The Canterbury Bulldogs finally broke their duck with a 42-12 victory over Wentworthville on Saturday, but the major talking point was a six-try effort on the left wing by Jarrod McInally.
He walked into the sheds at half-time with a hat-trick, and it took a massive four individual tries before any of his teammates were able to cross the white line themselves.
McInally was not certain what his professional try-scoring record was prior to last weekend, but he was sure he had never not crossed that many times before.
“I think back in Queensland Cup I might have got four, I’m not 100 per cent on that, but never six,” McInally told NSWRL.com.au.
“[They were] no different to any other try you score, there’s not really a trigger in me to make me think of any individual achievement with how many tries I’ve scored, you’re just always thinking about the team.
“All of the tries bundled into one for me, and it was just good to come away with the win.”
A modest McInally played down the individual feat, crediting the team’s incredible performance before his own, and he was happy to finish off some beautiful back-line movements that were able to catch the Magpies defence short on multiple occasions.
“The win definitely overshadowed any individual achievement for myself,” McInally said.
“It’s good to get a win with a full team performance, I know Tony Williams and Chase Stanley just came into the team, but we all train together every week, it’s good playing outside some quality players like that.”
After their draw with Newtown in Round 1, the Bulldogs have endured some frustrating defeats.
Four losses were only separated by a converted try or less, and they only have themselves to blame by surrendering large leads on most of these occasions, which is why McInally is more thrilled with the two competition points than the 24 he scored.
“I think there was only one or two games that we lost by a decent margin, a lot of our games were really close and it was getting really frustrating,” McInally said.
“But that’s footy and that’s being in this competition, you have to always put your front foot forward.
“We always knew a win was coming around the corner, and we never trained like we were none and eight, but it was pretty tough.”
The Magpies have been solid in 2016, which makes the victory a whole lot sweeter for the Bulldogs.
McInally hopes the win will lay the foundation to a more successful 2016.
“It’s probably just a winning formula and attitude on the weekend, hopefully we can take a hold of that and keep on going in the season with that winning attitude.”
