Above: Daniel Norman chases down a loose ball for Noble Park on Saturday.By Marc McGowan
NOBLE Park has been given another crack at Vermont in the grand final after accounting for East Ringwood by 28 points in the Eastern Football League Division One preliminary final at Bayswater Oval on Saturday.
The Bulls burst out of the blocks and jumped out to what proved to be a match-winning 33-point lead by quarter-time, courtesy of an eight-goal opening term.
“That was the key to the game – to get off to a good start,” Noble Park playing coach Shane Burgmann said.
“The guys were pretty focused and our intensity was really good.”
An inaccurate goalkicking performance by East Ringwood in the second quarter cost them any chance of cutting back the margin, with the teams separated by 31 points going into the long break.
The game became a shoot-out in the third term but the Bulls continually had the answers for every East Ringwood attack.
The margin was cut to 26 points with East Ringwood banging through seven majors to Noble Park’s six in the third quarter but the Bulls always felt in control.
The goalkicking honours were shared in the final stanza with Noble Park running out a solid winner.
Despite his team’s loss to Vermont in the semi-final last week, Burgmann was happy for his team to have another run.
“It might have been good to freshen up but we got another game under our belt, which is always good,” he said.
He was under no illusions as to the danger East Ringwood posed for his side, though.
“They’re a side that is suited to Bayswater (Oval), just the way they run and move the footy,” he said. “It was a good win.”
Noble Park and Vermont meet in the grand final at 2.30pm this Saturday at Bayswater Oval.
Vermont has been victorious in the teams’ two most recent matches, including the second semi-final two weeks ago.
They are the Bulls’ only two defeats this season, in an otherwise dominant run to the decider. They accounted for Vermont in their opening clash this season but proceedings have changed drastically at the business-end of the season, where defending premiers Vermont have taken their game to a new level.
“We’re looking forward to it,” Noble Park playing coach Shane Burgmann said. “They only went inside 50 five more times the last time we played and that mostly happened in the last quarter, when the game was over.”
The Bulls will be primed for the contest, with basically a full-strength team to pick from excluding players with long-term injuries including the unlucky Shane Fraser who went down in the second-last round.
