By ROY WARD
NOBLE Park faces a must-win clash with East Ringwood at Pat Wright Senior Oval this Saturday.
The Bulls had their first loss of the Eastern Football League season on Saturday, going to down to an improved Norwood by five points at Mullum Reserve.
Bulls coach Mick Fogarty said his side now faced a torrid battle against East Ringwood, with the Roos having lost their opening two games despite having signed several highly touted recruits during the off-season.
“We now have a must-win game,” Fogarty said. “What it will get down to is who wants it more. We can’t go in with any preconceptions this will be easy; every game we play this season will be tough, teams are coming after us so we have to make sure we start well.”
Bulls star midfielder Ziggy Alwan looks certain to miss the clash and possibly the following matches after straining his groin while Bob Kemperman could again miss as he also recovers from a groin injury.
Another Bulls midfielder, Nick Williams, could return after being injured in round 1.
The Bulls paid a heavy price for their slow start against the Norsemen, trailing by 21 points at half-time as the Norsemen ran hard, putting men behind the ball and forcing the Bulls into uncharacteristic errors. The Norsemen 10.13 (73) defeated the Bulls 10.8 (68).
“Full credit to Norwood, they shut down our run and carry and got numbers behind the football,” Fogarty said.
“It was a game of two halves from us, we came out flat and were slow out of the blocks but in the second half we were terrific and responded well. We could have nearly pinched the game but they held on. We didn’t deserve to win after a first half like that.”
