By Tyler Lewis
The Eastern footy league has a new pace-setter.
With Rowville wearing defeat at the hands of Doncaster East and Noble Park simultaneously out-muscling Norwood, the Bulls have leaped the Hawks on percentage to steal pole position.
The Bulls booted six unanswered goals in the opening term with the wind to set up its 11.9 (75) to 5.7 (37) victory over the Norsemen.
And while he’s promised no protests over his side jumping close-rivals Rowville, Noble Park coach Steve Hughes confirmed his side hasn’t been striving to claim number-one seed in the back third of the season.
“I don’t think we have really talked about being on top,” he said.
“It’s been a bit of a hard slog the last couple of weeks, I think for all clubs, we’ve had to ride a few bumps like most clubs, had a few missing here or there.
“We’ve been able to maintain consistency in spite of having a minimum of three or four changes each week. I know we’re not alone in that space, that’s happening at most clubs, but it’s probably been a testament of our depth.
“The boys will no doubt be pleased with where we’re at, sitting on top… no complaints from us.”
The weather meant for some difficult viewing on Saturday, leaving Hughes with the now swift task of gathering the highlights he was pleased to show his group.
“It was blowing a gale, just horrible, horrible conditions… no one enjoyed Saturday,” he said.
“Talking to a few coaches around a few competitions, it was just one of those days you cross your fingers you can get a win and park it and move on.
“I have done our review, we code up vision, it takes anywhere between 12-15 minutes, but I could only find five minutes of footage that’s worthwhile showing the boys.
“The most pleasing element for me was probably the last quarter, it was conservatively a four-goal breeze, we were able to keep Norwood goal-less at the back end of the game.
“Our tackling technique improved, our pressure around the ball, I thought we played smart and intelligent into-the-wind football.
“It was pleasing because who knows… you can have a windy day in September!”
The Bulls listed Chris Horton-Milne, Kyle Martin, Harley Fairbank, Ryan Morrison, Jackson Sketcher and Tom Glen as its most prolific performers.
And while it’s somewhat of a brutal reality for opposing sides, if the Bulls have Martin, Horton-Milne, Sketcher and Morrison in their best, they will rarely taste defeat.
They all clearly impressed Hughes, but he admitted the repeat stoppage game style likely suited the selected six.
“They’ve all been excellent after missing a bit of footy,” he said.
“Kyle is back after missing two or three, he was back and doing what he normally does.
“It was a high-stoppage game, so obviously Hodgey (Chris Horton-Milne), Marto, Sketch and Jack Beech I think – he gave us first use very well.
“Most of their (Norwood) goals were from stoppage, not their actual forwards, so he (Ryan Morrison) is going really well.
“Again, it’s probably a bit cliché, but Saturday genuinely was a team effort, we keep a defensive scorecard each week… all players contributed to that on Saturday, so I was really pleased overall – it was a good win.”
Rowville – the outfit the Bulls charged past – loses its grasp on top spot, but its loss to Doncaster East is hardly ringing alarms for Hawks coach Ben Wise.
Kicking against the breeze in the opening stanza, the Hawks let the Lions slip in red time, conceding a number of late goals to balloon the buffer out to 29 points at the first change.
Needing a spark of energy, it came through Matt Davey, who with three kicks guided his side back into the match in quick-time.
Davey kicked his first two majors in the space of 30 seconds, before his third followed only a few minutes later, as the Hawks erupted back into the match before the main change.
The home side fought hard in the third term, leaving a 24-point buffer between them and the Lions at the final change.
And with the four-goal wind at the Hawks’ back in the final term, it was destined to be a nail-biter.
It proved exactly that, as Rowville trimmed Donny East’s margin to a straight kick on a number of occasions, before the Lions one and only goal in the final term came at a crucial moment deep into time on.
Time soon became the Hawks biggest enemy, as the horn blew with the margin still at a six-point deficit.
While extremely disappointed with the result, coach Wise is looking at the bigger picture ahead of his remaining five hit outs before September.
“Probably not to be honest,” he said of whether he will use losing top spot as motivation.
“Obviously it was disappointing to lose on the weekend, but in terms of ladder positioning and losing it to Noble Park on percentage… we know we’re still in a great spot to compete for the top two and that’s our goal now.
“Our own destiny is in our own hands, so we just have to continue to soldier on and do what we got to do to win games of footy.”
Hindsight is a wonderful thing in sport, and upon reflection, it realistically wasn’t the last-gasp moments at half-forward that cost Rowville the game – but conceding important majors late in the first.
“We gave them a good lead by quarter-time,” Wise said.
“We didn’t defend as well as we should’ve through the middle of the ground, I thought their mids got on top and they had repeat entries.
“I actually thought our defenders did a really good job considering… I think they kicked 5.6 to one goal, they were having a lot of long shots, pumping it in and we rushed a few.
“I just think our contested ball in the middle of the ground wasn’t up to our standard, they have a really good midfield with (Zac) Clarke, (Josh) Deluca and (Chirs) Phelan, and I just thought those guys had too big of an impact early in the game.”
Davey’s three-minute eruption was scintillating and while Wise praised his star forward, he wasn’t fond of his output early.
“I sort of got into him at quarter-time,” he said.
“I thought he seemed not quite right and not in the right head space… he came to the bench and he looked, not rattled, but a guy was tagging him and I gave him a bit of a rev up.
“He’s a quality leader of the footy club and a quality player; he came out and responded, he has been doing that all year and for 10 years I suppose.
“That’s what leaders do; they come out and respond when we put in a poor performance.”
In other results across Premier Division: Berwick went down to Balwyn 5.7 (37) to 13.13 (91), South Croydon belted Park Orchards, 22.9 (141) to 9.8 (62), North Ringwood went down to Blackburn 9.6 (60) to 14.14 (98) and Doncaster defeated Vermont 8.8 (56) to 6.13 (49).
LADDER: Noble Park 44, Rowville 44, Doncaster East 36, Balwyn 36, South Croydon 32, Blackburn 30, Park Orchards 20, Norwood 20, Vermont 20, Doncaster 20, Berwick 10, North Ringwood 0.
FIXTURE: Berwick v Noble Park, Park Orchards v Rowville, Balwyn v Norwood, South Croydon v Blackburn, North Ringwood v Vermont, Doncaster East v Doncaster.
