By Marcus Uhe
An inspired and gritty third quarter from Noble Park reinforced the importance of the penultimate period of football on Sunday in the Bulls’ upset win over the finals-bound Blackburn in the Eastern Football Netball League’s premier division.
What’s come to be known as the ‘premiership quarter’ rang true, as the Bulls kicked four goals to the home side’s one to silence the Panthers’ crowd, and turn momentum on its head, on the way to a 10.8 68 to 6.13 49 win at Morton Park.
Trailing by a goal at the long break, a pair of majors to either side effectively cancelled the opening 10 minutes of the term, before the Bulls took control.
Dogged desperation and follow-up from the centre clearance following Blackburn’s goal from Jackson Sketcher resulted in Tom Nelson finding the football in time and space, and spot livewire forward Harley Fairbank alone inside forward 50, who goaled from the resulting shot.
Small forward Kevin Kean then showed his crumbing nous just minutes later to put the Bulls ahead, and while no goals came in the following 10 minutes, it wasn’t through a lack of Bulls effort, who were dominating field position by this point in the quarter.
Repeated inside 50s eventually wore the Panthers down, as a heartwarming brotherly connection proved pivotal late in the quarter.
A scrambled rebound 50 from the Panthers went out of bounds on the full, and Jordan Marson stepped forward to take the resulting kick.
As he surveyed the options inside his forward half, brother Ben emerged as the most convincing, marking above his head after Jordan threaded the needle into a crowded forward 50.
Ben seized the moment, kicking truly shortly before the final interval to put his side 15 points ahead, and make it three in a row for Noble Park heading to an exciting final term.
The first goal was the hottest property in the Eastern suburbs and it would be Kean that made the first incision, capitalising on some manic forward pressure in the Bulls’ front half with a classy finish on the run, a sidestep around a would-be tackler thrown in for extra style.
Chances went begging at both ends of the ground, with the Panthers missing a number of opportunities to claw their way back into the contest from straightforward areas.
It would be Matt Nelson that put the icing on the cake, dribbling a crumbing goal from deep in the forward pocket in the 20th minute to make it five unanswered majors for the blue and gold, enough to hold the Panthers at bay.
Blackburn managed the final goal of the afternoon but it proved to be in vain, as the Bulls notched their sixth win of the campaign.
Kean’s three majors made it six goals in the last four weeks and Fairbank was close behind with a pair, as Bodey Lambert, Jack Beech, Nathan Noblett and Jackson Sketcher put their best feet forward for the visitors.
The Bulls head to Balwyn next week to tackle the second-placed Tigers with the chance to further spoil a team’s momentum ahead of a finals campaign.
