Jake Dooley hands Southcity second win of the season over Gundagai

The Bulls have won seven of the last 10 clashes between the two sides, including the last two grand finals, after a 28-14 victory at Harris Park on Sunday.

Jake Dooley led the way with a hat-trick of tries.

It was a mixed bag for the Southcity fullback, who was also sin-binned in the first half, but he always seemed to put himself in the right spot to do damage for the Bulls.

Captain-coach Kyle McCarthy was thrilled with how his team came through a tough game.

Gundagai rallied after a quickfire double from Dooley to trail 12-8 at the break.

But how well his team responded impressed the first year coach.

“I wanted us to weather that storm and we did really, we stuck a tough 20 minutes of tit-for-tat with them and then scored two good tries,” McCarthy said.

“We were a bit unlucky to get Dools in the bin and they got those two tries heading into half-time, but we really started where we left off in the second half and really ground it out.”

The loss sees Gundagai slip back outside the top four.

However they’ve got bigger problems than that.

Brett Eccleston suffered a suspected fractured eye socket after coming off second best from a head clash in the loss while Dane O’Hehir has played his last game for the season.

A bit of O’Hehir brilliance got the Tigers back in the contest.

After they let a couple of early opportunities slip, they got on the board through the fullback after some brilliant lead up play.

He looked like he could be trapped in his own in-goal but found a way through before being brought down by Dooley 40 metres out.

Dooley was then sin-binned for holding down and O’Hehir made the Bulls pay when he scored a minute later.

Dylan Cole then scored just before half-time.

However it was all Bulls to start the second half and three tries in six minutes saw them jump out to a 28-8 lead.

James Curgenven hit back for the Tigers with 16 to play but they couldn’t reel in the premiers.

Captain-coach James Smart thought his team failed to respond to a couple of momentum shifts it proved costly.

“We were able to hang in there for a set or two, but it is not good enough,” Smart said.

“Midway through the first half we were winning the momentum battle and we kicked into the corner, they were struggling to get out of their own end and we made a couple of decisions that aren’t the correct way to go about things, gave away a couple of penalties and all of a sudden they are attacking our line.

“They are the things and when you are playing a side like Southcity you can’t make those mistakes.”

Smart has been sidelined with a broken hand but expects to return next week in O’Hehir’s place.