From UnderDawgs to Top Dawgs – Now What?

The Dawgs don’t look like a superteam if you’re waiting for familiar names. They look like one if you’ve watched the last two Nines tournaments.

A young Dawgs side shook the competition in 2024, falling one game short before turning that run into a premiership in 2025.

Coach Jacek McLaurin and the Dawgs learned early that depth matters. Their fifteen-man squad was eventually run over by a full eighteen-player Southern Sharks side in the 2024 Grand Final, simply by running out of legs.

That lesson stuck.

By 2025, the Dawgs arrived with a full list and were still running in the final game of the weekend, closing out the Salty Pigs without looking like a team searching for air. The roster wasn’t built on names. It was built on repetition.

A group of young players who work hard for each other, understand the format, and enjoy the grind.

In both seasons, the Dawgs have piled on points in the pool stages and turned up fresh on Sunday morning. That’s not an accident. That’s preparation.

The part that changes this time is the environment. The Dawgs have made light work of pool stages before. Pool One won’t be that kind.

A grand final rematch with the Salty Pigs arrives early. Reborn brings size, conditioning, and more professional experience than most pools can absorb. Indigenous Mana won’t care who they’re playing and won’t wait for anyone to settle. None of it is comfortable.

The margin the Dawgs usually live inside will be smaller from the opening kick-off. That’s where depth and continuity matter again. Both Jacek and Hamish McLaurin carry injury clouds, and when so much of the Dawgs’ calm flows through that axis, even small disruptions get amplified.

The conditions around the Dawgs have changed. Saturday won’t wait long to find out what still holds.