The Dogs held the lead for most of the match before Thirroul took a two-point lead via a Jay Gallagher penalty goal with 10 minutes remaining.

With the match slipping away for the visitors, it was Dogs half Ben Jones who came up with big play, slipping down a short blindside to put Grayson Goodwin into space with Jordan Harty in support to seal the 22-14 result.

It was a touch of class that proved the difference against a youthful Butchers side that is already showing signs of a vast improvement on their 2016 campaign.

“It was a just a head’s up play there from an experienced half,” Collies coach Nathan Fien said.

“Benny Jones brings that and so does Boyley [Jarrod Boyle] and their combination went a step further today.

“I was really pleased the get the two points in a really tough game of footy. We knew what we were coming up against coming out here, they had a good win in round one and coming of the bye they were fresh.

“They never go away the Butchers, they get that momentum and the hill gets behind them and they keep coming.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing, we made it hard on ourselves at times, but that’s footy and the spirit that our side showed was really pleasing.

“When we had our backs to the wall we were able to come up and deliver.”

It was Harty who got things underway after Boyle created space with a long ball for fullback Kyle Eather, who put his winger across untouched on the left-hand flank.

The Butchers were able to hit back when skipper Joel Johnson barged over from dummy-half.

The Dogs retook the ascendancy through Boyle who stepped his way across to re-take a 10-6 lead just prior to the break.

Points were hard to come by in a second half but the hosts found themselves with the lead after Rhys Kenney crossed under the posts and Jay Gallagher followed up his conversion with a penalty goal.

The Dogs snatched the lead back through Brodie Rigg before Harty’s second try seven minutes from time sealed the win, with a Goodwin penalty goal after the fulltime siren rounding out the scoring.

Butchers coach Jarrod Costello was left lamenting his side’s inability to close out the match after taking the lead late in the piece.

“They’re a really footy side Collies, but when you’re ahead by two points with 10 to go, you’ve got to be able to find away to win,” Costello said.

“We probably got done by a bit of experience there at the end with Benny Jones. He just looked up saw the four on the three and they went away with the game.

“We did well to be in the game at halftime. We conceded eight penalties so I was happy to go in only four points down. We turned our discipline around in the second half but we just made errors in good ball that came back to bite us in the bum.”