And, to his credit, Orange City coach Steve Hamson’s not throwing his toys out of the cot.

Lamenting his side’s lapses but full of credit for a Bulldogs side that was simply sensational in a 39-34 elimination semi-final win on Sunday in Bathurst, Hamson said such a spectacle was a brilliant thing for the game as a whole in the central west.

“That can only be a good thing for the competition, can’t it,” he said touching on just how close the 2016 race is.

“You’ve only got to be off a little bit and you’ll have your pants pulled down.

“You’d expect at 27-zip half the job is done. I did say to the boys at half-time though, that if we didn’t respect the Dogs they’d get back in it.

“Unfortunately for us, they got the momentum and we just couldn’t get it back.”

The Bulldogs will meet the Dubbo Roos in the minor semi-final this Sunday after Emus host the Forbes Platypi at Endeavour Oval on Saturday.

Hamson wasn’t putting it past the Bathurst club to continue its charge through the post season, if they can recharge.

“They emptied the tank on Sunday,” Hamson said.

“Based on the effort I saw on Sunday, I’d like to think the Bulldogs can go on and win it all after they knocked us off, but it’s hard to go past the Chooks.”

The 2012 and 2013 premiership winning mentor said a few costly errors and missed one-on-one tackles booted his side out of the race.

“We compounded errors by giving away penalties and they booted nine points in penalties. That didn’t help,” he added.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen a side be up by so many get run down. I thought it we could score first in that second half then we’d have a bit more belief … turns out they got that first try and that was all the sniff they needed.”