A new-look Collegians have put the competition on notice, with the Dogs generation next running in four tries to one in a 24-6 blowout of Thirroul on Saturday. While new coach Peter Hooper has retained the bulk of a premiership-winning forward pack, Sam McCann on the left flank was the only member of the Dogs back five to have featured in his side's grand final triumph last season. With long-time No. 1 Alec Reid and star centre Jason Gillard heading a list of high-profile departures, a new breed headed by fullback Callum Gromek did all the damage for Hooper. Gromek laid on two of his side's first three tries and scored the match-winner himself courtesy of a short ball from another shrewd acquisition in Zach Herring for an 18-point buffer with 11 minutes to play. Hayden Budd and Blake Dowel had Gromek to thank for their tries either side of halftime, with Jack Cross also sneaking across from close range in a match the hosts were in command of from the jump. "Cal Gromek's all class," Hooper said. "We've had Reidy and been really spoilt [at fullback] over the [recent] time, but Cal just brings punch everywhere. He's really unassuming with his speed and his strength and we've given him a licence to travel. "He doesn't have to do the showboat stuff, that's just the type of effort player that he is With his speed and his strength he can identify who's tired and who's not and things like that. "He's just a real smart footy player and we've acquired a couple of classy centres there as well. Briggsy (Callan Briggs) hasn't played for a while and Hayden Budd will only get better. "His back-of-field stuff was quality and centre's hard spot to defend and he got it right today. They've played a lot of footy at a high level, we've acquired Zach Herring as a local junior and he's a class player as well. "We've just got to keep everyone happy and enjoying their footy and the results will come." WATCH FULL REPLAY: Collegians notch emphatic win over Thirroul For all the class shown with the footy, Hooper said his side's effort without it was the most pleasing aspect, the Butchers putting just a lone long-range effort on the scoreboard. "Defence wins comps and we probably let ourselves down for two tackles in the whole game, the six points they scored," Hooper said. "It's not just an expectation that we're going to be at the top, we've got to earn the right to still be the best team in the competition and we were willing to work hard and do the hard stuff. "If you can keep Thirroul to six points with [Jarrod] Boyle and [Brad] Deitz, Tarj [Whitford] and [Wayne] Bremner there, you've got to be really pleased with your efforts and I thought we defended stoutly today and put a lot of pressure on them with the ball. "We earned our turnovers today and we got the result we wanted." The Butchers were uncharacteristically clunky with the ball and ill-disciplined without it, unable to turn numerous opportunities at the Dogs end into points. Read more: Griffin's baffling call on Sullivan as Dragons suffer heavy defeat in Hunt's 300th game Their only try of the afternoon came from their own half, with fullback Bremner splitting the Collies line from deep in his own end. He was dragged down, but Cooper Bowen got on the back of the quick play-the-ball to breeze through some flimsy defence and race 60 metres for his side's first four-pointer. It proved their only points of the match, the visitors held scoreless in the second stanza to drop to their second loss through the first three rounds of the competition. "We never really gave ourselves a chance," Costello said. "The first 20 minutes we conceded five penalties to zero and just kept walking them down the park. That first 20 minutes set the tone and unfortunately we weren't able to bring it back. "There were patches there where I thought we got some momentum back, but we were never in it for long enough to build enough pressure. In the first half we didn't get past play two in good ball and that told the story. "Full credit to Collies, they were really good. They dominated the field position in the second half, we couldn't get out of our own half. "We need to improve and we're real about it, we're not trying to disguise anything. We just need to dust ourselves off now and keep working hard to get better." Costello's side will need to bounce back quickly, with Wests waiting in a Magic-Round headline battle at WIN Stadium this weekend. With the top-two race expected to go down to the wire, the Butchers can't afford to surrender too much early ground to top-four rivals. "We spoke about that," Costello said. "We've got a really important month coming up now, not just the results of a weekend, but the way we train and prepare. We just need to be much better Tuesday-Thursday and make sure we perform better on the weekend. "We've played De La and that was a really physical and tight game but, today, we never gave ourselves a chance to win it. [Wests] will be as good as, if not better, than what Collies were today, so if we dish up what we dished up today, we'll be on the same end of the scoreboard. "We need to improve and we need to improve pretty quick. We're looking forward to it. We always have good games against Wests so it's all ahead of us next week." Elsewhere on Saturday, De La Salle set up a mouth-watering Magic-Round showdown with a 50-12 win over the Canaries at Dapto Showground, while Wests outclassed Corrimal 46-0 at Ziems Park. Our news app has had a makeover, making it faster and giving you access to even more great content. Download The Illawarra Mercury news app in the Apple Store and Google Play