It is often forgotten how little experience Moses Mbye actually has in the NRL, let alone partnering Josh Reynolds in the halves, but the young Bulldogs playmaker isn't shying away from the work that needs to be done on his quest to improve.
The Bulldogs' 28-6 hammering of the Sea Eagles on Friday night was only the eighth time Mbye and Reynolds have partnered each other in the halves from the opening minute.
While they kicked off the Bulldogs' 2016 campaign with a bang – combining for four try assists – Mbye believes a new streak of maturity from Reynolds will prove advantageous for him in the long run.
"[Reynolds] seemed very calm and collected. He took control of that game and if he can continue to build on that throughout the next 25 rounds then he'll have a very good season," Mbye said.
"He's a very good player: he's won Origin series and been in grand finals and he's definitely not inexperienced. In a way to help my game he's a great asset to me.
"He knows what he's doing and he's a dominant player which is going to help me enormously."
Following Trent Hodkinson's premature end to his Bulldogs career– after breaking his wrist in the Round 25 last year – Mbye and Reynolds were offered a slight insight into what lay ahead.
"We took a lot out of that, we didn't finish last year the way we wanted to finish and [Josh and I] are probably responsible for that. We became pretty optimistic going forward about building a good platform," Mbye said.
"We spent five months together in the off-season and put in a lot of hours together. The expectations are high, as they should be. I think we have a lot to work on going forward but we're both pretty pleased with that.
"We'll get better as time goes on. The more games we play together the better we'll get."
In saying all this Mbye realised he wouldn't have been half as effective against the Sea Eagles if not for the massive platform the likes of Aiden Tolman and skipper James Graham provided for him.
"As a halfback there's nothing better than getting behind a good forward pack especially with what we have here at the Bulldogs," he said.
"The boys have worked extremely hard over the summer to get to where they need to be weight-wise and mentally."
