By JARROD POTTER
WORK-RATE and determination helped Noble Park see off a threatening Norwood to advance in the EFL Division 1 finals series.
Taking the match away from the Norsemen with five last quarter goals, Noble Park secured a passage to the preliminary final with a 14.12 (96) to 7.16 (58) win.
Norwood fought back from a 29-point deficit at half-time – hassling the Bulls out of the contest early in the third through three early goals.
Noble Park coach Mick Fogarty kept the faith , putting defensive anchor Stewart Kemperman forward and getting crucial run off the wings and centre through Sammy Monaghan.
Less than two goals split the sides heading into the final term but breaking Shayne Allen broke the game open in the forward line, as he’s done for years.
Allen earned his first of the quarter via a free kick and outran his defender to get a chip kick over the top to put number two in the ledger.
The eponymous Bull himself – Luke Bull – had fantastic run out of defence and gave Noble Park a number of opportunities forward.
The icing on the cake fittingly came from captain Craig Anderson – slotting his set shot on the boundary to book the Bulls into another preliminary final.
Fogarty was impressed.
“We realised and know they moved the ball quite well today, Norwood,” Fogarty said. “To our guys’ credit we had to get it back on our terms in the fourth quarter.
“The team that was prepared to work harder for longer got the result.”
The Bulls return to Bayswater Oval, not a particularly happy hunting ground for Noble Park, on Saturday at 2.10pm.
“Five times they’ve got us so maybe it’s sixth time lucky and, as I said to the boys, we need to play a lot better than we did today,” Fogarty said.
“We just gave away goals – we have the footy, win the footy and to give it back to them through silly mistakes, we can’t do that next week or we’ll get rolled.”
Livewire forward/midfielder George Angelopoulos served match one of a two-game league suspension and will miss the Bulls preliminary final showdown against Vermont.
