By JARROD POTTER
EASTERN FOOTBALL LEAGUE – round 10
THEY never gave up.
A bleak looking score line greeted Noble Park coach Jon Knight at the final break – a 26-point deficit to East Ringwood.
His message to the Bulls? Just have a bit of belief and keep it simple.
“I just told them to believe in themselves, the belief has been there at times this year,” Knight said. “Knocking off Balwyn this year you’d think they’d grow a leg – but last week we were ordinary against Rowville and this week I just wanted to play on… give, and if they saw someone to give (the ball to) or go through the middle.”
His words sunk in for the playing group as an incredible last quarter effort from Noble Park stole a three-point victory off East Ringwood.
Minor scores plagued Noble Park in the last term as it could not convert – spraying seven behinds to keep East Ringwood fans hopeful of escaping with a win.
The revival began defensively as Bobby Kemperman drove away a number of Kangaroos’ inside-50s. He’d find the waiting hands of Trent Cody, Sammy Monaghan and Craig Anderson who in turn set up Brett Dore, Peter McGettigan and man-of-the-match Shayne Allan up forward.
Allan’s third quarter alone kept Noble Park in it – snagging two of his five goals – but his fourth was a masterpiece.
His 25th goal of the season was a miraculous wrong-footed snap deep in the pocket of the scoreboard end to bring the Bulls back within two goals.
Allan was part of the play for just about every inside-50 in the final term – shepherding a Brett Dore snap to bounce through and hit the post just before the magic moment happened.
Glen Manson tapped it down, the kick from the pack found its way to new recruit Mat Jones, from Nhill, who wheeled around and drilled the match winner with a minute remaining – a very memorable first senior goal at the club – the final score Noble Park 71 taking it away from East Ringwood 68.
Knight praised his star ruckman Manson who returned a week ahead of schedule to battle manfully against East Ringwood’s menacing talls with Piva Wright unavailable and Brett Dore left hobbled by a knock to his left knee in the final quarter.
“He (Manson) is probably a week away from being cherry ripe, but we had to rush him in because of something happening during the week which wasn’t great,” Knight said.
“I asked him if he could give me 10 minutes a quarter and maybe a bit more and he said ‘bloody oath I can’.”
With eight rounds left in the EFL season, Noble Park has moved itself back up to eighth with a 4-5-1 record to leave it a game-and-a-half outside of the top five.
The Bulls still have a big task ahead to make it back into the finals equation which starts on Saturday against South Croydon.
Noble Park is hosting its ‘Shave a Bull Day’ at home on Saturday to support the Leukaemia Foundation and little Bull Zayne Anderson. All funds raised go to the foundation.
