Golden Square looks to end 10-year drought in Bendigo league

But the Bulldogs aren’t worried about it ending, insisting their time has come to climb back to the top of the mountain when they take on Sandhurst at Queen Elizabeth Oval.

The Bulldogs have won their past 16 matches including two wins against Sandhurst, in round 12 and earlier in the finals.

It’s a far cry from recent years where Golden Square either missed the finals or fell short at the final hurdle in the preliminary final.

It will be the Bulldogs’ first grand final since 2016.

“There’s been a culmination of things (to get us here),” Bulldogs coach Christian Carter said.

“We had a really young group who experience finals for the first time last year.

“I think they’ve matured with another year of development.

“We’ve performed pretty well, we’re pretty happy with where we are at.”

Golden Square had the best attack this year, scoring more than 2000 points during the season.

But Carter said the success had come from across the park.

“It’s our versatility in the group,” he said.

“We’ve got guys down back who can flip forward. And we’ve got a good forward line mix.”

Carter added they hoped to use QEO to their advantage and run the Dragons off their feet.

“We’ve got really good runners on the outside and our wingers have been pretty dominant,” he said.

“On the wide expanses of the QEO that is pretty important.”

But the team is wary of a Dragons outfit looking for their first premiership since 2016.

“The key is going to be the contest and the clearance,” Carter said.

“They’ve got a dominant ruckman and some good onballers, so it’s going to be about combating the ruckman with our starting points and compete at the contest.

“We match up really well against Sandhurst and we’ve got a few weapons up our sleeve.

“If we can bring our A-game we can get the job done.”

Carter said the time had come for the club to be premiers again.

“We feel as a club 10 years is too long and we’ve come close,” he said.

“The past three years we’ve been preparing and getting a squad ready to compete in finals and the big one.

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“There’s no excuses this week.”

The side is expected to go unchanged from the same team who beat Sandhurst two weeks ago.

The two teams battle at 2.20pm.

Originally published as Golden Square looks to end 10-year drought in Bendigo league