” Naufahu said.
“We’ve also got some good junior teams coming through, so our club is pretty set, our future is looking good.”
