By JARROD POTTER
HOODOO, superstition and winning streaks were all destroyed by Noble Park on Saturday – besting its perennial vanquisher’s Vermont in a whopping 31-point win.
An insipid first quarter, bad by under-9’s standards, left the Bulls trailing by 25 points at quarter-time and forced coach Mick Fogarty to ask his charges what this match actually meant to them… and apparently it meant a lot.
“It was one-way run and that was Vermont run, not us… so I was disgusted… shocking start,” Fogarty said.
“But this group, I’ve had them for four years now, they’re resilient and the best group of guys I’ve had and I know I probably speak a lot of emotion at the moment, but these guys can do anything they want to do.”
The change from first to second quarter was drastic – the run-and-carry Bulls everyone has come to expect returned to the field and wiped away most of the deficit approaching the major break.
Fogarty gave licence to his midfielders to run free – unlocking the taggers from clamping down on Ryan Mullett and Tom Schneider and going for their own possessions instead to great effect.
“I think we move the ball as good as anyone else when we’re on – we play high risk, high reward footy and today showed we can do that,” Fogarty said.
“We had tags on Mullett, tags on Schneider and we released all our guys (in the second quarter) – (Tim) Harper, (Sam) Monaghan, (Craig) Anderson, our A grade mids – on the footy, let’s go, let’s take the game on.”
With Brett Dore spending the majority of his time at high half-forward or in the ruck, the forward duties were left to Matt Dune and Beau Cosson – with Dunne opening the ledger in the second before Cosson slotted three of his own to bring the gap back to 10 points.
Fogarty’s aforementioned premier midfielders continued to generate constant centre clearances – setting up Dunne, Cosson and Stewart Kemperman throughout a turnaround third term.
Goals to Luke Cody, Dunne, Kemperman and a Cosson brace swung the match the Bulls way before the floodgates opened after the final change.
The ball flew constantly down the Bulls end as Dunne latched onto three, taking his tally to six for the match, while Andrew McConnell and Luke Bull also joined the party to take the 18.13 (121) to 14.6 (90) victory.
Fogarty praised his forwards – highlighting the stand-up efforts of Cosson and Dunne in the absence of usual target Luke Mann.
“Dunney stood up when poor old Lukey Mann went down in the last quarter last week – so Dunney had an important role to play today.
“Been waiting all year for it… been waiting for Beau… I dropped him last week had a few words to him about what he needed to do to improve.
“He hasn’t probably had the year I thought he’d have but today he stood up and he needs to do it again next week.”
How to beat Balwyn will rely on the Bulls replicating the run-and-carry that earned them the second spot in the EFL Division 1 grand final.
“Our run and our ball movement and our fast break footy and… we could get opened up but we seem to play our best footy offensively that way,” Fogarty said.
Noble Park will likely return George Angelopoulos to the side, after serving his two-match suspension, leaving a quandary for the Bulls selectors to find someone to leave out of Saturday’s grand final, while Craig Jacotine, Chris Horton-Milne, Luke Mann and Nick Williams are all a chance to come into the grand final team.
The match starts at 2.30pm at Bayswater Oval on Saturday.
EFL SCOREBOARD
NOBLE PARK 1.4 6.6 13.10 18.13 (121)
VERMONT 5.3 8.4 11.4 14.6 (90)
Noble Park Goals: M. Dunne 6, B. Cosson 5, S. Kemperman 2, T. Harper, L. Bull, A. McConnell, B. Dore, L. Cody. Best: T. Harper, C. Anderson, M. Dunne, B. Cosson, S. Kemperman, V. Faik.
Vermont Goals: J. Van Unen 4, R. Ross 3, T. Schneider 2, A. Froud 2, A. Ellis, K. Bardon, D. Mendes. Best: R. Mullett, L. Johns, R. Ross, D. Millhouse, T. Schneider, K. Emley.
