However, hopefully the Bulls can bounce back tomorrow when they take on Maitland in a battle for the Gresham-Sarroff Shield.

According to the Bullseye they will travel down to take on their bitter Hunter Valley rivals - the Maitland Blacks –  at Marcellin Park as they battle it out for the Gresham-Sarroff Shield.

“We hope to witness a sea of Red and Black down in enemy territory this Saturday,” says Bullseye.

First Grade line up is:

Meanwhile the Bulls took the herd back to Rugby Park again last Saturday to host traditional heavyweights and glamours of the NHRU the Merewether-Carlton Greens.  It wasn’t a happy hunting ground for the Bulls however, as the Greens flexed their muscle across all three grades demonstrating their aspirations to recapture their premiership winning form from the early 2010’s.

In third Grade, our Bulls put up a mighty effort but were overcome by a strong Greens outfit who were able to snap the Bulls undefeated streak and give the competition leaders a wake up call before next weeks matchup against bitter rivals Maitland.

In seconds, the Bulls were simply outclassed, missing some key components of their earlier wins this year through injury and promotion, as the Greens combined great defence with slick attack to take the points 36-0.

In the main game, the Bulls were disrupted by some late injury withdrawals, with Jacob Miller and Ben Osland succumbing to injury on game day. This left the door open for Chris Vizl, who was able to take out Player of the Day honours on what was a testing day for the Bulls, but Chicken Viz never gave up in a massive effort.

The Bulls fell behind early after a penalty scrum move led to a try that also left starting prop Andrew Wadsworth injured, and this meant his former Beaches teammate John Galvin was forced back on just minutes after finishing a full game of second grade, one of many hearty efforts by our Bulls on Saturday. The Bulls simply could not gain any traction with some cheap turnovers and handling hurting them throughout the opening exchanges.

A yellow card to Cody Fenwick after the Greens scored made things more difficult, and after Daniel Bates was sent to join him just minutes later, the Greens took immediate advantage of the overlap to score in the corner and make it 19-5.

The Bulls hit back soon after as yet another yellow card, this time to the Greens, allowed the Bulls to trim the gap to 12 with Vizl scoring in the corner after a strong run!.

The Bulls played with much more fluency through the final stages of the second half, however a strong performance characterised by some bustling runs from Lincoln Adler was disrupted when he too was given 10 in the bin! The Greens again capitalised taking the score to 29-5 at halftime.

After conceding immediately following the break, the Bulls put together a great string of defensive stops despite many penalties going against them, defending their line bravely for 15 minutes to begin the second half. The Greens finally broke through and from there it was merely a procession, with fatigue, injuries and an extremely well drilled Greens outfit coming together to run away with proceedings late on a sunny afternoon at God’s Acre. 

Coach Merrick saw an opportunity to blood some young talent including prodigious young half Jayden Duff, but this could not stop the bleeding and as the fulltime whistle blew the Greens had taken the points 71-5. 

While it was a testing day for the Bulls, many on both sides of the fence were quick to point out how surprising the final score was as it seemed to be a much closer spectacle.

Credit must be given to a great Merewether club though, as they well and truly stamped their place as premiership favourites after a tidy and dominant performance.