Central District finish off Norwood by seven goals
IT wasn’t so long ago you were the odd man out at Central District if you didn’t have at least one premiership medal in your trophy cabinet.
IT wasn’t so long ago you were the odd man out at Central District if you didn’t have at least one premiership medal in your trophy cabinet.
Yesterday the Bulldogs’ fielded only three players who have tasted the ultimate success — Paul Thomas, Ryan Williams and Trent Goodrem — and 21-year-old Jarrod Schiller was the fourth most experienced player.
But make no mistake, Roy Laird has the makings of competitive side this season and showed it in a seven goal win against reigning premier Norwood.
Any lack of experience counted for little as the Dogs won the contest inside and out to snap the Redlegs’ 13 game winning streak.
“(That inexperience) is why you need your leaders to stand up and I thought they were excellent,” Laird said.
The Bulldogs had failed to kick more than seven goals in their past five games against the Redlegs — which all ended in defeat.
And they appeared headed for another low-scoring day as Norwood played Norwood football to kick four of the first five goals of the game.
The Dogs couldn’t find a way past Kieran McGuinness, Jace Bode and Andrew Kirwan and Michael Newton looked in ominous form.
“We were facing a bit of an avalanche in the first quarter but we showed a bit of composure,” Laird said.
“As the game wore on our pressure increased and the workrate of our on-ballers was really good.”
Travis Schiller and Jackson Potter started winning clearances and the Dogs were able to transition the ball from defence to attack with relative ease in a five goal second quarter.
Spearhead Bryce Retzlaff and a host of nimble small forwards took advantage of the midfield dominance, kicking the highest score against the Redlegs since round five last season.
Josh Glenn, Luke Habel and Ben Nason were a constant headache, all registering two goal, 20+ disposal games.
“They know their role for us,” Laird said. “They’ve got to be really defensively-minded and put good pressure on and if they do that well they get the rewards that came up late in the game.”
Norwood’s cause wasn’t helped by heavy knocks to Simon Phillips and Kane Murphy but coach Ben Warren said the battle was lost in the midfield.
“We had control of the game up until about the five minute mark of the second quarter and after that they just outworked us on this big oval and forced us into playing really slow,” he said.
“We were well down in contested ball — it was minus 20 in the end — and we got beaten around the stoppages.”