THE North Coast Bulldogs under 18s have suffered a heartbreaking loss in the opening game of their Laurie Daley Cup representative season at Geoff King Motors Oval.

Up 26-0 with 26 minutes to go, the Bulldogs were the victims of a magnificent comeback from the Great Northern Tigers who came back from the dead to win 30-26.

The Bulldogs showed the form which saw them finish as runners up in last year’s competition, their attack a well-oiled machine as they took a 14-0 lead into half-time.

They continued their dominance with two early tries in the second half to take a seemingly match winning lead.

But the visiting Tigers team had other ideas, scoring five tries in the final 23 minutes in a blistering display of all-out attack, snatching an improbable win as they took the lead with just two minutes to go.

Bulldogs coach Matt Freebairn said the tough loss was a learning experience for his side.

“We probably needed to be more patient, and we became complacent in defence,” he said.

“We needed to read the situation better and not switch off, and we will learn from our mistakes and then move on to next week.

“You learn more from your losses, and we’ll assess our mistakes during training and move on to our next game against Macarthur.

“Credit to the Tigers, we knew it would be a tough game and it came down to the wire and now they have bragging rights for the next twelve months.”

Coach Freebairn outlined the makeup of this year’s squad.

“We have six players coming back from the under 18s squad which finished runners up last year, and six from the under 16s team from last year who have been promoted,” he said.

The Laurie Daley Cup is NSW’s regional representative competition for under 18s.

The Bulldogs now play the Macarthur Wests Tigers this weekend in Wauchope.

By Aiden BURGESS