The Canterbury Bulldogs take on the 11th placed Manly Sea-Eagles this Friday night in the National Youth Competition.
Both sides are in the second half of the competition ladder, but Manly are fairing a little better with 5 wins and 1 draw from their 14 games this season.
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs pups, the majority of their squad from 2013 that were highly successful moved onto NSW Cup and First grade. Lloyd Perrett, John Sila, Moses Mbye, Pat Templeman and David Minute have all progressed onto reserve grade or the top grade respectively.
This has left Dogs coach Scott Murray with a difficult task of re-building his squad and instilling some first grade mentality into their defence that has leaked 484 points this season at an average of 35 points per game.
The two teams met earlier this season in Round 13 at Brookvale Oval. In grueling conditions, the home side prevailed, 28-12.