It was a rain-filled day in Townsville but by the time kick off came around, it was steamy and humid meaning both teams traded lots of errors.
With Matt Burton, Josh Addo-Carr, Matt Dufty, Brent Naden, Braidon Burns, Max King and Paul Vaughan all on debut, the Bulldogs overcame the loss of four players to head knocks to secure the morale-boosting win.
The home side opened the scoring in the 16th minute as the Bulldogs went down to 12 men when repeated offside infringements saw Jack Hetherington sin binned.
Jake Averillo looked to have drawn the Bulldogs level with three minutes to go in the half but replays showed the ball had not made it to the turf.
After 52 minutes the Bulldogs’ attack finally clicked when Burns provided a superb tap-on for Jayden Okunbor to cross in the right hand corner.
“It was an extremely courageous effort by not 17 but the 18 players there at the end,” Bulldogs coach Trent Barrett said. “I’m extremely proud of them. To come together and show the grit and resolve they did is a really good sign.”
The Bulldogs have the Sunday night timeslot again in round two, hosting the Broncos at Accor Stadium.
Romp home in season opener
KICK-STARTING a new era with a gritty 6-4 win, the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs won their opening clash against the Cowboys on Sunday in a wet and wild game with plenty of late drama.